set it up with himself before the world was he hath set it up in Christ let me tell you there is nothing lesse then eternal life that God thinks worthy of his people or that they are to account an interest Therefore now if the things we hope for be eternal things then they were before the world was in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began yea he not only promised it but he did exhibit it in the person of our Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 5. We wait to be clothed upon with our house from heaven the building of God eternal in the heavens this eternal habitation is that that Job speaks of he shall know his habitation and not sin This eternal fair record of our persons and of our life in Christ is that which was by him when he made the world as in Prov 8. Let me tell you this state of ours this contracted dead state which we are in at this present time which is as the rude draught of that suture state that we expect why this state of ours and this seed was comprehended in that state in glory above and did flow as it were from that state grew from that glorious plant and tree it descended by creation into this state of nature that here it might dye and might rise again through a mistical death into it's first state for Christ that is our pattern hath declared the divine processe of this mystery Christ tells us that he was in the bosome of the father before he came into the womb of the virgin and while he was here on earth he had his apartment in glory his rooms his Lodgings in heaven nay the whole was his he was the son of man in heaven though he did come forth from that state into this poor narrow thing the son of man on earth yet he had his relation to that still therefore he says glorify me with that glory that I had with thee before the world began this is the noblenesse of a Christians relation and that consists in two thins especially The one is that the whole work is transacted in the person of Christ we are saved in him circumcised raised in him and the other is that there is the pattern in the mount of all that we shall be that is eternally existent with God in which he doth behold all his works his very last and concluding scene and that is the righteousnesse that sustains him under all the riskes and the adventures that his works do run through in this world and it is a great ground of hope to the saints that they descend from such a state if you could suppose a spring in the city that was as high as the highest tower though it might fall as low as the lowest part of the ground of the whole city yet it would rise again as high as the place from whence it comes and so I say this is a great confirmatiou unto us that we shall arrive at such a pitch because we set forth from such a glory Let others call this a notion if they will I am sure the Scripture gives ground for it I will be bold to say that all that glory as it is in heaven above so it is likewise shut up in narrow bounds in that principle of regeneration that is in the heart of a saint these heavens as they lye in the spirit and person of our Lord Jesus so do they in the principle of regeneration of saith and love as it is in Christ Jesus faith and love you must not understand to be only of Christ efficiently but to be in Christ subjectively our graces would never endure nor keep sweet if they were not kept in Christ because we derive our selves from those dear bowels of the father when he brought forth Christ who is the eternal son of god he brought forth his whole body in him all his members were with him and all the glory that ever they shall have was put upon them there in that pattern in the mount The Second evidence of it is The interest of our Lord Jesus in this whose children whose branches whose seed we are when he shall appear we shall be like him if so be that such poor inconsiderable things as we might alwaies be whelmed under a bushel is Christ so inconsiderable think you shall not he be set on a Candlestick shall he not have his time to appear Till we appear with Christ Christ will not be compleatly glorifyed and when Christ doth appear we cannot but appear with him why so because as we are called in a body so is Christ called in a body too Christ cannot avoid being afflicted in our afflictions I tell you there is no weather-glasse that shews changes in the air as Christs glorifyed person shews all the changes that befals his members and so they represent his glorifyed person as in a glasse and there ill be spots in this moon till the saints are glorifyed with him therefore it is Christs interest the glory of the saints when he shall come to be glorifyed in his saints and admired in all that believe not by them but in them 2 Thes. 1. Therefore let this be the comfort of poor saints that travel under a load of corruption a body of sin and of death of it shall not always be so with the sons of God they shall not always be so kept it shall not always be so with the son of God with the son of righteousness he shall not always be hid with a cloud no no he hath his time to appear the great and only Potentate king of kings and Lord of Lords he must shew this great sight and he will shew it in it's appointed time 1 Tim. 6.15 and lastly now to shew you a little of the power by which it shall be done which possibly will not get an easy entrance into our belief what is the reason we stick at the believing of things but because we do not credit the power by which it shall be done it shall be by Christs appearing It is no more but for Christ to look forth and to present himself and to shew himself and the work is done we may truly say let God arise and his enemies shall be scattered you see every day how that champion the sun comes out of his quarters as a bridgroom out of his chamber and how he no sooner sets forth but all darknesse flyes before him Oh! it is not the stoutest of enemies that thou hast nor that the Church hath can bear the presence and the looking forth of the Lord Jesus but they will presently cry hide us from the face of him that sits upon the throne and from the presence of the lamb my brethren this glory in which Christ shall appear if you do but consider it that the state in which he was upon the earth was but as the seed and in that first appearance bore no greater a
spot in Christ not in himself for if you examine the actions of the best men and take a tryal of them and weigh them they cannot hold weight before the Lord though a saint in his minde hath a more noble principle being renewed after the image of him that created him But if it were so in Christ that he at the very heighth of his legal righteousnesse was only thereby qualifyed and furnished to be a sacrifice to his father it is that which instructs us that in all our attainments in that first image we should look upon it to be only given us for a sacrifice There was you know several offerings under the law some were but a pair of young pigeons yet it was accepted so that I say whether we have more or lesse of that active righteousnesse in the force of our first life and principle restored this is a great shortness in our knowledg not to know that there is in Christ himself a first covenant-life a first covenant-principle this must all be laid down and parted with Christ did so himself and so must all his And this is that that the Lord is carrying on through this life we are dying daily and offering up our bodies and I pray what is that body which is dead because of sin the Apostle speaks of men that were in the body of the flesh therefore this body is the body of the first creation light it is that image of God that was presented in it's perfection by Christ in as great and absolute a perfection as in the first Adam And it is restored in principle in all that believe in Christ there is somthing of that lise whereby they tend to a greater exactnesse and perfection then they can attain unto but this body is dead and all must be broken off from this husband as in Rom. 7. you have it there very plainly declared know ye not brethren for I speak to them that know the law says he how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth that is as long as the man lives his own life for a believer is crucified with Christ but Christ lives in him what is the husband here it is the law you will say the law is not capable to be a mans husband as it is only a doctrine or as it is a form of words what is that to be ones husband Therefore you must consider herein that it is Christ mark ye that is the husband even under the law for he hath a first covenant wise and first covenant children he is a husband under the law is it not said though I was a husband unto them Ier. 31.32 I beseech you accept of these hints and weigh them I desire not to speak my own words and if I did not think that there was that in these things which doth mainly import our souls I durst not speak them but if you consider you will find that there is a world of professors that have only relation to Christ as a first covenant Lord and husband for it is Christ that is the person in both in law and Gospel Moses was but a typical mediator it was Christ that was the true Mediator There is an appearance in which Christ comes forth which is not to abide but is to go away as he acquaints his disciples with the expedience of it then yet he was a Bridegroom then but he was a Bridegroom in the flesh and that covenant-relation was to be exchanged for a better covenant-relation Rom. 7.4 Do you not see here that Christ is the Bridegroom his flesh was shadowed out by the law what do we mean by his flesh my beloved brethren let us wait upon the Lord for light in these things there hath been a great deal of pudder about the flesh of Christ as if Christ had no body now because the Apostle to the Hebrews reflects on the days of his flesh as past Alas this is not the meaning of Christ flesh for the flesh properly and the law and sin and death all these are relative one to the other so that the flesh as it is considered in us is the free hold of sin now Christ he comes in the flesh and he therein fulfils all rightousnesse and so doth as I may say recover that ground which the first Adam had loâ—t sin was entred upon the flesh Christ he comes and plants righteousnesse in the flesh marke ye it is but in the flesh the flesh is that active sate of first-covenant life and righteousness in conformity to the law and letter which was the state which was restored in Christ though lost in Adam and this is that which believers themselves are brought forth into in order to a passage through it into the righteousness of God the first stone of which building is laid in the dissolution and passing away of this first strength this first activiry and power that the creature finds himself invested withall and in which he thinks himself a gallant peice I say the first stone of this new building is laid by the pulling down of all this ye are dead to the law that ye night be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead there is our new husband that is a believer hath now given up as Christ did when he gave up that first life and righteousnesse to his father When he had done all and the law could require no more from him he had another piece of obedience which was a note above all the law what was that why he must be obedient unto death as much as if God had said unto him canst thou now my son forgo all this glory canst thou strip thy self canst thou put it all off canst thou trust me to raise thee again and bring thee forth in another glory in a heavenly image I can says he there is none but Christ could do it were it not for our captaine we should never have gone through he was marryed as I told you unto the original glory of God he was marryed to his head and he having the presence of eternal life with him he is able to charge through these legions of devils this land of death and darknesse though it was that made him sweat drops of blood and cry out my soul is sorrowful unto death yet he was so enabled and supported that through he goes and had that glorious issue that the Gospel is the report of this is one husband now mark ye he being raised from the dead walked a while with his disciples upon the earth about 40. days then he ascended he was not in that glory where he expected to be while he was on the earth for he would not let Mary touch him saying touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father as who should say I am not yet where I would be nor where I shall be I am not yet the object of that new converse which thou shalt have
and them that worship therein this was the temple of priests for there was the Altar in the holy place now the other temple which was the most holy there was the Ark and that is the temple which is opened after the 7th trumpet sounded The holy of holies the temple of God was opened and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament Revel 11. last The ark was not seen in the temple of the Priests where the Altar was but it was seen in the most holy place for thither was the ark carryed and so in that chap. 15. Behold the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened This is not that state of the Church whiles they were under suffering from Antichrist but it is that state that the Church enters into after the expiration of the term of Antichrist when they are just going up into the kingdom that is the temple that is opened at the 7th trumpet and there it is called the temple of the tabernacle of testimony Because the ark was called the ark of the testimony and the tables that were in the ark are called the tables of testimony so that I say these temples were distinct that is the first thing The Second thing that I have to prove is that this most holy place is not opened for the Vyals to come out but is opened after they are come out for when the Angels are said to come out of the temple there is no specification that that temple was the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony but I heard a great voice out of the temple chap. 6. v. 1. now to prove this he says in the beginning of the 15th chap. I saw a great signe in heaven and there is a summary account of the Vyals pouring out and the victory of the true Church of Christ over the Antichristian Sinagogue in the four first verses before you hear of the opening of the ten ple of the tabernacle of testimony for this is a character that is observed throughout the Revelations where you meet with that word after these things as you do in 5th vers there is always another vision of distinct new matter and that which follows in time after the former as for instance after the Lord had dispatch't his minde unto Johu in those Epistles in the 2d and 3d chap. It is said chap. 4. After this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven so likewise in the 7th chap. after the 6th seal had brought the heathen dragon down and cast him to the earth it is said after these things I saw 4 Angels standing c. Now this is an evident token of things that do succeed and follow and are not contemporary so here chap. 15. v. 6. It is said after the Vyals and not before the Vyals of which he had given a summary account in the former verses and indeed if we do but consider the nature and import of Vyals that will help us in the discerning of this point that is before us which will serve for an answer to another objection and that is this You will say the Vyals are the judgments of God upon the beast now this is the order of divine justice that sin when it is finished brings forth death but the beast had not finished his sin at the begining of the times of reformation and therefore it is not to be expected that he should have his reward till he hath done his work Answ Yet he had done work enough to be rewarded for before the Vyals began he was not idle he fell to work immediatly when once he had power given to him he opened his mouth in blasphemies He had ravished the Christian world from Christ before these Vyals began to be poured forth did he not deserve something for all this was he not ripe for judgments all the work that he did afterwards was very much occasioned by the Vyals by the coming forth of the light and the truth against him which did sorely vex him so that he behaved himself like a beast indeed with great rage more then before But consider in the 2d place mark ye the import of the Vyals of which word we read but once as I know in the old Testament viz. of a Vyal and that was Samuels taking a Vyal of oyl but the Vyals we read of in the Revelations are full of odours or the prayers of the saints now there are but 3 things that can fill the Vyals either the sin of the enemies or the judgments of God for those sins or the prayers of the saints and I think they may be all in the Vyals It is certain the prayers of the saints are there they cryed from the primitive times and so down all along The sins of the enemy they also fill up these Vyals you know what God says of the Amorite The sins of the Amorites are not yet full for so God tells Abraham as much as to say the Vyals are not yet full I shall give you one place here the Lord speaks much in this kinde of phrase Deut. 3.34 Is not this laid up with me in store or sealed up among my treasures he says before Their wine is the poyson of Dragons is not this laid up in store with me you know there are seven seals and six of them were opened before the heathen Roman was destroyed So that all the whole time from Christ unto his second coming is all under the seals we are under the seals to this day the 7th seal is not sully opened till Jesus Christ in person be exhibited to the joyful view and beholding of those that look for him All this while God is registring and recording all the sins of the enemy all their bitterness it is sealed up amongst his treasures that is the 2d thing that fills the Vyals the sins of the enemy Consider that antichrist had been at work about a 1000 years before ever a Vyal did stir against him before the beginning of the Reformation And as there was the sins of a thousand years treasured up against him and the prayers of a thousanp years for vengeance upon him so there was the wrath of God distilling into these Vyals for every sin brought a drop of wrath into these Vyals still therefore you need not say that antichrist had not done his work and so was not to have his wages for you fee he had done a great deal of his work yea his sin was full that is so much as was to precede the Vyals Now because the time is so farr past I shall spend the remainder of it in a word or two of application it is a word of exhortation to us To be waiting for the return of our Lord from the wedding and I would not have you think this is th same word altogether with that I spake the last day thongh if it were yet it were worth the while I exhorted you then to watch and that was
as white as wool and therefore I say this presenting the son of man to the ancient of days is but the bringing the right heir Christ the son of man to the head of Christ which is God In the next place there is not only the presenting of Solomon as a type unto David but David doth appoint Nathan to go and anoint Solomon and set the crown upon his head and sends Benajah and Zadock with him So this is in these days of the son of man there is an anointing of Christ and an instructing of him as I may say as David did instruct Solomon his son and as in the Psalmist it is said give the king thy judgments O God and thy righteousness to the kings son David gave unto Solomon the charge for the building of the temple and he gave him the pattern of it and he exhorted him and encouraged him to be strong and know the God of his fathers and serve him with a perfect heart and by computation it took up about six months before Davids death that he was introducing Solomon in his room so that I may say here is a great deal of Christs kingdom demonstrated For all this was before the old state was out Solomon was actually enthroned and stated in the kingdom in his fathers time and Solomon did exercise his kingly power as you know 1 Kings chap. 1. v. 50.53 chap. 2.4.10 Now I shall not apply these things yet because I am not come to my assumption I am but laying my ground-work but before I come to that I must shew you the complexion of these days and although these days are the days of the son of man yet they are not such days wherein the glory of Christ and his kingdom do shine forth without a cloud and therefore for that we must have recourse again unto our text And you shall finde there that these days of the son of man are days of an extraordinary nature they are days wherein the world shall be drowned in a floud of prophanes and sensuality and security and this is in order to a making them fit for a floud of judgment so it is said here As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the son of man Likewise so also as it was in the days of Lot not only doth this scripture witness this thing that the days of the son of man will be of such a nature and complexion but likewise in Zach. 14. the Lord tells us there in several expressions that are very Emphatical as to what the nature of this day will be one day or a day by it self we may understand that by it an odd day such a day as hath not been or shall be known by the Lord as who should say none but the Lord shall know it Neither day nor night that is a strange day neither clear nor dark neither the one nor the other but mixt of hoth But at the evening tide it shall be light then it will clear up like it self briefly the days of the son of man will be a time of as prodigious wickednesses of as great tryal to the saints of as great calamity to the world as ever days were and beyond all president so Daniel says at that time shall Michael stand up and it shall be a time of trouble such as never was the like But what then makes the title of the son of man if there shall be such days of trouble is that title worth nothing in these days I answer there is a light side of these days and that is to be seen by those that have eyes by those that are spiritually enlightened to see there will be a dark hope in all the people of God and in all the whole creation in these days that surely there is something in the womb of these dispensations that will revive them at the last and this the blind world can see and say But the saints especially if they watch and if they obtain that favour from the Lord as Daniel did that was a man of desire they may see and will see whither all things will tend and where they will issue and so they will be comforted and they will sing for the majesty of the Lord they will rejoice in that which God will create They will be engaged actually with the Lord in creating a new heaven and a new earth this will be the mixt nature of these days they will be prodigiously wicked daringly wicked and yet they are the days of the son of man why so because it suits his designe upon all accounts that the Churches enemies might shew themselves like themselves that so his judgments might be the more conspicuous the more clear which he will bring upon them and also that his people might have the tryal of their faith and sense of their own weaknes and failings and so I say it doth suit Gods end who designes so to come as that his day should fall as a snare upon all that dwell on the earth that there shall be no more likelihood of the day before his coming then of many ages before that so the mockers might be confirmed saying where is the promise of his coming as who should say you talk of Christs approach being neer but there is no signe of it not considering that he comes as a thief you your selves know perfectly says the Apostle that the day of the Lord so cometh Christ comes before the 7th vyal that is preparation is making for his coming It it his legal time yea it is his actual time before the the 7th Phyal for sayes he behold I come as a thief should now shew you the Parallel having spoken of the complexion it is that which conforms this time to Gods former proceedings There were such days before God destroyed the old world 120 years Those were the days of Noah and the world was looked on as a drowned world from the beginning of those days and so the days of Lot from the time that Abraham had rescued the king of Sodom and the other four kings from their enemies which was a signe of the four Monarchies from whose hand Abraham the father of the faithful delivered Lot and for his sake the rest were delivered Now it is probable that from that time Lot used a greater freedom to admonish them to make a better use of their deliverance then they did those were the days of Lot there were days then there was a time for the judgments coming but it was not fully come so likewise doth Gods day prepare his enemies against such a time that they may be as fuel dryed for the fire that they may flame like a torch or a sheaf when fire is put to them So likewise he prepares the vessels of mercy I shall only tell you in our saviours time there was from the denunciation of the judgments against Jerusalem 40 years and so likewise from our Saviours rising till his
though we do not see yet have we heard nothing of the ratling of these dry bones let others take it for what they please for my part I take it for a truth and the rather the more because it is the time for them to appear and though they may be hid in the deserts for some time it is not more then what their fathers were in their day who lay still by the space of 37 years in the wildernes of Cadesh and the people of the nations little concerned themselves with them nor they with them Besides what we heard in the year 1665. when there were reports of their stirring it is not impossible to shew you earlier stirrings as we have it recorded of the year 1650. that there was a very great meeting of them in the plains of Ageda where they set up tents and there was a confluence from all parts no lesse then 300 Rabbies that were able to shew their Genealogy and in a very large tent there was an orderly dispute where they did with great ingenuity and candor put the question whether the Messiah was come or not Then came in the Priests and Jesuites with their vicar and their breaden God and made them break up in disorder nay what if I should say unto you that Christ hath shew'd himself to that nation distinctly it is crebly related that he shewed himself in the year 53. in Frankenland upon the cross and that he was there so seen by thousands of spectators with his Angels about him as if that very word of Daniel were in fulfilling and that the Angels were presenting him to the Ancient of days representing that in a visionary way then which is the work of the day still in the hearts of the saints through the intercession of the spirit I speak it only for this my beloved friends for that I know I feel that we need the quickning of this consideration we are amused with the times that we are in and do not know what Israel is to do because we do not know nor discern the times look to it and take heed of security take heed of an unwatchful frame of spirit for these are the days of the son of man The Fifth Sermon Luke 12.35.36 And ye your selves like unto men that look for their Lord when he will return from the wedding THe influence of Christs coming deriving it self from the nearness of it things though great that are remote seem but small and work but little upon us things that are not to be in our day nor in the days of our children we are apt to put off therefore I made it my business in two or three discourses to shew you the nearness of this coming of Christ I shewed it you first by the expiration of the times of the man of sin and Secondly by the signes of Christs coming being fulfilled pitching chiefly upon those signes in Math. 24. And in two other of the Evangelists of the suns being darkned and the moon being turned into blood The third time I shewed you that these are the days of the son of man by several particulars and by something I had spoken devolving our discourse to that point I pitcht upon those words in the 17 of this Gospel Where our saviour speaks of the days of the son of man and paralels them with the days of Noah and Lot which I told you doth intimate to us that there is a tract of time from the expiration of the 42 months of the man of sin to the glorious revelation of the son of man in person from heaven and that this tract of time is called the days of the son of man wherein he is preparing to set forward unto this glorious expedition Now in these days of the son of man I did partly open to you what was to be done and shewed you some figurative delineation of this work by former types and especially in the investing of Solomon into the kingdom I shewed you that before Davids death Solomon was set upon the throne and in opening of those passages we sound them to cast a great light upon some prophetical passages that we meet with in Daniel As about the bringing of the son of man to the Ancient of days which I told you doth very aptly agree with that type of Solomon to David bringing him unto remembrance as I may say which was done by Bathsheba by the advice of Nathan the prophet she goes to David and puts him in minde of his oath and she is seconded by Nathan and thereupon David doth send to anoint Solomon and to set him upon the throne and all this was in Davids life time Now the observation I made from these things was this David you know was a figure of the militant state of Christs kingdom his setting Solomon upon his throne before his own death doth intimate to us that before the militant state is swallowed up as I may say of victory or of the triumphant state of the Church Christ is to be set upon the throne as the succeeding links in a chain do enter into the former links so doth Christs time take hold of the former times even as Jacob took hold of Esau his brother From thence I came in the winding up to shew you that Christ was entred upon his kingdome and that there were many acts passed in order to Christs glorious raign and that he had laid his claim in partionlar to these three nations and had been proclaimed here as in the palace yard as I might say of his dominions I gave you also many concurrent passages that have faln in to strengthen our faith and answered some objections touching the calling of the Jews which although we do not yet see called to the knowledge of Christ is not to trouble us forasmuch as their calling is not to be expected untill they be setled in their own land For so the promise seems to cast things in that order that God will as freely look upon them even in their blood as he did at the first when they were in Egypt that so it may not be said that their turning to God did lead the Lords turning to them Yet I told you that we have heard of the ratling of those dry bones which because the time is come should make us take heed of saying there is nothing in it though we are not acquainted with the posture of their affairs how they stand since that only I told you that we may have this reserve of hope that as when they came out of Egipt they lay 37 years in the wilderness of Cadesb and probably were as much out of the eye of the nations for a great part of that time as they are out of our eye now So I say God may be forming that people secretly in the dark and may be carrying on his intended goodnes towards them and we may see the sun of their redemption and restitution suddenly break forth of the clouds
with me or at least I am not yet manifest in it Therefore I say his ascending was that he might marry our natures in his own person unto his glorious head though he was marryed unto the father in eternity yet not as the son of man on earth but this was the marriage of the son of man on earth And so he carryed up our nature out of this state of poverty beggery in sin death yea out of legalor first covenant-righteousnesse into the glory of God that is the third marriage that I have been speaking of wherein you see how it differs from the first marriage The first was the marriage of the son of man in heaven unto the godhead but this is the marriage of the son of man on earth unto the son of man in heaven that is clear by our Saviour his own stating of it let us not slight that for he says before Abraham was I am this glory is to be the covering the clothing to the son of man on earth this is the wedding from which he comes You possibly will say why did not Christ come all this time hath this wedding lasted this 16. 1700. years my brethren our Lord Jesus Christ is presented as our head so that Christ was married as a publique person and we must all follow to this wedding this hath been the work ever since through all times and ages from Christs assention it hath been I say the preparation of the Bride the lambs wife for this fourth and last marriage Christs 3d marriage the heavens must receive until the restitution of all things till his Bride be ready And all the saints have been hastening out of themselves out of his fleshly fallible state and image into the resurrection life they have been hastning by a mistical death this is the work of all ages since Christ to prepare the Bride that is such a number of men and women as God hath fore known in his eternal counsel that are to come up successively upon the stage of this world in their generations and times to be the witnesses of our Lord and of his death his sufferings are to be fulfilled in them and so is his life to be manifested in them as the dyings of Jesus so his life this hath been his work since his a scention and when his number is eompleated then will the Lord reveal himself from heaven in our persons in that glory which our natures have been invested with from his ascention then will Christ and his bride the lamb and the lambs wise plant and model the world and they will have a new seed after that which shall be born in Christs own image as Adam is said to beget a son in his own image which will be the new race of men and women after this glorious marriage For Christ will have generations of saints that shall be brought forth unto him in his kingdom in another glory then we have known all this time Thus I have been carryed whether I would not for what I designed to speak I am not come to I should have shewed you by the example and pattern of his wedding on Christs part the glory of his marriage and I should have come to the application but I must take another time for this The Seventh Sermon 1. Ep. John 3.2 Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be YOu see though I am off from my former text yet not from my subject this text benig of a kin to it and bordering upon it and having many things in my mind upon it though not digested into such a method as more leisure and time might have afforded I shall abruptly present to you the 2. heads upon which we shall spend this opportunity without more curious survey of the text or context and briefly they are 1. That blessed and glorious hope which is laid up for the Saints at Christs appearing and 2d the evidence of it These are the two things that I shall pick out of these words the hope is that we shall be like Christ when he appears the evidence of this hope is that we shall see him as he is for the hope it self you see it concerns us our persons and our spirits And that is the immediate and great concern and expectation of believers in Christs glorious kingdom and at his glorious appearing the change that shall be brought upon our selves the glorious change that shall be brought upon all things for he that sits upon the throne says behold I make all things new is to begin first upon us it is to begin upon the Saints and when they are changed not only will all things be changed to them but all things shall be changed with them though not presently yet in due course and order for the Apostle says that the whole creation grones and travels in pain expecting to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God they are to be delivered into our liberty and the Gospel throughout in all the priviledges both of grace and glory in both states of the kingdom both that of grace and of glory the militant and the triumphant state do hold forth first fruits that shall be first visited and first saved and then the Lump and body first the root and then the branches and I do the rather put a note upon this because we are apt to be carried forth into other contemplations and expectations of the change of times the change of kingdoms common-wealths Churches and overlook the fundamental change this head change this right change which begins in the persons of Saints of believers themselves which may be called the beginning of changes as we read of the beginning of revenges in Deuteronòmy or the head revenge of the enemy so this is the head of change and in vain do we look for a happinesse to come unto us by the change of our circumstances and of our conditions if there be not this Radical this fundamental change in our persons and spirits Now this change I shall first present it to you in the substance of it and then shall consider the arguments the illustrating arguments in the text and in the context First the substance of this change into a likenesse of Christ when he shall appear we shall be like him the likenesse unto Christ is that which cannot but speak for it self and commend it self sufficiently to our desires can there be any better thing then to be like Christ can there be a greater thing then to be like Christ Let us but consider who and what he is he is the likenesse of God the brightness of his glory the character of his person in whom god hath drawn forth himself to the life he is the image he is the glory of God there is not any excellency in God but it is displayed in our Lord Jesus most beautifully most divinely most advantagiously and therefore it may well be a hope
the space of 42 months unto the coming down of the new Jerusalem and Christs glorious appearance and having dispatch't that I came to the application and the last time I spent the whole in an use of exhortation to watching to watch for the Lords coming thinking to have gone on with other duties that this season calls for But it hath been cast into my thoughts since I was here that there may remain some doubts touching the times and I may be thought too forward and early a reckoner and that chiefly upon the account of the Vyals which many very serious and enquiring souls many that are very much enlightned in the works of God in this day and have great hopes for the kingdom of Christ and do wait heartily for redemption in Jerusalem yet cannot get over the stumbling block of the Vyals thinking they are not yet poured out whereas I have intimated often that we are under the 6th Vyal and have been so long Therefore though it may seem to be a great undertaking to remove this obstrnction and to give satisfaction in this point and I cannot say that I have so prepared my self for it that I can promise this will be the fruit of it yet I am willing to appear though in weaknesse and hold forth that light which I have for this thing that the Vyals most of them are poured forth I shall first give you my grounds for this and then I shall answer an objection or two that are come to my knowledge against it and so we shall go on afterwards with one application Now in discerning this point as indeed in discerning all prophetical mysteries there are two rules that do exceedingly avail to the guiding of us in fynding out the minde of God in prophetical truths and the first is this to look to the type and compare the type and the antitype together and the second is to compare the works of God in the world with his word for these works of God are the comment upon his word and the best comment that we can have Now for the first I would premise this that there is not any thing in the new Testament not any period of time nor any scene that concerns us Christian gentiles but there is the prototype the resemblance of it in the antient Church of the Jews these times of the new Testament are called the fulnesse of times they are the times of the fulfilling of prophecies prophecy though not as to fulfilling yet as to delivery was compleated and made up in the times of the old Testament and therefore it is said the prophets prophecyed until John and our Saviour when he began his ministry says the time is fulfilled now then to the point in hand what are the types of the Vyals We do finde that expositors have not amiss paralelled these Vyals with the judgments that God did execute upon Egypt when he brought forth Israel for they are a manifest allusion unto those judgments as you may see if you do compare them though they do not correspond in point of number yet they are called plagues here is the scab as was in Egypt as when Moses threw up the dust into the air so it is in the first Vyal there is a scab and a sore upon those that worshiped the beast then another plague was upon the rivers and fountains as here in the Vyals the 3d Vyal turns the rivers into blood and there was darknesse over the land of Egypt so under the 5th Vyal the kingdom of the beast is darkned so that I say there is a warrantable ground for an allusion of the Vyals to the plagues in Egypt but yet withall I say the allusion is not only unto the plagues of Egypt For the Vyals are poured forth by the witnesses and we shall finde that there is an allusion to 3 several pairs all in that vision of the witnesses or that doctrine of the witnesses as you may call it if you will Revel 11. there is I say an allusion to three pair of witnesses the first pair is Moses and Aaron Elijah and Elisha the second and Joshua and Zerubbabel the third pair and as they were called two witnesses so they did fulfil their testimony in 2 parts there was 2 parts of their witness and two seasons of the fulfilling thereof the first part was in a time of suffering before they were escaped from under their suffering-state that was their first part but in the second part they were upon the upper ground they were as I may say the heyrs apparent of a kingdom and an interest which was upon the rising hand I shall shew this to you clearly in all the three First you know that Moses and Aaron before they lest Egypt while Israel was under the yoak they did pour out several plagues upon Egypt but this was not all the work they had to do there was the greatest plague of all was powred out afterwards when they were escaped on t of Egipt at the red-sea there was the destruction of Pharaoh and all his hosts And Joshua who was indeed for a supply unto Moses when Moses was taken off to carry on and compleat the work he led Israel into Canaan and gave them that land so that he did enter upon the labours of Moses and he knew the work there is the first pair and from the time of the red-sea Israel was a prevailing in terest untill they were settled in Canaan so likewise you may see in the second pair Elijah was a man of contention all his days and fled for his life yet before his death he had power to restrain the heavens that they should not rain and he slayes the Prophets of Baal I might shew you how that Ahab and Jezabel and her prophets were exceeding apt types of the Beast the false Prophet and the whore under the times of the new testament as Elijah was a type of the witnesses Now Elisha comes with a double portion of Elijahs spirit he anoints John and brings down the house of Ahab and he perfects the work of Elijah in the spirit of the kingdom Elijah represents the time of the witnesses under their persecution and his ascention was a type of the ascention of the witnesses these are the second pair But the last pair is Joshua and Zerubbabel Joshua he was clothed with filthy garments as were the witnesses that prophecyed in sackcloth Zach. 33. Joshua was the priest the high priest and Zerubbabel he was the Prince the civel ruler Now you know that it is said in the Revelation that he hath made us kings and priests to God his father and the witnesses come first as priests in a suffering state and thereia they do part of the work they do execution against Babylon by powring out several of the Vyals but from the time of their slaughter and their ascention then Christ comes forth in his witnesses as acting immediately towards his kingdom and then he anoints them