more By vertue of this Union with Christ the Believer is likewise united to the whole divine nature and essence in the Deity though not essentially and he is likewise united to each person in the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as to the Son John 17.21 Behold that thus it is done to the man whom God will honour Thanks be to God for this unspeakable Grace This is the sixth Property The Seaventh and last Property This Union is an indissoluble Vnion Seventh property Indissoluble This Union between Christ and the Believer is not capable of any separation They are so one that all the violence of the world or all the powers of darkness can never be able to make them two again Hence the Apostle's Triumph Challenge Rom. 8.35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ If the question did not imply a strong negation ver 38 39. the Apostle himself doth give us a negation in words at length neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us c. A long Catalogue consisting of a large induction of various particulars but in all these 't is observable he only instanceth in the creature nor any other creature he leaveth out God and why because God himself is the Author of this Union 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus It is of God and that Upon a three-fold Account 1. It is of God's Preordination This Union of Christ and his Saints was the design of God's everlasting Electing Love Ephes 14. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World As the Vnion so the very purpose of it was founded in * Tanquam in capite though not tanquam in causâ not as the cause of Election but as the cause of the good of Election for it is not said for him but in him Vid. Twiss vindic grattae lib. 1. part 2. Digres Prim. Secund. Tert. Christ He hath chosen us in him 2. It is of God the Fathers efficiency the Father tyeth this Marriage knot between his Son and his Spouse for we are his Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus c. The new Creation it is God's work and it is founded on Christ or in Christ created in Christ Jesus c. 3. It is of Gods support As in the first Creation when God had finished the world he took not his hand off but upholds it still by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 So in this second and new Creation when he hath wrought it he takes not off his hand if he should it would quickly collapse into its first nothing How comes it then to pass it doth not why saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 you are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation Faith keeps the Believer in this Union but the power of God keeps Faith Why now if after all this God should at any time suspend the influence of this power or by any malice or fraud of men or Devils suffer this Union to miscarry he should fail and cross his own project he should desert his own design this cannot be Here is the Foundation then upon which the Apostle erecteth this Triumph God who only can dissolve this Union will not the Creature which only would dissolve this Union cannot so it stands on a surer bottom then Heaven and Earth our life is hid with Christ in God The Believer is in Christ as Christ is in God hence the unseparableness of this Union John 10.28 29. There is no more pulling the Believer out of the bosome of Christ then there is of Christ out of the bosome of his Father And therefore once more upon this account it is that our Lord compareth this blessed Vnion to that substantial Vnion between the Father and the Son that they may be one as we are one namely to express as the reality and inwardness so also the indeficiency of this spiritual Vnion as thou Father art in me and I in thee As i.e. as fixedly as inseparably as immutably This is the transcendent excellency of this Union above all others it is Eternal Indeed it had a beginning but it shall never have an end All other Unions may suffer a dissolution a Whirl-wind may throw the house off from its foundation Job 1.18 19. as we see in the case of Job's Children a Bill of Divorce may dissolve the Union betwixt Man and Wife in case of the violation of the Marriage Bed Math. 5.31 32. An Axe may dissolve the Union between the Head and Members Death dissolves the Union between the Soul and body c. I but nothing can dissolve the Union between Christ and the Believers nothing shall be able to separate us c. My Text gives us a further instance of this the Saints sleep in Jesus The Union ceaseth not no not in the Grave The Saints sleep in Jesus Observe the progress of it it began in their Regeneration then they received their first Implantation into Christ Rom. 6.3 4 5. whence the Apostle makes Regeneration and being in Christ synonimous Rom. 6.3 4. Next they are said to live in Christ and Christ in them Gal. 2.20 Then to shew there is no in and out * In to day and out to morrow in this Union as some fondly dream we read of their abiding in Christ not only by way of precept which might possibly imply duty only as John 15.4 5. but by way of promise also as 1 John 2.27 Ye shall abide in me which certainly doth express assurance and establishment for ever Rom. 4.16 Therefore they are said in the next place to dye in Christ Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord so verse 16. after the Text makes mention of the dead in Christ so that that which dissolves all other Unions dissolves not this death it self when the Union between body and Soul is dissolved the Union between Christ and Believers dissolveth not Yea see one strain higher yet not only in death but even after death The Soul sleeps not Heb. 12.23 this Vnion holds the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus that part of the Saints which is capable of sleep is not capable of separation from Christ while their more noble part is united to Christ in Heaven amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect Christ is United to their Inferiours and more ignoble part in the Grave their very dust they sleep in Jesus Thus I have opened unto you the blessed and admirable Union which is between Christ and his Saints and it 's most excellent and transcendent properties scil as it is 1. Spiritual 2. Real 3. Operative 4. Enriching 5. Intimous 6. Total 7. Indissoluble Opened did I say Alas it is impossible This Union is a mystery a great mystery Ephes 5.32 next to that Union betwixt the
shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds every one walking in their uprightness Death is nothing else but a Writ of ease to the poor weary Servants of Christ a total Cessation from all their labour of nature sin and affliction Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours c. While the Souls of the Saints do Rest in Abrahams Bosome their bodies do sweetly sleep in their Beds of dust as in a safe and Consecrated Dormitory Thus Death is but a sleep Secondly And then again as they that sleep in the night do awake in the morning so shall the Saints of God do This heaviness may endure for a night this night of mortality but joy cometh in the morning In the morning of the Resurrection they shall awake again Psal 17.15 it will not be an everlasting night an endless sleep but as sure as we awake in the morning when we have slept comfortably all night so sure shall the Saints then awake and shall stand upon their feet and we shall behold them again with exceeding joy Oh Blessed morning How should we long and wait for that morning more than they that watch for the dawning of the day It is an errour in Philosophy to call Death a total privation of the habit Divinity hath corrected that errour while it hath taught us to call the dissolution of Nature in the Saints at the most but a sleep Mors ista quam adeò perhorrescimus adeò timemus non est exitus sed transitus veni et eterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies Sen. which in the Philosophers own notion is but a partial privation and doth admit of a Regress or returning again to the habit or former state and capacity more beautiful active and vigorous than ever as hereafter shall appear A comfortable notion which were it realized by Believing would be able to silence our complaints and to still all our moan-makings over our departed Christian friends and Relations how sweet and precious soever they have been to us For do we indeed take on so when any of the Family are gon to Bed before us in the Evening Do we indeed cry out woe and alas my Father is fallen asleep my Mother is laid to Rest my dear Yoak-fellow is gone to bed before me my sweet Child the delight of mine eyes the joy of my heart his eyes are closed the Curtains drawn close about him and I cannot awake him Do we I say thus take on and afflict our selves in this case no surely he would be accounted little better than a Mad-man or a Fool that should do so Oh fie then fie for shame why do we so here the case is the same only if the night be a little longer which yet no man can determine before hand the morning will be infinitely more joyous and make us more abundant compensation for our patience and expectation why are we so unlike our selves in one and in the other Surely because we either forget our notions or believe them not we call the absence of our Friends by a wrong name We say my Father is dead my Mother is dead my Isaack is dead my dear Yoak-Fellow is not and these be killing words Dead the Letter killeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the most terrible of all terrible things the very name of it strikes a chilness and coldness into our hearts enough to kill us before our time for even worldly sorrow many times causeth death Call we then things as God calls them make we use of the notions which God hath suggested to us say we my Parent is gone to bed my Yoak-Fellow is at Rest my beloved Babe is fallen asleep * So also in Scripture is death tearmed a departure 2 Tim. 4.6 an absence from the body a going from home an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5 4.8 Job 15.11 An entring into peace a going to rest Isa 57.2 and behold the terrour of death will cease If God hath cloathed this horrid thing Death with softer notions for our comfort let not the Consolations of the Almighty be a small thing with us Oh how comfortable lives might we live had we but the right notions of things and Faith to realize them Our Friends are not dead but sleep Comfort one another with this Word The second Consolatory Argument is The hopeful condition of these our sleeping Relations 2d Word of Comfort Blessed be God we are not without hope of their happiness even while they thus sleep There be indeed that dye and neither carry away any hope with them nor leave any hope behind them to thâ—â— surviving Relations but the Righteous hath hope in his 〈◊〉 Prov. 14.23 when our gratious Relations dye we nâ—â—â—â—â—se the word sometimes that we may be understood there is hope They are infinite gainers by their death Sometimes they dye full of hope in their own sense Job 19.25 26 27. I know saith Jâ—b that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worme destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God c. Oh Blessed hopeâ— And thus holy Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Glorious Triumph And thus again we may find him in his own name and in the name of other of his Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the Kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ marching out of the field of this world in a Victorious manner with Colours flying and Drums beating and thus insulting over Death as a Conqueror 1 Cor. 15.56.57 Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus 2 Pet. 1.11 An abundant entrance is administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Oh the superabundant Consolation of the Heires of promise And if any of the Saints of God at any time their Sun have set under a Cloud so that they are not able to express their own hopes yet they leave behind them sollid Scripture evidences of God's everlasting Electing Love and of their effectual vocation out of the world into the Kingdome and Fellowship of his dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord Evidences of saving vocation Gal. 5.22 23. such as are The Fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Their Poverty of Spirit Holy Mourning For Their own and Other mens Sins Math. 5.3 Their hungering and thirsting after Righteousness 6. v. 8. Their purity of heart visible in the holiness of their lives Their peaceable and peace-making dispositions 9.10 11
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by a reprobate world even as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things the scraping of their Shooes or the common Town-Dung-cart into which every one cast's their soil and draught I say though the Saints of God are thus base and contemptible in the opinion of the ignorant World yet they have another rate and value set upon them in Heaven Heb. 11.6 Heb. 2.11 Cant. 4.8.11 Rev. 21.9 God is not ashamed to be called their God nor Christ ashamed to call them Brethren Yea he dignifies them with the stile of his Spouse the Bride the Lambs Wife and all this upon the account of that admirable and inconceivable Vnion which is between Christ and them that spiritual real operative inriching total intimous and indissoluble Vnion by vertue whereof 1 Cor. 6.17.15.19 they are in Christ and Christ in them as to their more divine part their Soul 's one spirit with the Lord and even as to their terrene and corruptive part their Bodies Members of Christ and Temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in yea saith my Text their very dust is United to Christ They sleep in Jesus Such Honour have all his Saints How should the sense of it engage them to Honour Christ Third Use who hath put so great honour upon them yea to honour themselves whom Christ hath so highly honoured to stand upon their advancement and not to prophane themselves by any thing that is common or unclean or upon the least account unsutable to their glorious Union with Jesus Christ but to possess their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour 1 Thes 4.4 as under an holy awe of that tremendous Sentence If any man defile the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3.17 him will God destroy Surely the thought of so near and intimate an Union with the Son of God should make sin become an impossibility Upon all the Adulterous solicitations of the Flesh World or Satan to make holy Joseph's quick reply How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against my Vnion with Jesus Christ Fourthly Fourth Use And oh that such as have for many years together Exhortation to such as are yet out of Christ sitten under the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ and to this day are altogether strangers to this blessed Union with Christ would now with all seriousness and holy contention apply themselves to know it and to know it experimentally that they would with holy Paul account all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.8 9 even this that they may be found in him to know him with interest to know him in this mysterious and beatifical Vnion Christ in them and they in Christ This only is the saving knowledg of Jesus Christ to be able to make out our Conjunction with him upon Scripture-evidence Alas this is the undoing Mistake of thousands that are called Christians they know somewhat of the History of Christ they have some notions of a Christ in their heads but this is the precipice upon which they ruine themselves They think to be saved by a Christ without them they hang upon the outside of the Ark they live upon bare notions The Son of God took our nature upon him died for sins rose again James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is gon up into Heaven and sits at God's right hand and therefore conclude they shall be saved Oh but what a paralogism and fallacy do they put upon their own Souls They put more into the Conclusion then there is in the Premisses while they leave out this great and indispensible medium of Vnion and Conjunction with Jesus Christ without which a Christ and no Christ is all one Men and Women generally take Faith to be nothing else but a loose conjectural application of Christ and his Merits to themselves not considering that the great saving Office of Faith is To unite the Soul to Jesus Christ Eph. 3.17 It is true there is no Condemnation but it is only to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom 8.1 Christ is the hope of Salvation it is true I but it is not simply Christ in the Womb of the Virgin not simply Christ on the Cross not Christ in the Grave no not alone Christ on the Throne but saith the Apostle Christ in you the hope of Glory Colos 1.27 It were an easie thing to be saved if a Christ without us were all and I know no reason why reprobate men and Devils might not get to Heaven on such terms No but as there is no other name under Heaven Acts 4.12 given amongst men whereby we must be saved but the Name of Jesus Christ i. e. his merit and influence So there is no other medium whereby that merit and influence can be effectually applied to the Soul but only this spiritual real operative enriching intimous total and inseparable Union with Jesus Christ Christ must be in us by his Spirit and we must be in Christ by Faith or else our persons and our hope as to the present state are both reprobate 2 Cor. 13.15 Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All is yours if you be Christ's as Christ is God's Appear before God's Tribunal in the great day Math. 7.21 22 23. Luk. 13.26.27 without this Vnion and plead what you will your answer will be I never knew you depart from me c. Believe this Oh all you carnal Christ-less Christians and tremble and swim no longer down the stream of Security lest it empty you forth into the Lake of Perdition but work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling and give all diligence to make this conjunction with Christ sure to your own Souls Colos 3.3 4. that when He shall appear you may also appear with him in Glory Remember All your true and solid comfort and rejoycing in life in death and at the day of Judgment is all bound up in your Vnion with Jesus Christ Christ in you the hope of Glory Fifthly and Lastly Fourth and last Use Consolation The Doctrine of this glorious Union with Christ is not more for the honour of the living than for the comfort of the dying Saints and of their surviving mourners And for their sakes it is here specially calculated by the Holy Ghost behold this Vnion is not dissolved by death it self though it dissolve the Union between Body and Soul it cannot dissolv◠the Vnion which is between Christ and his Members Hence you find even death it self filling up the Apostle's Triumph What can separate neither life nor death c. Not life for Christ by vertue of this Union is their life Not death for as terrible as it is let death do its worst it cannot dissolve this blessed Vnion Neither life nor death can separate c. Why do ye tremble at the
invariety or same-ness of body in the Resurrection to the same sense with the Apostle to every Seed his own body To this Obj. if it be Objected that in the 37. verse of that Chapter under the metaphor of Seed he tells the incredulous Fool that cannot believe this Article of Faith the Resurrection Thou sowest not that body which shall be Not that body which shall be It seems then the body shall be another thing from that which is now sown Ans Answ Yea and indeed so it shall be in respect of quality though not of kind There is diversity in one and the self same body as it is in the Metaphorical so it shall be with the natural the Grain's sown mean and bare but it springeth up after another manner beautiful and green yet the same Grain Meliorata substantia non numero multiplicata Tert. the body likewise is the same when it riseth as it was sowen for Substance Parts Members and Organs but not the same for beauty and excellent Properties The Infant shall rise a man of perfect Age the Lame shall rise Sound the Blind shall rise Seeing the Deaf shall Hearing the Dunth shall be able to Speak the Resurrection shall take away all Defects and Excesses of Nature the Deformities of the Saints shall not be raised together with their bodies yea Deformities shall be turned into Comelinesses and Beauties and yet all these Alterations do no more change or destroy the Individuality of Person than Youth doth make the Person numerically different from what it was in Infancy or Old Age from what it was in Youth or as it was in the Persons of all sorts which Christ healed in the day of his Flesh they were the same Individuals after Cure as they were before Cure makes not another Individual man of a Cripple nor Health of the Sick so shall it be in the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints for of them only I speak not at all of the wicked shall be the same for substance and matter but wonderfully changed for Form and supernatural Endowments and Qualities Second description in particular Which brings me to the particular description of the Resurrection sc in respect of admirable and transcendent Properties of which our Apostle hath instanced Four sc Four Properties of the risen bodies of Saints 1. Incorruption Propeâ—ies of the body in the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2. Glory 3. Power 4. Spirituality All these in opposition to the contrary Infirmities and Deformities of the state of Mortality Contraria â—uxta se pâ—sita â—â—â—g's â—lucescunt That so by Comparison the well-nigh infinite disproportion of both Estates may appear and the Super-excellencies which the Resurrection puts upon the Body may shine forth more conspicuously First it is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption 1. Property Incorruptible It is sowen in Corruption Behold the body is Corruptible whiles it liveth a Nursery of such Seeds and Principles as will inevitably destroy it self a Spittal of all manner of Diseases but when it is dead it is Corruption it self Infirmity resolved into Rottenness and Deformity the fondest Relation who while living layed it in the Bosom cannot now endure it in the sight Give me a Burying place said Abraham of his beloved Sarah that I may Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23 4. It is now the picture of all ghastly Loathsomness But Oh how unlike it self shall it be in the Resurrection It is raised in Incorruption When Christ hath fetcht the body out of the Grave and set it upon its feet again there shall not be the least smell or savour of Mortality upon it as there was no smell of the fire upon the Raiment of the three Children when they came out of the fiery Furnace Dan. 3.27 All the Principles of Corruption and Mortality shall be put off and lest together with the Grave-Cloaths in the Sepulcher The body as some think shall give forth a sweet fragrant smell like the Flowers of Paradise it shall be an Angelified body Flesh Immortalized subject to no more Corruption than the Soul it self There shall be no more Death nor fear of Death nor possibility of Death for ever Secondly It is sown in dishonour As soon as the Soul is enlarged from its Imprisonment the body is presently stript naked of all its Robes and honourable Attire and wrapt up in a poor shroud of no other use than to hide Deformity and as a mean contemptible thing it is buried under ground Yea somtimes denied so much honour it is exposed naked above ground in the sight of the Sun without any other Funeral than what it may have in the bowels of the Fouls of the Heavens Psal 79.1 or the Ravenous Beasts of the Earth But be the Burial never so Ignoble the Resurrection of it shall be Glorious Second Property Gloricuâ— It is raised in Glory We may truly say Solomon in all his Glory was not arayed like one of these Children of the Resurrection there shall be a glory put upon the Body which shall out-shine the Sun in its brightest refulgency And that upon a double account 1. By vertue of a Principle within 2. The body shall be glorious in the Resurrection 1. By vertue of an Inward Principle By means of a Glorious Irradiation without 1. By vertue of an Internal Principle The Soul which is the Candle of the Lord is here for a time put into a dark Lanthorn of the Body But then the glorified Soul being now returned by the power of Christ into its antient habitation and become a Vessel replenished with Immortal and unmixed light will transmit such beams of glory into the refined body that it shall shine like an Angel of Light the body of the poorest Lazar that ever lay on the Dunghill shall be cloathed with such ravishing rayes of Beauty as will transcend the most absolute Beauty that ever mortal eye beheld 2 By vertue of External Irradiation from Christ 2 Thes 2.10 Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly By vertue of an External Irradiation It is said of Jesus Christ at that day He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe As Jesus Christ was the Brightness of his Fathers Glory it is spoken of him not as he was the second person in Trinity God blessed for ever but as he was Verbum Incarnatum The Word Incarnate all the beams of Divine Majesty and Glory did shine forth in him with such a refulgent brightness that thorow his Flesh the Godhead was as it were made visible we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth So shall the Saints at his Coming in their proportion be the brightness of Christ his glory the beams of that glory which shall shine forth from the glorified Person of their Redeemer shall reflect such a glittering Splendor upon
the Angel Oh then when the whole Assembly of Saints shall be all such how will they fill one another with unspeakable joy How might this vision as it were be an heaven alone If Paul exprest so much satisfaction to be filled with his precious Converts company at Rome what satisfaction will it be when the Romans shall be filled with Paul's company and all other the Saints of God they and he now made perfect in glory Finally It will be no small security to the mutual love and complacency of the Saints that in Heaven they shall be set beyond all possibility of being mistaken in one anothers condition Here below how easily and how often are we deceived Behold a Judas amongst the Disciples whom none of them could discover but only their Lord that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil John 6.70 Oh dreadful a Judas follower of Christ and yet a devil a Disciple and yet a devil a Preacher and yet a devil fast and pray and yet a devil do miracles and yet a devil cast out devils and yet a Devil yea once more Judas who for some time carried it so fair that when their Lord prophesied of one of their company that should be guilty of so horrid a treason as to betray his Lord they every man began to suspect rather than Judus and cried Lord is it I Is it I Lord c Oh dreadful mistake And such mistakes when discovered oh what a shame what condolency what grief what perplexity of spirit do they occasion amongst Gods upright ones But now are the Saints in Heaven delivered from all danger and fear of such charitable errors There shall be no Hypocrite in Heaven upon whom the Saints can lose their love Hypocrites shall be all lock'd up in one infernal dungeon together that they may never deceive any more Matth. 24.21 What an access of joy will this be to the Communion of Saints in glory Quest Whether or no in this blessed Vision the Saints shall see one another with a distinguishing sight i. e. see them so as to know them under such relations and respects as once they stood in one to another in this imperfect state Whether Abraham shall know Isaak as once his son and Isaak know Abraham as sometime his father Whether the Husband shall know his Wife and the Wife her Husband as once such that have drawn together in the same conjugal yoke Whether Kinred shall know their gracious Kinred and friend his friend Whether the godly Minister shall know his gracious People that were of his particular flock and the flock know him as once standing in that ministerial relation to them Et sic in caet This I say is a Question which seems neither difficult nor fruitless to be resolved Probability without doubt falls upon the Affirmative and that whether we consult Reason or Scripture Reason saith It is very likely we shall know them Reason whether by the secret impressions of former converse one with another or by revelation as some conceive is disputed some think that we shall remember what relation we have had one to another by circumstances and emergent occasions by comparing notes as it were but that discursive syllogistical way of coming into the knowledge one of another seems to be too mean and slow for the heavenly state and the reason is because the senses of the body and the faculties of the soul shall be elevated and refined to a kind of Angelical perfection for we shall be like the Angels Luke 20.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What although many Ages and Generations have passed over the Saints in their state of separation of the soul from the body and one from another wherein all the species and figures of sensible objects may seem to be totally obliterated or abolished Why may not those vestigia those impressions of sensible things which are granted to remain in the understanding be thought sufficient to reduce the species of those sensible objects themselves whereby the Saints did once converse each with other into the memory again by the sole help of that supernatural vigor and activity which the state of Glory superinduceth upon the faculties of the soul and corporeal senses Behold here in this dark region what quick and admirable recoveries of things past There shall no knowledg be wanting which now we have but only that which implieth imperfection And what imperfection can this imply To know one another as well in the glorified estate as we did in the state of mortality and better The good of this blessed state consisteth in the knowledg one of another communion one with another and mutual content in that knowledge and communion Baxtor do the senses of the body and faculties of the soul make sometimes The eye can distinguish its wonted object after many years separation the memory can presently recall the face and voice and gestures of an intimate friend after sleep which is deaths image yea after twenty years absence or more At the Resurrection the soul I make no question will know its own body at the first sight proportionably in the state of glory must the mutual knowledge and remembrance of old relations be more quick vive and if I may so say intuitive according to the admirable and glorious capacity which they shall then be invested with make but a just allowance for the vast disproportion between the regenerate state on earth and the glorified state in heaven and you may rationally conclude the affirmative And if we consult Scripture Scripture it votes no less for the Affirmative than Reason doth Did Adam know Eve in innocency Mat. 17.4 Did Peter and James and John know Moses and Elias at our Lords transfiguration whom they had never seen Tertul. contra Marcion No not so much as in a picture as Tetullian observes the Jews being great enemies to the use of pictures And shall not the Saints know one another at the first view whom they knew and mutually conversed with while they were here on earth Surely the knowledge of the beatifical vision shall excel not only the knowledge of Peter and John 1 Cor. 13.12 but even the knowledge of Adam in innocency as far as the state of glory excels the state of grace Did Peter and John know Elias on the Mount whom they had not seen and shall not Peter know John and John Peter whom they had mutually seen Again the Scripture tells us that Dives in hell knew Abraham and Lazarus in heaven Luke 16.23 shall the reprobate have better eyes in hell than the elect of God have in Heaven Shall Dives know Lazarus and shall not Lazarus know Paul and Peter c And yet again the Scripture tells us the poor Saints on earth shall know their rich benefactors when they come to heaven how else can they receive them in what sense soever into everlasting habitations shall
3. Earnestly beg the Spirit of God 3. Help Beâ— the Spirit His Office is twofold as to assurance 1. Mediate To clear your evidences The Office of the Spirit twofold 1. Mediate This he doth two wayes 1. By helping the soul to know and believe the evidence as it lyeth in the word such as these He that believeth shall be saved Rom. 10.9 They that through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live Rom. 8.13 Hereby we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 John 3.14 18. cum 19. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 The heirs of glory are only such as God hath made meet for the Inheritance Col. 1.12 He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.12 We groan to be cloathed upon that mortality might beswallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 These and many other are the Graces and Qualifications to which God hath infallibly annexed heaven and glory And to these evidences the Holy Ghost helps the Soul to set his seal as to the infallible testimony of God that they are true John 3.33 2. The Spirit clears the evidence by the Candle of the Lord enabling the Soul to read it evidently written in the heart by his own finger the Spirit enlightens the understanding to see that these graces in the Soul are real and genuine The believer dan say I believe I through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body I keep under my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. ult I love the brethren and the more of God I see in them the more my heart cleaves to them I have the Son as a fountain of light and life dwelling in me I am in some measure made meet I hope to be partaker of the inheritance c. Now from the premises the Spirit enables the believer comfortably to issue this blessed conclusion Therefore I shall be saved Therefore I am a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Behold this is the first office of the Spirit Oh pray for it Christians that in judging of your evidences neither on one hand you may be deceived with shadows instead of substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1.22 Bristol-stones instead of Diamonds as hypocrites deceive themselves and perish for ever nor on the other hand still lye trembling under a causeless suspition that all is but counâ—erfeit when there is no just ground for it and so for the present loose your comfort be sure not to trust your own spirit in so infinite a concern and if at first you cannot so readily make this practical Syllogisme wait and pray for the Spirit which is of God That you may know the things that are freely given to you of God! Cry with David Search me O God 2 Cor. 2.12 and know my heart c. Psal 139.23 24. It is good to be afraid to deceive our selves The second Office of the Spirit is that which some Divines call immediate 2. Office Immediate and it is a bright irradiation of the Holy Ghost beaming out upon the soul not only giving iâ— a clear distinct discerning of its own graces that we referr'd to in the former Office but immediately witnessing to the soul its adoption by Jesus Christ and right and title to the Kingdom of God wherein God speaks to the soul in some such like language as that I am thy salvation Psal 35.3 Making the soul to hear joy and gladness Psal 51.8 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins Isai 44.22 I have redeemed thee like that in the Gospel Thy sins be forgiven thee Matth. 9.2 Now this act is usually called immediate i. e. without the mediation of signs and evidences as in the former Office not but that there are signs and evidences in the person testified but that the Spirit makes no use of them in the act of testification there are gracious qualifications in the soul sufficient to distinguish and justifie it from all the false witness of the lying Spirit upon all seasonable occasions but the Spirit of God doth not refer to any of these qualifications in this act but immediately darts in light and comfort which fill the soul wich joy unspeakable and full of glory This act of the Spirit is sometimes called in Scripture 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seal of the Spirit Ephes 1.13 The office of a Seal being like that of an Oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.16 an end of all strife to put the matter beyond doubt or disputation So a Believer sealed is set beyond all fear or danger and God as it were leaves himself no possibility of receding or going back from his word and promise Heb. 6.18 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This act is called an earnest 2 Cor. 5.5 Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit Now the office of an earnest is not only to assure but to give possession an earnest is part of the purchase or bargain so is this act of the Spirit an act whereby the soul is not only assured of but put into possession of the heavenly inheritance it is as it were part of it the joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul enters into the joy of the Lord assurance is nothing else but antidated glory heaven on this side heaven This is my B. the second Office of the Spirit which I well know some eminently learned and godly Divines deny acknowledging no other act of the Spirit in assurance but the former But I resolved at the entrance of this work not to dispute but thetically to assert my own opinion and judgment in any point that admits of debate In this case therefore I know and believe there is enough in the former Office of the Spirit to carry a believer to heaven yet this second Office can be no useless redundancy or over plus a Believer will need all the assurance that is to be had and therefore if God be so bountiful to give both let a Believer pray and wait for the promise of the Spirit in both these Offices mediate and immediate if he speed it will be a labour well bestowed if he speed not it will be a labour well lost I have done with this third Help or Means to attain assurance I come to the fourth and shall more briefly dispatch them that remain A fourth Help to get assurance is this 4. Help Be very tender of the Spirit Make much of the Spirit surely it concerns us highly to be very tender of the Spirit for if both kinds of assurance be the fruit of the Spirit we had need to hear as it were founding in our ears Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 whereby ye are sealed to the
three glorious persons in Trinity and that other like unto it between the two natures in Christ profound and ineffable 1 Cor. 2.14 Quia nihil animal animali superius cogitare potest the heart of man is not able to conceive it nor the tongue of an Angel to express it the natural man knows it not at all no more of it than a Swine knows what the Union is between the Soul and body in man it is above his principle 1 Cor. 2.14 The spiritual man understandeth it very imperfectly all we know is rather that it is than what it is the full and perfect knowledg of it is reserved for the future state so our Lord hath told us John 14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you then and not till then we shall never perfectly understand this Union until we come fully to enjoy it In the mean time if a short improvement of such a rich point might not be judged too much improper in such a contemplative discourse as this is a few things might be hinted from hence by way of Use Use First Here we may discover the main Foundation 1 Perseverance stands not in the nature of Grace and Reason of the Saints perseverance surely it consists not in the nature of Grace infused in their Regeneration this differs not specifically from the Grace which Adam received in his first Creation that was the Image of God Gen. 1.26 27. and so is this Colos 3.10 and therefore of it self cannot produce any higher or more noble effects under the one Covenant then it did under the other Secondly 2. Nor in freedom of will Nor doth it consist in the liberty and rectitude of their own Wills though Regenerate for if Adams free will did him so little service in his perfect state when it was entire free without any mixture of servility how little security think you can the liberty Ex nolentibus facit volentes Aug. wherewith Christ maketh the will free in the new Creation afford the Saints wherein the state of Grace is yet imperfect and the freedom of their wills mixt with so much bondage that it made the holy Apostle look upon it little different for the present from a captivity Rom. 7.24 and to cry out to astonishment for a Redeemer to come in and make a rescue O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me c. He found by experience that if it were not more for a Christ than for the freedom of his own will that body of death which he carried about him would infallibly prove his total and final ruine but I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord there was his security But 1. In the Covenant of Grace Where then shall we bottom the stability and fixedness of the Saints surely upon a two-fold Foundation First Divine Compact Grace in the Saints is under a Covenant God the Father hath Astipulated with the Mediator for his spiritual believing seed not only to repair the Ruines of the first Creation his Image in them but to uphold and secure it from ever dissolving decaying again totally or finally partial temporary decays and recidivations there may be but saith the word of the Covenant to the Redeemer in Reference to his divine off-spring my Spirit which is upon thee Isa 59.21 and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Adams grace was under no such Covenant and therefore left to it self it was exposed to the power of Temptation and perished This is one account of the Saints perseverance But Secondly Secondly Union with Christ The next and immediate Foundation of it is this blessed Vnion whereof we are now speaking by vertue whereof the true Believer is so made one with Christ as Christ is one with his Father ut supr As we are one as that is as it hath been expounded spiritually really operatively enrichingly intimously indissolubly in a word infallibly and availeably to all saving intents and purposes Here is the ground and foundation of the Saints perseverance Rev. 3.1 They are not only fixt Stars in Christs right hand if no more it would be hard pulling them thence But their lives are bound up in the same bundle with Christs own life Jo. 14.19 our life is hid with Christ in God Christ and his Saints have as it were but one life between them and that life is Christs whence Christ himself makes the inference because I live Col. 3.3 you shall live also Upon such an instance it may be questioned and possibly without breach of charity whether they who deny the infallible perseverance of the Saints did ever truly study or believe the notion and nature of the happy and glorious Vnion which is betwixt Christ and them * The inseparableness of the Union is given as the account of the Saints perseverance Nothing can separate us Rom. 8 39. If we should form what hath been said unto such a Syllogism as this namely They that are United to Christ by a spiritual real operative enriching intimate inseparable Union can never totally or finally fall away But all true Believers are so United Therefore they can never so fall away I say cast all into such a form and we find that both the Premisses and the Conclusion are of Christ's own making Because I live ye shall live also And therefore until I hear that Christ is dead the second time which I am sure I shall never do for Christ being raised dieth no more Rom. 6.9 death hath no more dominion over him c. I dare not believe this doctrine The possibility of the Saints total and final Apostacy Only because Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and the heart is deceitful above all things Caution and desperately wicked my earnest advice and obsecration to all such as do pretend to this blessed Vnion as to mine own Soul is To give all diligence upon solid Scripture-evidence that is to say by the precious and powerful influences of this Vnion upon their Souls and by the gracious Reciprocations of Faith and Love and sweet holy communion with the Father and the Son c. by these I say and the like to secure the Assumption But I am thus Vnited to Christ And the Conclusion need not fear the gates of Rome or Hell but the Believer may boldly send forth St. Pauls challenge Who shall condemn What shall separate 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ In the second place Second Use Hence we may take notice of the honour and dignity of the Saints how meanly and basely so ever reputed in The Dignity of the Saints 1 Cor. 4.13
priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
of his humiliation Thirdly Third Reas to finish his Mediatory Office Our Lord Jesus Christ must come himself at the last day to perfect and finish his Mediatory-Office At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to pay a price to divine Justice 1 Per. 1.19 So he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to purchase us of his Father At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to gather all his Redeemed ones together and to present them a glorious Church to his Father not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but holy and without blemish in some such language as was long before Prophesied Behold here am I and the Children whom thou hast given me Isa 8.18 And again as when he was going out of the world he gave his account to his Father of all whom thou hast given me Joh. 17.12 I have lost none but the Son of perdition At his first coming his Mediatory-work was to fight with the Devil Act. 26.18 Colos 1.13 Luk. 11.21 22. In this respect he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.26 and all the powers of darkness and to rescue what he had bought of the Father out of the power of Satan that strong man armed who kept his goods in peace At his second coming his Mediatory-work will be to vanquish all those Enemies out of whose dominion he hath freed his Elect to bind them with chains to cast them into everlasting darkness and to seal the bottomless pit upon them for ever And when he hath done this the Lord Jesus shall deliver up the Kingdome to his Father His Office is not compleated till this be done God's Oath is past upon it and cannot be reverst Isa 45.23 c. The Text is applyed to Christ presently upon his Exaltation to this very purpose Phil. 2.20 Well then we have now found out the person of the Judg. The Lord Himself c. And for the Use it may serve 1. For infinit terror to the Wicked 2. For unspeakable Consolation to the Godly First it serves for infinit terror to the Wicked Use 1 That the Judgment now should be put into the hand of Him Terror to the Wicked whom of all the world they counted their Enemy at least if they did not call him so they used him so Oh what a dreadful sight will his Appearance be If Ahab cryed out with so much discomposure of spirit at the suddain appearance of Elijah the Prophet of God Hast thou found me Oh mine Enemy With what horror and affrightment will Reprobate Gaitiff's cry out when they shall be drag'd from before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus the Lord of the Prophets Hast thou found us Oh our Enemy If Josephs Brethren were so astonished at the presence of Joseph when he said unto them I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt How will all the world of ungodly men be confounded at the presence of the Lord now coming in the glory of his Father to Judg them when he shall say unto them I am Jesus I am Jesus whom ye sold for less than ever Judas sold me even for the price of a base Lust I am Jesus whom ye Crucified over and over again to your selves and put me to an open shame I am Jesus whose Person you have slighted whose Government you have spurn'd at crying in the Pride and Rebellion of your obstinate spirits We will not have this man Reign over us I am Jesus whose Counsel you have rejected whose Threatnings you have laughed to scorn whose Promises you have derided and set at nought I am Jesus whose Blood you have trampled under your feet as an Vnholy thing even doing despite to the Spirit of grace c. I say Now will the Reprobate world be confounded at the presence of their Judg Behold in the days of his Flesh when he appeared in the forme of a Servant and was even led away as a Sheep to the Slaughter and as a Lamb before the Shearer not opening his mouth by way of murmur against his Father or reviling against his Enemies yet how did that Lamb-like Word I am He fill the hearts of those sturdy Souldiers who came to apprehend Him with horror and strike them to the ground like a blast of Thunder and Lightning Oh how will that word when he shall come cloathed with Majesty and terror with all the glorious Host of Heaven attending his Person I am he fill Reprobate Souls with astonishment and distraction and even strike them backward into Hell before their time How will it cause them to woo the Mountains and Rocks now as hard and inexorable as their hearts once were in the day of God's patience crying out to them to the amazement of Heaven and Earth Mountains Fall on us Rev. 6.26 27. Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the presence of the Lamb for the great day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand But all in vain As the Lord Jesus once in the day of his grace cryed unto them and they would not answer c. So they shall now cry to Heaven and Earth to Rocks and Mountains Prov. 1.24 25 26. Psal 50.22 and they shall not answer yea the Judg shall laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear cometh Oh consider this ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Second Use Second Use of Comfort to the Saints Christ Himself will be their Judg. But on the contrary unspeakable Consolation may this doctrine of Christ's personal Appearance speak to the Godly the Sheep of Christ which have heard his voyce speaking to them in the Gospel of peace and have obeyed it Behold He that in the days of his flesh came to be their Redeemer now in the day of his power shall come to be their Judge He that so often pleaded for them to his Father and for whom they so often pleaded and contended with a disobedient and gain-saying Generation I say He shall now be their Judg and pass sentence upon them their Friend their Brother their Head their Husband What need they fear that Tribunal where not their Enemies who were wont fasâ—y to accuse and condemn them no not their prejudiced and imprudent Friends who somtimes have rashly and causelesly mis-judged them much less the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 who accused them before their God day and night none of these I say shall sit in Judgment But their dear Redeemer who for their sake came down from Heaven that loved them so dearly that he died for love of them that he might Redeem them and wash them in his own Blood He that Regenerated Sanctified Justified Preserved and Perfected them He to whom both in Life and Death they were so nearly and inseparably Vnited and by vertue of which Conjunction they are now
Seed of the Woman nor è contrà but there shall be a perfect separation The Sheep shall be separated from the Goats the Elect from the Reprobate there shall not be a Servant of the Lord amongst the Worshipers of Baal nor a Son of Beltal among the Sons of God Sinners and none but Sinners Saints and none but Saints shall make up these two distinct Congregations Nay so terrible will the glory which Christ will put upon his Saints be upon the faces of the Reprobates and so great the horrour of their own guilty Consciences that they shall now as much dread their Society as once they hated it and chuse rather to leap alive into the burning Lake then to mix themselves unto them or so much as to put their head within that holy Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in praestituto tempâ—re Verse 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Christ assureth to his Mourners shall be effected in the appointed time if not in our time yet in Gods time in the time of Harvest But what shall we do in the mean time why saith our Lord Suffer them to grow together suffer them not by sinful toleration in Rulers nor by sinful compliance in people Expectardo non temeâ—è occupando If we cannot separate from Churches yet separate from their Corruptions and defilements 2 Use but suffer them by patient expectation in case of necessity having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reproving them If you cannot avoyd the Workers yet avoyding the Works of darkness and then in your patience do you possess your Souls 2. This Circumstance of the Saints separation from the Wicked is improved for comfort by our Lord Jesus Christ himself In case of undue exclusion from Church Ordinances of such as Christ would not have excluded Our Lord Jesus hath foretold that the power of the keys should fall sometimes into such hands as would so diametrically pervert the use of them as that oft-times none should be excluded but whom Christ would have admitted nor admitted but such as Christ would have shut out They shall put You out of their Synagogues 1 Joh. 16.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Excommunicate you You my Disciples you my Friends Hard measure I but here is comfort the time is coming wherein all the Elect shall be Congregated into one universal Assembly never to suffer exclusion or ejectment any more to all Eternity And then their unrighteous Excommunicators shall be righteously Excommunicated yea they shall be Excommunicated with the highest sort of Excommunication higher than any Church of Christ ever used Excommunicated for ever delivered unto Sathan not for the destruction of the flesh only but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9.10 and from the glory of his Power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints That 's a dreadful Excommunication indeed the Anathema Maranatha in the highest sense quum Dominus venit quia Domino quasi in manus citra veniae spem dedentur Jude 14. Now the Saints of God are glad to get into Corners by twoes and by threes and blessed be God not without a promise to seek the face of God so making the Harlot's Text Prov. 17.17 speak chast language Stollen waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant But in that glorious Morning of the Resurrection they shall meet by millions and myriads of millions and there shall be none to disturb or offend them yea their Enemies shall look on and gnash their Teeth for anguish and vexation of Spirit to see them now got for ever out of their power 3. 3 Use And lastly for Comfort in case of the Saints separation one from another whether by the unrighteous hand of Violence or the righteous hand of Providence Now by means of Dispersions Imprisonments Exile c. the people of God are like Arms and Legs torn out of the body and lye bleeding in their separations Yea God Himself is pleased to make sad breaches between them and their sweetest Relations by Death Under which they are many times like Rachel not without sin weeping for her Children and refuse to be Comforted because they are not lifting up their voyces and crying Oh! my Father Abraham and Oh! my Son Isaac O Absolon my Son my Son Absolon would God I had dyed for thee I will go down to the Grave to my Son mourning c. But here is Comfort the time is coming when the Parent and Child Husband and Wife Friend and Friend with the whole Family of Heaven and Earth from all their dispersions from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven shall meet together and embrace one another Everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and mourning shall flee away In a word how may all the Saints of God in what state or condition so ever for the present solace themselves in the fore-contemplation of the Triumphant gathering together of the Elect of God What a joyful Sight will it be when all the Saints and Servants of the most high God which ever saw one anothers faces or heard of one anothers names yea and all they which never saw or heard each of other All of every Tongue Nation Kindred or Family of the Earth of what Age Sex Generation soever from the day wherein God made time to the day wherein time shall be no more shall meet together and stand on tip-toe ready to take their flight to meet their Lord and Bridegroom coming in the Clouds with his mighty Angels Yea what a glorious sight will it be to see all The glorious Company of the Apostles The goodly Fellowship of the Prophets The whole Army of Martyrs with The holy Church throughout all the World A Congregation of Kings and Priests in all their Royal Robes Yea as I may so say a Congregation or Constellation of Morning-Starrs yea of so many Noon-day Suns arising from the Earth co-Ascending through the several Regions of the Air to meet the Sun of Righteousness now descending from his own Orb of Supream Glory and Majesty in the highest Heavens to Judg both the quick and the dead Surely such an Assembly eye never saw ear never heard of nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive how immense how august how exceeding it will be in glory While in the mean time the Congregation of the Reprobate the Malignant Church that are left below upon the Earth on the left hand shall stand trembling looking upwards and gnashing their Teeth to see this sudden and tremendous turn of things the Saints whom they despised and persecuted before thus snatched out of their cursed power and fellowship Ascending in so much Pomp and Royalty to meet their glorious Redeemer They themselves left behind to curse themselves and one another for their Prejudices Envy and Rage which once they breath'd out against Gods people
marg for Acts 13.19 read 3 19 page 145 marg for Matt. 5.27 read 5 17 page 155 marg for Psa 30 3. read 130 3. PART 3. page 2 marg for Luke 21 46 read 21 36 marg for Rev. 3 2 r. 14 4 page 8 line 16 for Mat. 24.21 read 24 51 page 29 marg for Matt. 8 10 read 18 10 page 30 marg for Joh. read 1 Joh. page 31 marg for Gen. 13 24 30. read 32 24 30 page 34 marg for Psal 48 2 read 84 2 page 38. marg for 1 King 4 25 read 4 29 page 46 marg for Maâ— read Matth. page â—â— marg for Mark 12 32 read 13 32 page 60 line 31 for Matr. 25 24 r ad 25 34 page 62 marg for Matt 18 1. read 8 11. page 79 marg for Rom. read Revel page 81 marg for Eph. 5 1. read 4 24 page 110 marg for 2 Thes 1 9. read 2 Cor. 4 4. page 125 marg for 2 Cor. read 1 Cor page 132 line 13. for Cant 6 12 read 7 12 page 135 marg for 1 Cor 9 52. read 9.25 page 150. marg for 1 Pet. 1 18. read 1.8 page 153. line 1â— for Psal 94.10 read 94.19 p. 164. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first Epistle Dedicatory p. â— l. 6. for weak r. mean In the second Epistle Dedicatory are these 3 pages mistaken in the Title vâ—z p. 7 p. 10 p. 11. for The Epistle to the Reader read The Epistle Dedicatory And in the same Epistle page 9. l. 9. for their excess read this excess page 10. line 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MOVNT PISGAH OR WORDS of COMFORT OVER THE Death of our Gratious Relations 1 Thes 4.18 Wherefore Comfort one another with these Words THese words what words are these Scripture words in their general Nature more particularly the Words of Comfort conteyned in this Context from v. 13. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren c. down to my Text. For therein doth the Apostle by the dictate of the Holy Ghost lay down a model or platforme of Consolatory Arguments as so many soveraign Antidotes against immoderate sorrow for our pretious Relations which are departed And with these words the Apostle would have Christians be able to comfort themselves and one another Comfort one another with these words For the handling of the Text I will do these two things 1. I will shew you what these words are and open the sense and meaning of them as they lye in the order and method of the Context 2. I will improve them for 1. Comfort 2. Counsel For the first of these The words of Comfort laid down by the Apostle in this model 10 Words of Comfort may be reduced unto 10 Heads some of them very comprehensive and all of them like mother of Pearl dissolved exceeding Cordial and Restorative The first word of Comfort is this The first word of Comfort namely That our pretious Relations over whose departure we stand mourning and weeping are but fallen asleep I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep We may say of departed Saints as our Saviour said concerning the Damsel Math. 9.24 They are not dead but sleep the same phrase he also used to his Disciples concerning Lazarus John 11.11 our Friend Lazarus sleepeth A notion which the Disciples at first understood not because their understandings were not yet inlightened they dreamed of a natural sleep saith the Text of taking Rest in sleep And yet as men in their sleep do somtimes dream true so did they in this dream of theirs speak truer than they were aware of they said Lord if he sleeps he shall do well it is true indeed the Saints of God do but sleep when they lye down in the Grave that which we call death in such is not death indeed It is but the Image of Death the shadow and metaphor of death deaths younger Brother a meer sleep and no more The Holy Ghost who best knoweth what things be hath phrased it so and that not so little as twenty times in Scripture to shew that it was not a sudden expression incautelously dropt from the Pen of any one of the Secretaries of Holy Writ but the true proper and genuine notion of death suggested to them by the infallible dictate of the Spirit of God they do but sleep and if they sleep they shall do well their sleep shall be sweet unto them as sweet as once the Prophets was Jer. 31.26 I shall not follow the Analogy that is between Death and Sleep in the latitude of it sufficient to our purpose it will be to take notice of two main properties of Death which do carry in them a lively resemblance of sleep The first is Isâ— Ligath suâ—â—â— That sleep is nothing else but the binding up of the senses for a little time a locking up of the Doores and shutting of the Windows of the body for a season that so nature may take the sweeter Rest and Repose being freed from all disturbance and distractions Sleep is but a meer Paerenthesis to the Labours and Travels of this present life Secondly Sleep is but a partial privation a privation of the Act only not of the Habit of Reason They that sleep in the Night do awake again in the Morning then there is a regress or return of the habit to its Act again The Soul returneth to the discharge of all her Offices again In the internal faculties to the act of Judging and discourse in the Intellect to recalling things for the present and recording things for future use in the memory It returns to its Empire and command in the will to its judicature in the Conscience Excusing Accusing Condemning Et sic in caeteris So likewise the soul returns again to the execution of all her functions in the external senses to seeing in the eye to hearing in the ear to tasting in the pallate as also to working in the hands to walking in the feet and so in the rest In a word the whole man is Redivivus restored again to its self as it were by a new * Providentia est continuata Creatio Creation that which lay as senseless and useless tantum non dead all the night is raised again more vive and fresh and active in the morning than it lay down at night Such a thing as this for all the world is that which we commonly call Death but with this considerable advantage that in the interim of Death the soul acts more vigorously than before as being released from the weights and intanglements of the body First It is but a longer and closer binding up of the senses Nature's long vacation The Grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to Rest with its Curtains drawn close about it that it may not be disturbed in its repose so the Holy Ghost pleaseth to phrase it Isa 57.2 He