12. Ch. 5.8 Their patient bearing of the Cross Their keeping of the word of God in the precepts of it and keeping close to it in the Truth of it Their superlative Love to Christ Math. 10.37 Their Cordial Love to the Saints 1 Jo. 3.14 Their Contempt of the World 1 Jo. 2.15 Their Love of Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 In a word Their conformity to Christ their Head Rom. 8.29 These and the like Divine Vertues although not seldome more visible to a judicious stander by than to themselves and not to be weighed but with some graines of allowance in the ballance of the Sanctuary these I say may administer abundant matter of hope and rejoycing to surviving Friends that those Relations which are fallen asleep were a people whom God hath set apart for himself pretious in his sight honourable and beloved of him a people formed for himself to shew forth his praise Col s 1.13 and made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Yea even in them whose Sun goes down in the morning of their Youth A teachable Spirit Math. 13.16 Isa 28.9 71 Psal 5. Jo. 16.8 1 John 2.13 John 17.3 Pious Inclinations Sense of a lost Estate by Nature A Competent knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in his Offices A real sense of the need and use of Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.15 Ps 119.13 An early acquaintance with the Scriptures A good understanding of the Word Preached not without some savour of it Respects to Gods Sabbaths And in a word 1 Kings 14.13 Any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel These early Impressions I say where ever they are found though according to different ages and capacities more or less legible in them are so many hopeful Indiciums that God hath been at work upon their hearts betimes and that he doth not untimely take them away in judgment but are polished Jewels which he hath of special grace laid up and secured from the violence and prophanation of a reprobate world Nay once more Those very Babes and Sucklings whom God is pleased to remove from us very early snatched from their Mothers Breasts yea possibly who pass swiftly from the Womb of their Natural Mother unto the belly of the Earth their Original Mother even these I say they being A Covenant seed Appendices of their believing Parents Children of promise Act. 2.39 Consecrated unto God by their Baptisme or by the Tears and Prayers of their holy Parents in the want of it having a right to the mercies 1 Cor. 7.14 Rom. 9.11 Mar. 10.4 Luk. 1.44 Gal. 1.15 Renatiante quam nati Aug. priviledges of the Covenant as well as to Baptisme Among whom is dispersed God the Father's Election God the Son's purchase God the Holy Ghost's Influence and Operation Even these are not to be looked upon as a lost Generation but may in the warrantable judgment of Scripture Charity be hopefully reputed for an Holy Seed Gods adopted Children owned by Christ and in him heires co-heires of the Kingdome of Heaven by special prerogative advanced to their Inheritance as it were before their time Upon this Foundation stands our hope concerning our Godly Relations which are fallen asleep of what age or state soever we are not to mourn for them even as others which have no hope Let them mourn excessively who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God in raising the Dead who bury their Relations and their hopes together in one Grave but you that upon these Scripture evidences have good hope through grace concerning your deceased Friends that while you are mourning on Earth they are rejoycing in Heaven that whiles you are Cloathed with black they are Cloathed in white even in the long white Robes of Christs Righteousness while you are rooling your selves in the Dunghil they are sitting with Christ upon his Throne Do not I beseech you profane your Scriptural hope with an unscriptural mourning give not the world occasion to judge either your selves to live without Faith or your Relations to dye without hope but let your Christian moderation be known to all men that it may be a visible Testimony to all the world of God's grace in them and of your hopes of their glory with God Therefore comfort one another with this word also A third word of comfort followeth and that is A third word of Comfort Our gratious Relations are not alone in their Death The Captain of their Salvation did march before them through those black Regions of Death and the Grave Jesus died this is implied in the following words If we believe that Jesus died This is a third consolatory Argument and it carryeth in it strong consolation Our sweet Relations in dying run no other hazard than Abraham Isaac and Jacob did no other hazard than all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles did in their generations they all died and were resolved into their first dust Yea what shall I say They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles did Jesus died this is wonderful indeed the Lord of Life died The eternal Son of God was laid in the Grave If our Children die we know we begot them mortal The Son of God had no principle of mortality in him * i.e. No sin in him to deserve it nor disease to cause it and yet he died Be our Children never so precious to us they cannot be so pretious to us God forbid they should as the Lord Jesus was to His Father who testifies concerning him from Heaven with a loud voyce This is my well-beloved Son Math. 3.17 in whom my Soul is well pleased And yet God gave up this well beloved of his Soul to the death Jesus died And we indeed justly Death is but our wages wages as truly earned as ever was a penny by the poor hireling for his days labour both we and our Off-spring have forfeited our lives over and over again by continual reiterated Treasons against the supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth yea the best blood which runs in our veins is Traytors blood by succession from our first Rebellious Parents for which God might justly have executed the sentence at first imposed even as soon as ever we draw our first breath Thou shalt dye the death Gen. 3. But He what evil had he done He was holy harmless undefiled Heb. 7.26 Isa 53.61.71 Heb. Ho hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him separate from sinners He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth He fulfilled all Righteousness and yet Jesus dyed And why so Surely he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we all like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity
conjecture that we should not too soon forget the Affliction and the Misery the Wormwood and the Gall but that our Souls having them continually in remembrance might be humbled in us Lam. 3.19 20. Possibly that the Children being every way alike both in Person and in Disposition one and the same Plaister might give ease and cure to the wound and one and the same Monument perpetuate their Memorial unto Posterity Truly they were a pair of lovely Babes Babes in Age though men in knowledg and understanding of whom we may in their Capacity sing as David once in his Funeral Elegies of Saul and Jonathan They were pleasant in their lives in their death they were not divided Their lives indeed were short so it seemed good to the Divine Wisdome after He had shewed two such excellent pieces in the Light for a while timely to lay them up amongst his Jewels lest they should receive hurt or stain from a present evil world But although their lives were short yet verily they were precious such as allowing them this Abatement that they were Children neither Parents nor Standers-by could rationally have wished they had been otherwise then they were And though there were some distance of years yet there was the greatest parity of Persons observed between them that though they were but the Brother 's and Sister 's Sons you could not had they been together have distinguished them from natural Brethren or Tynnes rather of the same Birth For Elegancy of Person Loveliness of Countenance Solidness of Judgment Acuteness of Wit Tenaciousness of Memory Sweetness of Disposition Vniversal Innocence and Modesty in behaviour Obedience to Parents Next or Remote Submission to Governours Observance to Superiours Love to Equals Condescention to Inferiours and candor to all And that which deservedly is of higher value with God Reverend Attention to his Word Read or Preached together with some suitable ability to give a methodical repetition of both Studious in learning Catechisms of which they were able to give such a rational account as if they had been Candidates for the Vniversity as many both of the Nobility and others in the Parish of Giles 's in the Fields can at this day witness Love to the best things and a due respect to the best men with a more then a Childish dislike of and adversness to what they understood to be evil c. These Desirablenesses according to yea and above the rate of Children rendered them so like one another as if one Soul had animated two bodies or one and the same Conception had been formed up into two Patterns though reserved to be seen successively to the end as it were that the Elder might out-live himself in the Younger Aut Utrumque putabis esse verum aut Utrumque putabis esse pictum You would have deemed them to be either the same Person or two Pictures one the Original the other a Copy Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat He that had seen one might have known them both And as they were alike in their Lives so in their Death they were not divided or if a little in time not at all in the manner and Circumstances They both Lived with us but died with you they lived with the Divine but died with the Physitian to shew that neither Religion doth kill nor Physick can keep alive Nevertheless though they died with you they came not to dye any further than the hidden Decree of the Divine will had before determined They died alive as it were Death gave them so little warning Neither Parents or Children understood wherefore they came until within a very few days Death shewed his Commission and as soon Executed it They died both of them in the absence of their Trustees who though one step higher in the Parental line were not I am sure half a step lower in Parental affection which the Divine eye Saw and pittied and therefore out of Compassion hiding from us what he was about to do As he snatched us from the Elder by sending us abroad So He snatched the Younger from us by sending him Home to his Fathers House So pittying our Infirmity who otherwise possibly might not have parted with them so willingly nor have born their loss so patiently The loss of two such choyce Patterns of Divine workmanship could not but have been an heart-breaking object to us as it was to you but that their constant absence from you was a preparative whereby the terrour of death was somthing abated their very absence so long before was a little death That which sweetneth it to us all is that God hath not left us to mourn as men without hope that in the Context before us The Children are not dead but sleep they sleep in Jesus If any Stander-by shall judg possibly that my affection hath transported my Charity into their excess my Apology is this that I had rather be guilty of an Excess in Charity than a Defect in thankfulness I know we cannot expect such rational accounts of Grace in Children as may be found in Adult Saints but that that doxologie out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordeined strength Psal 8.2 doth not exclude Children though not confine the meaning of the words so narrow is the judgment of the old St. Ignatius who from those Scripture instances of Samuel Josiah and others denieth not but that the Spirit of God working in young ones doth many times give out early discoveries of the Grace of the Covenant when Elder Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Magn. do only carry their Gray-haires as a badg of their Ingratitude to God As for your dear Children God hath not left himself without fuâ—ther witness in their death of an interest in them Those heavenly whispers which the tender Aunt laying her ear to the pale lips of her dying Nephew as he lay upon his back with eyes fixed Heaven-ward when he wanted strength to make his heart audible God Christ Grace c. And her own dear Childs delight in that little Book A Guide to Heaven a book little in bulk but great in Excellency which as it caused him to make it his Vade Mecum while he lived his Golden Cup out of which he drank his Mornings draught every morning in his Bed So it caused him to take it with him as his Viaticum to Heaven when he came to dye For it was found with him when dead These I say are overplusses of Divine Grace and witnesses of Divine Love to those dying Babes from their Heavenly Father Wherefore Dear Children let not the Consolations of God seem small unto you but improve them for your own Comfort and quickning in the holy Education of the surviving Treasures of your Blood that if they live you may have comfort in their Lives or if they dye you may have hope in their Deaths Be steadfast and immoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for as
shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds every one walking in their uprightness Death is nothing else but a Writ of ease to the poor weary Servants of Christ a total Cessation from all their labour of nature sin and affliction Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours c. While the Souls of the Saints do Rest in Abrahams Bosome their bodies do sweetly sleep in their Beds of dust as in a safe and Consecrated Dormitory Thus Death is but a sleep Secondly And then again as they that sleep in the night do awake in the morning so shall the Saints of God do This heaviness may endure for a night this night of mortality but joy cometh in the morning In the morning of the Resurrection they shall awake again Psal 17.15 it will not be an everlasting night an endless sleep but as sure as we awake in the morning when we have slept comfortably all night so sure shall the Saints then awake and shall stand upon their feet and we shall behold them again with exceeding joy Oh Blessed morning How should we long and wait for that morning more than they that watch for the dawning of the day It is an errour in Philosophy to call Death a total privation of the habit Divinity hath corrected that errour while it hath taught us to call the dissolution of Nature in the Saints at the most but a sleep Mors ista quam adeò perhorrescimus adeò timemus non est exitus sed transitus veni et eterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies Sen. which in the Philosophers own notion is but a partial privation and doth admit of a Regress or returning again to the habit or former state and capacity more beautiful active and vigorous than ever as hereafter shall appear A comfortable notion which were it realized by Believing would be able to silence our complaints and to still all our moan-makings over our departed Christian friends and Relations how sweet and precious soever they have been to us For do we indeed take on so when any of the Family are gon to Bed before us in the Evening Do we indeed cry out woe and alas my Father is fallen asleep my Mother is laid to Rest my dear Yoak-fellow is gone to bed before me my sweet Child the delight of mine eyes the joy of my heart his eyes are closed the Curtains drawn close about him and I cannot awake him Do we I say thus take on and afflict our selves in this case no surely he would be accounted little better than a Mad-man or a Fool that should do so Oh fie then fie for shame why do we so here the case is the same only if the night be a little longer which yet no man can determine before hand the morning will be infinitely more joyous and make us more abundant compensation for our patience and expectation why are we so unlike our selves in one and in the other Surely because we either forget our notions or believe them not we call the absence of our Friends by a wrong name We say my Father is dead my Mother is dead my Isaack is dead my dear Yoak-Fellow is not and these be killing words Dead the Letter killeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the most terrible of all terrible things the very name of it strikes a chilness and coldness into our hearts enough to kill us before our time for even worldly sorrow many times causeth death Call we then things as God calls them make we use of the notions which God hath suggested to us say we my Parent is gone to bed my Yoak-Fellow is at Rest my beloved Babe is fallen asleep * So also in Scripture is death tearmed a departure 2 Tim. 4.6 an absence from the body a going from home an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5 4.8 Job 15.11 An entring into peace a going to rest Isa 57.2 and behold the terrour of death will cease If God hath cloathed this horrid thing Death with softer notions for our comfort let not the Consolations of the Almighty be a small thing with us Oh how comfortable lives might we live had we but the right notions of things and Faith to realize them Our Friends are not dead but sleep Comfort one another with this Word The second Consolatory Argument is The hopeful condition of these our sleeping Relations 2d Word of Comfort Blessed be God we are not without hope of their happiness even while they thus sleep There be indeed that dye and neither carry away any hope with them nor leave any hope behind them to thâ—â— surviving Relations but the Righteous hath hope in his 〈◊〉 Prov. 14.23 when our gratious Relations dye we nâ—â—â—â—â—se the word sometimes that we may be understood there is hope They are infinite gainers by their death Sometimes they dye full of hope in their own sense Job 19.25 26 27. I know saith Jâ—b that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worme destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God c. Oh Blessed hopeâ— And thus holy Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Glorious Triumph And thus again we may find him in his own name and in the name of other of his Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the Kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ marching out of the field of this world in a Victorious manner with Colours flying and Drums beating and thus insulting over Death as a Conqueror 1 Cor. 15.56.57 Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus 2 Pet. 1.11 An abundant entrance is administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Oh the superabundant Consolation of the Heires of promise And if any of the Saints of God at any time their Sun have set under a Cloud so that they are not able to express their own hopes yet they leave behind them sollid Scripture evidences of God's everlasting Electing Love and of their effectual vocation out of the world into the Kingdome and Fellowship of his dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord Evidences of saving vocation Gal. 5.22 23. such as are The Fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Their Poverty of Spirit Holy Mourning For Their own and Other mens Sins Math. 5.3 Their hungering and thirsting after Righteousness 6. v. 8. Their purity of heart visible in the holiness of their lives Their peaceable and peace-making dispositions 9.10 11
they shall be in the morning of the Resurrection Oh what a glorious change shalt than behold How unlike it self shall this poor vile body appear in the Resurrection It was sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in Glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body In a word It was sown a vile body It is now transfigured in the Resurrection into a most eminent Conformity with Christ's Glorious body Be of good Comfort Oh ye mourners of hope here is a perfumed Hankerchief to wipe off all tears from your eyes You that sow in tears shall reap in joy you that carry forth precious Seed weeping shall come again rejoycing and bring your Sheaves with you The Resurrection shall make amends for all I have done with the first Consequent I come now to the second Consequent of Christs Rising Second Consequent Triumphant Ascention of the Saints sc The Saints Triumphant Ascention Verse 17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds c. Here we have a further instance of the Saints Conformity unto Christ in the Resurrection Christ himself when he was risen did Ascend He was carried up into Heaven So shall it be with the Saints when they are raised up out of their beds of dust they shall be caught up into the Clouds they shall Ascend to meet their Lord. And this Ascention according to the Analogy of Scripture we may conceive shall be effected by a Three-fold medium 1. Medium The power of Christ Scil. 1. The Power of Christ 2. The Ministry of the Angels 3. The Spirituality of the Saints own bodies First the Ascention of the Saints in the Clouds shall be effected by the Power of Christ By the same power whereby he raised them out of their Graves will he lift them up unto Himself yea this taking them up is a branch of the Resurrection it is continuata Resurrectio as Divines say that Providence is continuata Creatio a Progressive Creation So I may call this Rapture of the Saints into the Air It is nothing else but a Progressive Resurrection the continuation and perfection of the Resurrection the proper work also of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life It is the second part of the Resurrection without which the first would differ little from the state of the Dead In vain should the Saints be raised out of the dust if being raised Christ should leave them at a distance from Him and the Resurrection of the Saints themselves would look too like the Resurrection of the Wicked a Punishment rather than a Blâ—ss Separation from Christ being half yea the worst half of Hell though even there the damned have a kind of Life Surely the Children of the Refurrection might have too real occasion to weep Absoloms dissembling complaint to his abused Father Why am I come from Geshur if I may not see the Kings face Why are we brought up out of the Grave if we may not enjoy the Lamb's presence But the Amen the faithful and true Witness cannot be worse than his word He spake it at his Departure to his Disciples and he will make it good at his Return I will come again and receive you to my self that Joh. 14.3 where I am there you may be also In order therefore to the accomplishment of this Promise the first work the Lord Jesus will do at his Coming in his Kingdom after he hath awakened his Spouse out of her sleep will be to lift her up unto Himself now sitting upon his triumphant Throne to Judg both the Quick and Dead This is the first Receiving of them unto Himself Christ his first receiving of the Saints to Himself Joh. 12.32 his drawing of them up unto Him according to his own phrase in the days of his flesh And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me All men i. e. All my Redeemed ones which promise although the Spirit expounds it upon his being lifted up upon the Cross verse 33. This he spake signifying what death he should dye Yet we may not without warrant extend it also to his glorious Exaltation in the great Day of his Judging the World this being both the design and reward of his Passion to the intent that whom he drew to Himself by the merit of his Cross he might also actually draw unto Himself by the power of his Resurrection and Ascention I will draw all men unto me or I will attract unto me As the Loadstone draweth the mettal unto it self by its magnetick vertue or as the Sun draweth up the vapours of the Earth by its attractive beams so will the Lord Jesus Christ that Sun of Righteousness when his glory shall arise upon the world with healing under his wings draw all his Saints unto Himself by the soveraign attractive influence of that mysterious Union between Himself and his Members This is the first and great Medium of the Saints Ascension the Power of Christ A second Medium is the Ministry of the Angels Second Medium the Ministry of the Angels Heb. 1. Ult. for which though we have not certainty of demonstration to compel belief yet we want not more than bare probability of argument to invite Assent For if it be in the Commission of the Angels to be Ministring Spirits for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation we have no reason to imagine their Commission should expire until the time when the Saints shall be actually and safely invested into their long-expected Inheritance And therefore if they were the Saints Life-guard in the state of their defilement and infirmity to bear them up in their hands lest at any time they should dash their foot against a stone How much more ready and active now in the Saints Virgin-state of Purity and Perfection will the Angels be to be their Convoy to conduct them in their Ascention going now to meet the Lamb Sure we are the Lord Jesus though he be the Resurrection and the Life yet is pleased to make much use of the Ministry of the Angels about the Resurrection of the Godly They shall sound the first Trump at the sounding whereof the Dead do rise They gather the Elect together from the four Corners of the Earth and sever the Wicked from them the Tares and all things that offend and them which work Iniquity are by them bound up in bundles and cast into the fire All this is the Angels Office not because our Lord could not with equal facility do it Himself Why should we think the service of the Angels should cease until the whole Scene of the Resurrection be finished Yea to determine our dubious thoughts we hear the Lord of the Harvest giving charge to his Reapers which are none but Angels not only to reap the Wheat but to carry-in
be put upon him for the recompencing of the ignominy and abasement of his first coming in the flesh I come now to the ends of this Meeting And the ends why the Saints ascend to meet Christ in the Air we may conceive to be such as these 1. Their publick Reception and owning by Christ 2. Their full and perfect Justification 3. The Consummation of their unptial Contract 4. Their Consession or Sitting together with Christ in the Judgment 5. Their compleat and sinal Benediction or blessed Sentence 6. Their solemn and triumphant Attondance on the Judg going to take possession of the Kingdom These or the like ends of the Saints meeting with the Lord in the Air are not obscurely hinted to us in Scripture The first is Their publick reception and owning by Christ come now to judge the world The Elect Angels having gathered together the Elect Saints according to the Commission upon which they were sent forth Go ye and gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and having carried them up into the Air where the Judge stayeth for them for he will do nothing until they come I say their Angels shall now present them before Him in the rich and glorious attire of their now perfected Resurrection wherein their once vile bodies are now made like to Christ his glorious body With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought into the King's presence and the first publick Act which the King shall do is solemnly to receive them Come ye blessed of my Father and embraceing them in his armes and kissing them as it were as Joseph once did his Brethren in the open view of Heaven and Earth he will solemnly own them and acknowledg them and that First in their Persons and Relation unto himself A Prerogative long-before promised Mal. 3.17 Christ will own the Saints 1. In their persons They shall be mine when I make up my Jewels That is the very work which Christ is now come about to make up his Jewels to lay them up in their Heavenly Cabinet And the first word he will speak is These are mine he appropriates them for his own they be mine my Jewels my Gems my * Sâ—gullah precious Treasure As the Saints have not been ashamed of Christ before men so neither will Christ now be ashamed of them before his Father Luk 9 Heb. 1.11 2 In their Relations and all his mighty Angels he will not be ashamed to call them Brethren yea he will appropriate them as his Children a Seed given him of his Father as the great reward of is Passion saying These be the Children which God hath given me Ver. 13. my Sons and my Daughters who have served me thus he owns them in their Relations Secondly 3. In their Duâ—ies and attendance He will own and acknowledg all the holy duties publick and private which they have done in obedience to his Commands their hearing praying fasting and afflicting their Souls for their own sins and for other mens sins their fearing of God and laying to heart the reproaches of Religion and Blasphemies cast upon his Name their mutual holy conferences Mal. 3.16 one with another c. All these were written in a book of Remembrance of old and laid up before him that they might never be forgotten and now the Book shall be brought forth and read in the Audience of the world for their greater honour even the very secret duties which they have performed in their Closets when no eye saw them but God's even they shall be proclaimed in the Audience of this Universal Assembly at the last day Mat 6.6 Thy Father which saw in secret will now reward thee openly not a prayer but it was filed up not a sigh Psal 56.8 nor groan but it is booked not a tear but is botled not an holy ejaculation but was upon Record and shall be now publickly produced and acknowledged I know your Works and your Labour and your Charity and your Service Rev. 2.19 and your last Works to be more then the first c. Thirdly 4. In their fidelity and perseverance Rev. 2 13. Jesus Christ at that day will own the fidelity of his Saints their constancy and perseverance in their holy Profession and confess them before all the world I know your Works and where you have dwelt even where Satan's seat was and you have held fast my Name Chap. 2.10 and have not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. were my faithful Martyrs who were slain among you where Satan dwelleth behold to you who have been faithful to the death do I now give a Crown of Life To you who have overcome do I grant to sit with me in my Throne Chap. 3.21 as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 5 In their sufferings Fourthly He will own and acknowledg the Saints in their sufferings for his sake All the reproaches hard speeches * Lâ—quntur lapides incivilities abuses scandals persecutions which ever they sustained in their names persons lively-hoods and lives upon Christ's and the Gospels account he will acknowledg and bespeak them in some such language as this Isa 66.7 Your Brethren which hated you that cast you out for my names sake said * So mocking God and deriding the Godly for their confidence in God Luk. 22.28 29 30. 6. In all the Offices of love done to him or his Let the Lord be glorified but now I appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Or as he once encouraged his Disciples in the days of his flesh You are they which have continued with me in my temptations and behold I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome c. Fifthly and lastly The Lord Jesus will own all the Services and Offices of Love done to Himself or to any of his Members Cloathing Feeding Visiting them when Sick coming to them when in Prison He will acknowledge all before Heaven and Earth yea what they themselves have forgotten never thought-worthy of their own notice much less of Christ's notice Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c Observe by the way the difference between Saints and Shadows Hypocrites can boast of what they never truly did they can own what God will disown We have fasted say they nay saith God In the day of your fast ye find pleasure ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness c. We have say they afflicted our Soul no such thing saith God Ye have bowed down the head like a bul-rush for a day ye have spread Sack-cloath and Ashes under you Is this a Fast will you call this Soul-afflicting if you will I will not I but now
bondage come hither I say and set your feet upon the neck of this King of terrors and fear not to make that triumphant challenge of the Apostle Oh death 1 Cor. 15.55 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Death is swallowed up in victory and being conquered serves to that high and honourable end scil to be the Saints Vsher of State to bring them into the presence of the King of glory to behold his face and to hear his wisdom from thenceforth for ever to be with the Lord Death serves the Saints now for no use but to kill mortality and to extinguish corruption This corruptible must put on incorruption ver 33. and this mortal must put on immortality i. e. We shall ever be with the Lord a in perfect incorruptible state of glory and this must be effected by means of death Oh what were ten thousand deaths ushering in the Soul into so much glory The glimmering presence of God with a believer here below may conquer the fear of death Psal 23.3 Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me How much more may the hope of a full fruition of God in glory deliver the Saints from the bondage of fear Ever with the Lord This puts Lillies and Roses into the ghastly face of Death and makes the King of terrors to out-shine Solomon in all his glory Ever with the Lord this makes death not only tolerable but amiable desirable For we know 2 Cor. 5.1 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 and for this we groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house ver 2. which is from heaven For in this we groan i. e. in this tabernacle for this is earthly earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven the reason is because that house is eternal in the heaven A Saint looks out of the windows of this earthly Tabernacle and cryeth out as the Mother of Sisera Why stay the wheels of his Chariot thus long When shall I be carried to those eternal Mansions where I shall ever be with my Lord and Bridegroom Is any thing sweeter than life Yes death to a believer That of Solomon holds best in this case the day of death is better than the day of birth It is transcendently so to a Child of God who is conveighed by death into his Fathers presence where he shall dwell for ever The passage is dark Psal 16.1 but it shall be quick and speedy Thou wilt shew me the path of life the path of life lieth through the grave but Christ hath gone it already and will take the believer by the hand and lead him through it into the Presence-chamber of the King of glory where he shall hear the Bridegrooms voice and his joy shall be fulfilled then tremble thou not believer at the approach of death but go forth and meet him with this friendly salutation Come in thou blessed of the Lord Art thou come to fetch me to my Father Welcome death thou art my best friend next to Jesus Christ Death is only my passage into a blessed eternity Death is Joseph's Chariot not to carry the Saints down into Egypt but up into Canaan and how quickly doth he carry a believer thither It is but winking and he is at home as soon as the eye of the body is closed here the eye of the soul is open there O blessed vision to behold at once all the glories of eternity Say then with Jacob Jesus my Lord and Redeemer is yet alive and seated on the Throne at the right hand of the Majesty on high there proclaiming in the cars of all his trembling followers Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keys of hell and death Fear not O thou believer to say with Jacob I will go and see him not before I dye but I will dye that I may go and see him Death is but the flames that must singe asunder the cords of thy mortality the hand that shall open the Cage that thy soul may get loose and take her flight for the Mountain of Spices the glorious immortality and liberty of the Sons of God Be of good chear Believers thou shalt dye but once and then ever be with the Lord with whom is the fountain of life life bubbling up unto all eternity The damned are alwayes dying repeating death every moment their flames only serve them to read over the black lines of death which have neither Full-point or Comma But death enters not into the borders of the heavenly Canaan they say there is no Spider in Ireland it is certain there is no putrid matter in heaven to breed the vermin of mortality in heaven only death cannot live when thou dyest thou shalt rise again and dye no more but death shall dye and shall rise no more thy grave shall be the eternal grave of death It is appointed for all men once to dye and for believers to dye but once Do but clear up thine interest in the death of Christ and thou mayest bid farewell to the fear of death for ever for the worst thing that death can do to thee is thee best thing that can be done for thee even to guide thy poor straying soul home to thy Fathers house and so shalt thou ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words Lastly It may teach us how to prize Christ Vse 6 that triumphant Grace a Grace that hath eternity stampt upon it it out-lives Faith for faith gives way to vision and it doth out-last hope for hope is swallowed up in fruition what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Whether there be prophesies they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away but charity never fails but as long as God lives it lives for God is love and they that love dwell in God and God in them I have finished I cannot say perfected the main work intended seil the opening of the ten words or Arguments of Comfort here laid down in this model or platform by the Holy Ghost as so many soveraign Cordials to revive disconsolate and fainting Christians over the death of their hopeful Relations with the several improvements which each word by it self may afford unto us But before I do Manum de tabula tollere dismiss this discourse I do observe divers useful Corollaries and Instructions lye couched in the general improvement of these words Comforting one another which will serve as so many branches of information which without guilt I cannot omit and they are ten 1. Several branches of Information arising from this general exhortation Comfort one another 1. Branch of Information Sorrow
more precious than a Ruby and who art thou that thou shouldst refuse Cordials from Heaven made of the blood of Christ Jewels taken out of Gods own Cabinet Away away Christian with Rachels peevishness and Jonas his passion which serve for nothing but to turn sorrow into sin I do well to be angry doth ill become meekness of Christs Spouse say rather I will bear the indignation of the Lord Mic. 7.9 because I have sinned against him What if God hath given thee a bitter potion he comes now to comfort thee he offers thee a sovereign Cordial Oh spill it not upon the ground as a vile thing nor say in thy passion Let God keep his Cordials to himself and so as it were take revenge on God for afflicting thee Oh lay thine hand upon thy mouth yea put thy mouth in the dust that it may not cause thy flesh to sin Thou art a man or woman of sorrows it were thy wisdom as well as thy duty to look out for some spiritual Cordials and not to reject soul refreshment when it is offered say not to thy comforters with the Prophet Isaiah Look away from me Isai 22.4 I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me and thy case will not bear it He was weeping the Churches tears thou art poring over a private personal trial consider in so doing thou art but preparing new causes of sorrow for thine own soul and when thou hast done sorrowing for thy loss thou wilt begin anew to sorrow for thy sin in so sorrowing Heark soul Ever be with the Lord. Is not there a word that may wipe away all tears from thine eyes even on this side heaven In the next place 8. Branch of Information hence we gather this sad truth scil That there is not a word of comfort belonging to wicked men when they die nor while they live in sin Comfort one another none other but one another not the ungodly they and their parasites may flatter themselves and one another but there is not one word of comfort belonging to them of all those Rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand not one drop for a Dives Of all those treasures of glory not one mite for an Esau Indeed pity belongs to wicked men and reproof belongs to them Reprove them rather Ephes 5.11 and counsel belongs to them Let the wicked forsake his wickedness and expostulation belongs to them Why will ye die c. And prayer belongs to them Father forgive them c. But comfort doth not belong to them Consolation is none of their portion in the state wherein they are As there is no peace to the wicked so consequently no comfort for them Indeed a wicked man hath his portion but 't is a dreadful one Psal 11.6 Vpon the wicked shall the Lord rain snares fire and brimstone alluding to the destruction of Sodom this shall be the portion of their cup these fiery ingredients shall be put into their cup after the delicious draughts of sinful pleasures this was Dives his case Luke 16.23 24 c. after his delicate fare the Devils snap dragon draughts of flaming fire was his portion for ever and this is all the comfort that is to be administred to them Isai 3.11 Say thou to the wicked it shall be ill with him They shall be cast into utter darkness with the Devil and his Angels for ever c. These are their words of comfort they are ministers of hell who have any better words of comfort for wicked men while wicked for the Devil would have them dance about the snare till their foot be taken in his gin They that can cry peace peace when there is no peace are the Devils Factors who bring him in the greatest revenues to his Kingdom But alas how shall a wicked man be comforted His death is not a sleep but death indeed Rev. 6.8 death armed with all its horrors death with its sting which is sin death with hell at the heels of it death with the wrath of God and death with the loss of eternal life Indeed a wicked man shall rise again but it is that he may have the more solemn trial and more tremendous sentence from the Judge in the face of heaven and earth and who can comfort him that doth truly represent his condition to him How much then are we concerned to labour to be such as may have comforters in our own death 9. Branch of Information and leave matter of comfort to our surviving friends It is a duty incumbent on us to make our death as comfortable to our selves and our godly friends as may be And how is that done but in a word to get an interest in Christ Scripture evidence of that interest and the Seal of the Spirit to those evidences The death of some persons is exceeding dreadful not only to themselves but to standers by this is the supposed reason of that lamentable ingemination of David Oh my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom q. d. Absalom dyed in his rebellion I fear he is fallen into a worse hand than Joabs Oh that my death might have prevented so dreadful a miscarriage Oh Absalom would God I had dyed for thee But alas my brethren it is not freedom from such parricidious villanies no nor all the moral innocence in the world nor civil righteousness in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the altitude of it that can fill a dying Saint with joy or the surviving godly Mourners with comfort whatever blaze unregenerate persons make in the world they go out like a stinking snuffe but a Saint leaves a persume behind him he embalms his own death he leaves every one of his weeping friends a Legacy of hope concerning his eternal state he sets up a lustre in the House of mourning brighter than those were with which Great mens Hearses are watched and in an instant turneth it into a House of rejoycing he is entered into glory and hath left behind him the prints of his feet to guide us thither and being dead yet speaks to us as Christ to Mary Magdalene Why weepest thou The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Study therefore I say an interest in Christ that while you are ravished with the joyes of Heaven you may leave comfort on Earth for your godly Relations Carnal friends are satisfied with a negative holiness for themselves or for their Relations that dye before them to be better than the worst is evidence enough to them of a blessed state or whatever their life hath been put but in a little dead repentance into the premises they will put heaven into the conclusion Oh say they he is happy he is in heaven sure enough But Christians whose eyes have been opened to look into the horror of the bottomless pit out of which free grace hath redeemed the Saints the purity of the Gospel rule and the glory
MOVNT PISGAH OR A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN BEING An Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians from the 13 th verse to the end of the Chapter Divided into Three Parts By THO. CASE Somtimes Student in Christ-Church Oxon and Minister of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Naz. Orat. LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Dorman Newman at the Chirurgions Arms in Little-Brittain near the Lame-Hospital 1670. TO THE Honourable and his much Honoured Son-in-Law Sr. ROBERT BOOTH Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas in Ireland Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Sir THese Meditations presented to you were first intended for a diversion to your and my sorrrow Conceived by the death of that Excellent Child your First-born your Benjamin but his Precious Mother's Ben-oni for she brought him forth not with the hazard only but with the loss of her own Life his Birth was her Death from which very moment of time You were pleased to concredit his Education to his tender Grand-Mother your Pious Mother and my Self a Depositum than which there could nothing have been more Sacred to us in the world I am sure we were as tender of it as of our own Lives yea verily our Lives were bound up in the Child's Life â—er 31.20 He was indeed Natus deliciarum a Delectable Child in whom Nature and Grace seemed to be at a strife which should excel in her workmanship and as he grew in age so he grew in sweetness of disposition and in all Natural and Moral Endowments of which his Age was capable yea he out-grew his Age and was alwayes before-hand with his Education Imbibing instruction faster then we durst rationally infuse it for fear of hurting the tender Vessel So that he seemed to be a Man before his Childhood was expired As many Loved him as knew him and were in dispute with themselves whether such Maturity did Prophesie an Eximious Life or an Immature Death I must confess whether my infirmity or no I know not I was often offended at the mention of the latter as too boldly intrenching upon God's Prerogative But such it seems was the Divine Decree so it proved His work was done betimes and ours about him afore we thought of it and while we said of him in our hearts as once Lamech said of his Son Noah Gen. 5.29 This Child shall Comfort us he shall live with us God said Nay he shall leave you and shall live with me for before he was Eleaven years old God snatch't him out of our Tuition and removed him into an Higher Form where he should learn no more by the sight of the eye and hearing of the ear which are subject to mistake but by clear and perfect Vision where he knows more than we could teach him yea able to teach us what we are not capable to understand while we see but in a glass darkly he is seeing Face to Face Oh could I but write what he is able to dictate concerning the Facial Vision which I am now with fear and trembling but peeping into what a rare Exposition should I publish to the world upon the present Context before us such as Eye never Read nor Ear ever Heard nor can ever enter into the heart of man until we enter into that Light where he is where his intellectual Eye is married to the Sun of Righteousness and his naked will is swimming and bathing it self in Rivers of pleasures for ever This may be indeed what these papers wished to be and that is all a perfumed Handkerchief to wipe off tears from your eyes and fill your Soul with joy Your loss is his infinite gain It was a satisfaction good enough for an Ethnic who when one brought him the tidings of his Eldest Son's death was able to reply Scio me genuisse mortalem Your Comfort may express it self in a higher straine Scio me genuisse Immortalem for though Nature did not make him Immortal by his Generation Grace hath made him Immortal by his Regeneration So that all that you and I have to do is but to breathe after that Perfection of which through Grace I am humbly confident he is already possest Let us so run that we may obtain As for my self so many deaths have been rushing in upon me deep calling unto deep as have not only retarded the birth of these Conceptions but threatned their burial in the same Womb which Conceived them which is the just cause they have stuck so long in the Birth But since it hath pleased the Living God to let me live to see the travail of my Soul though miserably mangled in the Birth by unskilful hands Such as they are Dear Son I dedicate them to your Name to be as an Absolom's-Pillar until God may raise up a Living-Monument in the room of that which he hath removed And because this may be too weak and obscure let me provoke you Sir to erect to your self a Monument that may be worthy of you Let your own Life be a Name to you when you are dead a Name better than of Sons and Daughters by filling that Honourable Station wherein God hath fixed you and all your other Relations with such Fruitfulness Wisdome and Fidelity that all that know you may rise up and call you blessed yea that your Name may be as a sweet Perfume to Posterity Live your own Life and your Son 's too As for me I cannot long Survive having so often received in my selfe the Sentence of Death 2 Cor. 1.9 Psal 90.10 I have lived already one full Age of man and am nowin the third year of my LABOVR AND SORROW and it is little I can do for God I must Decrease but may you Increase yet pray for me that I may live much in a little time and that my self and your Aged Mother may like those Trees of God Psal 92.14 15. bring forth more fruit in old age then in the beginning to shew that the Lord is upright c. Farewell Honoured Son and God All-Mighty make you amends for the loane which you have lent to God if not in the Stream yet in the Fountain He Bless you and make you a Blessing So prayeth Your Faithful and most Affectionate Father-in-Law THOMAS CASE To my Worthy Son-in-Law WILLIAM HAWES Dr. in Physick AND To M ris ELIZABETH HAWES his Vertuous Consort Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Son and Daughter IT is not certainly without some special design of Providence that these Meditations which were conceived upon the death of your hopeful Nephew the only Son of your Elder Brother Sir Robert Booth now in Ireland should not by reason of those distempers which have ever since pursued me uncessantly as you to your trouble know be able to come to the Birth until this time when our sorrows are doubled in the death of your precious Child Martin Hawes your First-born Possibly as we may rationally
of us all Jesus Christ was the Center in whom the sins of all the Elect of God did meet and unite together to make Him as it were the common sinner For God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him and under the insupportable burthen of our sin he swet and wept and bled and groaned and gave up the Ghost Behold Rom. 8.31 So God the Father Loved us that he spared not his own Son but delivered him up to the death for us all and shall we think much to give up the dearest Treasures of our blood in death to Him So much did God the Son love us that He died for love of us he died the first death that we might not die the second death he died for us that we might live with him And shall we count our lives or the lives of our dearest Relations too dear for him especially when no such advantage can accrue to the Lord Jesus by our death as did accrue to us by his death also in as much as neither we nor ours are in any capacity to reap the fruit and advantage of his death until we dye also and the sooner we dye the sooner shall we reap those fruits Behold God's First-borne was laid in the Sepulchre and shall we think God deals hardly with us if we follow our first-born to the Grave and leave them there till our Lord himself come to awaken them Especially since therefore Jesus died and was buried that he might sanctifie death to us by his death and by his being buried might perfume the Grave and make it a sweet Dormitory or bed of spices for his members to rest in until the Morning of the Resurrection Oh Christians Let us comfort our selves and one another with these words also Jesus dyed The fourth word is yet more Cordial A fourth word of Comfort and that is although Jesus dyed yet He rose again He died indeed but he rose again from the dead God suffered his dear Son to be laid in the Sepulchre but he did not leave him there nor suffer any taint of Corruption to seize upon his precious Body And to that end Christ made hast to rise again out of the Grave he rose the third day and that very early in the Morning saith the Text as soon as ever it could be called day The Alarm no sooner went off as it were but the Lord Jesus did lift up his Royal head and put on his Glorious Apparel and came forth out of his Grave as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber in State and Triumph And this was the Cordial which our Lord himself took before his passion Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Psal 16.10 neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth c. This was his Triumphant Song And it may be ours as well as his yea therefore ours because his whether in reference to our selves or to our gratious Relations For therefore was not Christ left in Hell i. e. in the state of the dead that he might lift up us also out of the pit and therefore his body saw i. e. sustained no corruption or putrefaction no not for the least particle of time that our mortal bodies might not inherit Rottenness and Oblivion in the dust for ever And indeed in this phrase in the Text Jesus arose again there be three things implied which interest every believer in this Triumph of Christs Resurrection c. Jesus rose again implieth three things First Power Secondly Right Thirdly Office First 1st Power 〈◊〉 Jesus Rose again it implieth Christs power Viz. That Jesus Christ rose by his own power It is not said Jesus was raised which might have spoken Him passive onely in his Resurrection but Jesus rose which speaketh Him active namely that he rose as a Conquerour by his own strength as Himself professeth I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again Joh 10.18 What power that was Rom. 1.4 will tell us declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead It is true it is elsewhere said that Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 And likewise that he was quickned by the Spirit Pet. 3.18 To shew that neither the Father nor the Holy Ghost were excluded from a joynt share and concurrence in his Resurrection but here as elsewhere it is said also that Christ rose to shew that he was not merely passive in his Resurrection as the Children of the Resurrection are but that he rose also by the mighty power that was seated in his own Royal person The divine Nature in Christ to which the humane nature was personally united Alteram Christi naturam intelligamus nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbi incarnati potentiâ was that Spirit of Holiness by which the Lord Jesus did rise Triumphantly from the dead In the same language speaks another Apostle he was put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit i.e. by the Divine essence which was in Christ Death and the Grave had swallowed a morsel which they could not keep but as the Whale when it had swallowed Jonas in this the Type of Christ was forced to vomit him up again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being impossible Christ should be holden by death The power of the word incarnate loosed or dissolved the bonds of Death as a thread of Tow is broken when it is touched with the fire Yea Sampson-like herein also another type of his Jesus Christ did break in sunder the bars of the Grave and carried away the Gates of death upon his shoulders making a shew of them openly Thus Jesus rose again as a Conquerour by his own power and this is our Triumph and Rejoycing For surely He that thus raised up himself can raise up us also and will indeed raise us up by the same power Phil 3 21. whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself Secondly Jesus rose again it implieth his Office Second Office he rose as a Jesus a Saviour the Mediator of our peace who having finished the work he came about namely to satisfie divine Justice and to bring in everlasting Rightcousness so making peace by the blood of his Cross God the Father sent a publique Officer from Heaven to open the Prison doores Math. 28.2 an Angel to rool away the stone from the mouth of the Sepulchre thereby proclaiming to all the world that the debt was paid and that God had received full satisfaction for the sins of the Elect saying as it were Deliver him for I have received a Ransom This is another ground of our Triumph that Jesus rose that is he rose as our Jesus our Saviour and so by dying hath
delivered us from death and from him Heb. 2.14 1 Thes 1.10 that had the power of death which is the Devil Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come Thirdly Jesus rose again it implieth his right to us 3ly His right and interest and interest in us He rose as our Jesus i. e. as a publick Head in whom all believers are considered Jesus Christ as he died not in a private capacity for he had no sin of his own Goel in the Hebr. signifies both a Redeemer and the next of Kin because the right of Redemption belonged to the next of Kin. for which death might have any dominion over him so neither did he rise again in a private capacity but in a publick capacity as he was our Goel our next of kin unto whom the right of Redemption did belong He rose as our sponsor and surety yea as our Husband and Bridegroom having espoused us to himself on the Cross He rose as the Captain of our Salvation the publick Head and Representative of all the Elect of God And this consideration layeth another foundation for our Triumph in Christ his Resurrection Christs Resurrection our Triumph On a two sold accompt 1. Account all the Saints are risen in Christ already judicially legally And that upon a twofold account 1. In as much as Christ being a publique person all the Saints of God are risen already in Christs Resurrection that is to say judicially legally as in their Sponsor and in their stead In the sense of the Law what the sponsor or surety doth the principle debtor is said to do also when the surety is laid in prison the principle is laid in prison also when the surety payeth the debt the principle is accounted as if he had paid the debt himself when the surety is discharged the debtor is discharged also because in the sence of the Law the principle and surety are but one person Thus the Lord Jesus as our Sponsor and Representative having paid the debt we are reputed as if we had paid it our selves he being discharged we are discharged he rising from the dead we also rise in him and with him So speak the Scriptures Dead with Christ Râ—m 66. Ephes 2.5 Quickned together with Christ raised up together and made to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Whatsoever he doth as our Mediator we are said to do the same in a juridical sence Hence our Blessed Saviour calls Himself Iohn 11.25 the Resurrection I am the Resurrection and the Life c. He doth not say egoresuscito c. It is Tertullian his observation but ego sum Resurrectio not I raise the Dead but I am the Resurrection to shew that as in Adam all dye so in Christ the second Adam all his spiritual seed shall be made alive that as the first Adam was puteus mortis a pit of sin and death to all his natural posterity so the second Adam is fons vitae a Well-spring of Righteousness Life to all his believing seed So again He saith not I give Life but I am the Life to shew that it is but one and the same Life which Christ and Believers Live Col. 3.3 that his Life he being their Representative is their Life When Christ who is our Life c. This is a word of Comfort indeed The Saints of God are risen already in Christ their Head those precious pieces of beauty and delight the loss of whom we lament with brinish tears and sighs dipt in blood they are risen they are not here they are quickned together with Christ raised up together and made to sit together with Christ in Heavenly places I say in a forensical or Court-sence reputed so in Christ their Head and Surety This is much but this is not all there is yet a second accompt and that is Secondly Second Accompt The Saints shall use with Christ really The Saints shall arise again in their own persons Jesus his rising again gives us infallible assurance of their and our future Resurrection As they are risen with Christ legally so they shall rise with Christ really and personally God in the Resurrection of Christ hath given to the world an instance and a pledge of the Saints Resurrection in the last day There is an inseparable connexion between the Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection of the Saints and it is fourfold scil A Connexion of 1. Merit A sour-fold Connexion between Christ's Resurrection and the Saints Resurrection c 1. Connex of Merit 2. Influence 3. Design 4. Union The first Connexion that is between Christ's Resurrection and the Saints Resurrection is a Connexion of Merit The Lord Jesus by his Death purchased both the Persons and the Priviledges of the Elect of God Rom. 14.9 To this end Christ both died and rose again that he might be the Lord both of the dead and the living In the former verse the Apostle asserts the absolute dominion which the Lord Jesus hath over us whether we live or dye we are the Lords Here he tells us what right or title that is whereby he holds that dominion scil by the right of purchase For this end Christ both died and rose and revived Rose and Revived that is rising again he did revive by his death he merited of the Father that both in death and in life both dying and rising again he might dispose of the Saints to his own advantage Why now the Lord Jesus having bought his Elect at so dear a rate if the Saints should not rise again he should lose his purchase there were no more Merit in the death of Christ than in the death of any of the Sons of Adam and even in this respect Christ had died in vain and risen in vain A second Connexion between Christs Resurrection 2 Connexion of Influence and the Resurrection of Believers is a Connexion of Power and Influence There is power in the Resurrection of Christ for the quickning of the dead Psal 110.2 This is that which the Psalmist calleth the dew of Christs Youth from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy Youth In the Hebrew it is more than the dew of the morning thou shalt have the dew of thy Youth The Resurrection of Christ is called his Youth wherein he did as it were spring and grow forth again and the quickening influence of his Resurrection is compared to the morning dew to shew that what vertue there is in the dew of the morning to cause the languishing plants of the Earth to revive and flourish that and much more power and efficacy there is in the Resurrection of Jesus to quicken and revive all his Saints after they have lyen all the night of their separated state in the Grave So the Prophet Isaiah interprets it in words at length Isa 26.19 thy dew is as the dew of herbs to what end it follows and the Earth shall
cast forth her dead The dead shall arise by vertue of this dew the warm animating influence of Christs Resurrection Hence it is as I have hinted before that our Lord calls himself the Resurrection and the Life namely to intimate to us that by the same spirit of holiness whereby he raised himself from the dead he will also quicken their mortal bodies This is a second Connexion which inseparably links in the Resurrection of the Saints with the Resurrection of Christ For surely were it not so the Resurrection of Jesus Christ would signifie no more than the Resurrection of Lazarus or any other of the Saints mentioned Math. 27.52 53. Yea the Resurrection of Christ would not be of so great vertue and influence as the dry bones of the Prophet the very touch whereof raised the dead man 2 King 12.21 which was cast into his Grave Thirdly There is between the Resurrection of Christ Third Connexion of Design and the Resurrection of the Saints at the last day a Connexion of Design The Lord Jesus had a design upon the Saints in his rising again from the Dead and what that was he tells us in the last passionate prayer before his passion John 17.24 Father I will that all those whom thou hast given me be with me that where I am they might be also Therefore Christ arose and ascended that he might come again and awake them out of their Graves and take them home to himself into Mansions of Glory So he comforted his Disciples before his departure Joh. 14.3 If I go and prepare a place for you I will come and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Christ counts not himself full Eph. 1.23 The Head is not compleat without the Members Although I thus sence the words yet I would not be thought to exclude every other meaning as knowing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well quod impletur as quod implet till he hath all his Members with him therefore is the Church called the fullness of him that filleth all things marke it Christ is the fulness of all things and yet the Church is called the fulness of Christ how so Christ is the fulness of the Church as the Head is the fulness of the Members supplying them with Life and Influence and the Church is the fulness of Christ as the Members are the fulness of the Head making of it a compleat and perfect man Christ is the fulness of the Church for internal animation and the Church is the fulness of Christ for external consummation The Church is Christs outward not inward fulness see Jeans on Colos 1.19 page 19. This is then a third inseparable Connexion between Jesus rising again from the Dead and the Saints rising again because without this Christ should loose the very plot and project of his own Resurrection and be defective even in his state of Glory as an Head without his Members This must not be it cannot be And this casts us upon the fourth Connexion Fourth Connexion of Vnion before we are aware of it sc A Connexion of Vnion The Connexion which is between Christ his Resurrection and the Saints Resurrection is that very Connexion which is between him and them namely the Union which is between the Head and Members The wicked rise not by vertue of Christs Resurrection there being no such Vnion between Christ them they are raised by a general power of Christ as a Judge Christ is the Head Eph. 1.22 and the Saints are the Members of his body v. 23. his Mystical body It would not be proper here to discourse largely concerning the nature of this Vnion especially in as much as I shall have occasion to meet with it again in the process of this discourse sufficient to my design it is to shew you how this spiritual Vnion that is between Christ and Believers is one of the * In Nature we see that the Winter Trees which seem to be dead revive again in the Spring because the Body Armes and Graines of the Tree are joyned to the Root where the Sap lies all the Winter and by means of its Conjunction it conveys vegetation to all parts of the Tree Even so our life is hid with Christ in God And in the day of the Resurrection by reason of this mystical Conjunction Divine and quickening Vertue shall stream from Christ to his Elect and cause them to rise again c. Foundations whence the Resurrection of the Saints is necessarily inferr'd upon the Resurrection of Christ himself For if the Head be risen the Members cannot be long behind witness the Word of Christ to his Disciples and in them to all Believers a word more precious than the whole Creation Because I live ye shall live also The Resurrection of the Saints is bound up in the Resurrection of Christ as the effect is bound up in the cause because I live you shall live because Jesus rose again Saints shall rise again Christ is our life and therefore when Christ shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Can the cause be without the effect can the Head live and the Members remain dead Yea can the Saints life live and they themselves continue in a state of death This is an happy contradiction a blessed impossibility Oh write this comfortable word upon your hearts Christians Christ is our life Christ is your Life and the Life of your Christian Relations and as sure as Christ as risen they shall rise and because he lives those Members of his for whom you weep and bleed as dead shall live also with him Surely if the Devil and all the powers of darkness were not able to keep Christ in the Grave neither shall they be able to hold one of his Members there for ever Hence you shall find the holy Apostle disputing from the Resurrection of Christ to the Resurrection of Christians If Christ rose from the Dead 1 Cor. 15.12 how say some that there is no Resurrection of the Dead and back again from the Resurrection of Christians ver 13. to the Resurrection of Christ if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then Christ is not risen Indeed the form of words is Negative but the sense is Affirmative and for the greater assurance it is repeated over and over in the following verses backward and forward as Convertibles grant one and ye grant the other deny one and ye deny the other And the result is this But now is Christ risen from the Dead ver 20. and become the first Fruits of them that sleep Christ is risen Christ rose as the first fruits in which the whole Harvest is considered and risen as our first Fruits as a pledge and part of the whole Harvest for if the first Fruits be holy the Lump is also holy if the first Fruits be laid up safe in Gods Barns the whole Harvest shall in due time be
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
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
Rags of mortality before they put on the Robes of Glory and this must be done Partly that the Statute of Heaven may not be broken Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decreed wherein it is appointed for all men once to dye It was a Statute Law past in the Parliament of Heaven Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Heb. in dying thou shalt dye Christ himself as man submitted himself to this Statute and so must all the Sons and Daughters of Adam they must dye either literally or analogically Death makes a change in some and this change is a death in others a death to mortality and a death to corruption Partly that hereby they may also be made partakers of the Resurrection Our Saviour's prediction of the Resurrection comprehends all the Saints of God and the living Saints at that day can by no other means be counted the Children of the Resurrection than as they are begotten again as it were by this mysterious and ineffable change Math. 19.28 whence possibly it is called the Regeneration because all the Elect of God shall then begin to live their new perfect life all over in their bodies and Souls both the quick and the dead From these Premises we draw this Conclusion c. That our Apostle here doth not start any new doctrine of his own or as * 1 Cor. 7.12 somewhere he doth deliver his own judgment as an holy knowing man and not as one infallibly inspired from above but he doth expound Christ unto us and gives us the sense of His words who was both the Truth and the Resurrection So that the doctrine here laid down as it is a word of exceeding comfort to dying Saints and to their surviving Relations Non primi extitimus Resurrectionis testâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here is a consideration which may adde great weight to it and make it so much the stronger consolation in as much as it hath the stamp and sanction of Christ's own Authority Christ himself hath made assidavit to it we have the word of him that cannot lye the Apostle being in this but Christs Interpreter From hence by the way we are informed of these two things Use of Inform. worth our notice First Vse 1 There is no sure and infallible foundation for our faith to stand upon but the word of God Thither therefore the Holy Ghost sends us Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle himself would not aver such a solemn truth as this is but from the mouth of Christ himself Uncertain Revelations dubitable Traditions Authority of the Church and all humane Testimony whatsoever is too weak a foundation to build our Faith upon in any Article of Religion Search the Scriptures for in them ye hope to have Eternal Life Jo. 5.39 Secondly We gather hence that Scripture-Inference Vse 2 is Scripture that is to say That which may be inferr'd from Scripture by natural and necessary consequence is to be received as the Scripture it self The word of God rightly interpreted is the word of God Thus our Lord himself Luk. 12.27 proves the Resurrection out of the old Testament by inference and deduition from the words which God spake to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he thence inferrs God being not the God of the dead but of the living that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in their better part sc their Souls and shall live again in their inferiour part sc their bodies So the holy Apostle here inferreth this comfortable truth that the dead Saints shall lose nothing by their not being found alive at Christs coming from Christ's own doctrine of the Resurrection in general And doubts not to honour it with this Title The Word of the Lord This I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Let the Ministers of the Gospel take heed how they Preach any doctrine opinion or practise 1 Caution to Ministers which cannot either in terminis or at least by just and necessary consequence be justified to be the word of God lest they incurre the brand and censure of false Prophets Jer. 29.9 And let Christians take heed how they reject any doctrine which is so evidenced 2 Caution to private Christians lest they be found to reject the Word of the Lord Jer. 8.9 I have done with the second branch of the seventh word of Comfort sc the Authority quoted for it save only that there is one scruple yet to be removed and that is Quest Why the Apostle in delivering this truth doth use this phrase we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord and not rather they which are alive for Did the Apostle indeed think that he himself should live to see Christ coming in glory to judg the quick and the dead Ans Certainly No for 1. Grotius aliter opinatur quem vide in loc arque etiam Bez. The event shews that that had been a mistaken presumption in him that day is not yet come and the Apostle is long since fallen asleep 2. We hear him Prophesying of his own dissolution and that as a thing hard by 2 Tim. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Gr. it is instant upon me See the Apostle was far from flattering himself with any such conceit of being one of them that should live and remain unto the coming of the Lord. What means the expression then Ans The holy Apostle divides all the Elect of God into two ranks sc 1. Such as are fallen asleep from the fall of the first Adam to the coming of the second or 2. Such as should survive and remain unto that day not making himself of the number of either the one or of the other but one of the whole number of Gods Elect some of whom should sleep some should live till Christ's last coming and when he saith we that are alive and remain it signifies no more but this in general such of us as are then alive shall not prevent such of us as are then asleep this is all he intends in this expression Beza and others spy out a mystery in this manner of speech Doct. as if hereby the Apostle would hint unto us the uncertainty of Christ's Coming Vult omnes suspensos tenere ne sibi tempus aliquod promittant that for ought that was revealed of that day Christ might come while some of that generation were superstites living upon the face of the earth If that doctrine be in the Text Vse Christ himself hath made the use of it Lanet ultimus dies ut expectetuâ— singulis ut fideles emnibus horis parati essent Math. 24.36 of that day and hour knoweth no man no not
Mountains Mountains of God A great fire 〈◊〉 fire of God Job 1.16 it may signifie a mighty Trump after the manner of the Hebrew phrase which useth to call works and wonders of unusual proportion works of God and wonders of God so the Trump of God i. e. a mighty Trump a voyce of more dreadful horror than all that went before But whether it be to be understood metaphorically or properly is questioned amongst Expositors Some understand it only metaphorically and in an Analogical sense signifying no more than the Vertue and Power of Christs Voyce and Proclamation summoning both the living and the dead to appear at his Tribunal But why we may not take it literally and in propriety of speech I see no reason so for the voyce of an audible Trump which shall be lowder than all the former And it may well be the same with that which the Apostle calls the last Trump this sounding last of all 1 Cor. 15.52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonora vocalissima tuba Bull. Numb 10.1.9 In quo specimen quoddam editum fuit hujus ultima populi Dei congregationis Id. or continuing longer than the former our Lord calls it The great sound of a Trumpet Thus are these three Summons distinct and each of them lowder and shriller than the former And it may allude to the manner of the calling together of the Jews to their publick worship and that possibly typical to this signifying thus much to the world that like as their Assemblies were summoned by the sound of Trumpets so the last and solemn day of judgment that great general Assembly of the Living and the Dead shall be summoned together by the sound of Trumpets from Heaven the vastest and most universal Assembly that ever was beheld by the eye of Creature But a clearer Type and Prophecy hereof seems to be that at the giving of the Law when Christ came down on Mount Sinai to give the Law it was in a very glorious manner sc with Thunder and Lightnings Numb 19.16 and a thick Cloud upon the Mount with the voyce of the Trumpet exceeding loud c. This did Typifie Unto us Christ his second Coming at the end of the world to require the Law which surely ought to excel in glory Let us compare these two Comings together a little At his coming to give the Law 2 Pet. 3.10 Deut. 33.2 Jud. v. 14. Dan. 7.10 Exod. 19.19 Mount Sinai was all in a flame Now the whole world shall be on fire Then Christ came with ten thousands of his Saints but Now thousand thousands shall Minister unto him and ten thousand times thousands shall stand before him Then the voyce of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder In like manner Now there shall be first a shout of all the Angels of God with a joynt acclamation Next the voyce of the Arch-Angel which shall be lowder and shriller than they And last of all the Trump of God by way of eminency distinct from the two former lowder shriller than either God then spake with a voyce the voyce of a Law-giver commanding the Law God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God c. Exod. 20.1.2 Now God shall speak with the voyce of a Judg requiring an account of the Law viz. what men have done with that Law whether they have obeyed or rebelled against that holy Command and he shall accordingly Judg them This now is the third Circumstance or considerable particular which the Holy Ghost commends to our notice in the Coming of Christ which is the Eighth word of Comfort in this Model sc The manner of his coming And this is to set forth unto us the Glory and Majesty of Christ his coming to Judgment These fore-runners of the coming of Christ these various Heraulds which shall proclaime his Advent scl 1. The Hortatory clamour 2. The voyce of the Arch-Angel 3. And the Trump of God These shall add much to the State and Solemnity of this great Judg his approach When he came into the Flesh his Herauld was John the Baptist a man of a mean and contemptible presence Math. 3.2 a Preacher of Repentance Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Now his fore-runners and Heraulds shall be The mighty Angels of God Then he came in a still soft voyce Math. 3.3 the voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight Now he shall come with a loud and terrible voyce Voyce upon Voyce Trump upon Trump Alarm upon Alarm Each lowder and more dreadful than other in comparison whereof the lowdest Thunder which was eyer heard from the Clowds of God shall be but as the shooting off of a pistol or the blowing of a Rams Horn A dreadful shout which shall even shake the Heavens and the Earth Heb 12.26 and Hell it self And it makes much for the terrour and astonishment of the wicked Use A Terror to the wicked who in the pride of their hearts would not lend an obedient ear to the sweet and gentle summons of the Word saying Repent Deut. 29.19 and believe the Gospel but blest themselves in their hearts saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart and add Drunkenness to Thirst Oh to all such surely this will be a tremendous blast which shall not so much raise as affright them out of their Graves Some of the Jewish Doctors have a Conceit that wicked men shall never rise again which they ground upon their own mistake of that Scripture Isa 26.14 But though it cannot be properly said they Rise yet they shall be raised not from Death to Life but from one Death to another from the first Death to the second Death from Death to Judgment and from Judgment to Execution to torment with horrour and amazement Behold the Judg cometh Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment This will be the dreadful meaning of that Ministerial Excitation in the Consciences of the Reprobate world Appear in Court there to answer for all the Contempt to the Calls and Counsels of Jesus Christ in his blessed Gospel Oh what would Drunkards and Swearers and Adulterers give that they might never be raised out of their Graves or being raised What would they give then for a Rock or a Mountain to fall upon them that might hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb but all in vain Then to hide will be impossible and to appear will be intolerable Use 2 But as glorious and acceptable is this description of Christ's coming to the Saints Comfort to the Saints for whose sake this clause is added as a word of Comfort even to them that sleep in Jesus This three-fold Alarm Shout and Voyce and Trump shall be no more terror or amazement to them than the
curiâ perfect before the Tribunal of Gods Justice Obj. If it be objected There is not a third State or a third Person viz. one that is not Guilty and yet not Righteous a man must be one of these either Guilty or Righteous if he be not Guilty he is Righteous if Righteous he is not Guilty Answ The objection admits of a fair and easie solution namely this * The Law is satisfied by suffering the Penalty in mens precepts but not in God's wherein not only Penalties are threatned but Blessings are promised Down de Justif It holds true in matters of criminal Justice where a person is tried upon Indictment of a Crime suppose Theft or Murder or Sacrilege or the like there upon Examination to be found Not Guilty is to be Righteous Legally Righteous there being no other Righteousness looked after in that Tryal but Whether Guilâ—y of the Fact or not Guilty But in matters of remunerative justice where the Law propounds a reward to such and such qualifications there a not-Guilty will not suffice Ex. gr If a Scholar in the University be a Candidate for an office there or a Fellowship in a Colledg where the Statutes do require such and such qualifications there upon Examination to be found not-Guilty of Murther of Sacriledg or any other Crime this will not capacitate the Candidate for the preferment this is the case in hand The Saints are now Candidates for Heaven and Glory Absolution or Pardon is not sufficient to capacitate them for this glory yea though it be supposed the pardon be extensive to all not the transgressions only of the Law but the very omissions defects too yea to the least non-conformity unto the Law in its utmost perfection it sufficeth not because a pardon is not the qualification which the Law requireth but a positive perfection Fac hoc c. Do this and Live Whether God by absolute Prerogative cannot dispence with this qualification and pardon the want of it I will not dispute but Whether God can in Justice dispence with his own Law and with that Condition of Righteousness and Life established in the first Covenant is the main Enquiry of which anon It is true there is not a third State a State which is neither a state of Guilt nor a state of Righteousness neither is there a third person there is not a person to be found which is neither Guilty nor Righteous but though there be not a third State or a third Person yet there is tertius Conceptus a third Conception or notion in the understanding though there be not a person which is neither Guilty nor Righteous yet to be not-Guilty They differ as to the praedicate though they be not separate as to the subject and to be Righteous are two different capacities considerable in one and the same person it is one thing for a man to be considered meerly as not Guilty or purely as an absolved person another thing to be considered as a Righteous person invested with all those excellent qualifications which may capacitate him for the priviledg annexed to the condition Ex. gr As it is between Sin Holiness He that is not sinful is holy there is not a person to be found who is not sinful and yet not holy the notions are different though the subject be one and the same So it is between not-Guilty and Righteous there is not a person who is neither not-Guilty and yet not-Righteous for although the considerations be unseparable yet they are not identical Not-Guilty is not the same notion with Righteous that is purely privative this positive though they are ever Vnited yet they are not to be Confounded Again as in point of Eternal punishment He that is punished with the pain of Loss Paena damni Paena sensus is punished also with the pain of Sense yet is not the pain of Loss the same with the pain of Sense He that is deprived of Gods presence and the joys of Heaven doth suffer the torments of Hell with the Devil and his Angels for ever the punishments are distinct though they be inseparable So it is between the two capacities relating to these two places Hell and Heaven The Person under the notion of not-Guilty is an absolved person and acquitted from Hell and eternal damnation And as under the notion of Righteous he is capacitated for Heaven and life everlasting Not-Guilty relates to freedome from Hell Righteousness relateth to Heaven as the proper qualification thereof Do this and Live though where the one is there is the other yet the one is not formally the other And according to these two capacities and places there are two great Works which the Redeemer did undertake for the Redeemed The one to make satisfaction for sin to divine justice by his Blood i. e. by his Death The other to yield most absolute Conformity to the Law of God both in Nature and Life By the one we may conceive the Redeemed freed from Hell and everlasting burnings by the other we may conceive them qualified for Heaven and everlasting Glory Yet not so precisely neither the one or the other but that both may be produced by both Active and Passive obedience may have a joynt influence upon both his Active to save from Hell and his Passive to bring to Heaven As a man that payeth a debt and purchaseth an Inheritance either of them to the value of five hundred pounds at the same time with a Jewel worth a thousand one half whereof relates to the debt the other to the Purchase yet so as it is hard to distinguish which is done by which there is a distinct consideration in it yet so as that both concurr to both so in the case in hand As the Active and Passive obedience in Christ suppose not two Redeemers but one and the same Person under both these distinct engagements so Absolution and positive real Righteousness infer not a distinction of persons but diversity only of considerations in one and the same person But further That a positive Righteousness is requisite to the justification of a Sinner as well as Absolution from guilt and punishment may appear upon a four-fold account viz. Of 1. The Justice of God 2. The Perfection of the Law 3. The Necessity of the Sinner 4. The Excellency of the Redeemer First the Justice of God 1. Accompt The justice of God this is for the glory of Gods Justice to justifie man in such a way as wherein he may also justifie himself This the holy Apostle counts highly worthy our best observation That he might be just Rom. 3.26 and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus God would shew himself a Righteous God in justifying of Vnrighteous men and this he declareth in both the parts of Justification Sc. Pardon Accounting Righteous First In Pardon God shews himself just He declareth his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past Remission looks backward Righteousness
Principalities c. Such an High Priest became us An High Priest of an inferiour perfection would not have done our business for us And as such an High Priest became us so truly such a way of justifying believing Sinners became him namely it was becoming a person of such a transcendent worth and excellency to justifie his Redeemed in the most ample and glorious way c. by working out for them and then investing them with a Righteousness adaequate to the Law of God a Righteousness that should be every way commensurate to the miserable estate of fallen Man and to the holy design of the glorious God It was a becoming thing that the second Adam might restore as good a Righteousness as the first Adam lost that this should justifie as sully as the other did condemn Rom. 5. from verse 15. to the last This is the very designe of that famous Parallel instituted by the Apostle between the two Adams namely to signifie an equality not of number in the persons receiving but of efficacy in the persons deriving and communicating what was their own to either of their Seeds The first Adam to his natural Seed and the second Adam to his Spiritual Seed to the end that Men and Angels might take notice that Jesus Christ the second Adam was not less Powerful to save than the first Adam was to destroy To which purpose it is of great use to observe how exact the Apostle is in setting the specialties of either Adams Legacy one over against the other the wound and the cure the dammage and the reparation Observe the Parallel The first Adam Propagates his Offence Guilt Death vers 15. Condemnation Bondage Slavery Sin ver 19. The second Adam obtains Forgivness for many offences A gift of Righteousness 17. Life vers 18. Justification ibid. Reigning in Life Righteousness Every way the Salve is as Soveraign as the Wound was Mortal the Cure as Vital as the Sickness deadly yea the Apostle winds up with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the second Adams part and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold Absolution for Condemnation Righteousness for Sin Reigning for Slavery Life for Death and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal Life into the bargain Thus it became our High Priest to justifie his Redeemed The great Apostle cannot pass it by without special notice He is able to save to the uttermost such as come to God through him To the uttermost of what To the uttermost Obligation of the Law preceptive as well as penal to bring in perfect Righteousness as well as perfect Innocence To the uttermost demand of divine Justice perfect Conformity to divine Will as well as perfect Satisfaction to divine Justice Perfection as well as Pardon To the uttermost Indigency and necessity of the lost Creature Qualification as well as Absolution To the uttermost of our High Priest's perfection in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Oh for such an one to have saved a cheap way to drive the Purchase to as low a price as might be by pardoning their sin and making reparation to divine Justice to satisfie for the wrong which man had done to the Creator and his Law This only with Reverence may we speak it had not become so August a Redeemer as the Son of God was But to set him upon his Legs again to make him as good a man as he was in his Created perfection one way or other such as all the Attributes of God should acquiesce in to put him into a capacity of demanding Eternal life not by gift only but by merit through a Redeemer yet so still as it is the Redeemers merit not Mans not that Christ hath merited that we might merit as the Papists would vainly varnish that proud doctrine of merit no all was done by Him and is Ours only by Imputation Such an High-Priest became us And such a glorious way of saving Sinners became him who was made higher than the Heavens i. e. than all created perfections whatsoever Angels Cherubins or Seraphims or what ever Order else may be possibly conceived This is the Righteousness Non est metuendum ne nimis divites simus in Christo wherewith our Redeemer saveth us and we need not sear to wrap up our selves in this fine Linnen to put on these Robes we need not fear to be made too rich by Christ who when he was Rich became Poor that we through his Poverty might be made Rich. 2 Cor. 8 9. And this Righteousness indeed was made over to the Saints of God by Imputation at the very first moment of their Conversion In this they lived In this they died as Standard-Bearers wrapt up and buried in their Colours And in this they shall arise and appear at that glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who will then and thus be glorified in all them that believe to the Admiration of all the Elect Angels the extream horror of the Reprobate and the infinite joy and ravishment of the Saints who shall then sing Isa 61.10 I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath Clouthed me with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels Oh how glorious will Christ be in his Saints when they shall all wear one and the same sparkling Livery with Christ and this shall be his Name Jehovah Tzed-kenu Jer. 23.6 The Lord our Righteousness Thus I have done with the Second End I should now immediately come unto the Third save that before we wholly dismiss this point we cannot but take a little notice of the insolency of the Papists in Reproaching and Blaspheming this blessed doctrine of Justification by imputed Righteousness at which though they scoff and laugh at with so much scorn and derision that the Earth is not able to bear their words calling it Spectrum cerebri Lutherani Staplet Putativa imaginaria justitia Bellarm. Amentissima insania Andrad Yet it seems to stand firm and unshaken upon these impregnable Arguments 1. That way whereby the guilt of the first Adam is made ours that way the Righteousness of the second Adam is made ours also Rom. 5.12 cum 15. 2. That way whereby the Redeemer is made a Sinner that way the Redeemed are made Righteous 2 Cor. 5. Vlt. 3. That way wherein Abraham was justified are all Believers justified also Rom. 4. The Father and the Children have all the same Righteousness and it is Communicated to them the same way Vt sup 4. The fulfilling of the Law communicatur eo modo quo communicari potest id quod transit nimirùm per Imputationem as Bellarm. himself confesseth in point of satisfaction 5. The Scripture is clear and express for those two branches as of absolute necessity to Justification scil Pardon Righteousness distinct from
the Saints know one another upon the account of a temporal alms and shall they not know one another upon the account of spiritual offices performed one for another Lo here is probability if not demonstration for the stating of the Question the fruit of it certainly is as sweet as the truth it self is probable a mighty spur it is to holy and heavenly converse here on earth to converse with one another in grace so that we may promote our mutual converse in glory Ministers so to preach so to live Parents and Governours so to educate and govern their children and families as that they may mutually rejoyce one in another and for another in heaven It cannot but add much to their blessedness and joy in heaven and be matter of praise and glory to God to all eternity especially over such as to whom God hath made us instrumental either to their conversion or to their edification whiles in this vale of tears here we mourned and wept bitterly when we kissed their pale lips and cold cheeks when we follow the corps to the grave and laid them down in their cold beds of dust but there will be joy and glory with infinite compensation when we shall see and say The more unthankful are they that having received so infinite a mercy from God by their ministry would never in their liveâ— open their mouths to acknowledge it to their ministers for their encouragement oh here is my spiritual father who begot me to Christ under whose Ministry I drew my first spiritual breath how sweet are such acknowledgments here Certainly they are the richest rewards of Gods despised and persecuted Servants and Ambassadours here on earth oh what will it be in heaven when grace shall be seen what it is when grace shall have put on its royal apparel Oh what a joy to Parents by nature or by trust to see the dear Child that got into heaven as it were before its time and the Child to embrace the Parent oh this is my Father my Mother my Grandfather my Grandmother that travelled with me the second time till they saw Christ form in my heart oh blessed be God that ever I saw their faces on earth and now shall see them for ever in heaven and so for friends oh this was my soul-friend this was a brother that a kinsman who loved me with a spiritual love an heavenly love that loved me into Christ to heaven to this glory I now possess Christians if these things be not so Aug. Ep. 6. then Augustin mistook his Cordial which he wrote to the Lady Italica after her Husbands death telling her That she should know him amongst the glorified Saints yea know him and love him batter than ever she did in this life yea a greater than Augustin was mistaken else even the great Apostle who himself had been caught up to the third Heavens and saw what was done there even he was mistaken when 1 Thes 2.19 20 by an Apostolical Spirit he dignifieth his Thessalonians with those glorious titles his hope his joy the crown of rejoycing his glory and joy and that in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Could they be all this to the Apostle in the resurrection and he not know them and be able to distinguish them from all other Saints of God that shall stand on Christs right hand at that day It cannot be What although all such relations do cease in Heaven must the remembrance of such relations cease also Or what if the glorified state make such an alteration in the Saints bodies that they are not the same for colour gesture and some other accidental circumstances as when we knew them in the valley of tears shall there be no lineâ—â—â—ent or property of individuation remaining whereby the quick acute eye of glorified sence may possibly discern who they were There want not instances in our experience of some who from their childhood even unto full age have been absent from their friends whom yet many years after upon a deliberate interview their relations have called to perfect memory again and if such a thing be possible in the imperfect state here why should it seem a thing incredible that the glorified eye and intellect should revive a distinct remembrance of their gracious relations even out of the imperfect bints and notions of their former knowledge If the resurrection do shew nothing of the old individual distinction of persons it may seem to be rather another Creation than a Resurrection and may shake a main Article of our Christian Faith But as clearer evidence than all this I demand further How did Adam know Eve upon the first sight even before God spake a word who she was or whence she came And did he own her as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Will ye say it was by divine instinct and revelation Grant then but so much in this case and it shall suffice especially the rather because this solution of the difficulty will take in the case of elect infants dying before their form and figure can well be discerned possibly stilborn surely a distinct knowledge who they are when glorified will be no small joy to the elect parents to consider that free grace made them the happy vessels to help to people Heaven with such Inhabitants We may not presume to speak definitively in cases not clearly stated by the holy Scriptures but this we may with safety and modesty conclude that if such a mutual knowledge of godly relations in heaven may contribute any glory to God and any addition to the joy of the Saints the absolute perfection of the glorified estate will not permit any doubt about this matter surely if our natural affections of love and delight and joy be not extinguished in heaven but perfected it cannot but add to the elect Mothers joy to see her elect Infant now adult in glory and so for other nearest relations will it not be some accent to their hallelujahs to say This was my precious yâ—ak-fellow this my holy parent this my gracious brother kinsman friend with whom I had sweet communion on earth in holy duties We went to the House of God as friends c. Especially when it may be added whom God made Instrumental to the pulling me out of the infernal lake where the Devil and his Angels are tormented for ever and for the bringing of me into this place of rest and glory Thanks be to God for ever and ever Object If it be objected Doth not this distinct knowledge of our elect relation infer a distinct knowledge also of the Saints reprobate relations in hell And may not that be a Vision of as much terrour as the other of rejoycing Answ I answer No And that upon a two-fold ground First It stands with the analogy of faith to believe that all those affections which imply defect or imperfection shall be totally abolished in Heaven as inconsistent with
presence with God is ever Their vision is ever Their fruition is ever Their conformity to God is ever We shall ever be with the Lord. Quest But why What good have the Saints done to merit such an ever of bliss Answ Nay Christians if we go that way to work we shall be sure to fall short of this ever An Heaven proportionable to the Saints merit is not to be found unless it be amongst their Antipodes in the Regions of darkness if there be an heaven there The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6. ult Hell is the wages of sin pure and proper merit but Heaven is a free gratuitous gift a gift in regard of us though merit in regard of Christ Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that if it be demanded Why Heaven must be for ever The first and only account of merit is the blood of Jesus Christ the Saints were once a lost generation Reasons why the Saints reward in glory must be for ever 1. Christs merit that had sold themselves and their inheritance too and had not wherewithall to redeem either But they had a neer Kinsman even their elder Brother by the Mothers side to whom the right of redemption did belong who being a mighty man of wealth the Heir of all things undertook to be their Goel and out of his own proper substance to redeem both them and their inheritance them to be his own inheritance Ephes 1.10 and Heaven to be theirs 1 Pet. 1.4 And therefore had Heaven been but a moment short of eternity the Redeemer had over-bought it for he laid out the infinite treasures of his blood upon the purchase the blood of God Acts 20.28 had not Heaven been infinite also as in value so likewise in duration it had not stood with the justice of God or his love to his Son to have taken so dear for it It is this ever in the Text which makes Heaven to be but an even bargain were there a period of time though after the revolution of never so many Ages wherein the purchase were to expire Price and Inheritance and Heirs were all lost for ever Behold this is the first Reason A second account may be in respect of the elect themselves 2. Reason Saints have immortal Souls The Saints have immortal souls souls that have an ever stampt upon them an ever a parte post an enduring ever though not a parte ante a beginning ever or rather an ever without beginning of such an ever the Saints were uncapable God himself with holy reverence be it spoken could not have bestowed such an ever upon the Creatures for then he must have made them so many Gods and this God could not do and that because he is omnipotent there is but one supreme but one omnipotent but now an ever a parte post an enduring ever God by divine Covenant conferr'd upon their souls and will invest their bodies also with at the Resurrection that so eternal Beings might be capable of eternal Rewards the wicked of torments the godly of bliss both eternal If there were not this ever upon the beatitudes as well as upon the persons of the Saints they would be extreamly losers by it and outlive their own happiness Thirdly 3. Reason Saints Graces are eternal Such a cessation of the joyes of Heaven would be as inconsistent with the Saints Graces as it is with their beings God hath beautified their immortal souls with immortal graces 1 Cor. 13. ult their love abides for ever their zeal is eternal their holiness eternal and all their qualifications for glory are eternal and can their glory it self be mortal It were in vain to contend for perseverance in Grace should we admit falling away from Glory Poor Saints indeed if neither grace here nor glory hereafter could secure their happiness Were grace indeed amissable in this life and glory in the future the foundation of the Lord were not sure and the Saints of all men most miserable Such a cessation is totally inconsistent with the Orthodox faith as well as with the wisdom of God who certainly if he had furnisht the Saints with immortal principles and qualifications for an heaven which would or might determine had taken far more care upon the Mediums than upon the End And oversight incompatible with a wise man much more with the only wise God But the main pillars upon which this blessed Article of our faith everlasting life is built The Attributes of God the main pillars of Heavens eternity 1. The Wisdom of God are the glorious Attributes of God I shall therefore pursue the discovery of this delightful contemplation unto the Spring-head First then The Wisdom of God is the head corner stone upon which we build the belief of this Doctrine Heavens eternity Not to recur to any thing already spoken I shall only take the hint of the Psalmists Question Psal 89.47 Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain For the better understanding whereof we are to take notice that the rise of the Question is a passionate complaint of the Prophet concerning the brevity and misery of the present life in Job's phrase Heb. Short of dayes and full of trouble In the former part of the verse Lord remember how short my time is And in this latter part of the verse he doth as it were expostulate the case with God why God would have it so Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain In which words although he seem to ask God the question yet he giveth himself the answer and the answer is negative q. d. No God made not men in vain It is not possible that the Wisdom of God should make such an excellent Creature as man the master-piece of the whole neather world to no purpose It cannot be that God should bring in such a Creature only to take a turn or two in the world and then to disappear never to be heard of any more What then Why thence he doth rationally infer that certainly in mans creation God had a design upon him in order to a future estate And what was that But what the wise man discovers to us Prov. 16 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself i. e. for his own glory scil The wicked for the day of evil to the manifestation of his justice and the godly for the day of redemption to the exaltation of his free grace in both which however the wicked may seem in this world to go unpunished and the godly unrewarded yet God will have time enough to make reparations to his justice in another world hell and heaven will make amends for all But now after all this should there be a period wherein the flames of hell should be extinguished or the joyes of heaven annihilated if after the first creation suffered a miscarriage the second also should prove
passed from death to life and God hath given us eternal life Chap. 5.11 not only will give but hath given as sure as if we were there already and thus in many Scriptures more Now this is certain what hath been may be what some of the Saints have attained and not only by special prerogative others may attain also provided they be not slothful Heb. 6.11 curn 12. but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Thus heaven may be made sure But on the other side The world nor any part of it can be made sure earth cannot 1. It is not all the ensuring Offices in the world nor all the Law or Lawyers in Westminster-hall that can make an undefeazable entail to secure an inheritance upon the third or second generation not only in respect of the brevity and uncertainty of mans life the great mutability in the Creature the wiles and frauds of men who are cunning to deceive but even in regard of the methods and intricacies of the Law it self 1 Tim. 6.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hence the Apostle calls all sublunary possessions uncertain riches to which he opposeth the living God God only is immortal not mutable all the things in the world which men make their riches are uncertain heaven only by a true Copernicisme is fixed the earth moveable and unstable 2. And God would have it so God hath on purpose filled the whole Creation with emptiness and vanity that the heart of man might not be ensnared and beguiled with it for saith God Prov. 23. â— wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not How not Not that which it appears to be a meer non-ens a nothing Not that which the heart of man promises to it self from it happiness and satisfaction nothing less Not fixed and durable for riches verily make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven Supra from whence they came God gave them and when he calls them they take wings and are gone in a moment they cannot be secured as good secure the bird upon the wing as go about to secure the world in any of the elements thereof 3. God would have us sit loose from the Creature here God would have us contented to be at uncertainties Matth. 6. ver 25. Take no thought for your life 34. Take no thought for to morrow In the concerns of the present life God would have us live at an holy kind of adventure and leave all to providence i. e. as to the issues and events of things But oh how are men turned Gods antipodes What cannot be made sure and God would not have to be sure that vain man would make sure and that which may be made sure which God commands us to make sure and what the Saints have made sure this and this only he takes upon trust and leaves it upon Why nots and peradventures Thus man stands as one saith upon his head and shakes his heels against heaven It is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation A second Consideration may be this Motive 2. To get assurance of heaven is a work never unseasonable but never more seasonable than in times of danger and uncertainty when all sublunary things are in a doubtful and wavering condition in such a juncture of time he that can secure heaven by making his calling and election sure he is like the Philosophers good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four-square cast him which way you will he alwayes falls upon a square he is built upon a Rock and cannot be shaken or though he be moved he cannot be removed but stands like a pillar in the Temple of God even like those pillars in Solomon's Temple Jachin and Boaz stability and strength This is the most important business incumbent on us and it being about an Inheritance which is fixed and sure it is both our duty and our wisdom to be so too uncertainty in things of uncertainty is no solecisme but to be uncertain in things of greatest assurance and permanency is an intollerable shame Heaven secur'd our work is done a man may sit down and sing a requiem to his own soul in an holy security Rora hora brevis mora O sidurasset saying Soul thou hast goods laid up for many years for years of eternity eat drink and be merry and not fear the rebuke of O thou fool The joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul entreth into the Lords joy the Inheritance safe a man may well be merry for he can never be miserable He that is sure of Heaven knoweth also that whatever he hath more or less in this life he hath it as The fruit of Gods everlasting electing love The purchase of Christs blood With Gods love as well as with Gods leave By promise as well as by providence As part of his childs portion in earnest of what is to come He knoweth that whatever befalls him on this side heaven Honour or dishonour Good report or bad report Health or sickness Prosperity or adversity Peace or persecution Life or death All shall work together for good his best his spiritual his eternal good Rom. 8.28 Who but a mad man would leave such an estate upon uncertainties The world may call him if they will a wise man but a greater fool goeth not about the streets with a whisk and a batible And truly without this a man cannot rationally take any delight in these inferiour enjoyments this will be a care at the bottom yea it is well now but what it will be hereafter to all eternity I know not Consider in the third place Motive 3. The more wisdom any have attained to the greater hath been their care and diligence to secure to themselves an interest in this future blessedness Witness holy David and Paul Porphyry saith of Photinâ—â— that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose indifferency about the present and contention about the future estate was such as if they had forgotten they were in the body Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee so sings David Psal 73.25 And I forget the things that are behind and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus so professeth holy Paul Phil. 3.13 14. Oh happy security they were careless of the world that they might secure themselves of heaven Fourthly and lastly consider Motive 4. That disappointment is the most afflicting evil that a rational Creature is capable of And there be three Aggravations which render it intolerable First The more precious the concernment the more grievous the disappointment to be disappointed of a common preferment is very vexatious what is it then to be disappointed of a Crown a Kingdom Secondly The higher the confidence of speeding the deeper the anxiety of disappointment to come to the Church door in expectation
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
heaven and they are safe for ever Persecutors to be sure will not follow them thither but they shall be looked up in hell for ever bound in chains of everlasting darkness for their fury against the people of God suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Ever with the Lord here 's a short fight but an eternal triumph a short race but an immarcessable crown of glory a short storm but an eternal harbour who would not almost be covetous and ambitious of suffering upon such gainful terms One day with the Lord will more than pay for all the Saints sufferings how much more this ever with the Lord There is no proportion between a Christian his Cross and his Crown Rom. 8.18 if the Apostle have brought us in a true account I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Compare a Mole-hill with a Mountain a Glow-worm with a Sun beam a drop with the Ocean and more disproportionable are a Saints sufferings unto his glory here he lets drop a few tears there he swims in a river of pleasures for evermore To convince us of the odds the Apostle puts both into scales and the scales into the hand even of Reason it self see saith he how infinitely the reward praeponderates the sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction light Glory heavy a weight of glory yea an exceeding weight yea a far more exceeding weight hyperbole upon hyperbole Affliction but for a moment Glory eternity let sense and reason give sentence what equality or proportion an heavy burden may be born a moment how much easilier a light one especially if ye add this consideration that after that little little moment past burden shall never be laid upon the back any more for ever We are apt to think that our sufferings are not only heavy but intollerable the only unparallel'd affliction in the world never sorrow like our sorrow but they will appear as they are poor and inconsiderable when we come to heaven then our Mountains will appear Mole-hills How will a prison look then when for a few dayes confinement we shall have the glorious liberty of the Sons of God in the highest heavens dayes without end How will then the reproach of Christ appear to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt when for a little shame and ignominy thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Firmament for ever How will thy former poverty for Christ look then 1 Pet. 1.5 when thou shalt be possessed of the inheritance of the Saints in light Incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for thee Nay if thou shalt loose thy life for Christ it shall seem but a poor stake when thou shalt be crowned with all the beatitudes of life eternal Oh labour for such thoughts of sufferings now as thou wilt have then and this will carry thee through fire and water for Christs sake and with the Daughter of Sion cause thee to shake thy head at them Though sufferings offend thee now and are very grievous to the fleshy part yet it will be no grief of heart to thee then when thou comest to put on thy Robe and thy Crown and to sit down with Christ on his Throne If there could be grief in heaven about sufferings it would grieve a Saint that he had suffered no more for Christ or suffered with no more patience courage and holy insulting over the persecutors 40. Martyrs in Basil now led by his sufferings into so much glory Pore not then upon thy sufferings but look up to the Crown that is prepared to be set upon thy head after thy sufferings behold Martyrdom it self shall be but as Elijah's Chariot to carry thee up to heaven in triumph If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him if we wear his Crown of thorns we shall wear his Crown of glory if we dye with him we shall also rise with him and reign with him for ever Think much of the Kingdom to expel base fears in sufferings This is the glorious recompence which Christ sets before his Church Luke 12.32 to encourage her in the midst of her persecutions Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom If a Kingdom yea the Kingdom of Heaven be able to make you amends for your sufferings you shall not be losers by them well you may be losers for Christ but to be sure you shall not be losers by Christ Our Lord Christ himself did set the joy of this Kingdom before himself in his temptations and sufferings Heb. 12.2 and the Apostle therein set Christ as an example before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy which was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame c. Surely the joy of our Lord may well make the servant willing to endure and able to despise the greatest sufferings to laugh at reproaches and to sing in prisons to be like the Leviathan Job 41.27 He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrows cannot make him flee sling-stones are turned with him into stubble darts are counted as stubble he laughs at the shaking of the spear c. Heaven in our eye will make us thus heroick in our persecutions Rom. 5.3 We glory not only in God but we glory in tribulation Hold out then faith and patience but one stile more said Doctor Taylor when he went to the Stake and I am at my Fathers house Oh this word at my Fathers house at home Ever with the Lord this made the holy man to leap over the stile as if he had been a young man going to be married to his Bride Ever with the Lord Vse 5 It may serve as a soveraign cordial against the fear of death man having an immortal soul naturally desireth and breatheth after eternity but man in his corrupt estate being ignorant and mindless of a blessed eternity with God is not willing to dye to leave the shore of this life and to venture upon the unknown immense Ocean of eternity therefore the ungodly mans soul is said to be taken from him Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Sinners do not willingly part with their souls they are torn out of their bodies by violent hands none but a Paul who is ballasted with the hope of everlasting cohabitation with the Lord can desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose from the shore to hoise up sail and make for the heavenly Canaan And well may he that hath made a rich though stormy voyage to the Indies set sail for his own native Country where he may sit down in peace and enrich himself with the gain of his adventure Come hither then oh you trembling souls who through the fear of death have all your lives time been subject to
will agree exactly 2.167 Reproach Reproaches for Christ better than all the applause of the world 3.83 Reprobate the future estate of the reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Resurrection three things interest a believer in the triumph of Christ's resurrection 1 Power 1.12 2 Office 1.13 3 Right 1. ibid. Christ arose by his own strength 1.12 As a publick head 1.13 On which account 1 The Saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2 They are assured they shall arise 1.15 Resurrection of Christ why called his youth 1.16 An inseparable connexion between the resurrection of Christ and of the Saints 1 Of merit 1.15 2 Of power and influence 1.16 3 Of design 1.17 4 Of union ibid. Christ is risen as our first fruits 1.19 Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our faith 1.20 How Christ shall bring the Saints with him at the resurrection 1 Their souls from heaven 1.47 2 Their bodies from the grave and how 1.47 3 Body and soul he shall take up into the clouds and why 1.48 49 4 He shall carry them back with him into heaven 1.50 It shall put believers that are dead into as good a capacity as those that are alive 2.64 Saints that shall then be found alive will be no otherwise capable of it than under the notion of the dead 2.65 The manner of it 2.86 The admirable properties of it 1 Incorruptible 2.89 2 Glorious 2.90 3 Powerful 2.93 4 Spiritual 2.94 Saints shall rise with the same bodies they lye down with 2.87 The body will depend wholly upon the soul 2.95 Our bodies at the resurrection shall he moved by an extrinsic power but shall move themselves by an intrinsic principle 2.107 Why called the Regeneration 2.101 Three consequents of the resurrection 1 The resurrection of the Saints that are dead 2.86 2 The Saints triumphant ascension 2.104 3 The Saints joyful meeting 1 One with another 2.112 2 All with Christ where 1 The persons meeting 2.120 2 The place where 2.124 3 The ends of their meeting 2.126 Christ will welcome the Saints at the resurrection under a threefold relation 1 As the Fathers election 2.121 2 As the purchase of his blood ibid. 3 As the depositum of the Holy Ghost 2.122 Reward is an encouragement to good works e contra 3.91 Riches have wings 3.105 Righteous to be righteous and not guilty are two different capacities 2.139 Righteousness a positive righteousness is required to the justification of a sinner as well as absolution from guilt and punishment which appears on the account 1 Of the justice of God 2.141 2. Of the perfection of the Law 2.143 3 Of the necessity of the sinner 2.154 4 Of the excellency of the Redeemen 2.157 It looks forward pardon backward 2.142 Righteousness imputed to the Saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 The mediatory righteousness of Christ comes to be a believers as the first Adam 's disobedience came to be his posterities viz. by imputation 2.146 Imputed righteousness the same materially which the Law requireth 2.149 T Sacrament attend often upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 3.132 Saints the dignity of them 1.41 They that are alive at Christ his coming shall have no advantage above those that are dead 2.58 They that are dead shall be first remembred at the resurrection 2.60 Those that are alive will be no otherwise capable of the resurrection than under the notion of the dead 2.65 They shall be solemnly espoused to Christ 2.162 They shall be assessors with him at the judgment 2.164 Scripture inference is Scripture 2.67 It concerns us to search the Scriptures 3.163 In reading Scripture make a collection of the Promises 3.163 Secret whatever kindness was shewed to God in secret shall be openly rewarded 2.130 Self-denyal exercise it 3.130 Separation a perfect separation from the society of sinners at the last day 2.117 Sin why sometimes punished here sometimes not 2.78 The Saints sins not remembred at the last day 2.130 And why 2.134 This is no encouragement to sin 2.131 It is fully pardoned at death 2.134 They will appear as they are at the day of judgment 2.168 A vain thing to call any sin small 2.168 The smallest is dangerous 3.128 It sets us at a great distance from heaven 3.41 An universal hatred of it an evidence of heaven 3.120 It is the Devils image 3.120 Sinner the condition of a sinner doth necessarily require an imputed righteousness 1 To settle solid peace in the conscience 2.154 2 To secure his appearance in the day of judgment 2.157 Sinners are mixed with Saints here contra 2.116 They will dread the society of the godly at the last day as much as formerly they hated it 2.117 They were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Sleep Death but a sleep 1.2 Death resembled to sleep in two respects 1.3 Socinians deceived in saying we shall not have real but aerial bodies at the resurrection 2.96 Sorrow there is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not 3.144 Souls all of one size 2.94 Not everlasting a parte ante and why 3.86 Spirit the Spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy but the blood of Christ the fountain of merit 2.122 Spirit of God hath a twofold office about attaining assurance 3.123 Be tender of it 3.127 None but friends can properly be said to grieve the Spirit 3.128 Sufferings of the Saints will be owned at the resurrection 2.129 T Tears of the Saints are bottled 2.128 Terror it will be horrible terror to the wicked to see the Saints sit in judgment with Christ 2.164 Time no farther time will be granted at the great Assize 2.171 Transgression Sinners were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Translate no translating of sin upon others at the great day 2.168 Tribunal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 Trinity the external works of it are undivided 1.46 The order of their work 1.46 Trumpet one end of the Feast of Trumpets might be to put them in mind of the last day 2.114 Last Trump will not be only audible but articulate 2.115 V Vision six things shall be the object of the Saints Vision 1 The seat of blessed souls 3.3 2 The glorified Saints 3.4 3 The elect Angels 3.15 4 The glorified body of Christ 3.26 5 God in the divine Essence 3.18 6 All things in God 3.42 Of glorified Saints will be wonderful glorious 3.4 We shall not have an intuitive Vision of the divine Essence 3.27 How far we shall have a Vision of the divine Essence 3.30 Of God in Scriture is twofold 1 In Grace 3.40 2 In Glory ibid. How these agree and how they differ 3.46 Unbelief the spring of all our misery 1.21 Understanding the glorified understanding shall have a sixfold perfection 1 Spirituality 3.36 2 Clarity 3.37 3 Capacity 3.38 4. Sanctity ibid. 5 Strength 3.39 6 Fixedness ibid. Our understandings will be like unto God in heaven 3.78 Union
between Christ and believers how expressed in scriture 1.22 Opened in 7. distinguishing properties 1 Spiritual 1.23 2 Real 1.25 3 Operative 1.29 4 Enriching 1.30 5 Intimous 1.33 6 Total 1.35 7 Indissoluble ib. It is of Gods 1 Praeordination 1.36 2 Efficiency ibid. 3 Support ibid. No in and out in it 1.37 Death dissolveth it noâ—â— ibid. Unkindnesses to Christ great hinderances of assurance 3.128 W Waiting It is good for us to wait for God 3 133 Wicked great terror to such that Christ shall be Judge 2.73 They shall be dragged by Angels before the Tribunal to receive their sentence 2.164 No good that ever they did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Wicked men how to be suffered 2.117 All they do is abomination 2.170 Will our wills will be like unto God in heaven 3.79 Witnesses their enemies confounded at their ascension 2.102 Word of Christ more authentick than tradition or revelation 2.63 The only foundation for our faith 2.66 Works a comparison between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace 3.81 Works reward encouragement to good works 3.91 World compared to a stage 3.70 World and the Devil have counterfeit Cordials 3.154 Worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Worldly felicities quickly grow old 3.74 Y Young the joyes of heaven alwayes young 3.74 Youth the Saints shall rise in youth and perfect strength and beauty 3.73 ERRATA Part I. II. PAge 49 marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 52 line 52 f. the r. these f. the r. you p. 53 l. 11 f. 〈◊〉 r. own l. 9 f. tranessentied r. transossentiated p. 56 l. 15 â— third r. three p. 62. l. 6. f. others r. some p. 70 l. 27 f. twofold r. threefold p. 77 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 82 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 125 l. 21 dele as it were p. 126 l. 19 f. or r. of p. 143 l. 9 add more p. 144 l. 3 f. eternal life and happiness r. on holy life here l. 6 add hereafter p. 146 l. 15 f. but r. and l. 31 f. obedience r. disobedience p. 161 l. 11 dele â—â— Part III. Page 5 line 4 dele is p. 6 l. 28. for hath r. as p. 8 l. 5 add himself p. 9 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11 l. 27 f. form r. formed p. 18 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 21 l. 18 f. infirnâ—tes r. infernales p. 34 marg dele heat p. 39 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 46 marg f. praeteritur r. judicis l. 17 add God after but p. 48. from thence correct the pages till 65. p. 51 l. 1 for â—manate r. emanare p. 53 l. 11 f. glasses r. visions p. 57 l. 25 add our l. 28 f. they r. roe p. 59 l. 4 f. best r. lest p. 61 l. 16 f. ascended r. ascend p. 62 l. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65 l. 15 dele of p. 66 l. 20 f. happiness r. fulness p. 69 l. 1 f. guest r. gust p. 84 l. 26 f. finites r. finite p. 89 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95 l. 33 f. ninthly r. fifthly p. 98 l. 15 f. sum r. same p. 102 l. 6 f. in r. on l. 21 f. be r. take p. 103 l. 19 f. opulentous r. opulent p. 104 l. 3 f. Crowns r. counters l. 15 add see p. 105 l. 22 add grow p. 107 l. 13 f. sheaves of Saffron r. fruits of righteousness b. 108 l. 11 add the p. 112 marg f. domini r. domine p. 115 l. 17 f. care r. core p. 118 marg dele quere p. 130 l. 1 f. that r. thâ—e p. 143 l. 17 f. thee r. the p. 153 l. 9 f. emanate r. â—manare p. 155 l. 20 f. fortune r. fortitude p. 157 l. 8 f. by r. my p. 158 l. 10 f. and r. man l. 12. f. trial r. sorrere p. 160 l. 2 f. comforters r. comfort l. 7 those evidences r. that evidence These Books with several others are Printed for and are to be sold by Dorman Newman at the Chirurgions-Arms in Little-Britain near the Hospital-gate Folio A Description of the four parts of the World taken from the Works of Monsieur Sanson Geographer to the French King and other eminent Travellerâ— and Authors To which is added the Commodities Coins Weights and Measures of the chief places of traffick in the world Illustrated with variety of useful and delightful Maps and Figures By Richard Blome Gent. Memoires of the Lives Actions Sufferings and Deaths of those excellent Personages that suffered for Allegiance to their Soveraign in our late intestine Wars from the year 1637. to 1666. with the Life and Martyrdom of King Charles the first By David Lloyd The Exact Polititian or Compleat Statesman briefly and methodically resolved into such principles whereby Gentlemen may be qualified for the management of any publick trust and thereby rendred useful for the Common-welfare By Leonard Willan Esquire The Jesuits Morals collected by a Dr. of the Colledg of Sorbon in Paris Written in French and exactly translated into English A Relation in form of a Journal of the Voyage and Residence of King Charles the Second in Holland The History of the Cardinals of the Roman Church from the times of their first creation to the election of the present Pope Clem. 9. with a full account of his Conclave A History of Ireland By Edmund Spencer Esquire Quarto The Christian-mans Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business wherein the Christian is directed to perform it in all religious duties natural actions particular vocations family directions and in his own recreations in all relations in all conditions in his dealings with all men in the choice of his company both of evil and good in solitude on a week day from morning to night in visiting the sick on a dying bed By George Swinnock Mr. Caryl's Exposition on the Book of Job Gospel Remission or a Treatise shewing that true blessedness consists in the pardon of sin By Jerem. Burroughs An Exposition on the Song of Solomon By James Durham late Minister in Glascow The Real Christian or a Treatise of Effectual Calling wherein the work of God in drawing the soul to Christ being opened according to the holy Scriptures some things required by our late Divines as necessary to a right preparation for Christ and true closing with Christ which have caused and do still cause much trouble to some serious Christians and are with due respects to those worthy men brought to the ballance of the Sanctuary there weighed and accordingly judged To which is added a few words concerning Socinianisme By Giles Firmin sometime Minister at Shalford in Essex The vertue and value of Baptism By Zach. Crofton The Quakers Spiritual Court proclaimed being an exact narrative of a new High Court of Justice at the Peel in St. John street also sundry errors and corruptions among the Quakers which were never till now made known to the world By Nathaniel Smith who was conversant among them fourteen years A Discourse upon Prodigious Abstinence occasioned by the twelve months fasting of Martha Taylor the famed Darbyshire Damosel proving that without any miracle the texture of humane bodies may be so altered that life may be long continued without the supplies of meat and drink By John Reynolds Octavoes and Twelves Vindicta Bietatis or a Vindication of Godliness from the imputation of folly and fancy with several Directions for the attaining and maintaining of a godly life By R. Allen. Heaven on Earth or the best Friend in the worst times To which is added a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Tho. Mosely Apothecary By James Garreway Justification only upon a satisfaction By Rob. Firgirson The Christians great Interest or the trial of a saving Interest in Christ with the way how to attain to it By Will. Guthry late Minister in Scotland The vertue vigour and efficacy of the Promises displayed in their strength and glory By Tho. Henderson The History of Moderation or the Life Death and Resurrection of Moderation together with her Nativity Country Pedigree Kindred Character Friends and also her Enemies A Guide to the true Religion or a Discourse directing to make a wise choice of that Religion men venture their salvation upon By J. Clapham An Exposition on the Hebrews By David Dickson Rebukes for Sin by Gods burning anger by the burning of London by the burning of the World and by the burning the wicked in hell fire To which is added a discourse of Heart-fixedness By Tho. Doolittle Four select Sermons upon several Texts of Scripture wherein the will-worship and idolatry of the Church of Rome is laid open and confuted By Will. Fenner The Life of Doctor James Vsher late Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Spare Minutes or resolved Meditations or premeditated Resolutions By Arthur Warwick A most comfortable and Christian Dialogue between the Lord and the Soul By Will. Cowper Bishop of Galloway The Cannons and Constitutions of the Quakers agreed upon at their general Assembly at their new Theatre in Gracechurch-street A Synopsis of Quakerism or a Collection of the fundamental errors of the Quakers By Tho. Danson Blood for Blood being a true Narrative of that late horrid Muther committed by Mary Cook upon her Child By Nath. Partridge With a Sermon on the same occasion By J. Sharp