days Rev. 11. expire and come up together in or about the year 1650 as I humbly conceive and then begins the Morning Watch as was noted before Which Morning-watch is that 45 years from the end of Daniels 1290 days and probably is that generation in which those signs of our Saviours coming in the end of the world closely and mystically couched under the Signs of Jerusalems destruction are to come up which generation is not to pass till all be fulfilled These signs you have Mat. 24.29 which are taken out of Joel 2.31 where the darkning of the Sun and turning the Moon into blood are made signes of the great and terrible day of the Lord. In Matthew you have the Epocha of them viz. after the tribulation in the days of Antichrist There are two notes premised for the right understanding and applying these signs 1. The Time 2. The Place It is not in every time that these signs are capable of being fulfilled but in and from a time of great light liberty and reformation for the Sun cannot be said to be darkned that did not shine before but the Sun from its shining forth in its splendour and glory to be darkned That is the Sign c. 2. The place though it may be any where every where in this old world where ever the mystical Sun or Moon give their light yet principally in the eminent place or places of the reformation where the clearest light hath shone and the greatest hopes and overtures of this approaching redemption have been there must we look for these signs which though of a spiritual discerning yet are matter of Fact and History in these days in which we live and may be evidenced to be fulfilled three manner of ways viz. Sinfully Penally Dispensationally And these in a threefold Orb and Sphear for a further account of which I refer to the Sermons The third Sermon brings us yet nearer laying the claim of the Son of Man to the 45 Prophetical days in Daniel 12. that follow after the 1290 That they are the days of the Son of Man spoken of Luk. 17. Parallel to the days of Noahs warning the old world and Lots warning of Sodom And this is by necessary and undeniable consequence proved That if the Beasts time or the times of the Man of Sin be up and out Then the days of the Son of Man are come for Antichrist is the last Enemy that is to exercise the Church 4. Which is more fully cleared in the fourth Sermon and the Type of installing Solomon in the Throne before Davids death it aptly applyed to the times or days of the Son of man commencing before the full end of the Militant state of the Church where also many objections are answered and it is with great appositeness shewed that Christ hath not only laid his claim to these Kingdoms of great Britain but hath been as it were solemnly Proclaimed as King here as in the Palace yard of his Dominions 5. The fifth Sermon more fully answers some objections as that of the conversion of the Jews shewing that by what we have heard that they are probably disposing and preparing for a return and that objection of the debauchery and looseness of the times shewing that it is no other then what was foretold by our Saviour himself and all the Prophets and lastly that of the pouring out of the Spirit as the latter rain that it is to be most eminently and fully done in the latter end of these 45 years intimated by that last and great day of the Feast The sixth and seventh Sermons are mainly to shew the spiritual nature and import of this coming and Kingdom of Christ which if considered might have in great part satisfied your jealous concern that we wave not a spiritual Kingdom but are for that as well as you The eighth Sermon is to remove that objection of the Phyals as if they were not yet poured out where on the contrary is shewed that there are five of them poured out and the sixth is in pouring out and hath been so of a long time and there is only the seventh Phyal behind which is to contemporate with the seventh and last Trumpet 1 Tim. 6.13 14 15. I give thee Charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilot witnessed a good CONFESSION Vers 14. That thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Vers 15. Which in HIS TIMES he shall SHEW who is the Blessed and ONLY POTENTATE the KING of KINGS and Lord of Lords FINIS ERRATA PAge 18. line 13. for outwardly read outward p. 26. l. 14. f. in drawing r. in your drawing l. 23. after without make a Comma and add in p. 28. l. 15. f. Kingdom of Men which r. Kingdoms of Men will p. â—5 l. 27. f. repening r. ripening p. 38. l. 3. f. his r. their p. 39. l. 24. f. Glory r. glorify p. 40. l. 32. f. the Victory r. in Victory p. 45. l. 3. f. doth most r. doth must p. 49. l. 3. f. Great r. great and Eminent p. 50. l. 2. f. Lord r. the Lord. p. 51. l. ult after heavenly add such are they that are heavenly p. 52. l. 45. after appear l. 4. add what we shall be because he doth not appear l. â—9 for Corruption r. a Corruption p. 53. l. 11. f. so r. so that l. 23. after spirit and life add in the days of his flesh l. 26. f the Conceptions r. our Conceptions p 54. l. 4. f. those r. these after the latter these r. then Christs times are up p. 57. l. 16. f. Tabal r. Tubal p. 66. l. 32. after wilderness add of p. 69. l. 8. f. behind is r. is behind
in our hearts by the Spirit this is another glass that conveys the eye-beams to the glass of his Person and to his Blood which he hath carried into the holy place and to his Glory that as our Forerunner he is there entered into for us so here is glass upon glass or one glass serving to another but all this while we see not the Face of God but as in a glass but our Lord Jesus in his second appearance will then be no longer a glass but the very face of God unto us then we shall not converse with him through the forementioned glasses of Scriptures of Ordinances of Graces or his spiritual Form begotten in our hearts but shall see face to face and know as we are known the Person of the Lord Jesus shall then give forth unto us the very Face the very Image the very Life the very glory of God therefore it is said he shall come in the glory of the Father this was that he said to Maâ—y Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father and this was that he said to his Disciples I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of this Vine until that day when I drink it now with you in my Fathers Kingdom Mat. 26.29 And when we shall thus immediately converse with this ever blessed and full object God our Father shining forth giving forth himself nakedly immediately fully through the Person of our Lord Jesus his essential Image how great must the fruit of such a sight of such a converse with God needs be how unspeakably great must that glory be that shall then be revealed in us Christ is in full glory already in himself but he hath not his full glory in us nay how small a portion hath he of it did not the Scriptures so abundantly testify of our imperfection our meanness were not our infirmity so great a part of Scripture Revelation our own sense and feeling our own experience might suffice to acquaint us with it but so utterly imperfect are we that we are not capable of our own imperfection without Scripture Revelation nay without Spirit Revelation and is this to be boasted as a state of perfection I will be bold to say The greatest perfection now is to know our imperfection They are the most perfect men that see most of their imperfection But shall we never attain a further perfection then a sence of imperfection Is this all the glory to be revealed in us the revelation of our shame no nor the covering of it neither by a Robe of imputation That Kingdom of God that is in us now in suffering must be in Reign in Triumph in Victory Isa 25.8 There is a victory in Faith in the present time that stays the Soul but the victory of Faith ends not the Battle but looks to this victory of that day of glory Isa 42.1 3. when the judgment that was given for us in Christs death or rather in his Resurrection shall be brought forth unto victory when our right shall be acknowledged and all our Rights Priviledges Immunities all the glorious Acquest of our great Captain the Lord Jesus shall be given forth paid in and performed to us All the promises all our hopes the hope of righteousness by saith Gal. 5 5. that Believers through the Spirit have waited for all along to that day when all the work that Sin hath made all the works of the Devil 1 Joh 3 8. All this dark scene of wrath and trouble that came in by Sin All these waters of the curse that have covered the face of the Earth since the Fall shall all be dryed up and pass away for ever This and not any thing short of this is the absolute perfection and glory of Christs Kingdom You will not say that this is actual and present it neither is nor can be so 1 Pet. 1.13 because it is that grace that is to be brought unto us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Scriptures abundantly acquaint us It is so appointed by the Father It is his good pleasure which is enough to stop any further enquiry God is Love and as free as we can desire hath given us all things pertaining to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.13 1 Joh. 5.11.12 but 't is through the knowledge of him even our Lord Jesus Christ He hath given us Eternal life but this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life He that hath not the Son hath not Life All his communications to us are by and through his Son and he hath cut out his work for him Joh. 12.49 50. ch 14.31 Act. 17.31 both for his first and second appearance and Christ takes it and finishes it up as his Father gives him command He hath appointed the day when he shall judge the world and when he shall save his people and that is at his second appearance Heb. 9. last And this work of Salvation can no more be performed so as God will have it be for his full glory and our full joy without Christs personal appearance the second time in glory then the work of reconciliation by his death could be without his coming in our infirmity the first time and therefore the Apostle in Gods behalf engages that God shall send him again Acts 3. and he shall bring him again into the world saith the Author to the Hebr. ch 1.6 Indeed the Salvation the Change the glory is too great for any hand to bring but Jesus Christ in Person But of this we may have occasion to speak more ere we have done I come to your fourth Position 4. Position That the Kingdom of God and of his Christ is a Kingdom of much meekness and gentleness and goodness and heavenly moderation in all the various appearances or administrations of it This position and all that stands under it is of so Mild so Humane so Generous so Christian an aspect that I shall desire even to be found peacably and amicably comporting with it and I thought to have passed it in silence without a word more but yet to prevent any misunderstanding and that I be not by this Applaudatory Testimony involved in any Concession prejudicial to my Cause give me leave to subjoyne these two or three Animadversions following 1. That though Christs Kingdome be a Kingdom of much meekness and gentleness and goodness c. Yet that Christ is a Lyon as well as a Lamb and that this Lamb hath his Wrath as well as his Meekness Rev. 5.5 and chap. 6.16 And that his Enemies must expect to feel the one as his subjects servants and friends shall find the other 2. That both the Gentleness and the wrath of the Lamb have their times and their seasons and each is beautiful in its season the present time or the times of the militant state are times while the gentleness the patience the long-suffering of God waits upon his Enemies and all that time
in the night that shall lift up their voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord when the shadow of Death shall dwell upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth As it fared with the Jews from the times of the second Temple the state of their worship and civil policy was sinking and declining every day more and more after that little reviving and that little help wherewith they were holpen in the dayes of the Maccabees as the day of Christs first appearance drew nearer and nearer whereby they that waited not for the consolation of Israel and looked not with some comfortable assurance and evidence for that Redemption in Jerusalem were in a most deplorable and desponding condition so hath it for a long time succeeded with surrogated Israel since the new Erection of Churches collapsed and faln during the long Babilonish Captivity under the Beast and so it will be more and more as Christ withdraws as a Bridegroom from us in the comforts of his first appearance as he did from his Disciples for a little time by his Death during which time they Mourned and had Sorrow as a Woman when her hour is come till he visited them again in the Spirit which was for an instruction to us in Type and Figure of his withdrawing the Comforts of his first Appearance before his great illustrious and visible appearance in Person the second time This is that Song in the Night even the hope and expectation of this Appearance that is to relieve us in this mystical Night which therefore it concerns us to state aright according to Scripture Rule and evidence both for time and manner that our joy may be grounded regular and full which otherwise will be Lame and totter if we place it not upon both the Leggs and Bases of it his Person as well as his Spirit his Presence as well as his Power In this light I hope and express it again The shadows of the evening are not so far stretch-out upon you and me but we may yet meet and rejoice in the mutual communicating of our right and regular apprehensions touching this Kingdom of Christ and the near the very near approaching glory of it when and whereby it is that you will substract and withdraw from a CARNAL PARTY that matter of joy which you have without an Evil Designe I verily hope and believe Ministred unto them by your appearing against this hope and expectation In which hope I rest Dear Sir Consider what I say and the Lord give you unstanding in all things Octob. 16. 1676. Your affectionate friend Brother and Servant in our great and dear Lord J. S. A Brief Synopsis of the most material evidence for the drawing nigh of our Redemption contained in each Sermon of that little Book I sent you intituled News of a New World IN the first Sermon the four Watches mentioned by our Saviour Mark 13.35 are open'd as measuring all the Times from his Ascension to his second personal coming and are distinctly applyed viz. the evening contains all that time from Christs departure to the rising of Antichrist in which space of time these three remarkable Events do accur 1. Jerusalem was destroyed 2. The Churches of Asia were dismantled And 3dly Heathenism was abolished in the Roman Empire This time lasted to the opening of the sixth Seal and Constantines coming to the Empire The midnight Watch which is the darkest and most dangerous Watch wherein all are wrapt up in sleep is also the longest continuing all the times both of the Beasts Growth and Rampancy by the space of a thousand years during which mystical Night Isa 30.29 Rev. 14.13 the Church the Invisible Church had a mystical Song and Reign with Christ which the rest of the world understood not The Cock-Crowing-Watch began from the times of Reformation about the year 1300 with the fifth Trumpet lasting all the times of that Trumpet and great part of the sixth till the pouring forth of the sixth Phyal Then saith the Lord Behold I come as a Thief and from thence fourthly commenceth the Morning-Watch containing but a short space of time but of great moment and consequence being as I humbly conceive Daniels 45 Prophetical days from the end of his 1290 days which commencing about the year 1650 are so far past as from that time and have left but 18 or 19 years to compleat the 1335 days which bring us to that time whereof the Spirit himself saith Blessed is He that waiteth and cometh thereunto And whereas it is said Ye know not when the Master of the house cometh whether at Even or at Midnight or at the Cock-Crowing or in the Morning It is there shewed that this is not to involve the second personal and glorious coming of Christ in uncertainty but to shew a concern All ages would have in one coming of his or other all the former being but preliminary or leading in a way of gradual growth and preparation to his last coming In that Sermon also is shewed the necessity of Christs spiritual and powerful coming in our Spirits without which his outward personal coming will be of no advantage to us and also the necessity of his personal coming to those that know his spiritual and powerful coming in some measure as a glorious Ministry to awaken and call up that life of the Spirit of Christ that lies bound as in a sleep even in the Saints themselves And thus his spiritual and his personal appearance are reconciled and it is manifest we rest not in a visible and personal appearance without the spirit and power of that appearance revealed and working in us no more then we may rest in a spiritual appearance or the hopes of his personal Appearance without the thing it self in due time to be performed The import of the second Sermon is to shew that the times of the Man of Sin are expired and the times of Christs second glorious appearance are drawing on a pace and very near 1. From the Calculation of the Prophetical Periods both in Daniel and the Revelation 2. From the opening of the signs of the times given by our Saviour and Recorded by three of the Evangelists In the calculation is shewed the Agreement of both the Prophets Daniel and John in the term of expiration though they differ in their Epocha The one viz. Daniels time measuring the conculcation of his People and Nation by the four Monarchies and Johns number of 1260 days measuring the answerable treading down of the holy City among the Gentiles by the Papacy Accordingly the Epocha of the former is pitcht from Julian about the year of Christ 360 the latter from the time of that Famous defeat of Eugenius by Theodosius in which the life and cause of Heathenism in the Roman Empire expired and way was made for the man of Sin to get up into the Temple of God which was about the year 390 but both these times viz. of 1290 days in Daniel and 1260
whole Creation doth unto this day Yea we that have the first fruits of the Spirit saith the Apostle even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption viz. the redemption of our body Sir I trust we are not and shall not be found without our mouths filled with praises for this inward Kingdom of God in the Spirit in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost nor for this glorious freedom and liberty in the inward man but yet we groan and are allowed so to do and it is our duty and the Spirit himself assists us in this groaning and assists us with his sighs and groanes which are deeper then ours for the glorious completion of this Kingdom and the manifestation of it In respect whereof and in comparison with which our present state is but a prison and that in two respects the one respecting the inward the other the outward liberty First in respect of the inward this Spiritual inward liberty of which you treat though in respect of the ground and object of it which is Christ and the work of our Redemption wrought by his Death be full and perfect in its self yet in respect of its Application it is neither fully given forth nor but weakly apprehended by us The times of the full giving forth being reserved till Christs second appearance when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven fold as the light of seven days viz. In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroak of their wound Esa 30.26 At present though the Object be uncovered in comparison with the times of the Law yet our sight is weak and therefore our weak eyes need a Glass as the Apostle saith 2. In respect of the outward The vision of our peace is as a book that is Sealed The times of this world are the Seales upon it six of them were open'd long since the seventh containing all the Trumpets and Phyalls under it is opened so far that there remains but the last Trumpet and Phyal which sticks but by a little Wax and then the times of this world are ended and the book flies open and then that is written within shall be perfectly manifested Now Sir let me bespeak you in your own words p. 30. Look not awry upon these things neither manifest any manner of dislike or neglect or carelesness Gallio like about them And take not the present in payment for the whole Look into the ancient Types of this Redemption we wait for they were not meerly inward and spiritual but outward also The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt the bringing back of the Babilonish captivity The bringing up of the Christian Church from under the Heathenish persecution These were but in part and shall this glorious Kingdom we expect fall short of these God forbid That measure of outward Liberty we enjoy at this day is by the Prerogative dispensation of this Kingdom of our Lord Jesus which hath set foot in these Nations and will not let go its hold till it hath wrought out a full liberty and deliverance for us I come now to the other part of your third Position that this Kingdom of Christ is of absolute perfection and glory which I readily assent to and the perfection and glory of it to be greater than what you instance or describe but not actual in the present state but only in hope and enjoyed at present only by Faith I say first the perfection and glory of this Kingdom of Christ is greater than what you rest in for the perfection and glory you describe rests in God and in the Person of the Lord Jesus and we are interessed in it only by faith for this is all the evidence you bring or indeed can bring for the absoluteness of this perfection and glory our imperfections manifold testifying against us that we are not actually or manifestly perfect throughout in our whole spirit Soul and Body nor in either part of them and therefore by the convincing evidence of this imperfection you are driven to fly to your Metaphysicks of unum bonum verum vel perfectum p. 44. and to grant that we in our selves and of our selves are still the same only look what we are to God that we are in Him and not in our selves p. 42. and very studiously and industriously you purge your self of placing this perfection in the flesh or in the letter but that it hath its being and foundation wholly and altogether in the life and power and spirit of the Lord Jesus c. p. 47.48 which is so well spoken that I wish those that rejoice in your book as countenancing their dream of perfection may understand it and come to a better understanding by it But is this all the perfection we ever look for in Christs Kingdom an objective perfection shall there be two Men always in us the Old and the New the Flesh and the Spirit shall we be always torn and divided and drawn asunder by two Centers two Laws the Law of our Members rebelling against the Law of our Minds T is most certain our Life our Perfection our Glory shall ever be more objective than subjective even to Eternity that is our happiness our blessedness more properly more truly consists in the Relation we have to God and Christ in the Vnion we have with God and Christ then in any habit qualities or graces that are wrought in us or by infusion imparted or communicated to us and with us else what means the Beatifical Vision But there is a vast difference between the way of apprehending this glorious full and perfect object of all blessedness now in the present infirm state and hereafter We now walk by faith saith the Apostle not by sight but then we shall walk by sight and not by faith while we walk by faith the object is at a distance for faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for now hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for therefore faith is not sight properly though the Apostle calls it a seeing in a sort because it makes a kind of supply of the want of sight yet 't is but a dark but a weak sight and therefore says he we now see through a Glass darkly for the weakness of the sight and the remoteness of the object the glass is needful The Lord Jesus his Person his transactions is in this our present state but as a glass through which we see God and this glass is very remote He is in Heaven and we now see him not as the Apostle Peter says 1 Pet. 1.8 and there will abide till the times of the restitution of all things and we only see him by Faith through the revelation of Scriptures the representation of Ordinances and the spiritual form of himself brought forth
THE VISIBLE GLORY OF THE Reign of Christ ON EARTH No ways Repugnant to the Spirituality of his Kingdom Occasion'd By an Epistolary Discourse Intituled THE REIGN of CHRIST among his Saints denying any such OUTWARD and VISIBLE Kingdom For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the POWER and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his MAJESTY 2 Pet. 1.16 LONDON Printed in the Year 1677. Just and Charitable Reflections c. SIR THat Man is as weak as his Cause that cannot indure a Free ventilation of what he holds for Truth The Surer he is of Truth the less concern'd will he appear at the Tryal of it If I am Offended it must be at my Self who Vnawares invited you to this trouble when I desired you to give me your thoughts freely of the Book I sent you though I intended you not so great pains nor my self neither You are thought by some that have read you in some places sharp enough against the Cause you oppose though every where full of kind Reflections and Assurances of Respect to the Person you deal with which would shew your Difference from him at Present to be not of Choice but of Necessity And I will assure you Sir I am far from the Vanity of affecting to differ from you or any Sober searchers after truth and therefore shall not seek to make the difference greater then your self State and allow it to be who in Pag. 78. have these words I know of no difference at all depending between you and me about that most blessed estate or happy condition wherein the righteous shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of our Father neither is it the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ in all the Divine glories of it that we radically and fundamentally differ so much about as the time and manner of revealing it If our difference be only in the time and manner of Revealing of this Kingdom which is the Subject about which the little Book I sent you is conversant then I might reasonably have expected you would have considered and weighed the things there offered for the time and manner and given me your Exceptions thereto which you have not done at all but bend your force against the very Hope and Expectation it self for so you deliver your self Pag. 7. That you know not the meaning of that OVTWARD AND VISIBLE Kingdom of Christ which I make the Foundation of my discourse against which you reflect very sharply in that and several other Paragraphs of your Book which I have no delight to Repeat but as necessity shall require to give you occasion to review them I confess Sir I took this for a Postulatum with my hearers and therefore did not apply my self at all to prove it If you can overthrow my Foundation you had reason to save your self the labour of undertaking the rest what was Built upon it will fall of its self if you succeed in this The way you seek to overthrow this is by carrying up the Present State of the Kingdom of God into all the Grandure and Glory of expression that may be so here is KINGDOM AGAINST KINGDOM or rather one State of the Kingdom and that Inferior and far Short set up against the other which is alone Perfective and Satisfactory Your first Position upon which you thus bear up your self runs thus The Kingdom of God and of his Christ is an inward and invissible Kingdom containing within the large circumference or comprehension of it all the invisible things of God the Summ and Substance whereof is his eternal Power and Godhead And what Sir will you make of all this The Kingdom of God and his Christ is an Inward and Invisible Kingdom Who denys it Have we not an outward and an inward Man a visible and invisible part and may not the Kingdom of God have so to and consist of both If you would have made any thing of your Argument pardon Sir my freedom with you I know you want not Logick though here you thought not good to use it you should have said it is only inward and invisible containing in it only the Invisible things of God But then besides the difficulty you would have found to have proved that your self would be found instead of allowing the large and comprehensive bounds of its content to put the Straight and Narrow Limits of restraint upon it which yet in the close and winding up of this position you do in effect though not in terminis making the Sum and Substance of all these Invisible things of God to be his Eternal Power and God-head Vouching the Apostle Paul for your Author Rom. 1.20 Who will not stand by you in this assertion nor any of the Sacred Pen-men of the Scriptures for in that place he is not speaking of all the invisible things of God but only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God by the light of Nature even to the Heathen and this only so far as to leave them without Excuse Sir though we are Friends yet in this cause as Levi I must not know you nor spare to tell you you build upon a very weak Foundation if all be like this you come to overthrow my Foundation pray look to your own You will make a LARGE KINGDOM of it indeed if it be found among the Heathens in that faint Glimmering light that never saved one of them only serves to come in as witness against them for their corrupting in it and under it but in the mean while you make a very SORRY and WEAK Kingdom of it which was not of force to keep them from so corrupting If this be all the Kingdom of God contains within its large circumference and comprehension I have done But suppose these spiritual and invisible things as large as you will yet unless you prove that the Kingdom of God is only of such your Argument concludes nothing against an outward and visible Kingdom Nor is your next quotation much more to your purpose 2 Cor. 4.17 18. But utterly against you the words are these Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the thing that are not seen for the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal VVhere the Apostle is raising and bearing up himself and his fellows in the Tribulation they endured for the Kingdom of God who by dispensation in their present state and for a glorious end were as those that had an excellent Treasure but in Earthen Vessels that God might appear the more in their support They were troubled on every side Perplexed Persecuted cast down but not Distressed not in Dispair not Forsaken not Destroyed Always bearing about in the Body the dyings of the Lord Jesus always delivered unto Death
for Jesus sake but with this Counsel and design That the Lâ—fe also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body yea in our Mortal flesh which expectation and hope he casts into the times of the Resurrection vers 14. Or the day of Judgment as it is in the next Chap. vers 10. when we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Text may be rendred that he may receive such things by or through his Body according to that he hath done where the Body is brought in not as the instrument of those things done as the Translation in the English would carry it but for that state of man wherein he shall receive his full reward whether for good or bad which is when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul as in the Resurrection for if the Apostle should refer the doing of good or bad only to the Body or those things wherein the Body was the Agent or Instrument it would be too short to take in all good and bad there being many both good and bad fruits wherein the Body hath no hand as all mental Sins and spiritual wickednesses and so spiritual vertues and graces his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad For this cause it is that he says in the former Chap. vers 16. We faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us c. While we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen c. Here lies the knot what are these things NOT SEEN This is the strength of your Argument if there be any strength in it The Apostle shews both before and after what he means They are things that relate not only to the Soul but to the Body the mortal Flesh the Earthen Vessel or the Earthly house of this Tabernacle which shall be exchanged for a Building of God an House not made with hands a House from Heaven a Vessel of Gold which the same Apostle in the former Epistle Chap. 15. calls a Spiritual body Now is all this a meer INWARD SPIRITUAL AND INVISIBLE Glory Give me leave Sir to tell you what hath led you out of the way it it the taking of the things not seen for things Invisible whereas the Apostle is not heard to speak so in this place The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not things simply or in their own nature absolutely invisible but with respect to the present time as it is restrained in a parallel case and instance of Noah Heb. 11.7 Noah warned of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching things not seen as yet viz. The destruction of the old World by the Flood a thing which they saw and felt to their cost in the season appointed And so the recompence of reward that Moses had respect unto and the promises unto Abraham that he should be the Heir of the World they were things not seen as yet but not in their nature invisible but were seen in their time in bringing Israel into Canaan as an Earnest of the whole world to be given in due time to the seed of the Antypâ—â—â—l Abraham So also the Apostle speaks of this hope that remains still to the People of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we see not yet all things put under him He doth not say we shall never see but implies the contrary nay we have earnest of it in the glory and honour with which our Lord Jesus the head of this mystical body is Crowned Such is the Apostles Argument and such is his sence and so is he to be taken in this your place of the Corinths the things the Apostles lookt unto and comforted themselves in were things not seen as yet for they take not place till the Resurrection and the day of Judgment which I suppose you overlooking or not considering the time of this glorious visible Administration but thinking I took up as perhaps too many do in a corruptible state of things in changes made by men on this side the Resurrection of the Dead hath been a stumbling block that hath turned you out of the way whereas it is not till the Resurrection of the Just that we look for this reward as our Saviour himself determines Luk. 14.14 When the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we that survive shall be changed Now to deny a visible and outward Kingdom and Glory when the bodies of men shall put off Mortality and there shall be an universal change in the whole nature of things in Heaven and Earth and all Creatures and in all Administrations is without any plausible pretence either of Reason or Scripture It must be granted that all along in all times there have been by dispensation certain visible Earnests and foretasts of this recompence serving as Types and Prefigurations for the confirmation of our Faith and Expectation as in Enoch during the times of the Old World in the bringing of Israel out of Egypt in Moses time in the flourishing raign of Solomon c. In the Translation of Elijah in the transfiguration of our Saviour and there have been some rare examples that have pressed farr and bid high for perfection as Paul even for the Resurrection of the Dead to pass by those in every age who put themselves forward in their own spirit which will come to nothing but never any in their mortal flesh attained the full glory of this state but only a little portion of it it being the glory of another time and that which awaits the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints as Enoch the first of these Instances witnesseth in his Prophecy And now Sir I have done with this your second proof and I thank you for bringing it into the field it hath done us more service then you though I hope all is a service to you and you will find and acknowledge it so in the end but I speak with reference to your present cause and engagement you must needs be sensible that your own weapons are turned upon your self for these things that are not seen to which the Apostles and Believers do look have been proved to be the things of the resurrection such as concern the glory of our bodies and the restitution of all things as well as the perfecting of our spirits and to be called things not seen not for the invisibility of their nature but for that the time of their appearing is not yet So that now unless you will say which I know you will not that the putting all things even Death it self in subjection under Christ and his Saints is no part of the Kingdom of God and of Christ you cannot say it is wholly inward and invisible Your third Quotation may