invariety or same-ness of body in the Resurrection to the same sense with the Apostle to every Seed his own body To this Obj. if it be Objected that in the 37. verse of that Chapter under the metaphor of Seed he tells the incredulous Fool that cannot believe this Article of Faith the Resurrection Thou sowest not that body which shall be Not that body which shall be It seems then the body shall be another thing from that which is now sown Ans Answ Yea and indeed so it shall be in respect of quality though not of kind There is diversity in one and the self same body as it is in the Metaphorical so it shall be with the natural the Grain's sown mean and bare but it springeth up after another manner beautiful and green yet the same Grain Meliorata substantia non numero multiplicata Tert. the body likewise is the same when it riseth as it was sowen for Substance Parts Members and Organs but not the same for beauty and excellent Properties The Infant shall rise a man of perfect Age the Lame shall rise Sound the Blind shall rise Seeing the Deaf shall Hearing the Dunth shall be able to Speak the Resurrection shall take away all Defects and Excesses of Nature the Deformities of the Saints shall not be raised together with their bodies yea Deformities shall be turned into Comelinesses and Beauties and yet all these Alterations do no more change or destroy the Individuality of Person than Youth doth make the Person numerically different from what it was in Infancy or Old Age from what it was in Youth or as it was in the Persons of all sorts which Christ healed in the day of his Flesh they were the same Individuals after Cure as they were before Cure makes not another Individual man of a Cripple nor Health of the Sick so shall it be in the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints for of them only I speak not at all of the wicked shall be the same for substance and matter but wonderfully changed for Form and supernatural Endowments and Qualities Second description in particular Which brings me to the particular description of the Resurrection sc in respect of admirable and transcendent Properties of which our Apostle hath instanced Four sc Four Properties of the risen bodies of Saints 1. Incorruption Propeâ—ies of the body in the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2. Glory 3. Power 4. Spirituality All these in opposition to the contrary Infirmities and Deformities of the state of Mortality Contraria â—uxta se pâ—sita â—â—â—g's â—lucescunt That so by Comparison the well-nigh infinite disproportion of both Estates may appear and the Super-excellencies which the Resurrection puts upon the Body may shine forth more conspicuously First it is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption 1. Property Incorruptible It is sowen in Corruption Behold the body is Corruptible whiles it liveth a Nursery of such Seeds and Principles as will inevitably destroy it self a Spittal of all manner of Diseases but when it is dead it is Corruption it self Infirmity resolved into Rottenness and Deformity the fondest Relation who while living layed it in the Bosom cannot now endure it in the sight Give me a Burying place said Abraham of his beloved Sarah that I may Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23 4. It is now the picture of all ghastly Loathsomness But Oh how unlike it self shall it be in the Resurrection It is raised in Incorruption When Christ hath fetcht the body out of the Grave and set it upon its feet again there shall not be the least smell or savour of Mortality upon it as there was no smell of the fire upon the Raiment of the three Children when they came out of the fiery Furnace Dan. 3.27 All the Principles of Corruption and Mortality shall be put off and lest together with the Grave-Cloaths in the Sepulcher The body as some think shall give forth a sweet fragrant smell like the Flowers of Paradise it shall be an Angelified body Flesh Immortalized subject to no more Corruption than the Soul it self There shall be no more Death nor fear of Death nor possibility of Death for ever Secondly It is sown in dishonour As soon as the Soul is enlarged from its Imprisonment the body is presently stript naked of all its Robes and honourable Attire and wrapt up in a poor shroud of no other use than to hide Deformity and as a mean contemptible thing it is buried under ground Yea somtimes denied so much honour it is exposed naked above ground in the sight of the Sun without any other Funeral than what it may have in the bowels of the Fouls of the Heavens Psal 79.1 or the Ravenous Beasts of the Earth But be the Burial never so Ignoble the Resurrection of it shall be Glorious Second Property Gloricuâ— It is raised in Glory We may truly say Solomon in all his Glory was not arayed like one of these Children of the Resurrection there shall be a glory put upon the Body which shall out-shine the Sun in its brightest refulgency And that upon a double account 1. By vertue of a Principle within 2. The body shall be glorious in the Resurrection 1. By vertue of an Inward Principle By means of a Glorious Irradiation without 1. By vertue of an Internal Principle The Soul which is the Candle of the Lord is here for a time put into a dark Lanthorn of the Body But then the glorified Soul being now returned by the power of Christ into its antient habitation and become a Vessel replenished with Immortal and unmixed light will transmit such beams of glory into the refined body that it shall shine like an Angel of Light the body of the poorest Lazar that ever lay on the Dunghill shall be cloathed with such ravishing rayes of Beauty as will transcend the most absolute Beauty that ever mortal eye beheld 2 By vertue of External Irradiation from Christ 2 Thes 2.10 Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly By vertue of an External Irradiation It is said of Jesus Christ at that day He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe As Jesus Christ was the Brightness of his Fathers Glory it is spoken of him not as he was the second person in Trinity God blessed for ever but as he was Verbum Incarnatum The Word Incarnate all the beams of Divine Majesty and Glory did shine forth in him with such a refulgent brightness that thorow his Flesh the Godhead was as it were made visible we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth So shall the Saints at his Coming in their proportion be the brightness of Christ his glory the beams of that glory which shall shine forth from the glorified Person of their Redeemer shall reflect such a glittering Splendor upon
Glorious Powerful Spiritual A Change which we are not in a capacity to understand till we shall possess it And all these admirable Properties the blessed Apostle hath cast up into one Word a word of a most incomprehensible signification the Summa totalis the vast comprehensive estimate of all the rest sc Our vile bodies shall be fashioned like to Christ his Glorious body Phil. 3.21 This short comprehensive description of the glory of the Resurrection is exprest also by way of Opposition to its Contrary that the excellency of the Resurrection might be more illustrious being compared with the meanness and obscurity of the present state and either of them is absolved in one word The meaness of the present state of the body It is a Vile Body The glory of the future It shall be conformed to Christs Glorious Body The body now is a vile body Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our body of this vileness A word of so full a signification that in the whole Dictionary of Language there cannot be found a term more proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express the meaness and ignominie of the present state Some derive it from a Greek word which signifies to bury expressing such a corrupt and fordid thing as if with Lazarus it had layn four days stinking in the Grave Joh. 11.39 a Carcase that stincks above ground how much more when it is buried indeed Others derive it from a word that signifies to stamp and tread under-foot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calcari See Mr. Calamies Sermon Preached at Dr. Boltons Funeral implying the body in it self to be of so fordid and base an Extraction since the Fall as is fit for nothing but to be cast out upon the dunghill and trampled under the feet of man and beasts whether alive or dead it is a vile thing set aside only its divine workmanship Vileness it self Why-but now the Resurrection shall make amends for all Then this vile body shall be fashioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto Christ his glorious body like i. e. of a like form and fashion to Christs body that must needs be a ravishing beauty indeed for mark ye it is not like to Christ his body in his state of Humiliation which yet was full of beauty though the blind world could not see it Isa 53. Joh. 1.14 The divine beauty beaming it self through the very body of Christ and adding lustre unto it Exod. 34.30 they whose eyes were opened saw and admired we behâ—ld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But in the Resurrection it is said Our vile bodies shall be fashioned like to his Glorious body surely that must needs excel in glory Behold if such were the brightness of Moses his face at the giving of the Law that the Israelites were not able to bear it They were afraid saith the Text to come nigh him If St. Stephens Countenance did shine as the face of an Angel when he stood holding up his hand at the bar of his Unrighteous Judges in the posture of a Malefactor what think we is the lustre and brightness which shines forth from the glorified body of the Lord Jesus 1 Tim. 6.15 16. who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only hath immortality Math. 17.3 dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see Behold in his transfiguration Heb. 11.3 In Regia Caelorum sedet Jesus ad dextram Patris Tert. de Resurr Carnis his Face did shine as the Sun and his Rayment was white as Snow What ravishing beams of light and glory do Moses and Elias and Peter now see sparkling from his glorified Person exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high i. e. on the highest Throne of the highest Majesty in the Court of Heaven Illud corpus cadaverosum configurabit corpori claritaris suâ— Aug. Verâ—or ne temerarium sit omne quod de illa proferiur elâ—quiâ—m August de civit Dei Lib. 22. Cap. 21. Surely the glorified body of Christ doth as far surpass the Sun in brightness as the Sun surpasseth a clod of Earth and yet to this Exemplar of glory must the bodies of the Saints be conformed in the Resurrection Surely glorious things are spoken of the Resurrection So great so glorious that had not the Spirit of God spoken them before it had been daring presumption to have reported or believed it Qu. But some may say How can these things be or How is it possible that such rotten stinking Carcasses should be capable of such a glorious Metamorphosis Ans It may well non-pluss our poor dark Infant-understandings For eye hath not seen nor ear heard 1 Cor. 2.9 nor hath it entred into the heart of man what glory God hath prepared for the very bodies of his Saints But because it is wonderful in our eyes Shall it be wonderful in the eyes of the Lord of Hosts With men indeed this is impossible but with God all things are possible O LORD GOD thou knowest Ezek. 27.3 was the answer which the Prophet of old returned to that non-plussing question concerning the Resurrection of the dry bones of the house of Israel a Type of this last and general Resurrection He referr'd it as being a mystery transcending his understanding to Divine Wisdome and Omnipotence to resolve And upon the same bottom doth our Apostle here fix this Mystery and our Faith sc It is according to the working of his mighty Power whereby he is able to subdue even all things to Himself In his own Resurrection the Lord Jesus as Mediator gave us a signal specimen of his power Colos 2.15 when he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly He subdued the Devil Hell and the Grave to himself got them under his feet and led Captivity Captive by vertue of which Conquest he became the Resurrection and the Life and therefore is able to exert the same power and influence in raising his Members and in conforming them to their Head which he put forth in his own Resurrection it is a work of no greater difficulty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The bodies of the Saints shall be raised tanta facilitate quanta faelicitate with as much ease as happiness Aug. If it were He is able to subdue even all things it is a note of similitude All things are alike to Omnipotence the greatest are as the least Our Impossibles are all one to him as our facilities nothing can stand in his way which he cannot subdue and conquer to Himself i. e. at his own pleasure to his own glorious purposes and designes And therefore even this admirable and stupendious Transformation shall be effected upon those poor deformed Carcasses of his Saints which sense and reason gave for lost Faith says it shall be done our vile
bodies shall be transfigured into the likeness of his own Glorious body How according or suitably to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself God can do what he will and that 's enough And thus I have opened the first Consequence of Christ his Last Coming sc The Resurrection of the Saints as formerly in respect of the 1. Author The Lord Jesus 2. The Precedency of it they that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep they shall rise first So also now 3. In respect of the manner of it the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with four glorious qualities 1. Incorruptible 2. Glorious 3. Powerful 4. Spiritual By all which it shall be conformed to the Glorious Body of our Lord Jesus It may be of Use 1. For Counsel 2. For Comfort and but a word of either First It may serve by way of Counsel 1. Use Of Counsel and that unto all indefinitly You that would secure unto your selves an interest in the glory which shall be put upon the Saints bodies in the Resurrection labour to experience this beatifical transfiguration first in your Souls on this side of the Grave Labour to get your vile spirits to be made like to his glorious Spirit Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ put Him on by an holy and universal Imitation Labour to be meek as He was meek Holy as He was Holy Pure as He was Pure Merciful as He was Merciful Heavenly as He was Heavenly And Joh. 4.34 Let it be your meat and drink to do the will of him that sent you and to finish his work * A. Christ was the brightness of his Father's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insculpta forma the express Image of his Person So do ye study in your finite capacity to be the brightness of Christ his glory the express Image of his Person Oh labour to get his Image and similitude to be deeply engraven upon your hearts and to scatter the beams of it in your Conversations Philip. 2.15 for the enlightning of a dark world Behold this shall be the evidence and first-fruits of your future conformity to Him in the Resurrection of the just The ground and Reason is because that blessed Transfiguration which shall conform the Saints to Christ their Head and Husband in the Resurrection and from thenceforth to all Eternity hath its beginning here in Regeneration Ephes 4.23 24. or the New Birth wherein they are renewed in the Spirit of their minds Bâ—ta referts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit upon twelve â—nâ—â—nes and do put on habitually the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true holiness Jesus Christ is formed in their hearts And upon this very account is the Resurrection styled also the Regeneration Math. 19.28 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit i. e. in the Resurrection ye also shall sit c. And it is therefore called the Regeneration because the Resurrection shall perfect in the Saints what the Regeneration begun sc Conformity to Christ their Head and Husband in Holiness Yea at the Resurrection the Image of Jesus Christ shall be compleated as on their Souls so on their bodies also because that Image was begun upon their Souls on this side the Grave in their New Birth accordingly as they were predestinated to both in the purpose of God Rom 8.29 from all Eternity The Resurrection to Grace here and to Glory hereafter is but one and the same Regeneration Whosoever therefore is a Stranger to this Transformation of Spirit in the Resurrection to Grace shall never partake of that Transfiguration of body in the Resurrection to Glory The bodies of the wicked shall be raked out of their Graves with all their defects and excesses all their mis-shapes and deformities which they carried with them to their Graves in their perfect ugliness which were the shame and curse of the fallen nature an abhorrency to God and Angels c. Yea to the very Devils themselves whom they shall have to be both their Companions and Executioners The Saints of God were the world 's derided persecuted Non-Conformists here but themselves shall be Christs and his Saints Non-Conformists hereafter when their Carcasses shall be cast out for a spectacle of shame and abhorrency unto all flesh for ever Isa 66. ult Christians as you love your Souls and would bear the Image of the Son of God in his Kingdom and glory Study this Soul-Conformity now and make it your business Labour to feel this blessed change wrought in your hearts and let the world behold it in your lives without which all your Confidences concerning that day will prove but so many delusions Rom. 5.5 to aggravate your shame and everlasting dispair Hear oh hear how the Disciple of Love doth argue When He shall appear we shall be like Him Glorious But why 1 Joh. 3.2 cum c. 4.17 Because As He is so are we in this world He disputes from Conformity to Christ in the Gospel-state to Conformity to Him at this Appearance We shall c. because we are c. By such Argumentations Christians Philip. 2.12 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 1 Joh. 4.17 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling that ye may have boldness in the day of Judgment c. Secondly It may serve by way of Comfort Second Use Consolation and for that end it is written by the Comforter Himself in this model for Comfort I say in reference to our sweet Relations that sleep in Jesus over whom not seldom we spend our fruitless Tears take we heed lest sinful also while we compare their once lively sweet amiable Countenances which sparkled so much beauty and delight in our eyes with their pale ghastly Visages in the Grave where they say to Corruption Job 17.14 thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister We look upon them I say not without a kind of trembling and horrour as if their Ghosts appeared to us out of their Graves or that we our selves were buried with them alive in the same Coffin Ah Sirs why stand ye not with the men of Galilee Act. 1.11 gazing up into Heaven but with Peter stooping down and looking into the Sepulcher Behold I bring you glad tydings of great joy The day is coming when that Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and that Mortal shall put on Immortality when that poor dust over which thou now mournest that vile body shall put on its Angelical Robes and shall more surpass it self in its freshest and liveliest colours while yet in the land of the living than that beautiful pile of flesh and blood did exceed it self when it was resolved into rottenness and dust Look not then oh ye Children of God upon your Selves or your Relations as they lye in the Grave but contemplate them as
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
wailing and gnashing of Teeth which shall never have an end For Use In the first place it may serve as a Cordial to the Saints of God Use 1. A Cordial whether in reference to their own dissolution or the dissolution of their precious Relations already fallen asleep Behold the descent of the Saints of God into the Grave is not with so much weakness ignominy and abasement as their Ascent after the Resurrection to meet their Lord in the Air shall be with Power Triumph and Glory Christ shall draw them Clouds shall carry them Angels shall conduct them Yea they shall mount up to Heaven by vertue of those Christ-like impressions stampt upon their glorified bodies in the Resurrection Each one of these were sufficient All these must needs be exceeding Glorious yet Such honour have all the Saints Secondly There is Caution in it as well as Comfort Use 2. Caution And that is Begin this Ascention betimes Labour to experience this Heavenly motion on this side of the Grave Sursum corda Lift up your heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up Oh ye everlasting Doors behold The Resurrection and Ascention in the future state of happiness have their spring and rise in the present state of holiness they are linke in and joyned one to another in the eternal counsel and purpose of God with the very same Connexion wherewith Birth and Conception are lincked together Harvest and Seed-time So that look what impossibility there is in nature that there should be a Birth where was no Conception or an Harvest where no Semination the same impossibility there is that such a person should share in the Resurrection of Glory that is a stranger to the Resurrection of Grace the new Birth or that a Man or Woman should Ascend to meet Jesus Christ in the Clouds who in the state of Regeneration labours not often to meet Christ in the Mount of holy Meditation If therefore ye be risen with Christ Colos 3.1 2. seek those things which are above where Christ sits at Gods right hand set your affections on things above Christ after he arose from the dead did often ascend to his Father till at the end of 40 days He went up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples Acts 1.9 10. Do ye also imitate your blessed Lord in your frequent ascentions after him and thereby evidence to your selves not only that you are already risen with Christ in the Resurrection of Holiness but that ye shall also arise with Him and Ascend to Him at his coming in his Glory Christians let not that man think ever to be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air who is patient of being a stranger to Christ in the Spirit without God in the world Eph. 2.12 and without hope he burieth his hope of Ascending where Christ is who burieth his heart and affections in the dunghil of worldly and sensual fruitions Oh labour to say with the Apostle though our Commoration be on Earth our * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traffique Burgesship Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Phil. 3.20 though ye walk below Aug. The Saints do uti mundo but frui Deo Carnal men do uti Deo frui mundo Corpore ambulamus in terra corde habitamus in coelo Aug. yet live above Though ye use the world yet labour to enjoy God and to be able to say with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.26 Though ye have your converse with men let your Communion be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Labour to say with Augustine Our bodies are on Earth our hearts in Heaven while the men of the world Earthlize Heavenly things do you study how to Heavenlize Earthly things labour as he did to eat and drink and sleep Eternal Life So may you with an holy Confidence go along with the Apostle from whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christians can no further look for the Lord Jesus to Descend from Heaven then as they themselves in the mean time labour to be often Ascending with him into Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is the Saints Evidence and first-fruits of their Heavenly-blessedness I have done with the second Consequent I come to the third Consequent of Christ's Coming Thirdly Third Consequent of Christs Coming The Saints joyful meeting and it is two-fold 1. One with another 2. With Christ their Head The one is Implied the other Exprest The Saints meeting one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is implied in this Adverbial particle Vnà Together we shall be caught up together with him i. e. We which shall be found alive upon the face of the Earth at Christs coming together with them which being fallen asleep before of elder or later time Christ hath now raised up out of their Graves we and they shall All be caught up together c. This I say presupposeth their meeting together antecedaneous to their Ascention how else can they co-Ascend if not congregated before they Ascend And therefore in order of nature though the Saints meeting together should have been spoken to before their Ascention yet the series of the words not well admitting this method it will not be improper to consider it where it meets us The Scripture takes notice of the Saints meeting one with another as distinct from their meeting with the Lord Jesus Mat. 24.31 The Elect shall be gathered together from the four winds from one end of the Heavens to another At what distance soever imaginable they were disperst and scattered they shall all meet together into one distinct body or Assembly And then co-ascend to meet their Lord. Some of the School-men apply that passage of the Prophet Isa 10.34 They shall Mount up with wings as Eagles to this ascention of the Saints after the Resurrection Whether that be so or no we may not incongruously suppose the Elect of God to be gathered together into some one * Some suppose the Valley of Jehâ—shaphat vast capacious tract or region of ground on the right hand of the Judgment-seat from thence to take their flight together to meet the Judg in the Air. We must understand the placing of the Sheep on the right hand and the Goats on the left hand to be upon the ground for the Wicked shall not Ascend to meet Christ and the Godly when Ascended shall be placed on Seats round about the Throne Mat. 25.33 And of this Congregation of the Elect the Scripture assigneth a two-fold Cause 1. CHRIST the principal efficient Cause The Son of man shall come in the Clouds and shall send his Angels and shall gather the Elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven He not They Christ not the Angels shall gather his Elect together Christ Autocratorically by
hated them because they were not of the world even as I was not of the world O Righteous Father for these I opened my mouth and for these I opened my sides and my heart for those was I mocked and scourged and blindfolded and buffetted and Crucified for these I wept and sweatt bled and died Father I will that they whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the world c. Then shall the Father rise from his Throne and say unto them Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you See the smell of my Children is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Then shall he call for Crowns to put upon their heads bracelets upon their Arms Rings upon their fingers palms of Victory Scepters of Royalty into their hands appoint them their several Thrones the Mansions which their Lord went before to prepare for them upon which they shall be placed that they may sit and live reign with Christ their Heavenly Bridegroom for ever and ever everlasting joy shall be upon their heads all Tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall fice away And so shall they ever be MOVNT PISGAH OR THE THIRD PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Come to the tenth and last word of comfort The Saints blessed cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord so shall we beever with the Lord. This consequent of Christ's coming is the perfection and crown of all the rest cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord together with the extent and duration of it Ever Now cohabitation containeth four glorious Priviledges viz. 1. Presence 2. Vision 3. Fruition 4. Conformity 1. 1 Priviledge The first Priviledge which cohabition implieth is presence The Saints after their triumphant reception by Christ into his glory shall ever be where he is The Scriptures abound with expressions of this nature appearing in Gods presence Psal 42.2 Col. 3.4 Luke 21. â—â— Psalm 15.1 Rev. 3.21 and 1.5 6 John 17.24 and 14.3 standing before him abiding in his tabernacle dwelling in his holy hill yea dwelling in him and he in us sitting upon his throne and following of him where-ever he goes if at least that Scripture be to be underderstood of Heaven a glorious priviledge certainly for it is the purchase of Christ's blood the fruit of his prayer and one of the great ends of his coming in person at the end of the world that his Saints may be where he is dwell in his family be as near him as â—ationally they can desire 1 Kings 10.8 even stand before him and enjoy â—â—terrupted cohabitation and fellowship with him If the Queen of Sheba accounted it the happiness of Solomon's Servants that they might stand continually before him and hear his wisdom how much rather may we proclaim them happy thrice happy whose feet may stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem for behold a greater than Solomon is here even he Psalm 16.11 of whom the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore A second Priviledge is Vision 2 Priviledge Vision The Saints shall not only be where Christ is 〈◊〉 but they shall enjoy the beatifical viston they shall see and beh'ld that which the seeing and beholding of will make them blessed for ever Now there are six beatifical Objects in Heaven 1. The seat and mansions of blessed Souls 2. The glorified Saints 3. The elect Angels 4. The glorified body of the Lord Jesus 5. God in the Divine essence 6. All things in God The first vision which the Saints shall see 1 Vision the seat of the blessed John 14.2 2 C◠〈…〉 Luke â—â— 4 2 Cor. 12.4 Rev. 2.7 is that which is called Sedes beatorum the seat or babitation of blessed souls the mansions of glory which our Lord hath purchased for his redeemed and which he went before to prepare for them the third Heavens the Palace of the great King A glorius place certainly for therefore it is called Paradise to set forth the beauty and pleasantness of the scituation that as the Paradise wherein God put man in his innocency was the beauty and delight of the whole neather world so Heaven the place which God hath prepared for man restored to perfection is the beauty and glory of all the upper Regions the top and perfection of the whole Creation Behold the outside of this stately Palace is very glorious beautified and adorned with all those bright and glittering Luminaries the Sun Moon and Stars what think you is the inside Consult that description which the Spirit of God hath made of it in the Revelations Chap. 21.18 19 20 21. the wall of jasper the City of pure gold the foundations of the wall of the City garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates of twelve pearls every several gate of one entire pearl the street of the City of pure gold as it were transparent glass and you will surely say Heaven is a glorious place and yet behold this description of it is levelled to the low and childish capacity of our weak and fleshly senses as we judge of things in this imperfect state of mortality what think you then will the glory of the new Jerusalem appear when glorified sense shall be â—levated and raised up to a perfection sutable to its object Surely Heaven will as much exceed the description of it in glory as the bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shall exceed in beauty these vile bodies of ours when they are resolved into dust and rottenness What shall I need say more Heaven is a place as beautiful and glorious as the wisdom and power of God could devise to make it that it might be the Royal Palace of his own Residence That august and magnificent fabrick which the proud Babylonian Tyrant stood tracking and boasting over Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty was but a prison or hovel in comparison of this building of God 1 Cor. 5.1 that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and those words are proper only for the mouth of God Is not this the new Jerusalem which I have built for the house of the Kingdom and for the glory of my Majesty What David spake of the Temple that little type of Heaven in decimo sexto The house that is for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory c. must be infinitely more august and magnificent in the antitype this the glorified Saints shall behold and it will beyond conception be marvellous in their eyes Secondly a
Vision the glorified Saints They shall see the glorified Saints in their souls as well as in their bodies all the elect of God that ever were in the world * In their souls as well 〈◊〉 in their bodies from Adam until the second coming of Jesus Christ and it will be a glorious sight to see the King and all his Peers and Nobles in their Parliament Robes with Crowns and Embellishments of honour fitting in their state and order is a â—ight which every one covets and crowds to see What will it be to see the King of Saints with all the Redeemed ones of God in their Robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb and Crowns of gold upon their heads and palms of victory and triumph in their hands a Parliament all of Kings and Priests every one of them shining forth as the Sun Mat. 13.63 in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father The Sun when it breaks forth out of a cloud and displayes its refulgent beams in full lustre and brightness what a glorious Creature is it and with what a beauty doth it guild and adorn the world Oh my soul what a sight will that be when I shall see an Heaven full of Suns scattering their rayes of glory through all those celestial Regions There is another Scripture which makes the glory of this Vision yet more splendid and radiant every one of the glorified bodies of the Saints shall be made conform to Christs own glorious body Phil. 3.21 the glory of the Father shines forth in the Son and the glory of the Son shall shine forth in the Saints He in his Fathers glory is even in his humane nature and they in his Surely the Luminaries of the first magnitude in the visible heavens the Sun and Moon will be turned into darkness before the glory of this Vision they shall shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their Father that will be a glorious Vision indeed Not to speak any thing of the several degrees and orbs of Saints orbs of several degrees of Grace and orbs of several degrees of offices and services in the Church Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. of which the Apostle gives us not an obscure hint 1 Cor. 15.41 As one star differeth from another in glory so also is the resurrection of the dead q. d. as the Luminaries of these visible heavens are of a different magnitude and brightness each above the other in their orbs and sphears so also is the Kingdom of glory there be different forms of Saints one excelling another in brightness and glory I say to pass by this in silence which yet certainly hath somewhat in it for the heightning of the beauty of this vision as we see in the Luminaries of this inferiour world their different orbs and magnitudes contribute not a little to the beauty and ornament of these visible heavens We may add this before we go off viz. That the communion and converse with the Saints in heaven will be as sweet to the tast as the vision of them will be glittering to the eye there will be heaven in both Behold their fellowship and converse here was so sweet that David could say All my delight is in the Saints that are in the earth Psalm 16.3 and in the excellent ones David could take no pleasure in the company of any in the world but only in Gods holy Ones who were beautified with his Image Oh what will their communion and fellowship think you be in heaven when they shall be totally divested of all their sinful corruptions their ignorance their pride their passion their peevishniss their tenaciousness their impurity their envy their impatience their câ—nsoriousness their unseriousness their infincerity and their unsavouriness whereby they are apt to offend and hurt one another Yea when they shall have put off their natural infirmities as well as their sinful their impertinencies their mistakes their weaknesses their indispositions their hunger and thirst their drowsiness their vanity their mutability whereby they are not more unlike to other men than to themselves sometimes their diversions and reservedness c. whereby they are less able to do one another good What will their converse be when they shall put off all their defects and all their imperfections When there shall be no dissent amongst them much less dissention but when they shall all speak the same thing and there shall be no division but they shall be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment which the Apostle commends so passionately even to the Saints on this side Heaven 1 Cor. 1.10 When there shall be such a perfect harmony amongst the Saints as if there were but one soul to act that whole Assembly of the first-born When there will be nothing in them to converse with but pure grace grace without mixture grace and nothing else but grace Yea not pure grace only but perfect grace when every grace shall be in its perfect state and have its perfect works when every grace shall act to the highest degree yea when there will be â—o use of those inferiour graces which are but for the way as patience repentance simpathy pity fear hope yea none of the highest of all the graces hath faith it self now abideth faith hope now is in this imperfect state faith it self belongeth unto the imperfect state but when that which is perfect is come then that which is imperfect shall be done away when sight is come then faith shall cease and the Saints shall converse one with another only in their superiour graces their marriage-graces their glorious graces that are proper to their adult state love joy delight in God mutual complacency zeal obedience praising God thankfulness when they shall love God as much as they would love him yea as much as God would be beloved and obey God as much as God would be obeyed and praise God as much as God would be praised c. Oh when the Saints are cast into such an heavenly mold yea and we our selves are capable of such pure converse for here in this imperfect state the Saints of God are not alwayes in the same frame one with another or with themselves whâ—n one Saint is up the other is down like an Instrument out of tune jarring and disharmonious when one is alive the other dead when this is hot the other is cold when one is ready to give the other is not fit to receive the communications of grace But oh when now I say all the Instruments of Glory are alike strung and equally tuned in their several capacities what sweet ravishing harmony what heavenly musick will they make Oh might we but see such a Saint on earth as one of these are how would every one be ready to kiss his lips yea to kiss his very feet and hardly forbear even to worship him Acts 10.25 Rev. 22.9 as Cornelius would have worshipped Peter or as John
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their
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
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
safely brought in thither also onely it must stay its time appointed by the great Husband-man whose method is this first Christ the first Fruits and afterward they that are Christs at his coming Be of good cheer Christians weep not it is the Fathers good pleasure that not a Sheaf not an Ear not one grain be lâ—st so witnesseth the Truth and the Life the Truth to testifie it and the Life to make it good John 6.39 this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of all that c. i.e. not the least Person nor the least Member of the least person how mean and contemptible soever Will this content thee Christian Thy sweet Relation is not lost but sowen and that which is sowen is not quickned unless it dye At the Harvest time thou shalt have thy seed again revera faenore interitu injuria usura lucro damno Tertul. de Resur when that which thou callest perishing shall be thy improvement thy treasure is not cast away but put to use and thy loss shall be thy gain Christians This believed is a word of Comfort indeed so the Text tells us If we believe that Jesus died and rose again thy dead men shall live Together with his dead body shall they arise Obj. But what not else Answ Oh not so not our Resurrection or the Resurrection of our gracious Friends depend upon our Faith but our assurance and comfort of their Resurrection depends upon our Faith The Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our Faith it stands upon a four-fold foundation as you have heard Sc. The Merit Influence Design Vnion which is between Christ his Saints A Foundation which stands surer than Heaven and Earth Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one of these Foundations shall ever pass away or faile The Foundation of the Lord stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 So then not their Resurrection but our comfort in their Resurrection is that which depends upon our Faith Sence stands blubbering and crying my Parent is dead my Yoke-fellow is lost my dear Child is perished No saith Faith no such matter they are alive they are safe they are happy And all this Faith inferreth upon Christ His Resurrection So that whosoever hath Faith enough to put Christ's Resurrection into the premises may by the same act of Faith put the Saints Resurrection into the conclusion He that by an eye of Faith can look upon Christ's Resurrection as past may by the same eye of Faith see the Resurrection of the Saints as to come he that by Faith can say Christ is risen may with the same breath of Faith say also The Saints shall rise because I live you shall live also as a pledge and instance whereof when Christ arose many of the Saints which slept were enlarged out of the Prison of the Grave the heart strings whereof were now broken to attend the Solemnity of their Lord's Resurrection Math. 27.52 53. and were as an other kind of first fruits of the last Resurrection of all Believers By all these evidences and demonstrations Jesus Christ now in Heaven speaks to his mourners as once he did in the days of his flesh to Martha thy Brother shall rise again so he speaks to us man woman thy Yoak-fellow shall rise again thine Isaac whom thou loved'st shall rise again And oh that we had but Faith enough to answer with Martha I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day This would be a soveraign Cordial to keep our hearts from fainting under our sorrows If indeed we have not Faith to realize this comfortable truth our dear Relations if they could speak would cry to us out of their Graves in some such language as that in which our Saviour rebuked the women which followed him to his Cross Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me c. So ours Son Daughter Husband Wife Father Mother and whatever other dear Relations weep not for us but weep for your selves and for the unbelief of your own hearts I Christians there is the spring-head of all our misery Hinc illae Lacrymae our unbelief It is unbelief which robs us first of our sweet Relations and afterwards of our comfort in their gains and if we look not to it the better it will keep us and them asunder to all Eternity we cannot enter in to their rest if we continue in our unbelief Mark 9.24 cry we then with the Father of the Child I believe Lord help my unbelief If we believe that Jesus rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which brings me to the fifth word of Comfort Them that sleep in Jesus The first word of Comfort in this model was Fifth word of Comfort the Saints sleep in Jesus that our Christian Relations departed this life are not dead but fallen asleep Here followeth a word of Comfort of a richer import which tells us that as they do but sleep so they sleep in Jesus This expression noteth to us that blessed and admirable Vnion which is between Jesus Christ and his Saints 1 Cor. 15.18 They who are fallen a sleep in Christ an Union frequently set out to us in Scripture under a twofold notion Scil. 1. Christ in the Believer 2. The Believer in Christ First Christ in the Believer Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead c. Colos 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory and here in the Text they are said to be in Jesus Secondly The Believer in Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made c. 2 Cor. 5.14 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Colos 1.2 the Saints in Christ See both together John 14.20 You in me and I in you 15.4 Abide in me and I in you 5. He that abideth in me and I in him These expressions are the same for substance both setting forth to us the Vnion it self a mutual intimate in-dwelling or in-being between Christ and his Saints He in them and they in him so making one They differ somewhat in the notion and import of the phrase hinting to us a different mode and fruit of this mutual In-being viz. Christ is in the Believer by his Spirit 1 Jo. 4.13 and 1 Cor. 12 13. The Believer in Christ by Faith John 1.12 Christ in the Believer by Inhabitation Rom. 3.17 The Believer in Christ by Implantation Jo. 15.2 Rom. 6 35. Christ in the Believer as the Head in the Body Col. 1.18 as the root in the branches Jo. 15 5. Believers are in Christ as the Members are in the Head Ephes 1.23 as the Branches in the Root John 15.1.7 Christ in the Believer implieth Life and Influence from Christ Col. 3.4 1 Pet.
thoughts of death O ye Saints of God! and why do you indeed what the Jews supposed Mary did John 11.31 go so oft to the Sepulcher to weep there behold your beloved Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth yea that which is of an infinitely higher consideration he sleeps in Jesus Did he live in Christ behold he died in Christ also Did he dye in Christ behold he sleeps in Christ Christ is nearly related to the Saints dust their ashes are not laid up in the Grave so much as in Christ yea though after death they should pass through never so many changes and revolutions and should be scattered at length into all quarters and corners of the world Dormire in Christo est conjunctionem retinere in morte quam habemus cum Christo Calv. in loc he that calls the Stars by their own names knows every dust of their precious bodies keeps them in his hand and is as really united to them as to his own humane nature in Heaven This may be as Jonathan's honey upon the top of the rod taste of it oh ye mourners of hope and your eyes will be enlightned look not on your pretious Relations so much as they lye rotting in the Grave or resolved into dust as upon their dust as it is laid up in a sacred Vrn in the hand and bosome as it were of Jesus Christ for which he himself will be responsible and bring it forth safely and entirely in the morning of the Resurrection there shall not be so much as a dust wanting for so it followeth Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which is a wider breach The sixth Word of Comfort Sixth word of Comfort God will bring his Sleeping Saints with him God will come and when he cometh He will bring them with him which sleep in Jesus God will or God shall c. Some understand it of God the Father others of God the Son I know not why they should be separated they that say God the Father include God the Son i. e. God the Father shall bring them with him in Christ of by Christ referring he shall bring unto the former clause in Jesus The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Erasmus and Tertul. Or by Jesus so reading it God shall bring them by Jesus And they who understand here God the Son exclude not God the Father And verily the order of working which is between the three glorious Persons in Trinity will not allow us to seclude either in this place For as all the external works of the Trinity are common Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa and undivided so Divines observe this method or order in their working The Father worketh all things of himself in the Son by the Holy Ghost The Son worketh from the Father by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost worketh from the Father and from the Son by himself The Original of the action is ascribed to the Father The Wisdom and manner of working to the Son The Efficacy of the operation to the Holy Ghost All external operation begins in the Father is continued in the Son and terminated in the Holy Ghost This is a mystery rather to be adored Psal 139.6 than curiously to be pried into such knowledg is too wonderful for us it is high we cannot attain unto it But as to the words of the Text God will bring them with him I conceive they relate more properly and peculiarly to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Lord. For so it follows The Lord himself shall descend c. And when he cometh he will bring them with him that sleep in him The propriety of the work is ascribed to Jesus Christ God-man the Mediator between God and man he shall bring them with him when he descendeth from Heaven And that in a four-fold respect 1. Their Spirit or Souls from Heaven 2. Their Bodies from the Grave 3. Body and Soul united he shall take up to himself into the Clouds 4. And then carry all his Saints back with him into Heaven First when the Lord shall descend he will bring the spirits of just men made perfect with him from Heaven The Souls of all his glorified Saints whose bodies to this moment have slept in the Grave shall follow Christ out of the gates of the New Jerusalem to attend that glorious solemnity so it is prophesied Behold Jude v. 14. the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints When Christ cometh to judg the world there shall not be a Saint left in Heaven saith Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven shall as it were be left empty to attend the King of Glory going forth out of his Royal Palace to finish the work of the great and last Judgment of the world he shall come attended with all his Saints they shall fill up his Train Secondly As Christ will bring their Souls with him from Heaven so he will bring their bodies from the Grave It is noted how that in the Transfiguration the body of Moses which was hid in the Valley of Moab appeared in the Mount of Tabor which assures us that the bodies of the Saints where-ever they be lodged are not lost but laid up to be raised to glory the same numerical body that was laid down in dust Christ at his coming to Judgment will first go to the Graves of the Saints and cry to them aloud in some such language as once he did to their Souls in the days of their unregeneracy when dead in sins and trespasses in the Gospel-call Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee Life Or as somtimes in the days of his flesh he did to Lazarus John 11.41 when he had lien four days rotting in the Grave Veniet aliquando Christus cum potestate et majestate carnem illam quaerere illud corpus cadaverosum configurare corpors claritatis suae Bern. a lively Emblem and Type of the general Resurrection Lazarus come forth and they that are dead shall come forth It was the tenour of his own prediction while yet in the world The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man and shall come forth c. I shall not stay here to inquire into the nature and properties of the Saints bodies when Christ shall raise them up out of their Graves that inquiry will be more proper and seasonable in some of the following clauses of this context Concerning the manner of it for the help of our Infant-understandings briefly The manner of the Resurrection we may conceive it after this method First The holy Angels of God shall be sent abroad to gather together the scattered dust of the Saints though separated one from the other at never so great a distance into all the quarters and extremities of the earth Math. 24.31 and
of it Use upon a two-fold Account Comfort to living Saints First To the Saints yet living First In reference to the Saints of God yet living You are now scorned and persecuted the ungodly world doth now judge you and condemn you the Psalmist observed it in his time Psal 94.6 they gather themselves together against the Souls of the Righteous and condemn the Innocent blood Innocence is no security against cruelty and oppression yea it seems no wine so sweet to wicked men as Innocent blood Jam. 5.6 ye have condemned and killed the just and yet that open violence may not want a pretence of Justice they act in the form of a legal process before they kill they do condemn but alas those Fig-leaves will not cover their nakedness It is the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they do unjustly Condenm and Murder so it was in Davids time and so it was in St. James his time One saith I should suspect him to be no Abel who hath not a Cain to persecute him ver 7 8. and so it is now the Reprobate world holds on its course to this day and so it will be to the end of the World God's Righteous Abels must expect no better justice at the Tribunals of these unrighteous Cains But be patient my Brethren till the Coming of the Lord and stablish your hearts for that coming of the Lord draweth nigh and then the Scene shall be altered you shall have the Law as it were then in your own hands your turn shall be to sit upon the Bench and your Enemies shall stand at the Bar They Judg and Condemn you now but there is a day coming when you shall Judg and condemn them and they indeed Vnrighteously but you shall Condemn them Righteously because your Judgment shall be according to the Judgment of that Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth the Searcher of the hearts who will judg men by those two impartial Books the Book of his own Remembrance and the Book of their Consciences Yea you shall judge them for their Vnrighteous judging of you So it was Prophesied of old Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to Execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him not in his person only but in his Members also Loqâ—untur lapides all their ungodly deeds and all their hard speeches wherewith they have unjustly judged the Saints of God shall be judged over again And this honour shall all the Saints have they shall judg their Judges and not be guilty Psal 49.14 The Righteous shall have the Dominion over them in the morning Surely this is an advancement which the poor oppressed people of God could never have expected were they not assured of it from the mouth of him that shall be the Judg at that day Let this stay and stablish your hearts Secondly Secondly In reference to the Saints departed It is a word of comfort in reference to the Saints departed our precious Relations the sense of whose loss and absence we are not able to bear while we think of them as smothered and extinguisht in their own ashes silent in the land of forgetfulness in whose sweet converse we were wont to solace our selves with much delight their souls having left the habitation of their bodies and their bodies resolved into dust and that dust possibly mixt with the dust of wicked men or of the brute Creatures it may be dispersed into the remotest part of the world Ah these be some of the heart-dividing thoughts wherewith we do afflict our Souls But give check to your passions Oh ye mourners of hope and make use of the Cordials which your Heavenly Physitian hath prescribed to keep you from fainting Remember that although their bodies are in the Grave their Souls are with the Spirits of just men made perfect beholding the face of their Father which is in Heaven from whence Jesus Christ God-man when he shall come in the glory of his Father attended with all his mighty Angels will bring them with him And then shall he go to their Graves and as he formerly said unto them Come my people enter into thy Chambers shut the doors about thee go to bed in the Grave and take thy rest so now he will awaken them out of their sleep with a sweet voyce Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust Arise shine for thy light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee c. yea he will kiss them awake with the kisses of his mouth and then as a Father and a Priest will give the Soul in Marriage to the Body again and unite them one to another and both to Himself in an indissoluble bond Oh Christians think with your selves what a joyful meeting that will be when two such ancient Friends that have been parted so long shall meet and embrace and kiss one another never to suffer any more Divorce or fear of Divorce to Eternity How will the Soul bless God when it shall receive its own body again it 's true Yoak-fellow and Fellow-labourer which laboured with it much in the Lord and which was wont to be its Oratory and Temple wherein the Soul performed all its Sacra its holy devotions in season and out of season And how will the Body rejoyce to see the Soul again to whom it was espoused which was the guide of its youth that in its capacity which Christ is to the Soul it 's King Priest and Prophet and by vertue of whose conjunction with it the very body as poor and mean as it was in its original extraction was preferr'd and admitted into Fellowship and Communion with the Son of God and upon that account not forgotten all the while it slept in the land of forgetfulness and thought not of it self I say Solace your selves with the praevision of that Triumph and Exultation that will fill this blessed new-Married couple especially when they shall receive one another so much more excellent than themselves at their last parting that the body shall seem to be Transessentiated into a Soul and the Soul transformed into an Angel of Light Rejoyce O Christian Soul to think how these two morning Stars will sing for joy in this their new and for ever blessed Conjunction Thirdly Thence follow them in your Contemplations following the Judg to the place where the Thrones shall be erected for judgment and there placed on Thrones not as Spectators only but as joynt-Commissioners Where the Saint of a day shall judg the Sinner of an hundred years old yea they shall judg the Old Serpent himself and all his infernal Angels And as that Sentence leaves them so shall they remain to all Eternity Fourthly and in the last place Christians think not so much on your precious Relations
as lying in the Grave their Beauty turned into Rottenness and deformity think not of them as possibly by a premature death as you may think snatcht from an earthly Inheritance before their time but think on them as co-heirs with Jesus Christ riding now in Triumph with him and with the whole general Assembly and Church of the First born whose names are written in Heaven to take possession of their Inheritance with the Saints in Light Thus behold them not as they are in the night of the shadow of death but as they shall be in the morning of the Resurrection when God will bring them with him and I had almost said Mourn if you can So much for the Sixth word of Comfort MOVNT PISGAH OR THE SECOND PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Have opened unto you the first part of this Apostolical Model of divine Comforts over the Death of our Godly Friends and hopeful Relations which conteined in it six words of Consolation sc 1. That they are not said so properly to be dead as to sleep They are but fallen asleep 2. That their condition is a condition full of hope they are not in an hopeless state as others are 3. Jesus Christ the Captain of our Salvation went before them and shewed them the way Jesus Died. 4. He died indeed but he remained not long in the state of the Dead He rose again And that First By his own power as a Conquerour Secondly By Office as our Sponsor or Surety our Jesus Thirdly As a second Adam or publick person the head and Representative of all his spiritual Seed This also is in his name Jesus Jesus rose 5. The Saints Vnion with Christ so intimous and so inseparable that it ceaseth not in the very Grave They sleep in Jesus 6. They shall be brought back again at the Coming of the Lord God shall bring them with him these are conteined in the 13th and 14th verses of this Chapter I come now to the Second Part of this Divine Model Second Part. which is conteined in the three following Verses viz. the 15 16 17. together with the improvement of the whole context in the 18th verse which is mutual comfort and support Comfort one another with these words Now this later part contains in it four of these ten words of Comfort held out in this Model 1. The first is an obviating and removal of a discouragement and temptation which might possibly be upon the spirits of dying Saints namely lest the condition of the Saints which shall be found alive at the last day should be happier or at least sooner happy than the Saints which are fallen asleep long before and the removal of this discouragement makes a seaventh Word of Comfort in this Model 2. A second word is The coming of Christ his last appearance the Lord himself shall descend c. and this is the eighth word conteined in this Model 3. The third is The joyful and triumphant Meeting which all the Saints of God shall then have with one another and with Christ their Head and Husband ver 17. And this is the nineth Consolatory Argument in the order of the context 4. The last word of Comfort is That blessed co-habitation and Communion which the Saints shall enjoy with Jesus Christ for ever then shall we ever be with the Lord vers 17. And this is the tenth and last Consolatory Argument conteined in this Model I shall figure them in my opening of them as they stand in the order of the whole Model and make up the number of Ten words of Comfort conteined therein Seaventhly therefore Seventh word of Comfort the next word of Comfort in this Model is The obviating or removing an objection or discouragement which probably might possess the Spirits of God's dying-Saints and that is lest the Saints which shall be found alive at the last day might possibly be happier or at least sooner happy than the Saints which are fallen asleep before that day Now for the rolling of this stumbling block and stone-of-offence out of the way The Apostle doth these three things 1. The method of the last Judgment He sets down the order and method of the procedure of that great and solemn Transaction at Christs coming vers 15 16. 2. He quoteth infallible Authority for what he saith The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells us he speaks not a presumption of his own head but that which he had received of the Lord This we say unto you by the word of the Lord. 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gives us the ground and reason of this comfortable assertion and that is the coming of Christ in person For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven c. vers 16. First 1. Branch of the word of Comfort The order method of Christs procedure The Apostle acquaints Believers with the order and method of that great and solemn Transaction at Christ his coming And this he doth Two ways 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively First Neg. Negatively He peremptorily denieth that the living Saints at Christs coming in glory shall have any the least advantage above the sleeping Saints by their being found alive at that day We which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep Vers 16 i. e. The living Saints shall not prevent the dead Saints in any priviledg of the Resurrection or of the appearance of the Lord Jesus It might probly be a temptation upon the Thessalonians or other Christians 1. Either that the Saints only which should be found alive at the last day should have the happiness of seeing the Lord Jesus coming in his Glory with all his mighty Angels to judg the world and they only should enjoy the priviledg of his Glorious appearance that all the Saints that died before that day even from the beginning of the world were a lost generation that should never come forth again to the light or to behold the glory of that day or to enjoy the blessed fruits and consequences of it 2. Or at least that they should be the first in that happiness to see his Glory and have the first share in the felicities and triumph of that day or ever the sleeping Saints should be awakened or get out of their beds of dust The Apostle doth therefore I say peremptorily and positively remove this scruple and fear out of the minds of Christians he assures us that it is an utter mistake it is neither so nor so he tells us that all Believers who had died from the first Adam downward until the coming of the second Adam shall have as good a share caeteris paribus in the priviledges and glory of that day as they who stand upon their feet and are found inter vivos at Christ's coming Secondly and as soon the living shall not prevent the dead in any one of the beatitudes and honours of the Resurrection of
priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
roaring of Cannons when Armies of Friends approach a Beseig'd City for the relief of them that are within These sounds and ratlings how terrible a sense soever they may impress upon the hearts and Consciences of the wicked will be to them that sleep in Jesus as the sweetest melody that ever sounded in their ears as the voyce of Harpers harping with their Harps to awaken them out of their sweet sleep with the sweetest Musick and Harmony that ever sounded in their ears and these shall be their Heavenly Ditties Awake and sing oh ye that dwell in the dust c. Or as in the Gospel-Call a little varied Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen Vpon thee Isa 60.1.2 for behold darkness shall cover the Earth even everlasting darkness all the wicked of the world but the Lord shall rise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee to all Eternity In a word This terrible treble Summons shall have no other signification upon the hearts of them that have believed and obeyed the Gospel than that mid-night cry had upon the Wise Virgins Behold the Bridegroom cometh Math. 25.6 go ye forth to meet him Lift up your heads with joy Luk. 21.28 for your Redemption draweth nigh And therefore Oh ye Saints and Servants of God comfort one another with this Word also Concerning your gratious Relations which are gone to Rest The Lord Jesus Himself shall come to awaken them And those Triumphant Summons and Alarms which shall usher in his Coming as they shall add to the Glory and Majesty of their Lord in whose bosom they have slept all this while So they shall on the one side bid War and Battel to the Reprobate world and on the other side call together the Assemblies of the Saints Psal 50.5 who have made a Covenant with him by Sacrifice and it shall be for their Honour and Exaltation in that day of his Triumph The sum is this Your Dear ones whose immature departure you so much lament that are asleep in the dust shall arise Christ himself shall come for them Isa 66. ◠and that in a most Triumphant manner for their glory and their Enemies shame I have done with the Eighth Word of Comfort The Coming of Christ and come now to the Nineth Word of Comfort sc The blessed Consequences of his Coming which are three 1. Three Consequencies of Christs Coming The Resurrection of the Saints which are fallen asleep The dead in Christ shall rise first 2. The Triumphant Ascent of both the living and sleeping Saints together into the Clouds We which are alive shall be caught up together with them into the Clouds 3. The Blessed meeting of all the Saints together with Jesus Christ their Lord and Bridegroom who comes from the Sedes Beatorum the third Heaven to meet them above half way even to the lowest Region of the Aire To meet the Lord in the Aire The first Consequence is the Resurrection of the Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first To which notwithstanding I have already spoken under two distinct Notions lead thereunto by some of the former passages in the Context sc 1. In reference to the Author of the Resurrection Jesus Christ Christ shall bring them with him v. 14. 2. In reference to the precedency of it in that transaction They that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep i. e. The dead in Christ shall rise first as here verse 16. Yet notwithstanding this being a main Circumstance in the Resurrection of the Saints worthy to be taken notice of before I proceed to the following circumstances of Christ his coming I judg it very proper to speak a word or two of it also in this place The manner of Resurrection 1. Cor. 15.35 sc 3. The manner of the Resurrection The Apostle supposeth the Query 1 Cor. 15.35 Some man will say How are the dead raised i. e. with what body do they come A Query neither frivolous nor impertinent and therefore himself by the Spirit thinks it worth the resolution And the resolution of it A twofold description of the Resurrection is two-fold 1. In general 2. In particular 1. In general He gives us to understand 1. General the same bodier that the Saints shall rise with the very same bodies they lay down with in the Graves it is expressed under the metaphor of Seed God giveth it a body c. and to every Seed his own body his own body not specifially only but numerically its own proper body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no ways alienated or transformed into another And holy Job even upon the Dung-hill believed and Preached the very same Doctrine long before Though after my skin Job 19.26 27. Worms destroy this body i. e. after Worms have dig'd through my skin to consume my flesh yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eye shall behold and not another c. Observe how express and significative the words are weigh them well first This body Job points as it were with his finger to his body and crys This there is no more in the Text body is supplied to make up the sense this Heb. Soth So the Antient Believers were wont when they repeated the Article of the Resurrection to adde Etiam hujus Carnis as the Apostle this Corruptible 1 Cor. 19.5.8 Pointing to his own body as it were Heb. 12. to express the contemptibleness of his body q. d. this Ulcerous and already Worm-eaten Carcass this putrified rotten flesh this nothing this worse than nothing Yet this as vile and putrid as it is shall be raised up again at the last day In my flesh I shall see God I shall not see God with my Soul only amongst the Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect but I shall see my Redeemer God-Man in my flesh in this body of flesh wherewith I am now cloathed And I shall see him for my self i. e. not by a deputy or proxy but in mine own person to my own infinit happiness and satisfaction And yet again mine eyes shall behold him a further declaration of his individual seeing of Christ from the Instrument or Organs mine eyes these numerical eyes that are now in mine head with these eyes wherewith now I see the Sun the Heaven the Earth and all these objects of sense here below with these I shall have the viewing of my Glorious Redeemer And yet to express it more Emphatically he addes the Negative to the Affirmative not another a phrase of speech which men use when they would be sure to prevent all mistakes with my own body not a strange body not transformed or changed into any thing else than now it is with mine own eyes not anothers not a borrowed eye not a new created eye placed in the room of this c. Thus Job in variety of words doth express the
the Saints in the Resurrection that they shall be glorious even to admiration They shall be admired by the very Angels by one another and even by themselves also they shall wonder to behold this strange Change wrought upon themselves as a poor Captive-maid taken out of the Dungeon stript of her nasty stinking raggs and cloathed with Prince-like Robes adorned with rich and costly Jewels to be Married to a King would stand fill'd with wonder and delight to look round about upon her self and behold the beauty and lustre of every part So shall it be with the Saints in the Resurrection The reflexes of Christs glory shall shine forth in them even to wonder and astonishment Christ shall be glorified in his Saints and in all them which believe Christ shall not be glorious in Himself only but glorified in all his Saints Thirdly It is sowen in weakness weakness indeed What more impotent than Man while yet alive Vanity it self Psal 39.5 Yea hear that Text out and you will say he is vanity indeed for first it is every man Kings as well as Beggars Câ—l Adam Giants as well as Pygmies every man take where ye will And secondly as it is every man so it is Every vanity or * Col-Hebel Vniversa Vanitas altogether vanity Every man is the Center of every vanity he is not only mixt vanity partly somthing and partly nothing some solidity and some froth but vanity throughout vanity and nothing else And then again it is every man in his * Nitztzab best Estate or according to the Heb. * Nitztzab Standing Yee need not stay till he is down when he is languishing suppose in his sick bed but take him standing in his most erect posture when he is most himself in his bravery Heb. Chasde or as it is Isa 40.6 take him in his goodliness Gallantry in his freshest colours and excellencies and yet then even then he is vanity every man is every vanity Ach. Vtique and that you may not doubt of it the Holy Ghost hath set a double seal to it one in the front Verily and another in the heel of the Text Selah Verily every man in his best Estate is altogether Vanity Selah such a piece of vanity that he is not able at his best to free himself of or fence himself against the injuries of the most contemptible creature that ever God made Frogs and Flies Lice and Worms have courage enough to encounter and strength enough to conquer the proudest potentest Tyrant as we see in Pharaoh Herod c. Thus weak he is in his Strength what is he in his Weakness So feeble he is when he stands how feeble when he is fallen in sickness in his old decrepit age his second Infancy Read and ponder on that graphical description which the Holy Ghost hath drawn of him Eccles 12. Eccles 12. We will pick out but some of those lively Characters ver 3. The Keepers of the House tremble the Arms and Hands the principal instruments in repelling evil from the body they tremble with Palsies and shakings The Strong men bow themselves the leggs and thighs which were wont to carry the body upright with strength and vigour now faulter and shrink under their weight and buckle together for very debility the ligaments of nature being now untied The Grinders cease because they are few the Teeth that were wont to grinde the Food and prepare it for the Stomach they cease from their function because but few and having lost their keâ—nness Those that look out at the Windows are darkned the eyes those Spies and Intelligencers of this little world by reason of the driness and ineptitude of the Organs defluxion of humours c. do fail in the execution of their office The Doors are shut in the street All the Senses which are the Doors by which objects enter are so weakned that they are unusefull and of very little service They rise up at the voyce of the Bird Old men through difficulty and want of sleep rise at the crowing of the Cock or the chirping of a Sparrow the least noise disturbs their sleep See the more full and accurate exposition of this description of Old Age in the English Annot. upon Eccles by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Reynolds verse 5. They are afraid of that which is high they go slowly and timorously lest they should stumble at every stone or the least unevenness in the way The Grasshopper shall be a burden the lightest hop of the least creature is burthensome to Old Age. Desire fails all the sensual appetitions of Youth are now undesired and unsavory Behold here is weakness to perfection And yet all-this-while there is Life the Soul yet imbalms the body and keeps it from putrifying But Man returns to his long Home This same dry Seed is sown and it is sowen in weakness indeed not only meat for Worms but it turns into Worms and Vermin and hasteneth into its first feeble principle of dust to which it was sentenced by Divine Justice Dust thou art Gen. 3.19 and to dust thou shalt return But now behold this feeble thing shall be raised in power 3. Property Powerful The body even of the weakest Infant shall be invested with an Angelical power A Monument whereof the formidable Host of Sennacherib King of Assyria hath erected for all posterity wherein 2 King 19.35 one Angel went out and smote one hundred fourscore and five thousand who over-night like so many Goliahs defied the Armies of the Living God but in the morning lay upon the ground so many blasted life-less Corpses and all by the Ministry of one Angel Such Vessels of strength and Activity shall the bodies of the Saints be in the Resurrection they shall be indued with such power saith one that they shall be able to remove the Globe of the Earth with their foot as if it were but a foot ball they shall be cloathed with a kind of Omnipotence Gideon Sampson Jephtah David and all his famous Worthies are but as suoking Babes to the Children of the Resurrection He that is weak among them shall be as David and he that is as David shall be as the Angel of God Again It is sowen a natural body according to the Greek word for word an * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abnimal body i. e. such a body as is animated susteined and acted by the Soul The holy natural 1. Because acted by a natural Soul yet in so low a way that it is subject to Corruption and is no sooner deserted by the Soul but it resolves into dust ut supr à or Natural i. e. such a body as stands in need of natural helps of meat drink rest sleep 2. Because it stands in need of natural props 3. Because endued only with natural affections c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fourth Property Spiritual to shore up the feeble Tabernacle of dust for
the Angel Oh then when the whole Assembly of Saints shall be all such how will they fill one another with unspeakable joy How might this vision as it were be an heaven alone If Paul exprest so much satisfaction to be filled with his precious Converts company at Rome what satisfaction will it be when the Romans shall be filled with Paul's company and all other the Saints of God they and he now made perfect in glory Finally It will be no small security to the mutual love and complacency of the Saints that in Heaven they shall be set beyond all possibility of being mistaken in one anothers condition Here below how easily and how often are we deceived Behold a Judas amongst the Disciples whom none of them could discover but only their Lord that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil John 6.70 Oh dreadful a Judas follower of Christ and yet a devil a Disciple and yet a devil a Preacher and yet a devil fast and pray and yet a devil do miracles and yet a devil cast out devils and yet a Devil yea once more Judas who for some time carried it so fair that when their Lord prophesied of one of their company that should be guilty of so horrid a treason as to betray his Lord they every man began to suspect rather than Judus and cried Lord is it I Is it I Lord c Oh dreadful mistake And such mistakes when discovered oh what a shame what condolency what grief what perplexity of spirit do they occasion amongst Gods upright ones But now are the Saints in Heaven delivered from all danger and fear of such charitable errors There shall be no Hypocrite in Heaven upon whom the Saints can lose their love Hypocrites shall be all lock'd up in one infernal dungeon together that they may never deceive any more Matth. 24.21 What an access of joy will this be to the Communion of Saints in glory Quest Whether or no in this blessed Vision the Saints shall see one another with a distinguishing sight i. e. see them so as to know them under such relations and respects as once they stood in one to another in this imperfect state Whether Abraham shall know Isaak as once his son and Isaak know Abraham as sometime his father Whether the Husband shall know his Wife and the Wife her Husband as once such that have drawn together in the same conjugal yoke Whether Kinred shall know their gracious Kinred and friend his friend Whether the godly Minister shall know his gracious People that were of his particular flock and the flock know him as once standing in that ministerial relation to them Et sic in caet This I say is a Question which seems neither difficult nor fruitless to be resolved Probability without doubt falls upon the Affirmative and that whether we consult Reason or Scripture Reason saith It is very likely we shall know them Reason whether by the secret impressions of former converse one with another or by revelation as some conceive is disputed some think that we shall remember what relation we have had one to another by circumstances and emergent occasions by comparing notes as it were but that discursive syllogistical way of coming into the knowledge one of another seems to be too mean and slow for the heavenly state and the reason is because the senses of the body and the faculties of the soul shall be elevated and refined to a kind of Angelical perfection for we shall be like the Angels Luke 20.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What although many Ages and Generations have passed over the Saints in their state of separation of the soul from the body and one from another wherein all the species and figures of sensible objects may seem to be totally obliterated or abolished Why may not those vestigia those impressions of sensible things which are granted to remain in the understanding be thought sufficient to reduce the species of those sensible objects themselves whereby the Saints did once converse each with other into the memory again by the sole help of that supernatural vigor and activity which the state of Glory superinduceth upon the faculties of the soul and corporeal senses Behold here in this dark region what quick and admirable recoveries of things past There shall no knowledg be wanting which now we have but only that which implieth imperfection And what imperfection can this imply To know one another as well in the glorified estate as we did in the state of mortality and better The good of this blessed state consisteth in the knowledg one of another communion one with another and mutual content in that knowledge and communion Baxtor do the senses of the body and faculties of the soul make sometimes The eye can distinguish its wonted object after many years separation the memory can presently recall the face and voice and gestures of an intimate friend after sleep which is deaths image yea after twenty years absence or more At the Resurrection the soul I make no question will know its own body at the first sight proportionably in the state of glory must the mutual knowledge and remembrance of old relations be more quick vive and if I may so say intuitive according to the admirable and glorious capacity which they shall then be invested with make but a just allowance for the vast disproportion between the regenerate state on earth and the glorified state in heaven and you may rationally conclude the affirmative And if we consult Scripture Scripture it votes no less for the Affirmative than Reason doth Did Adam know Eve in innocency Mat. 17.4 Did Peter and James and John know Moses and Elias at our Lords transfiguration whom they had never seen Tertul. contra Marcion No not so much as in a picture as Tetullian observes the Jews being great enemies to the use of pictures And shall not the Saints know one another at the first view whom they knew and mutually conversed with while they were here on earth Surely the knowledge of the beatifical vision shall excel not only the knowledge of Peter and John 1 Cor. 13.12 but even the knowledge of Adam in innocency as far as the state of glory excels the state of grace Did Peter and John know Elias on the Mount whom they had not seen and shall not Peter know John and John Peter whom they had mutually seen Again the Scripture tells us that Dives in hell knew Abraham and Lazarus in heaven Luke 16.23 shall the reprobate have better eyes in hell than the elect of God have in Heaven Shall Dives know Lazarus and shall not Lazarus know Paul and Peter c And yet again the Scripture tells us the poor Saints on earth shall know their rich benefactors when they come to heaven how else can they receive them in what sense soever into everlasting habitations shall
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
Eph. 3.10 Lectures read in the Assemblies of the Saints for some insight into the mystery of Christ in the Gospel Oh how ready and able will they be to pay their debts with an abundant interest out of the immense volumes of knowledge which they have treasured up The Communications of their love their holiness their zeal their heavenliness c. what united flames will they make when they be joyned in communion and converse with the graces and perfections of the Saints Object If it be objected Is there not enough in God to fill the Saints to the vastest capacity What need then of Star-light when the Sun shines Yea may not the Saints conversing with Angels and one another be thought to be a diversion from the supreme object of light and love Sol. To this I answer No and the reason is because all the perfections and excellencies which are in the Creature are as so many beams and emanations leading the eye of the beholder to the Sun it self the body and fountain from which they do spring August saith we shall see God in his Saints and their glorious actings as well and as manifestly as now we see mens bodies in the vital actions of their bodies De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 29. or as learned and holy mens Commentaries and Expositions are to the holy Scripture which do neither detract from nor add to that immense volume of truth but serve only to illustrate it and to render it more intelligible to the dark and imperfect understanding of the Creature Surely such an infinite full Text as God is will stand in need of some marginal notes as it were To see God in his Saints and the Saints in God this will be no diminution of the bentifical Vision All the excellencieâ— in the Creature are but drops from God the Fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The glorious Angels and Saints are alwayes sunning themselves in the presence of â—od and will keep company together to all Eternity A fourth Object The glorified body of the Son of God to help the Reader as Christ is said in the dayes of his flesh to be the Exegesis or Interpreter of the Father unto us John 1.18 So may the Angels be to the Saints in Heaven and such is all the glory of Heaven yea so is the humane nature of Christ himself now in glory the great Expositor of the Divine Essence a Mirrour or Glass wherein we come to see God more clearly and fully Which brings me to A fourth Object of the beatifical Vision and that is Christ himself or the glorified humane nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in his humane nature exalted to the right hand of his Father the highest seat in glory far above all principality and power Eph. 1.21 and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come This is the highest beatifical object in Heaven next to the divine Essence the sight of Christ as man it was the great design which the Lord Jesus had in redeeming them with his blood â—â—â—n 17.24 Father I will that they whom thou host given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me And sâ—rely this will be a glorious sight indeed behold of the glory of Christ in his transfiguration it is said That his face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light If the glory of his transfiguration was so excellent what will the glory be of his exaltation If the glory of his foot-stoul was so excellent how will the glory of his throne excel in glory If he appeared so bright upon an carthly Mountain how transplendent will he appear upon Mount Sion the Mountain of God that heavenly Mountain If such were his lustre in his state of humiliation before passion what beams of Majesty will shine from his face in his state of glorification when he is to receive the reward of his passion Behold there appeared then with him only Moses and Elias what will his glory be when all the Patriarchs and Prophets all the Apostles and Martyrs the whole Society of the Saints with the whole host of the mighty Angels that begirt his Throne with their hallelujahs and joyful acclamations Mark 9.6 That vision of Christ on earth did fill Peter and the Disciples with wonder and astonishment even to an extasie so that the Text tells us He knew not what he said Oh with what joy and ravishment shall the sight of Christ in glory fill the glorified Saints when their faculties shall be so raised that they shall understand what they see and profess what they unstand Surely Peter and all his fellow Saints will then say and know what they say Lord it is good for us to be here What a beautiful beatifying Object this will be Considerations evidencing the glory of Christs humane nature 1 Considerat The reward of his Passion we may guess for more we cannot by these three Considerations The first Consideration is this The glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ in Heaven is the reward of his Passion here on earth In respect of the divine nature and as Jesus Christ was the second Person in Trinity the glory which the Lord Jesus now possesseth at his Fathers right hand was the glory which he had with the Father from before the foundation of the world John 17.24 but as to the assumption of the humane nature it was glory given him by the Father Christ had a twofold right to the Kingnom of glory sc natural and constitutive natural as he was the only begotten Son of God and so of the same nature and essence with the Father from all eternity and so whatever power and glory was essentially the Fathers was essentially the Sons also But then besides that Heb. 1.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tuit Jesus Christ had also a constitutive right or a right by donation as he was appointed and made heir of all things now this constitutive glory as I say was the fruit and reward of his sufferings Phil. 2.7 8 9 Because he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Therefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a name above all names c. Because and Therefore the exaltation of his humane nature was the merit and compensation of his humiliation and abasement Now then if we would make an estimate of the glory of Christ now at his Fathers right hand we cannot find out a more proper medium than to make a serious and if it were possible a thorow search and enquiry into his abasement and humiliation And certainly if there had been nothing else in it but his incarnation or the assumption of our flesh it had been an infinite abasement to the Son of God so deep an abasement as it had been blasphemy for men or Angels to
himself and indeed is in a very high degree the vision of the essence because the glorious properties and excellencies of the Godhead are as it were radiant and refulgent in the flesh of our Redeemer therefore he is called Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The brightness of his Fathers glory the brightness or refulgency of God the Fathers glory not only in reference to his divine essence the second-Person in Trinity but as he is Verbum incarnatum the Word incarnate as he is God-man because all the beams of divine Majesty do shine forth with a most resplendent brightness in his flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 augasma is that which hath brightness and glory in it self such is the divine nature and essence it is the fountain and body of glory from whence all brightness and splendour doth beam and issue but apaugasma is that which receiveth that brightness into it self as a glass or mirrour receives into it the beams of the Sun such a mirrour is the flesh of Christ to the divine essence wherein all the glorious beams of divine wisdom holiness mercy goodness and truth c. do shine forth This is the mystery Saint Paul admireth 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.14 God was manifested in the flesh or God made visible in a body of flesh Jesus Christ was nothing else as it were but visible Deity and so he was even while he was on earth The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father The flesh of Christ was but as it were a veil through which men might look upon the Sun of Righteousness which open and naked would have been too vehement and strong for mortal eyes we saw his glory there did beam forth at times such rays of glory through the body of Jesus Christ that whoever had not wilfully shut his eyes might have discovered him to be more than man and been constrained with the Centurion to cry out Surely this was the Son of God we saw it saith the Apostle of himself and the rest that were Christs witnesses Now if by vertue of the personal union of the two Natures in Christ so much of God was conspicuous in the flesh of Christ while he was on earth how much more abundantly do the emanations of divine glory dart themselves forth through the humane nature now it is exalted to the right hand of the Father in Heaven And that upon a two-fold account 1. Partly because there the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is a glorified body the very body of Christ is made more spiritual and shining than the Angelical nature I had almost said the very flesh of Christ transubstantiated into the divine nature it is so diaphanous and transparent that it is nothing else as it were but a vail through which the Saints may look upon the face of God more steadily surely that sight of Christ will be God manifest in the flesh indeed the invisible God made visible in the humane nature that will be a most beatifical Object 2. And partly because the organ or faculty in the Saints shall be glorified also the eye of sence in them shall be raised to a wonderful degree of quickness and activity able to receive in this glorious object clearly and fully Here the world saw no beauty in Christ not because Christ wanted beauty but because they wanted eyes yea the godly themselves their eyes were held that they could not perfectly discern his glory but oh now when the object shall be perfected and the organ perfected to receive it what a blissful vision will the very Man Christ Jesus be in glory Go forth then oh ye Daughters of Sion Vse Cant. 3.11 behold your heavenly Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his solemn Nuptials when he was married to his heavenly Bride in the day of the gladness of his heart prevent oh my Soul that beatifical vision by spiritual and fixed meditation get into Heaven before thy time and so much the rather not only because of the eminency of the Object but because of Thirdly The Saints interest in this Object 3 Consider Christ in glory and Christ ours as much of the eternal brightness of the infinite God as is possibly visible to an eye of glorified sence will be seen in the humane nature of Christ that will be glorious and as much of that glory made ours as the Creature can be capable of this will be joyful to see all this glory that is put upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to see it with propriety to see it mine And how mine Why mine by purchase he that is the object of this Vision was the purchaser of it he bought it for me yea he purchased both it and me by his blood it for me and me for it the sight of his glorified body was the fruit of his crucified body as once he gave his crucified body to my faith so now he gives his glorified body to my sight to be my portion and my bliss for ever Oh blessed vision wherein indeed purchaser and purchase and purchased do all meet together to suffer no more separation for ever This sure will make the Saints sing their Hallelujahs Rev. 1.5 6 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen I come now to the fifth Object in the beatifical Vision which is the Divine Essence 5th Object The Divine Essence This is denied by some and well it may if the assertion were so to be understood that the essence of God is to be discerned by the bodily eye though in its glorified capacity for where ever the excellency be which God will put upon the glorified bodies of the Saints in Heaven yet still they retain the nature of corporeal beings and Gods essence is so infinitely pure and spiritual that the Angelical nature compared with it would seem to be but quid materiale of a material and corporeal constitution so that now to affirm God to be visible to an organical eye though glorified would seem to imply one of these two things scil that 1. Either the Divine essence hath matter and corporiety in it 2. Or that the glorified sence were made altogether immaterial and spiritual either of which is repugnant to the analogy of faith Vorstius himself was aware of this and therefore though at first he seemed to affirm that the glorified eye being made as all the rest of the body shall be spiritual might see God though a Spirit yet afterward he so explained himself as only to assert that from the divine essence there did flow a certain light which light and not the essence it self immediately is the object of the glorified eye its sight But
souls vision of God since the soul dependeth not now upon any corporeal organ of the body inward or outward sence and i. e. the body shall be refined by the power of Christ in the resurrection to such a spiritual alloy that it is it self even of an Angelical nature Fifthly The Saints shall know God up to the height of that Principle which God imprest upon the Soul in the Creation For God intending to make a Creature perfectly happy implanted in its nature * Concupivit anima mea Psal 48.2 This Candle of the Lord doth aspire that without sin to be a Sun it being the just and modest desire of the end which God himself created it not that it would be the Sun butunited to the Sun and now that innoâ—ent ambition shall be satisfied Sixth Step. 1 Cor. 13. a disposition covetous and capable of knowing God wherein only the summum bonum of the soul consists now if God should not satisfie this holy concupiscence in the soul and fill its capacity to the utmost he should fail not the desire of the Creature only but his own project the soul will not be contented with such an imperfect knowledge of God as it hath here Sixthly They shall know him properly Junius tells us it is the Judgment of all Protestants and Willet upon Exodus expounds that notion by apprehensively though not comprehensively that is we shall understand clearly certainly and fully what God is Clearly in opposition to dark created mediums we shall see God by his own light Psal 36.9 Certainly in opposition to ghess opinion and imperfect knowledge And fully not objective in reference to God but subjective in reference to our selves the faculty shall be full of God as it can hold †nor all alike but according to the capacity of every vessels heat degrees of happiness do spring from that lumen gloriae being variously shed among these blessed Souls as a vessel in the Sea that is full of the Sea though it contains not all the Sea in it Seventhly The Saints shall know God fruitionally Seventh Step. that is they shall know him so as to possess God and to be possessed of God The soul doth as it were enter into God and God into the soul the joy of the Lord enters into the soul here there the soul enters into the Lords joy Eightly It shall be a transforming knowledge Eighth Step. we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is But these two latter my method propounded leads me to speak too distinctly by themselves Of these therefore in their own place In a word The Saints shall know God to perfection though not to infinitude they shall see him so as to repose themselves in him with full complacency and delight so that they shall say they have enough In this life some of the Saints at sometimes have had such manifestations of God as have made them weep as bitterly as ever any under desertion crying out Lord withdraw thy glory else the vessel will split and I shall dishonour God And it may justly be our wonder how it should be otherwise to the Saints in the other world a wonder that a created finite faculty should be able to bear the weight of glory which filleth the infinite Object and not be destroyed by the immensity of it especially since we read of the very Angels themselves Omne vehemons sensibilo destruit sensum who in a vision of somewhat an inferiour nature to that facial vision in glory for the exceeding brightness of it are said to veil their faces and their feet their faces as having their eyes dazeld with the exceeding brightness of his glorious appearance and their feet as abashed in the apprehension of their own meanness and imperfection in comparison of Gods incomparable and incomprehensible perfections But as to this difficulty First Our most learned English Annotator upon that place tells us that those expressions signifie rather the intenseness of the Angels reverence and fear in their approaches to the Supreme Majesty than their incapacity to take in what of his glory he is pleased to manifest The Angels being said alwayes to behold the face of God Matth. 18.10 For saith he this is certain that the nearer the Creature makes his approaches to God and in the more glorious manner he is pleased to manifest himself the more apprehensive the Creature is of its own meanness baseness vileness and nothingness in regard of Gods infinite greatness Secondly We are taught from the Scriptures that Divine manifestations in Heaven though they beget greatest veneration yet they cause pleasure not pain and do rather nourish and perfect the faculty than any wayes hurt or oppress it the vessel shall be made capacious enough to hold any liquor which the thice blessed Trinity shall see meet to put into it To this end we may take notice from Scripture it self that the glorified understanding shall be adorned with a six-fold perfection scil 1. Spirituality 2. Clarity 3. Capacity 4. Sanctity 5. Strength 6. Fixedness The first perfection of the understanding shall be spirituality 3. Perfection Spirituality it shall be spiritualized spiritual it is now as spiritual is opposed to corporeal though not as spiritual is opposed to natural The Soul is now forced to be a Caterer for a body of flesh to provide things that are necessary for the sustentation of the animal life it busieth it self to satisfie the appetites of hunger and thirst c. if it can redeem a few hours for actions more proper and peculiar to it it is so clogged so pressed down with the bodies infirmities as that it soon drops down to the earth and is drawn aside to attend the impertinencies of this present life But when it shall be joyned to an animate a spiritual body and it self in its glorified capacity then it shall be wholly taken up with objects spiritual and heavenly and made as it were connatural to them elevated by the light of glory to the vision of God This lumen gloriae is not so much for the discovery of the object as for the help and advancing of a created faculty which would else be much opprest with the weight of glory it is not so much the raising and screwing of nature higher but it is the adding of a new disposition that may close with the divine object so that though there be still an infinite disproportion between God and the Creature in esse naturali yet there is a just proportion in esse intelligibili Secondly 2. Perfection Clarity By vertue of this supernatural influx of the divine object the faculty shall be brightned and cleared There is now upon this mirror of the understanding many labes and stains whereby the vessel is defiled the breath of the world and the steam of corruptions from within do so fully this christal glass that it cannot receive into it the beams of light which shine upon it
the more impurity the dimmer the vision Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Why now in glory all these maculae and spots shall be perfectly wiped off and the vessel shall be made a clear burning glass to receive and contain the glorious rayes of divine excellency which do immit themselves into it Hence this vision of God is called by Divines a clear distinct and perfect sight of God not as if the blessed did see all whatever is in the divine essence but as opposed to our present dim glassy vision 1 Cor. 1â— so that it perfectly takes in what the divine will is pleased to reveal without any the least obstruction or diminution Thirdly 3. Perfection Capacity The faculty in glory shall be widened and extended to a vast capacity now the understanding is large there is no bounding or limitting of it it is higher than the Heavens and deeper than the Sea and wider than the World it is said of Solomon in respect of his understanding 1 Kings 4.25 that he had wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the sand that is upon the Sea-shore but all that was specially in order to the mysteries of nature as it follows there in his character from verse 30 to 34. But in glory the understanding shall be widened to a vaster capacity scil to take in not the little things of the Creature only Magnalia Dei but the infinite God I do not say infinitely but apprehensively though not comprehensively for then the vessel must be as large as the object yea larger since the thing containing must be somewhat bigger than the thing contained but the understanding shall apprehend God clearly certainly and fully the object it self shall extend the faculty and make it capacious for it self It is worth our notice to compare those two expressions of the beatifical vision the one Matth. 18.10 where it is said The Angels do alway behold the face of God the other where the Angels and Saints the number of whom is said to be Rev 5.11 ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands are described surrounding Gods Throne they are round about the Throne compare them together They alwayes behold the face of God and yet are round about and it hints us this blessed notion God hath no back parts in Heaven God to the blessed Inhabitants there is all face and they are alwayes beholding it how should not so transplendent an object confound the spiritual organ with the immense splendor and glory thereof but that the object it self doth sustain and nourish the faculty A fourth Perfection is Sanctity 4. Perfection Sanctity Heb. 12.23 the understanding shall be made perfect in holiness In the state of separation The spirits of just men are made perfect and surely the soul looseth nothing of its sanctity by being united to the body in glory Now of all divine qualities none doth more capacitate the Soul for the vision of God than holiness witness that holiness is called the divine nature 1 Pet. 1.4 Holiness assimilateth unto God and the perfection and delight of vision is founded in conformity it is so in the Evangelical vision Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God according to the purity of the heart is the vision of God What a glorious vision of God will that be which the perfection of holiness shall advance the soul unto when the glorious object shall both enlarge and purifie the faculty The fifth Perfection is Strength 5. Perfection Strength The vision of God doth fortifie the understanding In nature the more vehement and intense the object the more it hurts and crâ—sheth the sence the vision of God though but under a veil Câ—â—e vehement sensibile destruit sensum Dan. 10.7 8 Rev. 1.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lumen gloriae superaddita perfectio qua intellectus confortatur ad videndum Deum Tho. Aquin. did undo the Prophet Isaiah Holy Daniel's vision though but a vision did dispirit him and left him without strength Saint John his vision though but the darker side of the beatifical sight of God stayeth him outright for a time I fell at his feet as dead The souls of the blessed in Heaven are set beyond all fear of such a surprise of glory while God fills their faculty he doth also sustain and perfect it by means whereof the faculty shall never be weary of its object but still behold it with fresh vigour and delight So it follows A sixth and last Perfection is Fixednese 6. Perfection Fixedness In the state of grace the mind is exceeding slippery like that of little Children whom you cannot six we lye upon spiritual objects as upon a bank of ice where we slide and slide and never leave sliding till we be in the dirt and this comes to pass by reason of those mixtures of impurity which are in these natural minds of ours the objects are pure and simple James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the faculty is wofully clogged with superfluity of naughtiness hence the lubricity and floating that is in the understanding like the Sea it self but now in glory all that mixture is abolished so that there is nothing remaining to divert or distract the faculty yea the object it self still shall unite the faculty to it self though not so as to make it its self yet so as to make it like its self to make it capable of its self in all the communicable dimensions of the divine nature In a word the faculty shall be made perfectly sutable to the object not only in the properties but in the very nature of it whereby it shall be enabled to know it and understand it to perfection Oh blessed and blessed-making vision Glorious things are spoken of thee oh thou vision of God! Truly beatifical for ever Eye truly hath not seen c. Before we leave this Vision let us make some use of it And the Use may be two-fold 1. Study holiness 2. Labour to see God before you come to Heaven First Study holiness there be two Visions of God mentioned in Scripture First The Vision of God in Grace Secondly The Vision of God in Glory The Evangelical Vision The Angelical Vision The Vision of God in Ordinances The Vision of God Without Above Ordinances In the Vision of Grace the Evangelical vision the Saints see Gods back parts but in the Vision of Glory the Angelical vision they see God face to face in the Evangelical vision they see God darkly and know him in part but in the Angelical vision they know him even as they are known by him the Saints shall have a full prospect of God in Heaven But of both these Visions holiness is the indispensable qualification without holiness there is no admission into Heaven Rev. 21.27 There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth And when entred
〈◊〉 all of one heart and of one soul Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possesseth are their own but the joy of one is the joy of all I cannot say the sorrow of one is the sorrow of all for this is their prerogative which was not on earth there is no sorrow in heaven The Saints and Angels mutually open their hearts one to another and communicate their notions and mysteries and loves and desires one to another as having as much share in and right to one another as to themselves Neither are those celestial Inhabitants e're a whit the more remote from God when they thus go into one another There is no diversion in Heaven from the summum bonuoâ— for where ever it is they meet with God he fills Saints and Angels not only as he doth the world with the fulness of his being and power but with the fulness of his glorious and beatifying presence they are still in God and God in them In a word whatever beatitude there is in heaven the Saints and Angels are in it hence it is said they enter into joy here below joy entred into them but there they enter into joy Heaven is all inside yea God himself is the inside of heaven This is fruition indeed A fourth Ingredient into Fruition is Fulness A fourth In grediâ—â— Falneâ— There is in Heaven good and there is enough of it Fulness to satisfaction They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house Psal â—8 and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures The joyes of heaven are compared to a Feast Venachal gâ—ada necha consisting of all imaginable rarities both of meats and drinks fatness expressing the delicacy of food and the River of Eden for so the word signifieth of the River of thy Eden the ravishing sweetness of their drink infinitely beyond all that is fancied by the Poets of the Nectar and Ambrosia of the Gods which indeed was but an imperfect notion of the joys of Heaven filched out of some fragments of Scripture by those blind Naturalists But of such deliciousness doth this marriage Supper consist of and there is plenty of them plenty even to satiety they shall be satisfied with the fatness and inebriated with those wines upon the lees well refined The Master of the feast will say to his Guest then in the feast what he said here below in the figure Eat O friends drink yea drink abundatlny Cant. 5.1 Heb. Or be drunken with love my beloved And it must needs be so for every one of the glorified Inhabitants do enjoy an whole God even the whole glorious and thrice blessed Trinity an whole Christ in his glorified humane nature every one doth enjoy an whole Heaven with all the felicities of it as much as if Heaven had been made but for one individual person For although the Church of the first-born in heaven consists of ten thousand times ten thousands and thousands of thousands yet hath no one the less for what others do enjoy As in Nature every beholder hath an whole Sun and the whole Heavens to himself with all their splendour and influence as much as if there were but one man in the world In terrestrials indeed it is not so there what one man hath another hath not and where many share every single mans portion is the less whence it is that Meum and Tuum fills all the world with quarrels and confusions But there is no such thing in heaven the multitude of heirs do not divide or lessen the Inheritance the Reason is because there are no particles in Essentials every one hath all and none the less for what another enjoyeth Yea the more because the joy of one is the joy of all every heir of Glory enjoyeth not only what himself hath but what his Co-heir hath too so that upon the point each Saint enjoys as many heavens as there be Angels and Saints in heaven A blessed Mystery of Multiplication With thee is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 how can they chuse but be full who are alwayes at the fountain-head Yea are alwayes drencht and immerst in the immence Ocean of Beatitudes God himself the Latitude of all Being Truth and Good God is infinitely full of himself and infinitely happy in his own happiness and infinitely satisfied in his own happiness And this is the augment of the Saints joy that they are not able to contain that infinite Object of Glory apprehend it they may comprehend it they cannot And this the blessed Angels and Saints rejoyce in that God only dwelleth in himself and they in him and are as full of God as a finite Creature can be of an infinite Creator brim-full and running over yet so as that in all this reduncancy not one drop shall be spilt or run wast for all the overflowings of sweetness and glory do run back again into the fountain in streams or rather in the flames of love and admiration they take in by fruition and give out again by praise and admiration And thus of all other the unconceiveable Beatitudes of glory there shall be satiety without nauseating so that they shall say they have enough without envying others or wishing more for themselves Now they may have some fits of joy but then they shall have their fill even the external sences of the glorified body shall now contain more glory 2 Cor. 4.17 than the spiritual sences of their Souls were capable of in this imperfect state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pressing or oppressing weight The Saints shall have as much glory as they are able to stand under hence we read of a weight of glory a weight that would utterly sink and crush them into nothing were there not an Arm of Omnipotence to sustain them and to make them bear it as their Crown not as a burden with ease and delight Suitableness is another Ingredient into Fruition 5 Ingredient Suitableness without which both the former scil both Intimacy and Fulness would be a burden and not a bliss suffering rather than fruition In the choice of our inferiour felicities in this life whether things or persons we have more respect to the suitableness of them than to their preciousness the just content of the married estate consists not in the rareness of beauty or largeness of portion or possessions no not alwayes in the eminency of grace but in the suitableness of disposition and so our experience will tell us of all other states and conditions in the world and this is the great infelicity of this present world that it affords it not such an absolute parity between the person and the possession from the King upon the Throne to the Hermit in the Cave as that a Person should be found that can say unless it be upon the account of gracious submission to the divine will I would not wish my condition other than it
is This is only Heavens prerogative All the Beatitudes of that upper world both in their nature and degree shall be most agreeable to the constitution of the Saints in their nature they being sutable to the nature of the Saints to the heavenly Principles of purity and holiness communicated to them from the divine nature both the objects and subjects of glory are of one and the same constitution This must needs breed unconceiveable delight And as suitable are all the Joyes of Heaven in their degrees and proportions to the heavenly capacities The Objects of glory neither too much nor too little nor too heavy for the Saints to bear nor too light neither too vehement nor overflat The weight of that prepared glory shall not be heavier than those blessed Souls shall be well able to sustain with exceeding pleasure neither shall it be so light that they shall be able to say I could bear more The light of glory shall not hurt the organ by an over-vehement brightness neither yet shall there be the least dimness in it to abate the delight of the acutest sence The language of the new Jerusalem Isai 33.19 Gal. 4.26 shall be one and the same throughout all the streets thereof not a speech deeper than the meanest Saint can perceive nor a barbarous tongue that they cannot understand shall be heard there but the Mother-language intelligible and Isacile to be understood and spoken by the meanest Inhabitant shall be the language of the upper Canaan that all may hear and all may understand to their unspeakable satisfaction The musick of Heaven shall be sweetest melody to every ear and though it consists of the rarest strains and most delicate airs that ever ear heard yet it shall not transcend the skill of the lowest capacity but the meanest Chorister in the heavenly Temple shall bear his part with the most Seraphick Angel in the higher or lower praises of the most high God in most perfect Symphony The infinite variety of most luscious delicacies wherewith the Table shall be spread where Abraham and all his spiritual Seed shall be feasted shall consist of rellishes suitable to the pallate of every Guest there what is fancied of the Manna of the neather heavens shall be fully verified of the Manna of the third heaven it shall give that taste to every palat which every palat likes best yea all the Saints shall be but of one and the same guest the delight of one is the delight of all In a word all the Objects of glory do hit the faculty with a most perfect and commensural proportion there is nothing in heaven to offend or greive the least in the Kingdom of God yea which is not of the most absolute complacency Earth is a place of mixture and composition somewhat suitable and somewhat unsuitable some pleasure some vexation Hell and Heaven are the extremes Hell is a place of unmixed torment nothing there but what is renitency to the will of the damned nothing present but what the Reprobate would not nothing absent but what he wisheth for Heaven is a place of unmixed joy Nullum bonum abesset hominis quod recta voluntas opâ—arâ— possit Aug. De Ci. vit Dei nothing wanting of all that blessed Souls can rationally desire nothing absent the absence whereof can possibly give any check to their fullest delight And though possibly there may be several orbs of glory for as one Star differeth from another in glory so also is the Resurrection of the dead yet shall not the inferiour orbe envy the superiour nor think it self too low there shall be no such voices heard from the mouth of any the meanest Inhabitant Oh were I but in such a superiour orbe I should be happy such a Mansion would please me better This would destroy fruition and make heaven cease to be heaven but no such whisper is to be heard no such thought in that holy Mountain because the glory of one is the glory of all and every Saint is as happy in anothers fulness as in its own yea it enjoyeth its own and the others glory too the narrowest capacity is widened by the others fulness the joy of one is the joy of all In a word the Saints shall live in love and have all in him who is all not so much as wishing their fellow Saints less or themselves more nor any thing in that whole world of felicities otherwise than it is This is fruition Oh that all that have this bope in them would study to begin this life here below The next property of this fruition is Fixedness 6. Fixedness There be of those things in the world which men call felicities which if they be not mistaken in their nature to be sure they will find floating and unfixed There is scarce a comfort which we possess in this moveable world that we can find the same at the years end or at the months end which we fancy them to be at the beginning all our most beautiful objects how quickly they change colour and our very options grow stale upon our hands In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth 1 Pet. 1.4 Psal 90 6. But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us to an inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidore Semper vivens uncorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away the heavenly inheritance is compared to that precious stone that cannot be soiled as one of the Antients writes and to a choice flower that never withereth but is alwayes green 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 7.31 1 John 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mathematical figure Rev. 4.8 Mat. 18.10 Worldly pleasures engratiate themselves by intermission Voluptates commendst rarior usus Whereas heavenly pleasures heighten and advance themselves by fixed and constant emanations The world is compared to a Stage where the Scean is quickly changed and another face of things doth suddenly appear but Heaven is a place of fixed and immutable beatitudes Heaven is still of one fashion their work the same they rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And their joy the same They do alwayes behold the face of their heavenly Father They are in God like God Yesterday and to day and the same for ever with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning The Saints in Heaven are so far from mutation that there is no shadow of it Here on earth our choicest delights meet with changes created beings shew their face a while then hide it again their colour goes and comes they are alwayes in motu fluxu Godly acquaintance is sweet but the farewell is bitter we call at the door and sip of the cup but we cannot stay by it The best of our time is but a seventh part of it
Heaven there is eternity but no old age the joyes of heaven are alwayes young The flowers of Paradise of which the Saints Posie is made do neither wither nor change colour the drops of their morning dew standing thick upon them like orient Pearls preserve them in their perpetual verdure and odoriferousness God himself the fountain and spring of all those glorious beings is not a moment older than he was from all eternity and therefore all their fresh springs being in God their roots feed their branches with continual and unchangeable moisture and influence God who is an Object of infinite fulness doth alwayes feast the glorified Saints and Angels with fresh visions of delight and wonder Yea God himself the fountain and spring-head of all those glorious Beatitudes doth wash their roots perpetually with fresh moisture and influence though God be but one and the same ineffable essence yet he being an Object of such infinite fulness it cannot be conceived but he must needs feast the eye of the glorified Angels and Saints with fresh discoveries of delight and wonder to all eternity so that they can never be cloyed or furfeited with the same beatifical vision All the joyes of Heaven are present 9. Property Present there is nothing in the beatifical vision antecedaneous or future but as God himself is but one pure Act or Being alwayes the same from eternity to eternity so are all the felicities of Heaven There are no fragments in glory There is nothing in glory which shall be and is not nor any thing in fruition which shall ever cease or change Glory borrows that immense title of the God of Glory what the Jews say of the ten Commandements is Rev. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was and is to come a name that is not to be divided or taken asunder but must be spoken all together in one word So Is as that it was so was as that it shall be so shall be as that it is Eternity is a single Point such are all the blessednesses of the Saints were and are and shall be so Past as to come and so to come as present this is a mystery and it is marvellous in our eyes Out of these nine Ingredients or Properties there ariseth a tenth the very top of all scil Delight and Complacency 10 Property Complacency and this makes Heaven to be Heaven indeed the joy of the Lord even the same joy which God himself possesseth the same for kind though not for degree Propriety Possession Intimacy Suitableness Satiety Reflexion Immutability they all meet in God essentially making up an infinite delight and complacency in the Saints and Angels they are perfectly though bounded and limitted according to the capacity of the Creature We cannot conceive it until it receive us making up a delight and joy which on this side Heaven passeth all understanding of which the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Behold faith in the glorious Redeemer doth at times raise the Soul of the poor Believer to a marvellous high pitch of joy and ravishment 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The expression is very full faith brings the Soul in love with an unseen Christ and fills the heart with joy not ordinary joy such as men do easily express upon all occasions but unspeakable the heart conceives such joy that the tongue cannot utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffabilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is not to be uttered by the tongue of men or Angels it cannot be spoken it is ineffable and that is not all it follows it is glorious and our translation gives it an addition very emphatical Of the Saints jâ—y and delight in heaven see incomparable Mr. Baxter's Saints everlasting rest p. 41 part 1. And else where abundantly full of glory and yet that reacheth not the top of this joy for the Greek signifieth not glorious only but Glorified faith fills the heart with glorified joy a joy that rivals as it were the joy of the glorified Saints a joy which sets the Soul for the present above it self and puts it into Heaven before its time Oh Christians if faith which must not enter in within the veil can transport the Soul into such extatical raptures what can vision and fruition do Oh the mountings of mind the ravishing joys of heart the solace of soul which glorified Saints possess in the beatifical vision The Soul shall live in joy and be filled with delight in the mirrour of all delights love and joy shall run in a circle and mutually empty themselves into one another love shall dissolve into joy and joy shall resolve into love a River an Ocean of unmixed Complacency wherein the Soul shall bathe it self for ever The Saints are so pleased with their own beatitudes that as they cannot spare any joy they have so they know not what their souls can wish for more This is pure complacency there are none above them that they need envy none beneath them capable of their pity Oh blessed state The fourth and last Priviledge contained in cohabitation is Conformity Even in the Evangelical state below Conformity is the fruit of vision vision produceth Assimilation We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Surely the heavenly vision will beget so much more full and perfect conformity by how much the mirrour is more vital and energetical The Apostle reacheth forth this blessed truth and the reason of it together as a known Doctrine Beloved now we are the Sons of God 1 John 3 2. that were dignity enough for a poor sinner one would think I but that 's not all it is well and it shall be better God hath laid out much upon us but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive it doth not yet appear what we shall be This only we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him That 's infinite honour indeed But how doth he prove it Why he proves our conformity from our vision we shall be like him for we shall see him Him ver 3. God in Christ the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ even while he was here in the dayes of his flesh the flesh of Christ was a veil 1 Tim. 3 1â— through which the deity of Christ did appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God was conspicuous in the humane nature John 1.14 the invisible God was as it were made visible in a body of flesh We beheld his glory sayes the Evangelist if it were so upon earth how much more will it be verified in heaven The
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
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