shall be said to all Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire where the Worm never dyeth and the fire is not quenched into utter darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever Now during all this tremendous transaction the Saints shall sit in judicature as Assessors or Justices of the Peace with Christ upon the Bench seeing and hearing all that is done by the Judg voting with him approving and applauding him in his judicial proceedings crying out with loud acclamations Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus and other Saints shall eccho to them saying Even so Lord God Almighty true and Righteous are thy Judgments Thus the Saints shall judg the world Rev. 16.57 1 Cor. 6 2. yea they shall judg the Angels the Reprobate Angels but of this I have spoken more largely in the former part of this Treatise I come now to the Fifth end of the Saints meeting with Christ sc To receive their compleat and final Benediction Come ye blessed of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world A blessed Sentence indeed every word in it is Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Come my Love my Dove my undefiled One stand at no longer distance come and follow me whither I go I will that where I am there you may be also Ye Blessed Blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places Your Enemies on Earth accounted you the filth of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 and the off-scouring of all things Sathan hath desired to have you that you might be accursed with him for ever but ye are blessed and shall be blessed for ever Blessed of my Father Blessed in the eternal electing love of the Father Blessed in the Son's purchase you have washed your garments white in the blood of the Lamb Blessed by the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 and renewing of the Holy Ghost Inherit Ye are Children Heirs Heirs of God joynt-heirs with Christ behold I have adopted you to be follow-heirs with my self and the Father hath made you meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Oh come now and take possession of your Inheritance behold it is not less than a Kingdom for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk. 12.32 the Kingdom of Heaven the Kingdom of Glory behold it is Prepared In the Father's decree God hath laid it out for you before the foundation of the world was laid and it is prepared by my purchase and by my taking possession of it long since in your Name Jo. 14.2 I went before to prepare a place for you For you whom I also prepared for it and for every one of you personally every one of you shall receive an intire Kingdome to your selves and you shall live and reign with me for ever and ever As Heaven hath been kept for you so you have been kept for it by the power of God through Faith to Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Oh come now and take possession Behold This is the Saints full and final Benediction I should have spoke to this before I spake of the Sentence passed upon the Reprobate for in our Lord's method it doth precede Mat. 25.34 compared with ver 41. yet because Execution of the Sentence begins with the wicked and ends with the godly as ver 46. to the end that the Saints may behold with their eyes the Sentence Executed and seeing they may as God himself doth laugh at them saying Psal 52.7 Lo these are the men that made not God their strength but trusted in the abundâ—nce of their riches and strengthened themselves in their wickedness I have I say therefore chosen to speak of the Sentence of blessedness which the Judg shall pass upon the Saints in this place that from thence I might pass immediatly to the happy Execution thereof upon them nothing intervening as to the persons of Saints which is the Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air sc Their solemn and triumphant Attendance on the Judg The Sixth and last end of the Saints meeting with Christ is Their taking possession to take possession of the Kingdom This last judicial process being thus solemnly finished Sentence on both sides pronounced by the Judg the Reprobate already dragged away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance to the place of Execution where they shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels for ever and ever immediatly the Bench will rise the Court shall be broken up that great Occumenical assembly shall be dissolved and forthwith the Judg shall ascend his Majestick Chariot waiting ready for him and all the Saints shall follow him in their Wedding-garments glittering as the Sun in his Meridian glory upon their several Chairs of State all the holy Angels of God attending round about them with their Ensigns of glory flying Trumpets sounding Angels singing the Saints themselve shouting all the Regions of the Air resounding with their Celestial harmony the like whereunto never entred the Ear of man from the day wherein God laid the foundations of the Heaven and Earth to this happy moment In this triumphant posture shall they march till they come to the walls of New Jerusalem where the Gates of pearl to whom it shall be proclaimed Lift up your heads oh ye Gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting Doors and the King of glory shall enter in shall stand wide open to receive them An entrance shall be administred unto them abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ through the Streets whereof which are of pure gold as it were transparent glass they shall ride in Triumph till they come to the Throne of his Majesty where the Ancient of days sitteth Dan. 7.9.13 whose garment is as white aâ— Snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his Throne is like the fiery flames and his wheels as burning fire c. Then shall the Son of God come to Him and taking his new Bride in his hand shall present her to his Father and bespeak him in some such language as this Rev. 7.16 Chap. 5.9 Chap. 12.11 These are they which come out of great Tribulation who have washed their Robes white in my blood These are they which have kept the word of my patience these are they that overcame by my blood and by the word of their Testimony John 17.6 Verse 12. Thou gavest them me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy Name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the Son of Perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled I have given them thy word and the world hath
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
cheeks with Tears asking solicitously of every one they met Saw ye not him whom my Soul loveth I say To meet him now on the Throne of his glory of whom could they have had but a glimpse in a glass darkly in the Evangelical Ordinances Can. 6.12 their Souls would have made them like the Chariots of Aminadab To see him whom having not seen they loved and in whom though they then saw him not yet believing they rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory I say now to see him and so to see him as to have a full sight of his unveyled face shining more gloriously than ten thousand Suns at Noon-day Once more So to see him as never to lose the sight of him to all Eternity How will this transport their Souls with unspeakable extasies of joy which will cause them to break forth into Triumphant Hymns yea and to call to their now fellow Angels to help them with their Coelestial Hallelujahs Behold such and infinitely more than tongue can express or heart conceive will be the mutual joy triumph between Christ and his Saints at his blessed appearance Go forth in the mean time Use Oh ye Daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown Cant. 3.11 wherewith his Father will Crown him in the day of his Marriage and in the day of the gladness of his heart Gird up the loyns of your minds 1 Pet. 1.13 be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Ch. 4.13 that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad with exceeding joy Thus I have done with the first thing considerable in this meeting The Persons meeting Christ and the Saints I come to the second The place of meeting and that is In the Air. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air That is the place where Christ stays for his Saints There they meet him and there this great Oecumenical Assize will be held The Judge shall sit upon the Throne and all the Saints shall be placed on bright Clouds as on seats or Scaffolds round about him The Wicked remaining below upon the Earth there to receive their final doom and sentence and from thence to be drag'd away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance Infernal Spirits to the place of Execution the bottomless-Pit yet standing and to the greater aggravation of their horror looking on If it be demanded Qu. Why this Solemn Meeting must be in the Air. Answ It may suffice for answer The Lord Jesus hath made choyce of this place It is the priviledg of earthly Judges in their Circuits to appoint the place where they will keep their Assizes or Sessions wherein if stat pro ratione volunt as their will is a sufficient reason surely it is not less the prerogative of this great Judg of the quick and the dead to appoint the place where he will hold this last and tremendous Judgment And we may well acquiesce in the choyce not only because his will is the soveraign Law of the Creature but as his insinite Wisdome hath judged it the place most convenient for the designe And yet if it be lawful to make our Conjectures where Scripture is silent we may humbly suppose this two-fold Account of it 1. The Capacity of the Place 2. The Conspicuity of the Judgment 1. The Capacity of the Place Vast For the Capacity of the Place and as to us insinite will be the numberless numbers of those that do meet in this universal Assembly Behold the Lord will come with ten thousands of his Saints Jude 14. Yea thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him All the Saints that slept in Jesus from the Creation of man and all the Saints which are found alive upon the Earth at Christs Coming must all appear before the Lord Josus And besides these the Judge cometh with his Royal Satellites his Officers of State Myriads and Legions of Angels All his holy Angels Math. 25.31 There shall not be an Angel as it were left in Heaven as it were Jacob met two Hosts or Camps of Angels of God in his Travel Gen. 32.12 Our Saviour mentions more then 12 Legions which as a commanded party Math. 26 53. would have been in an instant sent out for his rescue if there had been need What an infinit Army of Angels must it needs be then when all the Angels come in Christ's Train An innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.22 And all these must not appear in confused heaps and multitudes but in their distinct ranks and order and the Saints are to sit in Order in their several degrees round about the Throne Why now the Place had need be of an huge extent and circumference that will suffice to receive and contain such variety of multitudes So that even in this respect no place so fit for this August and solemn Convention as the Air for its vast extensiveness and capacity But Secondly Much more in respect of Conspicuity that so the Judg and Judgment with all the Assessors and Attendants might be more eminently visible from Heaven above to the Earth beneath that the whole process of this general Assize may be heard and seen by all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Heaven and Hell Heaven would be too high the Earth would be too low the smoke of the bottomless pit would obscure this glorious vision The Air where is no interposition of Hills and Mountains and now serened and brightned by the confluence of so many glorious Suns will render this last tremendous Transaction visible and audible to every Creature Behold he cometh with Clouds Clouds which will not obscure him but bright Clouds which filled with the beams of his glory shall render him most visible and conspicuous Math. 24.30 Rev. 1.7 So it is Prophesied Every eye shall see him c. Thus it shall be and this will make for the exceeding Glory and Majesty of the Judg For thus it is even in humane Judicatories upon Earth the Tribunal of the Judg and Bench of Assessors is erected in open Court and lifted up on high in the sight of all the people that all may see and hear the whole judicial procedure of the Law with the posse Comitatus attending in Arms for the greater solemnity and honour of the Judge Upon the same accompt hath our Lord made choyce of the Air to keep his great Arsize in there to erect his Royal Throne and to place seats of Judgment for all the Saints to sit upon round about him all the holy Armies of Angels surrounding them This will make Christ very glorious in the eyes of all the Spectators Hence it is said He shall come in the glory of his Father and his own glory The Father sends the Son about this great Work of the last Judgment with as much pomp and glory as can
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
and how wofully full of diversions Such is our heaven on earth but our heaven in glory or our glory in heaven is not so God is the only unchangeable object of the Soul there the Soul stayes and sucks and drinks immeasurably and yet there is not a drop less in the object A seventh property is Reflextion 7. Property Reflection Reflexion is one of the choicest Ingredients into Fruition to enjoy Heaven in all the beatitudes thereof and to know I do enjoy it this is the beatitude of all beatitudes Direct Acts and Priviledges of Grace scil to believe to love Christ to be united to him to have communion with him to be cloathed with his Righteousness to be acted by his Spirit c. these may make a Christian safe but alone they cannot make him sure these may constitute a Christian happy but not give him the comfort of his happiness and how many precious Saints of God are there in this vale of tears whose all consists in these bare naked direct acts the new-born Babe Vivit est vitae nescius ipso suae oft like the natural Babes in the womb hath spiritual life in him but he knoweth it not how many gracious Souls believe but know not they do believe Yea cannot believe they do believe They think they have no grace because they have so much corruption they think they have no grace because they have not so much grace as they would have they love Christ but know not they love Christ they covet so much love to Christ that they seem to themselves to have none at all they are united to Christ and have communion with him but can apprehend neither this nor the other Et sic in caeteris And this is that which makes their lives so uncomfortable to them for the present Psal 42.9 and causeth them to go mourning all the day long yea sometimes with Mary they talk with Christ and Christ with them but their eyes are held they know him not Christ and the Soul speak like strangers one to another John 20.15 Woman saith Christ Sir saith the Soul Until Christ be pleased to speak in a more familiar dialect better understood by the poor Believer Mary and then the ravished Soul turns it self unto him ver 16. and springing into his arms cryes out Rabboni My Master my Lord and my God It fareth with many a poor believer here in the wilderness of desertion Gen. 21.16.17.18 Isai 12.3 as it did with Hagar in hers they sit down to dye for want of water when there is a well before them yea ver 19. many a well of living water the precious promises out of which wells of salvation they might with joy draw water and drink and forget their sorrows but alas they see them not until God open their eyes and then they can go and fill their bottles and drink and cause others to drink also This is oft the state of the way Oh but now in the Country the land of fruition there the Saints have their reflext Acts as well as their direct Acts they see and they know they see they love and they know they love yea they are beloved and they know they are beloved They are bathing themselves in the Rivers of pleasures and they know where they are and what they do All tears are wiped from their eyes and they know who wiped them off with the kisses of his mouth They are safe yea and they are sure they are blessed and they know they are blessed The Spouse is now got into the Throne the bosom of her Beloved the King of Glory and there she singeth and she sins not in it as the Harlot did Here I sit as a Queen Rev. 18.7 and am no widow and shall see sorrow no more for ever In a word all the acts of love and joy and delight in Heaven are acts of highest assurance without the least mixture of doubt and uncertainty There is no fear in this love because love being now perfected hath cast out fear And now the Saints come to see the reason of their love to God to be Gods love to them and the reason of Gods love to them to be God himself and in this the Soul sweetly acquiesceth triumphing for ever I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine for he hath loved me with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness will he draw me and I shall remain in his love for ever Eighth Freshness 8. Properly Freshness The Joyes of the glorified Saints are alwayes fresh from the Spring-head that makes them so sweet and luscious what we receive by the mediation of Creature-Conduits loseth much of its native delicacy Heaven is an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Drusius The name of a flower called Amarantus and that fadeth not away It is incorruptible not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only that cannot dye but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not obnoxious to corruption it is made all of materials that cannot corrupt and as it is in incorruptible so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also still fresh and green Adam and Eve were created in the prime ripeness and bravery of the humane nature in perfection of beauty and strength and such shall all the Saints be restored of what age and state of body soever they lay down in the grave the Children of the Resurrection shall rise in the morning in the most sparkling gallantry of youth and in that posture shall be for ever Like as the Angels are pictured to us in the adult and perfect beauty of youth not indeed of infancy that would import immaturity nor yet of old age that would intimate a declining state but I say of youth to shew they still retain the vive impressions of their first Creation The most delicate of all our sublunary delights of which we are at first so fond that we cannot spare them a moment out of our eye but are alwayes courting of them and solacing our selves in their fruition do quickly grow stale and flat upon our hands What is storied of Tython a beautiful active young man holds full analogy with all our Creature-felicities Aurora for the elegancy of his person and industry begg'd him of Jupiter to be her Husband withall praying that he might never dye both which Jupiter granted but she through her womanish inadvertency forgetting to pray that he might not grow old as well as not dye in his old age he grew impotent and burdensome to himself and to Aurora too so that repenting of her choice Jupiter out of pity turn'd him into a Grashopper Such are all our worldly beatitudes we would fain espouse them to our selves and write eternity upon them but how brave and sprightly soever they appear in our first appetitions of them they quickly grow old and fastidious and signifie no more than so many impotent Grashoppers But now there is no such thing in