the Love sect 3. and 7. See him also upon the Beatitudes sect 6. And it is no wonder we hear nothing of that Reconciliation made by the Cross of Christ for he does plainly aver sect 34. That the true being in the Love is that peace with God and man mentioned Ephes. 2.14 and the true Testament that standeth fast for ever And Exhortation chap. 12.44 Remission of sins is gained only by submitting to the House of the Love The same that David George boasted of his doctrine Therefore my beloved children change ye not nor turn away your selves from the House of Love For there is in the same the stool of grace to an everlasting remission of sins over all such as cleave thereon and to a peace and rest of the life to all such as humble them there-under By such slips and omissions as these those that are not very dull of perception may easily spel out his meaning Which yet is more clear by other places of his Evangely chap. 13. Where he setleth the Everlasting Priesthood not upon Christ's person but makes this Kingly Priest no person at all but a thing a state or condition of him and his followers here upon earth And therefore he calls there this mystical Christ The Lords Sabbath The seventh day in the Paradise of God The perfection c. And chap. 22. he makes the entrance of Christ into heaven and his visible ascending up thither and sitting at the right hand of God and sending down the holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost which was a real effect of his eternal Priesthood and Intercession with God for his Church nothing but the appearing of him according to the Spirit out of the Heavenly Being in their Minds or Souls upon which he sent down his Spiritual or Heavenly Powers Wherefore this Mystical Christ is the only high Priest that he acknowledgeth and will allow him no otherwise then in this mystical and spiritual sense to be an everlasting and true Christ of God See the place of which you will assure your self I have given the right sense if you compare it with chap. 26. sect 10 11 12. where he more plainly affirms That it is the upright being of the Love Christ after the Spirit which he calls the true light which is that high Priest that abideth for ever at the right hand of God in the Heavenly Being Which phrase Heavenly Being alwaies signifies morally or mystically with him and means something within us And yet he has the impudence to alledge Acts 1. v. 11. where Christ is said to ascend into Heaven literally and naturally so called his disciples gazing upon him as he went up Thus you see how industriously nay how madly and rashly he shuffles out the Humane person of Christ from his Priestly Office every where And as he will have the Heaven or most Holy within us so will he have his Sacrifice and Passion within us too Introduct chap. 8.38 Where doe any now saith he keep the Supper of Christ where they break distribute and eat the bread which is the true Body of Christ to a remembrance of Christ that he hath suffered in us for the sins cause the death of the Cross and so his death is published till he come in his glory Where it is plain that the Crucifixion of Christ is a mystery in us and it is insinuated a duty too For the Body and the Flesh of Christ is Christ according to the History Which Christ according to the Flesh is to be slain in us if we celebrate the Passeover aright and thus we must publish his death till he come in glory that is in the Spirit 4. And truely no other is his glorious coming to judgment with this Sect then this Mystical and Spiritual coming which was the second part I intended to pursue which I question not but I shall make as clear as noon-day Of this there are so many Testimonies and so pregnant that the only fear is of being too copious in the proof of this matter Revel Dei cap. 7. There his illuminate Elders together with his Family of Love are the Heavens in which Christ the Son of God comes gloriously and triumphantly to judgment to reign with God and his righteousness everlasting upon earth Which plainly excludes the ending of the World and that coming of Christ that all Christians expect And chap. 15. sect 6. he affirms that in this Eighth day which is the day of the Spirit of Love all the dead that are deceased in the Lord Iesus Christ do rise from the death and all Generations of Heaven and Earth do become judged in the judgement of God with equity Again in his Introduct Chap. 1. he saith That now the true glorious God who is the Resurrection and the Life revealeth his Saints out of his bosome where since the time they fel asleep they have rested untill this day of the Love because they should now in these last times in the resurrection of the righteous be manifested with Christ in glory to a righteous judgement of God on the earth And chap. 12. he there also affirms That in this day of the Love there appear and come to us livingly and gloriously all God's Saints which in times past died and fell asleep in God And chap. 22. there he also tells us how that in sure and firm hope of everlasting life the upright believers have rested in the Lord Iesus Christ till the appearing of his coming which is now in this day of the Love revealed out of the heavenly Being with which Iesus Christ the former Believers of Christ who were fallen asleep rested or died in him are now also manifested in glory being raised from the dead to the intent that they should reign alive with him over all his enemies To which you may add what he has wrote chap. 16. in his Prophecy of the Spirit of Love Make you to flight make you to flight yea get you now all out of the way ye enemies of the Lord and of his service of the Love and give the Lord with his holy ones the roome yet shall ye not escape the vengeance of God For he saith the Lord cometh to judge betwixt the Family of the Love and the rest of the world where-through the Earth is now moved the Heavens troubled the Elements melt with heat and the token of the coming of the Son of man appears in Heaven with which rumour or rushing noise of the power of God and his holy ones the last trumpet doth also presently give forth her sound through whose blast of her vehement sound and through the appearing of the coming of Christ the dead shall stand up and arise unto the judgement of God who having revenged the bloud of his holy ones that the sinners have spilt and shed upon the earth he puts this pure Family in peaceable Possession thereof that they may reign there-over or judge the same with righteousness from henceforth world without
more Particular answer to that of the 32 of this Chapter where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either interpreted if the Souls of just men deceased obtain not their glorified or heavenly Bodies For though it were granted that they did in the mean time live and act in Aery vehicles yet that State and Region as the Earth being common to good and bad they had yet obtained no peculiar reward for their hardship and toil here Or else which is the more safe sense by far it may be interpreted at large of the life and subsistency of the Soul after its departure according to the last signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the third Premiss And thus is the strength of the main proof of the Psychopannychites utterly enervated 10. But there are other places of Scripture which they misapply to the same purpose as the Answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees question concerning the Resurrection I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Hence our Adversaries would conclude That the Souls of the departed do not live because if they did our Saviour's argument would be invalid for the Resurrection For if Abraham's Spirit were now alive God might be his God though his Body never rise But this is easily satisfied out of the second Premiss By Resurrection there being understood a Life hereafter and the Opinion of the Sadducees being That there is neither Angel nor Spirit nor Life to come he does not exactly tie himself to that particular circumstance of a blessed Immortality that consists in the enjoyment of glorified Bodies but answers more at large concerning the subsistence of Souls of men departed that they are and live and that therefore there are Spirits and so handsomly confutes the whole Doctrine of the Sadducees by that citation out of their own Pentateuch and a skilful application thereof CHAP. VII 1. A General Answer to the last sort of places they alledge that imply no enjoyment before the Resurrection 2. A Particular answer to that of 2 Cor. 5. out of Hugo Grotius 3. A preparation to an Answer of the Author 's own by explaining what the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie 4. His Paraphrase of the six first Verses of the forecited Chapter 5. A further confirmation of his Paraphrase 6. The weakness of the Reasons of the Psychopannychites noted 1. THE third and last way of proving the Sleep of the Soul is from such Passages in Scripture as seem to joyn the Hour of our Death immediately with the Day of our Resurrection as in 2 Cor. 5. Where the Apostle seems to intimate that there does nothing intercede betwixt the solution of our Earthly Tabernacle and being clothed with the Heavenly which not being till the Day of Judgment it is a sign that the Soul is in no condition unless that of Sleep till then So likewise in 2 Tim. chap. 1. and chap. 4. In the former he speaks of his Depositum which he intrusts God with till that Day and prays that Onesiphorus may finde mercy at that Day and in the latter he speaks of a Crown of righteousness that the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day as if all were defer'd till then But in my conceit it is a weak kinde of Argument Because the Souls of the Saints receive not their great reward till the Day of Iudgment that therefore they receive nothing at all nay that they are in a worse state then in this life as having lost all Sense of Existence or Being Their opinion to me seems more tolerable then this who though they do not presently mount them up in their Ethereal Chariots to Heaven yet permit them to move and to act in their Aereal Vehicles at a less distance from the Earth But that Last day being a day of that high Solemnity dreadful Glory and Majesty it is no wonder that for the better moving of the Minds of men he so often mentions that time without taking any notice of the interceding Space For thereby it also seems more nigh as a distant Object does to the sight no visible thing coming between 2. Now for the second to the Cor. 5. chap. There be two waies of clearing that difficulty there The one of Hugo Grotius in which a late learned Interpreter of our own does also insist expounding as they may well the third verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus If so be we shall be found in the number of those that are still clothed with these Earthly bodies not stript naked of them by death This Interpretation the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 going afore makes still the more warrantable as also that following phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used by the Apostle in a parallel case This Exposition utterly destroys all the force of the Psychopannychites Argument taken from this place For whereas the Apostle seems to speak as if immediately upon the solution of this Earthly they were to be invested with a Heavenly Tabernacle which is mainly to be gathered out of the second and fourth verses it is only upon the supposition that the day of the Lord might come while they were yet clothed with flesh 3. But because this Interpretation may seem to be something derogatory to the Apostle's Knowledge as if he were pendulous and uncertain whether the day of Iudgment might not be in his time which some men will not bear I shall propound another that they may take their choice The former seems to have a special advantage in the proper sense of those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if we can but come off well here we shall carry on the rest handsmooth We premise therefore thus much concerning the meaning of those two words That as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies simply to put on a garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well signifie to put on an inward garment For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie within in composition as the Latine word In does in Inducula Inducium and Interula all which signifie an inward Garment and the two former they ordinarily derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this proper signification of the word And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie to put on an inward garment so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie an addition of an inward garment to an outward for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will signifie in composition as if the sense were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be content to wear an upper garment only but to put on also an inward as we do in winter add an half-shirt or a wastcoat Or if this look like too curious a Criticism let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
World who have ever and anon had new Instances of Apparitions and Communications with evil Spirits and fresh occasions of executing the Laws they had made against Witches and wicked Magicians 4. I should now pass to the second head I propounded could I abstain from touching a little upon the circumstances of the Birth of that famous Corrival of our Saviour Apollonius Tyaneus whose story writ by Philostratus though I look upon it as a mixt business partly true and partly false yet be it what it will be seeing it is intended for the highest Example of Perfection and that the Heathen did equalize him with Christ you shall see how ranck his whole History smells of the Animal Life and how hard a thing it is either in actions or writings to counterfeit that which is truly holy and divine For which end I shall make a brief Parallelisme of the Histories of them both in the chief matters of either that the Gravitie and Divinitie of the one and the Ridiculousness and Carnality of the other may the better be discerned 5. As in this very First point is plain and manifest which is dispatched in a word For in that Philostratus writes how Apollonius was of an ancient and illustrious Pedigree of rich Parents and descended from the founders of the City Tyana where he was born is not this that which is as sweet as honey to the Natural man and such as an holy and divine Soul would set no esteem upon Like to this is his Mother's being waited upon by her Maidens into a Meadow being directed thereto by a Vision where while her servants were straying up and down making of posies and chaplets of flowers O what fine soft pompous doing is here and her self disporting her self in the grass she at last falls into a slumber the Swans in the mean time rangeing themselves in a row round about her dancing and clapping their wings and singing with such shrill and sweet accents that they filled the neighbouring places with their pleasant melody they being as it were inspired and transported with joy by the gentle breathings of the fresh and cool Zephyrus whereupon the Lady awaking is instantly delivered of a fair Child who after his Fathers name was called Apollonius 6. The amenity of the story how gratefull and agreeable it is to flesh and bloud But how ridiculous is that dance and rountlelay of the musical Swans compared with that Heavenly Melody of the holy Angels at the Nativity of Christ For that if it could be true is but a ludicrous prodigie and presignification that Apollonius would prove a very odde fellow and of an extraordinary strein and serves only for the magnifying of his person But this is a grave and weighty indication of the Goodness of God and the Love of his holy Angels to men and a prediction of that peace and grace which should be administred unto them through Jesus Christ that was then born Behold said the chief Angel whose glorious presence surrounded the shepheards with light Behold said he I bring you good tidings of Great joy which shall be unto all people For unto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord whereupon there was suddenly with this Angel a multitude of the heavenly Hoast praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men CHAP. III. 1. That whatever miraculously either happened to or was done by our Saviour till his Passion cannot seem impossible to him that holds there is a God and ministration of Angels 2. Of the descending of the Holy Ghost and the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme 3. Why Christ exposed himself to all manner of hardship and Temptations 4. And particularly why he was tempted of the Devil with an answer to an Objection touching the Devil's boldness in daring to tempt the Son of God 5. How he could be said to shew him all the Kingdoms of the Earth 6. The reason of his fourty daies fast 7. And of his Transfiguration upon the Mount The three first reasons 8. The meaning of Moses and Elias his receding and Christ's being left alone 9. The last reason of his Transfiguration That it was for the Confirmation of his Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul 10. Testimonies from Heaven of the Eminency of Christs person 1. WE have done with the Birth of Christ we proceed now to his Life wherein we shall consider only those things that extraordinarily happened to him or were miraculously done by him till the time of his Passion wherein nothing will be found impossible to them that acknowledge the Existence of God the active malice of Devils and the Ministery of Angels But that which I intend mainly to insinuate is the comeliness and sutableness of all things to so Holy and Divine a person which that it may the better appear I shall after shew the difference of this true example of solid Perfection Christ and that false pattern of feigned holiness in that Impostour Apollonius whom the later Heathen did so highly adore 2. The chief things that happened in an extraordinary way to Christ before his Passion are these Three 1. The descending of the Holy Ghost upon him in the shape of a Dove at his being baptized and the emission of a Voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2. The Temptation of the Devil upon his fasting and 3. His Transfiguration upon the Mount Concerning the First there is great reason for that Miracle For God having a design to set on foot the Divine life in the World by his Son Iesus Christ why should he not countenance the Beginning of his Ministery by some notable sign by which men might take notice that he was the Messias sent of God And Iohn the Baptist confesses himself assur'd thereof by this Indication And being there was to be some extraordinary appearance what could be more fit then this of a Dove a known embleme of Meekness and Innocency inseparable branches of the Divine life and Spirit and at what better time then when Iesus gave so great a Specimen of his Meekness and Humility as to condescend to be wash'd as if he had been polluted when he was more pure then light or snow and to be in the form of a disciple to Iohn when he was able to teach him and all the world the Mysteries of God Which may be noted to the eternal shame of our conceited Enthusiasts who phansying they have got something extraordinary within contemn and scorn the laudable Institutions of the Church which is an infallible argument of their Pride as this of our Saviour's Humility But while he humbled himself thus God did as highly advance him adding to this silent show an articulate voice from Heaven the better to assure the by-standers that he was the Messias the Son of God 3. As for his being tempted of the Devil it has the same meaning that the
Person in his coming to Judgment that no tolerable Allegorie can elude them 3. That there will be a Resurrection of the dead in a natural not a moral sense at the same time is as evident from the very last words I cited For who but a mad-man will interpret the meeting of Christ in the air in a moral sense If it had been written in the Heavens they would have shuffled it off and said in the Heavenly being or Heavenly nature mystically understood But will they have the impudence not to acknowledg the aieriness and phantastry of their Mysteries of Incredulity when they must according to the same analogy be driven to say that we shall at the Resurrection meet Christ in the Aiery Being mystically understood But it is as false a gloss to interpret the doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. so as to exclude the Natural and Physical sense of it it being plain that such a Death and such a Resurrection is spoken of concerning us as is argued from the Death and the Resurrection of Christ who is said to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins which is impossible to be interpreted mystically Read from the first to the eleventh verse it is a plain History From whence the Apostle inferres that there is a blessed Resurrection or glorious Immortality in Body and Soul which Christ will bestow on all true believers at the last day As himself has promised over and over again in the sixth of S. Iohn's Gospel and I will raise him up at the last day Many other places there are to this purpose in Scripture which I willingly omit 4. The third and last is the Conflagration of the World of which I hold that of S. Peter an undeniable Testimonie But the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works therein shall be burnt up The explication of which Prophecie Mr. Ios. Mede has set down with a great deal of caution and judgment To which I should wholy subscribe did I not believe that this execution of Fire were the very last visible judgment God would doe upon the Rebellious generations of Adam leaving them then to tumble with the Devils in unsupportable torment and confusion 5. And therefore I would expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 13. But yet Notwithstanding or Nevertheless before this Conflagration of the Earth we expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in a Political sense in which Righteousness shall dwell Nor does that phrase verse 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking for hastning the coming of the Day of God warrant any one to restrain this Prophecie to a Moral meaning as if it were only high expressions signifying something in our own power and to be done by us For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be either an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denote no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is with great earnestness and diligence to expect or if so be you take them for two several things and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie hastning that sense is also consistent enough with our Interpretation For being the Day of the Lord is a day of great Joy and ample Remunerations to the Godly as well as of Destruction to the Wicked and suppose it also comes not till Righteousness has had its reign upon Earth we may well be exhorted by our prayers and conversations to hasten and accelerate as much as in us lies the coming of either 6. But that by no such mystical Interpretation as this the Earth can be excused from being burnt by a visible and palpable Fire is clear beyond all exception from the 5 6 and 7 verses of this Chapter Where the Apostle alledges against that usual Refuge and Security of Atheists to wit The sameness and immutableness of the Law of Nature and the order or course of things that all things are as they were from the beginning and ever will be so and that therefore God will never step out in such an extraordinary way to Iudgment To this the Apostle opposes that eminent Example of God's Vengance in bringing the Floud upon the old World and drowning the Earth in an immense Deluge of Water But the Heavens and the Earth which are now saith he are reserved unto fire against the day of Iudgment and perdition of ungodly men Were the Waters in Noah's time natural when God had a controversie with all flesh and shall the Fire that the world shall be destroyed with be spiritual But light-minded men whose hearts are made dark with Infidelity care not what Antick Distorsions they make in interpreting Scripture so they bring it but to any shew of compliance with their own Phansie and Incredulity 7. I know there be that would understand by this burning of Heaven and Earth the destruction of the City of Ierusalem But the description is too big by far for so small a Work and not likely to be understood of them it was intended as a comfort to it being so exceedingly well fitted to the Conflagration of the World and so disproportionated to the other Event Moreover it is manifest from the Scoffer's arguing against the Promise of Christ's coming ver 4. That nature keeps still the same course it did since the beginning that this Coming of Christ was not understood by them and consequently not by S. Peter of the burning of a City by war For such things have hapned often and so they might not think it improbable Ierusalem might be burnt in due time but of that final glorious coming of Christ to judge the World which Judgment the Conflagration of the Earth is to attend 8. And truly if a man will but weigh things without prejudice he shall find the main matter of these two Epistles to be nothing else but an Exhortation to grow perfect and established in all Christian Vertues from the hope of that excellent Reward that shall be bestowed at the appearing and coming of the Lord Jesus as you may see in this second Epistle the first Chapter For so an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. Which is parallel to that in his first where the Promise is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens and so on to the thirteenth verse Which verses doubtless no unbiassed judgment will ever understand of a delivery from any Temporal calamity much less the destruction of Ierusalem from which place those dispersed Jews were far enough removed as far as Pontus Cappadocia Asia Galatia Bithynia To say nothing that the so-carefull an Inculcation of that sad Theam of the fatal destruction of the holy City would not so much become the pen of this venerable Apostle nor the gust of them he wrote to being Jews by Nation
Truth whose Foundation is no less firm then what is built upon these undeniable Grounds That there is a God and a Perfect and Particular Providence That there are Angels and Spirits of men really distinct from their Bodies and That the one as well as the other are lapsable Which things I have demonstrated partly in this present Treatise partly in other Writings and I appeal to all the World if they have any thing solid to oppose against what I have writ Moreover That this Lapse of Men and Angels is their forsaking of the Divine Life and wholy cleaving to the Animal without any curb or bounds whereby as well the fallen Angels or Devils as Man himself are become as much as respects the inward life mere Brutes being devoid of that touch and sense of the Divine Goodness And therefore their Empire is generally merely like that of the Beasts according to Lust and Power where the stronger rules with Pride and Insolency over the weaker and so the Devils being a degree above men of more wit and power then they it naturally falls to their shares to tyrannize over Mankind who were in the same condemnation with themselves having become Rebels to God as well as they 3. And it is but a piece of Wisdome and Justice in that great Judge and Dramatist God Almighty to permit this to be for a season And therefore the generality of the World were to be for a time under the Religion and Worship of Devils who were wild and enormous Recommenders of the mere Animal life to the sons of men without any bounds or limits themselves in the mean time receiving that tribute of abused Mortals which was most agreeable to their Pride and Tyrannical natures that is Religious Worship and Absolute Obedience as I have proved by many Examples in History 4. And that God should stand silent all this time is no wonder partly from what I have intimated already and partly because he is out of the reach of any real injury in all this as also because the Object of this irregular Fury of both Men and Devils in which they please themselves so much is but the Effect of that one Power from whence are all things or some shred or shadow of the Divine Attributes For I have shewn fully enough That all the Branches of the Animal life are good and laudable in themselves and that only the Unmeasurable Love and Use of them is the thing that is damnable The great Rebellion therefore of both Men and Angels is but a phrantick dotage upon the more obscure evanid and inconsiderable operations or manifestations of that Power which hoots into all 5. In this low condition is held the Kingdome of Darkness who maugre all their Lawlesness and Rebellion do ever lick the very dust of his feet from whom they have revolted For there is no Might nor Counsell against the Eternal God but his Will shall stand in all That all-comprehending Wisdome therefore was not outwitted by these Rebels but she suffered them to introduce a Darkness out of which herself would elicite a more marvellous and glorious Light and let them prime the tablet with more duskish colours on which she was resolved to pourtray the most illustrious beauty that the eyes of man could desire to look upon 6. And that there is a Lapse of Men and Angels is very manifest That of Man is so plain that not only the better sort of Philosophers such as the Pythagoreans and Platonists but the making of Laws and appointing of Punishments and mens general confession of their Proneness to Vice and Wickedness doth abundantly testifie And that there are wicked Spirits or evil Genii as well as good the Religion of the Pagans and the Confession of Witches and the Effects of them in the possessed are a sufficient argument 7. Now that Wisdome as I have said that orders all things sweetly is not in the least measure baffled by this Misadventure of the fall of Angels and Men but looks upon it as fit fuel for a more glorious triumph of the Divine Life And that noted Aphorisme amongst the Pythagoreans who laid no Principles for mean ends comes in fitly here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Worser is made for the service and advantage of the Better And the Kingdome of Darkness no question by Him that rules over all is very dextrously subordinated to the greater advantage of the Kingdome of Light it yielding them a due exercise of all their Faculties in the behalf of the Divine life which God most justly does magnifie above all things as also a most successfull victorie and triumph So that the Period of Ages ought to end so exact a Providence attending things as a very joyfull and pleasant Tragick Comedie This the Reason of man will expect upon supposition that there is a God and Providence as most certainly there is both especially if one quality of Souls and Spirits be better and more precious then another and the Divine life the most lovely Perfection of all 8. Which is as true as touch to all that have once tasted the Excellency of it and the Ignorance of the blinde is no argument against the certain Knowledge of them that see For one Soul Angel or Spirit though they may be the same in Substance as all Corporeal things are the same in Matter may differs as much from another as Gold Diamonds and Pearls do from common Dirt or Clay or the most exquisite Beauty from the horriblest Monster That therefore that is base shall be rejected and that which is precious and noble shall be gathered up in that day that the Lord shall make up his Jewels 9. And that there will be such a visible Day of Vengeance wherein the whole Earth shall burn with the wrath of God not only the common Fame throughout all Ages and Places of the Final Conflagration of the World and natural Reasons in Philosophy but also a necessity of some universal palpable and sensible Punishment on impudently-prophane and Atheistical People is a warrantable Inducement to believe 10. The great Good therefore that does arise out of this Revolt of Men and Angels is a setting the Activity of the Creation at an higher pitch and making the Emanations of all manner of Life felt more to the very quick exciting and employing all the Faculties and Passions of Souls and Spirits in a greater degree of life and motion with more vigilancy and a more favoury sense of acquired enjoiments then if there had been no such opposition betwixt the Light and Dark Kingdomes 11. Now therefore though God may seem at first to give the Dark Kingdome and Animal life the start of the Divine yet he is in due time by some very effectual means so to raise up so to back and assist the Divine Life against the Powers of Darkness that she may be found to have very visible Victories against the usurpation of Satan over the sons of men Wherefore
believe any other Service or Information but what is administered by the Elders in the house of the Love enjoins them to give up their Understandings wholy to the Eldest of the Family and to give ear to none else but the Teachers of his own Sect. Nay he will not so much as suffer them to appeal to the Light that is within them nor to judge themselves nor be judged by their own Consciences but only by the Elders of the house of the Love concerning whom they must not have the least suspicion of Errour or Unfaithfulness Which is the greatest Tyranny and Slavery upon the Soul of man that can be devised and a shrewd Indication that those Elders will approve and advise things against express Scripture Reason and Conscience And thus is many a poor simple Lamb catched out of the Fold of Christ and carried quite away without recovery into the thickest and remotest Woods and darkest Caverns or Dens to be devoured by this white Wolf who by his gracious speeches heart-melting insinuations soft-soothing language that is oiled and perfumed with nothing but Love first intices the little ones after whom his mouth most of all waters to a great esteem of himself and then utterly extinguishes in them to their Eternal Destruction all that Faith they had in the Person and Promises of our ever-blessed Saviour Which he does by intercepting all aid that the use of Reason and the Knowledge of the Scripture could administer giving them such hard language as we have above recited the civilest aspersion he bestows being the Imagination of the Knowledge but magnifying himself and his Service of the Love that is his own Doctrine above whatever yet appear'd to the sons of men as you shall now hear 4. For he sets himself above Abraham Moses David and all the Prophets above Iohn the Baptist yea above the Person of Christ himself For indeed he will allow that the service of the Fathers in the Covenant of Circumcision until Moses was the Forefront of the true Tabernacle and that Moses in figures and shadows set out the true being of the true sanctuary of God in the Spirit and that to David and the Prophets was shewn the true Being in the Spirit of their sight That Iohn the Baptist was a Preparation by Repentance to an entrance into the Holy of the true Tabernacle and that this Holy of the true Tabernacle is the Service of Christ in the Belief But the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy this he reserves to himself and his Service of the Love Wherein as he boasts is the Perfection of Life the Completion of all Prophecies from the beginning of the World the righteous Judgment of God the Throne of Christ before which all things must needs be manifested the perfect Being of the Godhead and the true Rest of the chosen of God He calls also this his Service of the Love the Last Day and the Perfection and Conclusion of all the works of God Whereby he would intimate it to be an everlasting Seventh day or Sabbath And yet he will have it also the Eighth Day as if he affected an holy-day beyond that of God himself and a time beyond Eternity 5. Again in his Prophecie of the Spirit of Love he sets himself highest in the enumeration of the Three principal Services namely the Service of the Law under God the Father the Service of the Belief under Christ the Saviour and the Service of the Love under the Holy Ghost The affectation of which office he learnt of his master David George as is noted by them that have wrote of these Enthusiasts I omit to speak of lesser Encomiums of his doctrine as That it is the last Trump that sure word of Prophecie that his day of the Love is that new day that the Lord has made abundant in clearness and full of Eternal joy the new Ierusalem descending from Heaven and the Inheritance of the Right-perfection We will conclude all with what he writes in his Revelation of God Behold presently in this day is the Kingdome of the God of Heaven and his Righteousness the godly Majesty and his Glory as also the salvation of Christ and the eternal life appeared in perfect Clearness with great Triumph and Ioy The Resurrection also of the dead the cleansing of the Earth the blessing of all Generations the righteous Iudgment of God the Glorious coming of Christ with all the thousands of Saints and the everlasting Condemnation of all ungodly in the hellish Fire What therefore can you expect more then is accomplished in his Service of the Love and what greater Person can there be then he who sets so glorious a Dispensation on foot on the earth Let us therefore take notice what he makes himself in the midst of this Glory and Pomp which he sets out 6. As if it were a small thing for him to be raised from the dead and to be anointed with the holy Ghost he boasteth further that God has sealed in him the Dwelling of his Glory and of his Holy Name and elsewhere that he is Godded with God and consubstantiated with the Deity and expresly in his Evangely Chap. 34. he declares how God has manned himself with him and Godded him with his Godhead to a living Tabernacle a House for his dwelling and to a seat of his Christ the seed of David and how the Judgment-seat of Christ is revealed out of Heaven from the right hand of God and that on the same Judgment-seat of Christ there sitteth one meaning himself in the Habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon equity and requireth righteousness and that through him God will judge the compass of the Earth This in his Introduction to the Glass of Righteousness is the right Messias the high Priest for ever in the most holy the noble King of Israel and Iuda that possesses the seat of his Father an everlasting peaceable Prince over the house of Iacob according to the promises But you 'l say this cannot be understood of H. Nicolas but of Christ according as he has wrote elsewhere that there is in his Communialty of the Love a true Iudge Iesus Christ our Lord and King which executes the right Iudgment of his Father according to the truth But we are also to understand that This Christ that sits on the throne of his Father David is the eldest Father of the Family of Love as appears out of his Evangelium Cap. 31. sect 14. and 16. Which places compared with what has been recited it is clear that H. Nicolas is this Christ on the seat of David for his life-time and which is still worse and the seed of endless Madness and Blasphemie that this wild Presumption of the eldest in the Family being the very Christ from Heaven returned to judge the World with equity will be entailed upon their Successors for ever And that the appearance of this Christ may be the more glorious
end So that the completion of all the Prophets ends in the Triumph of Familism the same which David George boasted of himself See also chap. 15. sect 5. Lastly in his Evangely chap. 35.8 Behold in this same day namely of the Love is the Resurrection of the Lords dead come to pass through the appearing of the coming of Christ in his Majesty according to the Scriptures And a little after sect 9. In which resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead that are fallen asleep in the Lord rise up in this day of his judgement and appear unto us in Godly glory which shall also henceforth live in us everlastingly with Christ and reign upon the Earth Of which the plain sense is That the Souls deceased so many hundred years agoe are alive again in these of the Family of Love and shall reign everlastingly in them with the Mystical Christ on the Earth Which plainly excludes that other Iudgement or Resurrection in the Literal sense as I said before Again chap. 4. sect 15. For this cause our hope standeth now in this day very little on many of the Inhabitants of the world but we hope with joy much more on the appearing of the dead that die in the Lord or are dead in him to wit that they in their resurrection from the death shall livingly come unto and meet with us For all the dead of the Lord and members of Christ shall now live and rise with their Bodies and we shall assemble us with them and they with us to one body in Iesus Christ into one lovely Being of the Love and be altogether concordable in the Love and peace of Iesus Christ. CHAP. XVII 1. His perverse Interpretation of that Article of the Creed concerning Life everlasting 2. His misbelief of the Immortality of the Soul proved from his forcible wresting of the most pregnant Testimonies thereof to his Dispensation and Ministry here on Earth 3. Their interpreting of the Heavenly Body mentioned 2 Cor. 4. and the unmarried state of Angels to the signification of a state of this present Life 4. That H. Nicolas as well as David George held there were no Angels neither good nor bad 5. Further Demonstrative Arguments that he held the Soul of man mortall 6. How sutable his laying aside of the Person of Christ is to these other Tenets 7. That H. Nicolas as highly as he magnifies himself is much below the better sort of Pagans His irreverent apprehension of the Divine Majesty if he held that there was any thing more Divine then himself 1. FInally as for that Article of the Creed concerning Life everlasting his exposition is this We confess that the same everlasting life is the true Light of men and that God hath made and chosen him the man thereto that he should live in the same light everlastingly Where by him the man he means the succession of mankind as any one may know that is but a little acquainted with his manner of writing and by everlasting life and the true light of men he means the Light of the Love and the Service thereof which he presages shall abide for ever Which therefore he cals the house of God's dwelling the eternal rest of his holy ones the everlasting fast-standing Ierusalem the true and indisturbable kingdome full of all Godly Power Ioy and of all heavenly Beautifulness wherein the land of the Lord with fulness of Eternal life and lively sweetness is sung from everlasting to everlasting With such sweet Charms and pleasing enchantments does this grand Deceiver lull asleep his little ones into an utter oblivion and perfect misbelief of those precious Promises of Everlasting Happiness made to us by Christ who hath brought Life and Immortality to light 2. For that there is with no other Life but this nor any Immortality of the Soul or blessed Resurrection which consists in the Soul 's being invested with an Heavenly and Spiritual body according to the plain and literal sense of Scripture his gross abuse of those two main proofs thereof 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes. 4. do plainly demonstrate which he does wildly distort as he doth the rest of the Scripture to a mere prediction of his Service of the Love in which he will have every thing of the last Day and of the Resurrection fulfilled that we may be sure that there is nothing else to be expected but this For in this the last trump sounds Christ appears in the Heavens being come to judgement those very Saints that in time past died and fell asleep in the Lord are now raised up in glory and that with their bodies and livingly come unto and meet with us according to that in 1 Thes. 4. and lastly these raised Saints that is the Family of Love shall thus reign with their mystical Christ upon earth for ever world without end What interpretation of Scripture can more accurately and radically take away all expectation of Christs personal coming to Judgement and the hope of a Blessed Immortality included therein by the resurrection of the dead then this of this bold Author Which we may be the better assured he intends in that his applications are so miserably forced and yet he has no better proofs then these for the ratifying of his Service of the Love For if he thought they did signifie that which all Christians think they do he could fancy no force at all in them for the establishing of his Doctrine but the orthodox meaning seeming to him utterly incredible makes him confident that he has found out the right sense if he deal bonâ fide and takes not the Scripture for a mere Fable which he may abuse as he pleases 3. For we may observe him using the same industry in eluding the force of such places as are plain for an Immortal state after this life even there where he may seem unconcerned if he held the Soul of man Immortal As that 2 Cor. 5. where the Promise of the Heavenly or Spiritual body is evidently set down as appears further out of the last verses of the precedent chapter and yet these Familists are not ashamed to expound it of the most holy of the true Tabernacle in their canting language whereby they mean the perfection of the Love a state in this life as you may see in their Mirabilia Dei. And in the Spiritual Land of peace That which is writ Luk. 20.35 concerning the children of the Resurrection that they are neither married nor given in marriage but are as the Angels of God he applies to the state of the Service of the Love and makes it fulfilled in his life Which is an Allegory so cross and crooked that nothing but an unbelief of the literal sense could ever have put a man upon the framing of it besides that scurvy intimation it bears along with it of community of wives the very same doctrine that David George is said to
describe So that according to this Supposition we will of our own accord acknowledge that several and those of the most eminent Prophecies that characterize the Person of Christ did first touch upon some other Person which was but a fainter Resemblance of him But that after this glance they are carried to their main scope they drive at where they pierce and are fixt as an arrow stuck in the mark 3. Now this Reference is of two sorts either a Perfect Allegorie or Mixt. That I call a Perfect Allegorie when all the expressions concerning the Person first spoke of do very well and naturally fit him but may be interpreted and that more exquisitely it may be of some more illustrious Person that comes after Such Allusions as these are used by the Apostles and Evangelists to the great confirmation of our Faith however the Iews are scandalized at it For there can be no other sense of it then this viz. That either these Interpretations which they put upon the Prophets were the known Interpretations of the Iews and therefore very accommodate to perswade the Iews by and it was a sign they were right Interpretations they being made before prejudice had blinded them Or else that these Expositions were their own that is that they arose in their own minds first which was impossible they should they being but Allusions unless the certain knowledge of what hapned to our Saviour Christ had put them upon it So that those allusive Proofs are to us strong Confirmations that the History of the Gospel in those things that seem most incredible is certainly true I will content my self with that one instance though I might alledge many others of Christ's being born of a Virgin Certainly unless they had known that de facto he was so or that their wise men had interpreted that of Isaiah Chap. 7. to that sense it is incredible that they should ever alledge that place for it and they making no use of any other but this which is only allusory it is plain the certainty of the Event was that which cast them upon the Interpretation 4. I call a Mixt Allegorie that which is partly allusoric as being applicable first to some more inferiour Person whether King Prophet or Priest and then to the Messiah and partly simple and express not applicable to any but the Messiah himself the Prophet being so actuated by the Spirit of God that in the sublimity of that divine Heat he is in his sense and expressions reach out further then the Person that is the Type and strike into such Circumstances that are not at all true but in the Antitype And these Predictions of this nature concerning the Messiah are as Demonstrative to those that are not intolerable Cavillers as if the Prophecie had been wholly carried to the Messiah without glancing or touching upon any other Person 5. These things being premised let us return to Isaiah and peruse his whole Prophecie that we may the more accurately judge thereof Chap. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him 3. He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not 4. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed 6. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgressions of my people was he stricken 9. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was deceit in his mouth 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sinne he shall see his seed he shall prolong his daies and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand 11. He shall see of the travel of his Soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities 12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoile with the strong because he hath poured out his Soul unto death and he was numbred with the transgressours and he bare the sinne of many and made intercession for the transgressours 6. The ancient and wisest of the Iews ever interpreted this Chapter of their Messiah And the later Rabbins being convinced of the clearness of the Prophecie and respecting the Authority of those wise Interpreters before them have been some of them forced to acknowledge two Messiahs the one the Son of Ioseph the other of David The former a suffering Messiah the other victorious and triumphant rather then to deny the evidence of this Prophecie Out of which there is also a special Tradition set down in an ancient Book amongst the Iews which is called Pesikta which further confirms our assertion of their interpreting of it concerning the Sufferings of the Messiah How that the Soul of the Messiah was ordained and did gladly accept the condition to suffer from the beginning of the World The Tradition runs thus That when God created the World he put forth his hand under his Throne of Glory and brought forth the Soul of the Messiah and all his Attendants and said unto him Wilt thou heal and redeem my sons after six thousand years He answered he would God said again unto him Wilt thou undergoe the chastisements to purge away their iniquities according as it written it is the Rabbins own application Certè morbos nostros tulit The Soul of the Messiah answered I will undergoe them and that right gladly 7. This is enough to confirm that it was the Opinion of the ancient and unprejudiced Iews That this Prophecie was meant of their Messiah and as I said there is not any one Prophecie so full of Characteristicals of his Person as this though not all of the like Clearness But I dare say no less then these nine are in some sort or other included in it 1. His being rejected by the Jews 2. And
best have long since before this inveterate contest betwixt the Iew and Christian interpreted them so 5. The sixth Character of his Person is the Excellencie of his Doctrine This is intimated as I said Isaiah 53. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many but is more fully express'd Malachi 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his Temple which might have been produced as another Prophecie of the Divinity of the Messiah even the messenger of the Covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness Whereby is plainly denoted the purity and sanctity of that Law and Spirit that the Messiah was to communicate to his serious followers that he would throughly purifie them and purge them from their Hypocrisie and Sinfulness And again Isaiah 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoaking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the Isles shall wait for his law Thus saith God the Lord he that created the Heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant unto the people for a light of the Gentiles To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house And Isaiah 49. Listen O Isles unto me and hearken ye people from far The Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowells of my mother hath he made mention of my name And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me And verse 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Iacob again unto him Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Iacob and to restore the desolations of Israel I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou maiest be my Salvation to the end of the earth My Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an allusion to the very name of Isaiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies The Salvation of the Lord Which seems to be alluded to in the first verse also from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name Which is so near a kin to the name of Iesus that the Messiah may seem to be prefigured in the very name of the Prophet Isaiah as well as in his Person As it must be confessed that both these two Prophecies do in some measure belong to Isaiah himself first But considering how the more excellent Kings and Prophets were to be Types of the Messiah and that the language is so very high it cannot be doubted but that in these Divine raptures and exaltations of Spirit the Minde and Tongue of Isaiah was carried above what was competible to his own Person and therefore must naturally be transferred to the Messiah it being plain from other places that there was at last to come some one transcendent Prince and Prophet anointed in an higher manner and measure then any other Which the Iews expected and called their Messiah And therefore it is therewithal manifest that their Messiah was to be an eximious Teacher Prophet or Law-giver 6. The seventh Character is that he should be very welcomely received of the Nations that which these last Prophecies also intimate But I shall add others also To this sense the Jews themselves interpreted that ancient Prophecie of Iacob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him shall be the gathering together of the Nations the Seventy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is the hope or expectation of the Nations And there is yet one more ancient then that which implies it viz. the Promise to Abraham that he should be a Father of many Nations and that in his seed all Nations of the Earth should be blessed Of which other Prophecies also witness Isay 2.2 And it shall come to pass in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it The Jewish Doctours themselves acknowledge this to be understood of the times of the Messiah And chap. 11. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious or Him shall the Gentiles seek viz. in a devotional way shall pray unto him and sing praises unto him For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And his rest shall be glorious sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum so some turn it and truely not rashly nor without cause For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in several places signifies the rest of the dead Job 3. v. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Seventy render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is in Iob's description of the state of the dead Also Proverbs 21.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall rest in the congregation of the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is better for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one as appears Psalm 88. v. 11. Lastly Psalm 23. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae requietum implies such a rest as Sleep the brother of death For there is nothing more prone then to lye and sleep on the shadie banks of a River Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well signifie Dormitorium ejus or Sepulcrum ejus erit gloriosum that is That it shall at last be exalted to the nature of a Temple he shall have Divine Honour done unto him and the Gentiles shall pray unto him and adore him as is intimated in the words immediately going before But this was more then
his Church cannot cease himself not ceasing to be but he is a Priest and King for ever according to the Prophecies CHAP. IV. 1. Our Saviour's strict injunction of Purity from whence it is also plain that the Love he commends is not in any sort fleshly but Divine 2. Several places out of the Apostles urging the same duty 3. Two more places to the same purpose 4. The groundless presumption of those that abuse Christianity to a liberty of sinning 5. That this Errour attempted the Church betimes and is too taking at this very day 6. Whence appears the necessity of opposing it which he promises to doe taking the rise of his Discourse from 1 Iohn 3.7 1. THE third Branch of the Divine Life is Purity In the urging whereof both Christ and his Apostles being so earnest it is plain that that Love which they recommend to the World can be no suspected affection like that which the canting language of the Enthusiasts may justly be thought to favour but that it is that pure and holy Love indeed which deservedly we have styled Divine And how severely this Purity we speak of is required I shall give you some few but very sufficient instances Matth. 5.27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart And if thy right eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish then that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee c. What more serious and earnest monition can there be made to Continence and Abstinence from sensual pleasures then this of our Saviour who upon no less penaltie then the torments of Hell interdicts us all looseness and uncleanness forbidding us all preludious preparations to the foul acts of Lust and not permitting so much as an imaginary scene of illicit transactions to which our will could really assent if opportunity were offered 2. And we shall find the Apostles insisting in the footsteps of their Master in this matter 2. Corinth 6. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separated saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God And 1 Thessalon 5. The God of peace sanctifie you wholy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And in the former chapter ver 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God And 1 Corinth 6. ver 13. Now the bodie is not for fornication but the Lord and the Lord for the bodie And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also quicken us by his own power Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid And a little after Flee fornication Every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodie and in your Spirit which are God's Also Coloss. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Fornication Uncleanness immoderate affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience Parallel to which is that Ephes. 5.3 Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us but fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be so much as once named amongst you as becomes saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdome of Christ and of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not you therefore partakers with them And 1 Corinth 6.9 Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdome of God 3. I have made a more ample collection of the enforcements of this duty of Purity and Sanctity then I intended and yet I cannot abstain from adding of two more the one out of S. Peter 1 Epist. ch 2. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. The other out of him which I have already so often cited Rom. 13.12 The night is far spent and the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambring and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 4. I have now abundantly shewn how plainly and explicitly Christ and his Apostles urge all men that are hearers of the Gospel to be carefull and conscionable doers of the same that they should be holy even as Christ was holy in all manner of conversation that they are bound to endeavour and aspire after the participation of the Divine life and all the Branches thereof Humility Love and Purity hating even the garment spotted by the flesh as the Apostle Iude speaks And how this Holiness and Righteousness is required of them with no less seriousness and earnestness then upon the forfeiture of their eternal Salvation if they do not act according to those Precepts Insomuch that I stand amazed while I consider with my self that hellish and abominable gloss that some have put upon the Gospel as if it were a mere school of loosness and that the end of Christs coming into the world was but to bring down a commission to the sons of men whereby they might be enabled to sin with authority I am sure with all desirable security and impunity nothing
proofs thereof out of the Prophets 4. As also out of the Gospel 5. And other places of the New Testament 6. The strong Armature of a Christian Souldier 7. His earnest endeavour after Perfection 1. WHerefore having sufficiently cleansed and oyled the first Wheel of this mighty Engine we are shewing the Usefulnesse of we proceed now to the second where if we do not use our diligence also this Machina will not prove effectual for the purpose it was designed viz. for the destroying of the works of the devil Of whose stratagems and devices we being not ignorant we will declare unto you what is most seasonable in this place namely That where he cannot corrupt our minds with this dangerous Errour of the sufficiency of an unsanctified and an unsanctifying Faith he will in the second place endeavour to perswade us that a small measure of Holinesse will serve our turn considering the Passion of Christ is of so great price in the eyes of his Father who accepts of his death for an atonement for our sins and that by his bloud we are reconciled to God and therefore any remisse desire any lazy inclination to obedience will be enough the Passion of Christ and the Imputation of his Righteousnesse will make out the rest 2. But that this is really the suggestion of the Devil not the meaning of the Gospel I shall make evident from many Testimonies of Scripture I might say that many of those we have already alledged do clearly demonstrate the same For what means that of Iohn where he declares That he that is born of God cannot sin because the seed of God remains in him What that of Paul where he saith That Christ came to redeem us from all iniquity and purchase to himself a Church without spot and wrinkle a Church holy and without blemish What means our Saviour Christ's setting the Rule of Righteousnesse at that exquisite pitch of perfection accounting tacit assents to lust no lesse then adultery rash and causlesse anger a degree of murder who has not only condemned retaliation but has commanded us to do good for evil I say what is the sense of all this but that we Christians are called to a higher degree of perfection in life and sanctity then ever any Masters of Morality and Religion in the world hitherto put men upon And therefore the dispensation of Christianity is so far from allowing men in any immoral vices or defects that it does not only cleanse from these but lifts us up a degree higher and never leaves till it has restored our Souls into a condition plainly Divine 3. That this is the state that every Christian is called to and ought to be unsatisfied unlesse his conscience tell him he is aiming at and growing in some measure towards it both the Propheticall descriptions of the Kingdom of the Messiah upon earth and several other Testimonies in the Gospel and Writings of the Apostles do still more fully witnesse For besides those places that describe the Reign of the Messiah from the abundance of Peace and Righteousnesse which should overspread the Nations as the waters cover the Sea there are other particular passages that do prefigure a very great measure of Holinesse that the Church of Christ should be conspicuous by with clearer knowledge and greater activity to walk in the wayes of God And I do not doubt but that which was fulfilled in a corporeal sense in Christs time had also a more spirituall and more permanent meaning namely that of Esay chap. 35.5 6. where the eyes of the blinde are said to be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped the lame to leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb to sing Which lively does set out the condition of the true Christian believer while he makes his faithfull progress in Christianity going on from strength to strength till he appear before God in Sion Add to this Zech. 12. For that it is mystically applicable to our present purpose appears from v. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced but what we were going to recite was v. 8. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them As our Saviour saith of John the Baptist That the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then he I shall close the Prophetick predictions with that of Malachi chap. 3. speaking of the Angel of the Covenant viz. Christ and that dispensation he was to set afoot in the world Behold he shall come saith the Lord of hoasts But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness 4. The very same thing which John the Baptist witnesses of Christ Matth. 3. v. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaffe with unquenchable fire To which you may add v. 10. And now is the axe laid to the root of the trees Therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Like that Matth. 15. v. 13. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Which Scriptures do plainly declare to us That the design of Christ's coming was to consume utterly and to tear up by the very roots all errour and wickedness out of the hearts of them that would receive him 5. And this were sufficient to discover what a high degree of Holiness is expected of him that will be in good earnest a Christian. But I will not omit other places that sound to the same purpose 1 Peter 1.13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and of a perfect hope in the grace that is brought to you through the revelation of Iesus Christ as obedient children not fashioning your selves according to former lusts in your ignorance But as he that has called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in your whole conversation in every thing you doe Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy The same which our Saviour exhorts to in his Sermon on the Mount Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Paul also to the Ephesians ch 6. v. 10. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in
do the utmost of despight unto him for all one might have thought that Apologetical reason for the business might have prevented their choler or asswaged it Is it lawfull to do good on the Sabbath-day or to do evil to save life or to destroy it But methinks there cannot be imagined any answer so smart and hit more home then that in the second of Mark v. 27. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath Where the well-prepared Christian is taught in a short sentence worthy to be writ in letters of Gold or rather in the Heart of every holy and understanding man not only what concerns the Sabbath but even the whole businesse of Religion That it is rather Hominis gratiâ quà m Dei and that though God's Honour be mainly pretended in it yet it is mans Happinesse that is really intended by it even of God himself Which wretched men of ignorant and dark mindes and deeply levened with the sowr Pharisaical leven understanding not create much trouble to themselves and all the world besides in their peevish and inept prosecution of matters of Religion they being no meet Judges of their either Apprehensions or Actions whom the Divine Freedome and Benignity has transformed into a contrary nature to themselves 4. Now for Neutrality that seems so intolerable and detestable to those whose uncurbed desire of worldly advantage or humorous projects makes them even hate all that may be and yet are not instrumental to their precipitate designs it is so far from being a Fault in our Saviour that in my opinion it was a very graceful Ornament in the demeanour of so Divine and Pious a Personage as he was who was set apart for better purposes then to attend Political Squabbles and Dissensions which seldom fail of being begun and continued from any better Principles then Envy Ambition and Covetousnesse Our Saviour being very craftily tempted to declare himself to be of judgement either for or against Caesar Matth. 22. by this Question Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or no he as warily avoids giving his sentence for the justnesse of this or that cause as may be returning only this well-attemper'd Answer Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's Ita Christus sapientissimo responso seditionis motae violatae Religionis calumniam in quaestione insidiosissima effugit as that excellent Interpreter observes and so he quits himself from appearing either Herodian Gaulonite or Caesarean 5. What semblances they can feign of Injustice or Partiality will be picked out of such passages as these His unseasonable cursing the Fig-tree for not bearing fruit whenas the time of year was not for fruit His blaming the Pharisees for long Prayers when himself is recorded to have prayed a night together and lastly His quitting the woman that was taken in the very act of Adultery But as for the first As the Fig-tree felt no hurt so no hurt was done in withering it but this was merely a Symbolical passage whereby the judgement of God was prefigured against the unfruitfull Religion of the Jews as I have above noted For long Prayers Whereas our Saviour is said Luke 6. to have gone out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God the Greek has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more likely to signifie in proseucha Dei or Divine Oratory or Place of Prayer to God as is plain from that of the Satyrist Ede ubi consistas in qua te quaero proseucha However it is to be conceived our Saviour condemned rather the Hypocrisie and effectedness of long Prayers then the mere length of them it being impossible for any of so accomplished a Spirit as our Saviour to blame either the shortness or length of mens devotions arising out of a soberly-guided affection not a vain affectation For the acquitting the Adulteresse it cannot be interpreted as a countenancing of any such foul miscarriage but as an exprobration to the Jews of their own wickednesses which whenas they ought to have been conscious to themselves of they should not have been over-forward to do execution upon those that were but sinners as themselves especially that power of condemning and punishing being then in a manner taken out of their hands by the Romans And here Christ did also worthily of that divine and benigne nature which dwelt in him of which this fruit was but as an handful to that full Harvest the Sons of Adam afterward reaped from his Doings and Sufferings 6. As for the Imputation of railing One of the worst speeches that ever fell from his lips was when he called the Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites which according to the propriety of the word is as much as Histriones or Stage-plaiers and indeed the Scribes and Pharisees of old and their posterity ever since have so dressed up themselves and their Religion too that that Title might deservedly have been entailed on them and their seed for ever But Christ elsewhere seems more bitter where he speaks out in plain English Ye are of your Father the Devil But it was a Title that fell out so fittingly for them upon their vain boast of their Father Abraham whose Sonship they had forfeited by being quite of a contrary nature to him that it had been a piece of inexcusable Forgetfulnesse not to have reminded them of their true Descent and Pedigree he having so full authority thereto 7. That seeming injurious and tumultuary Zeal where he whips the Tradesmen out of the Temple and overthrows the Tables of the Money-changers the very manner of the doing of it does justifie the act it being plainly miraculous that a private man destitute both of arms and authority from men should drive so many both from their station and gain Nor would this zeal seem it never so tumultuous look misbecomingly if we did consider from whence it sprung Our Saviour certainly conceived high indignation and sorrow in his heart while he observed that scorn and contempt those blinde Superstitionists the Iews bore against the poor despised Gentiles in thus profaning their Place of worship But I may not stay here especially having touched upon this Objection already I will only cursorily note this That there was nothing could more effectually attempt to move that milde Spirit of our Saviour to Ire and Impatiency then the scornful Pride and smooth Hypocrisie of great Pretenders to Religion 8. What is alledged against him of Despair and Distrust in God is from those last dreadful and Tragical words Eli Eli lama sabacthani which being uttered in the very pangs of death and insufferable torture if they had been more harsh and unreasonable then they seem there had been little reason to accuse Christ for them Christ then according to his humane nature being at the same disadvantage that those
they being given up into the power of those deformed Fiends of Hell the very thoughts of whose sight and company might be enough to affright any man that is not Atheistically sortish from assimilating himself to those nasty Gaol-birds by repeated acts of Vice and Wickedness Besides what smart of punishment shall reach both their outward Senses and guilty Consciences by the inevitable rod of God's Justice upon them 3. VVherefore it is most indispensably rational to use this VVorld as if we used it not and to addict our selves to such Pleasures as are most proper to the other State such as are those most delicious touches senses of the Divine Love or that pure and intellectual Affection which S. Paul calls Charity VVhereby we delight in the good of another as if it were our own whereby we rejoice in the wisdome goodness of God displaied his Creatures whereby we ardently desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ infinitely before any private advantage whatsoever and do faithfully assist and earnestly expect the joyful accomplishment and finishing of the great Mystery of Godliness in the fullest period thereof to a final Triumph over Sin and Satan and a perfect Redemption of the Church of Christ into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God 4. These are the warrantable Pleasures of the Soul that has a designe upon the Life to come of a Soul that is risen with Christ and therefore seeks those things that are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And upon this very consideration the Apostle enforceth his Exhortation Colos. 3. Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Uncleannesse inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry And our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Lay not up for your selves treasures upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves break through and steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also And therefore Saint Paul professes of himself and exhorts others to imitate him that his minde is wholly taken up with those things which are above Philip. 3.17 Brethren be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example For our conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our municipal affairs our negotiations of greatest concernment are in Heaven of which City we are and from whence we look for our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 5. And verily he that through Faith is once possest of these things it is a wonder to me how he can think of any thing else As the Prisoner could not abstain from the pleasure of thinking of the known day of his Liberty or a poor man of an Inheritance that would certainly fall to him within the term of few years And if it were Conditional as this of the Kingdome of Heaven is we may easily conceive how much he were concerned to have a care punctually to observe the Conditions propounded or earnestly to endeavour to get such Qualifications as that he may not forfeit the enjoiment of that Fortune which otherwise would naturally fall to his share And how they are to be qualified that are to be Heires of that everlasting Inheritance the Scripture doth plainly set out there must no unclean thing enter into the Holy City None can be Heirs of this Kingdome but the sons of God nor any be the sons of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. And what are the Fruits and Effects of that domestick Guide the Apostle has plainly told us already Galat. 5. That the fruits of the Spirit are Love Ioy Peace Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekness Temperance And they that are Christs in whose Title alone it is that we can lay claim to Heaven have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts And again Rom. 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live that is to say ye shall live the life of Peace and Joy and Righteousness here and of Eternal Glory hereafter 6. Wherefore we see what an urgent Power the Meditation of future Happiness is to the Believer to make him endeavour to the utmost to be Partaker of the Divine Nature and to aspire to a due measure of Holiness without which we shall necessarily be frustrate of our expected Happiness The consideration whereof cannot but wean him from all the exorbitant desires of the Pleasures Profits or Honours of this World Which though they had not intermingled with them many vexations and distasts much care and solicitude but were certain for this life and entire yet Life being uncertain and the longest terme thereof but like a Dream or a Post that goes by in comparison of our future abode elsewhere I dare leave it to the worldly mans own computation what a pittiful bargain he has made in forgoing what is to come for these temporary Enjoyments worse far then he that sold his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage But I shall not dilate any further on so plain a matter All the Wit and Rhetorick of Man cannot move him whom those known but weighty Words of our Saviour will not VVhat will it profit a man to gain the whole VVorld and to lose his own Soul CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace hâ—re shall be in better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happinesse 1. WE come now to the Seventh and last Power of the Gospel which is The consideration of the dreadful Solemnity of the Day of Iudgement the very mention whereof from the mouth of Paul made Felix the Governour to tremble And I must confess it is so hard an Engine that it is more fit to beat upon the obdurate hearts of the Unbeliever and Unregenerate that are crusted over with Iron and Flint then for battery against the truly Regenerate and sincere Believers for those other Powers of the Gospel are more proper and abundantly sufficient for carrying them on with courage and constancy in the waies of God But there is in the Day of Iudgement an Object not
misbeseeming their most serious thoughts which is the perfecting and finishing of the Redemption of the Godly VVe shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed and that for the better For whatever is mortal then shall put on Immortality and none of the Saints shall be worse clothed then in a Body of an Heavenly and Aethereal consistence This is that incorruptible crown of Glory of Life and of Righteousness which the Apostles mention and S. Paul expresly declares to be laid up for him against that day namely the Day of Iudgement Which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give him at that day and not to him alone but to all those that love his appearing that is to say Whose affections and consciences are so sincere that they longingly expect when he will consummate and finish the happinesse of his Church and should be so far from fear that their hearts would exult for joy to hear the sound of the Trump and see the Sky grow bright by the overspreading of his Heavenly Camp in the Air. 2. This Meditation therefore reaching as well the unconverted as the converted it had been ill omitted of us And that it may take the better effect we are to suggest what will be able to break down or prevent such false and foolish Fortifications as the Minde of man may rear up against it to bear off the powerful Assaults it makes upon his Soul and Conscience These are chiefly two The one the long Intervall of time from hence to that Day which makes the terrour thereof little as things seem lesse the farther they are removed from our eyes The second is the hope that within so long a space they may have time to repent and be converted though they live as they lift in this life For they may prepare themselves for that Day in the other life which is to come But to the first I answer That the approach of this Day is very uncertain by reason of the obscurity of Prophecies and of the very Completions of them and is left so for the present exercise of the good and the perpetual vexation of the wicked both in this state of things and that which is to come His appearance therefore will be sudden like a Comet or blazing-Star which no man could tell when it would first appear but more terrible and minacious by farre not threatning the death of this or that Prince or the change of this or that State but the overturning of all States and Kingdoms and the burning up the Earth with all the Works and Inhabitants thereof with unquenchable Fire And that evil which a man does not know but may begin to morrow if duely thought upon cannot seem at a great distance but near at hand and ready to surprise him 3. To the other I answer That he that wilfully rejects the offers of Grace and Opportunities of becoming holy and good in This life he shall have no more priviledge in the other then the Devils themselves have who as S Iude expresly tels us are reserved in everlasting chains of Darknesse unto the Iudgement of the great Day who shall then inevitably undergo the Fate of Sodom and Gomorrha who are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire And what manner of Persons these are Iude and Peter have both very graphically described such as had totally evaded all obligation to true Holinesse and Righteousnesse and were of an impure and foul conversation Filthy dreamers defiling the Flesh despising Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Followers of Balaam perverting the truth for a reward Spots in the Christian Societies feeding themselves without fear Clouds without water blown about with every winde of false doctrine Fruitless Trees Raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Wandring Starres to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darkness for ever No more hope of them therefore then of Lucifer and his accursed Accomplices And S. Peter pronounces the same sentence of them for they are plainly the same persons namely bold and daring spirits arrogant and self-conceited despising government and reproaching authority such as speaking great swelling words of vanity allure through the lusts of the flesh in much wantonnesse those that were clean escaped from them that live in errour Day-rioters having their eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin or forbear the recommending of the liberty thereof to others but beguile unstable souls Having their hearts exercised with crafty and covetous practises Wells without water Clouds carried about with Tempests adjudged to utter darkness for ever For with the Devils they are cast down into Hell and delivered up even as they to chains of darknesse to be reserved to the day of Iudgement 2 Pet. 2. So that there is no more hope of such impenitent Sinners that have laid waste their Consciences and wilfully neglected or resisted the manifold convictions clear illuminations and frequent offers of Grace and Assistance from the dispensations of the Gospel after this life then there is of those old Apostates the wicked spirits that are kept as Prisoners in Hell till that fearful and terrible Day of the Lord. 4. That Day of the Lord wherein all unbelieving Flesh shall tremble and every Face gather blackness For this will prove a day of Wrath indeed a day of Anguish and Distresse a day of Devastation and Desolatenesse a day of Darknesse and of Gloominesse a day of Clouds and of thick Darknesse a day of the Trumpet and Alarm against the fenced Cities and the high Towers not of Iudah only but against all the Nations of the Earth For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven to revenge him of his Enemies He shall take to him his Iealousie for compleat Armour and turn the whole Creation into weapons of his displeasure His severe wrath shall be sharpened for a sword and the World shall fight with him against the unwise Then shall the right-aiming Thunderbolts go abroad and from the Clouds as from a well-drawn Bow shall they fly to the mark And hail-stones of wrath shall be cast as out of a Stone-bow and the waters of the Sea shall boil and rage against them and hot scalding Flouds shall overflow them and drown them and they shall be blown about with fiery Windes and wearied out with the whirlwinde and they shall have no Peace nor Solace for ever The Moon and Stars shall withdraw their shining and the Sun shall be turned into bloud For nothing but Mists and Fogs and Stench nothing but sulphureous Vapours smoring Heat dark Clouds charged with horrid Thunder and Lightning immense Earthquakes and innumerable Eruptions of subterraneous Flames crackling Volcanoes smoaking Mountains high flakes and tortuous streams of Fire from burning Forrests and Woods lowd Shreeks and howlings of affrighted Men and Beasts grim and grisly Apparitions deep and dreadful Groans of tormented Ghosts nothing but such uncomfortable Objects as these shall fill up the Scene of
the Earth and Air when once that Final Vengeance has seised upon the Wicked 5. This is the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord and the Morning-Appearance thereof will not be much more chearful to either the Hypocrite or Prophane person For the hopes of the Hypocrite cannot but fail and his heart sink like a stone while he sees the righteous Judge that tries the heart and reins coming in the clouds of Heaven to execute vengeance on the wicked and to deliver the godly from that imminent fate that attends the Earth And the proud scoffing Epicurean that laugh'd at Religion as a piece of weakness and foolery and impudently denied there was either God or Providence in the world he will then to his utter shame and confusion acknowledge his own Philosophy which he thought such an high piece of wit before the most unhappy Folly and Madnesse he could have light upon For he shall be confuted to his very outward Senses when he shall see Christ himself appear with all his Heavenly Host attending him when he shall hear the sound of the Trump and see forthwith the whole Air filled with his glittering Legions consisting of Saints and Angels For the Trump shall sound saith the Apostle and then those that have already departed this life shall immediatly appear in their celestial Harness in their glorified bodies For those that are alive shall not prevent those that are dead but rather the contrary For those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and harness them with the bright Armour of Life and Immortality whereby they become part of that glorious Angelical Host wherewith our dread Soveraign and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ will face the Earth a while to the exceeding great astonishment and terrour os the wicked World 6. Out of which by the Ministry of his Angelical Troops will he gather his Saints that are found alive in the flesh from all the corners of the Earth as the Angels plucked Lot out of Sodom when the City was to be destroyed with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven a Type questionless of this Final Judgement And whether it be by the quick descent of fiery Chariots like that of Elias who was safely thereby conveighed to Heaven and about a thousand years after conversed with our Saviour on the Mount or bright shining clouds glistering with the glory and lustre of their celestial guides be made foot-stools for them to get up on for there is no fear that the weight of their Bodies should break through their Earth and Flesh being of a sudden changed into pure Aether or whatever other pomp and solemnity there may be in their transportation from the rest of the World unto that glorious Company that strikes all mens eyes with amazement while they look up into the sky This visible Selection of the Good from the Bad must needs fill the hearts of the Wicked with unspeakable Dread and Horrour And that partly by reason of the present wonders of this unexpected supernatural Visitation which thus suddenly has surprised them through unbelief and partly from the sad presage of what will follow even that horrid and dismal Tempest which we have already described that endless Night of Thunders and Lightnings and Earthquakes of roarings and howlings and utter confusion and destruction for ever 7. Which direful vengeance having once entred upon that execrable crue forsaken of God and given up to the merciless Rage of the incensed Elements the victorious Church of Christ retreats with the rest of the Angelical Hosts marching up the Ethereal Regions in goodly Order and lovely Equipage filling as they go along the re-echoing sky with Songs of Joy and Triumph For this is the greatest day of Solemnity the highest Festival that can be celebrated in the Heavens whose Inhabitants if they rejoice at the conversion of one sinner what Joy and Rejoicing must they express at the complete Redemption of the whole Church when Jesus Christ the Prince of our Salvation who is able to save to the utmost has perfectly redeemed us body and soul and leading Captivity captive rescuing us from the power of Hell Death and the Devil does resettle us again in our own Land and reestablish us into the ancient Liberties of the Sons of God making us fellow-citizens with the pure and unpolluted Angels and free Partakers of all the Rights and Immunities of the celestial Kingdom even of that Kingdom where there is Order and Government without Envy and Oppression Devotion without Superstition Beauty without Blemish Love without Lust Sweetness without Satiety where there is outward Splendidness without Pride Musick without Harshness Friendship without Designe Wisedom without Wrinkles and Wit without Vain-glory where there is Kindnesse without Craft Activity without Weariness Health without Sickness and Pleasure without Pain and lastly where there is the Vision of God the Society of Christ the Familiarity of Angels and Communion of Saints where there is Love and Joy and Peace and Life for evermore Upon the consideration of which ineffable Happiness what inference can be more genuine then what S. Paul has made already on the same Subject Wherefore my beloved Brethren be stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendom 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 1. I Have now sufficiently exposed to your view the Nature and Use of this seven-fold Engine these Seven Powers of the Gospel how potent they are to beat down every strong hold of sin and to raise up the Divine Life and Spirit of Righteousness in us That they have done so little execution in Christendom hitherto that disquisition I shall deferre till its due place In the mean time I appeal to all the World if there can be invented a Religion more powerful for this purpose then the Christian Religion is 2. But for the external Triumphs of the Divine Life in reference to the Person of Christ the Usefulness of our Religion in that point is demonstrable not only from the Frame thereof in it self but from the long and constant Effects it has had in the Christian World For as for the Frame of our Religion we have therein a full warrant to do the highest Divine homage to Christ that we can express He being so clearly therein declared The true Son of God not only by several Testimonies from Heaven but also by that supernatural manner of his generation in the womb of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy
Ghost by his mysterious union with the Eternal Word by his miraculous Resurrection from the dead and by his visible Ascension into Heaven and Session now at the right hand of his Father This is warrant enough to do all Divine homage to our blessed Saviour as to the only-begotten Son of God And truly the Church to give them their due has not been sparing the very constitution of our Religion being so effectual for this purpose For so Divine a Person as Christ was namely The very Son of God and yet condescending to undergoe so horrid a death for the World how could engaged Mankind stint themselves from shewing of all manner of expressions of Love and Devotion toward him 3. Wherefore they erected innumerable magnificent Structures of Temples Chappels and other Religious Edifices and consecrated them to his Name They endowed the Christian Priesthood with ample Riches and Dignities set up Church-musick sung divine Anthems in honour of our Saviour adorned their Churches celebrated his Passion with unexpressible reverence instituted Festivals and filled both Time and Place with such variety of Ornaments that a man might observe that the greatest part of the Splendour and Pomp of Christendom was in reference to their Religion Which certainly would have been a very goodly and lovely spectacle if Superstition Hypocrisie and Ecclesiastick Tyranny could have been kept out 4. But this External Worship and the Ceremonies thereof things equally performable by the evil and the good by the regenerate and mere natural man these took growth enormously and like ranck Weeds choaked the Corn or what happens in full and over-fed bodies in which natural heat and activity is very much lost the huge load and bulk of visible Formalities extinguished the Life and Spirit of Religion 5. But however this outward Homage to our Saviour continued and does continue in a great measure over the face of Christendom to this very day though their expressions are not alike courtly every where Which continuation of Divine Honour done unto him cannot but gratifie his faithfully-devoted Servants they having a deep resentment of the shameful Sufferings their Lord and Master underwent out of his dear love to them and therefore do naturally rejoyce at this Tribute of Divine Adoration the World gives to so holy and sacred a Person it being so sutable a part of compensation of his Humiliation and Reproach Besides that they receive some satisfaction that Divine Providence has so brought it about touching the true Members of Christ whose Principles are so opposite to the Guise of the world and their Persons so contemptible that yet the World are fain with the lowest prostrations to adore that in Christ which they kick about and trample upon so in his despised Members But I will insist no longer on this Theme having spoke enough of it elsewhere We have now shewn the Usefulness of the Mystery of Godlinesse in all holy and religious respects I shall adde only a word or two in reference to things of this Life and so conclude the fourth part of my Discourse CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulnesse of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 1. THat Christianity contributes also to the Happinesse of this present World is evident both from the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles and also from the nature of the thing it self Matth. 6. Where our Saviour having exhorted us not to be over-sollicitous for the things of this Life food and raiment setting before our eyes the care of Divine Providence in Creatures of far lesse price then our selves how the Fowls of the Air are provided for that neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns how gloriously the Lilies of the Field are arraied that neither weave nor spin he concludes That we should not so eagerly and carefully seek after those things as worldly-minded men do But seek ye first the kingdom of God saith he and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you For your Heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things And Paul to Timothy Godlinesse is profitable for all things having the promise of this life and that which is to come 2. And if we consider the nature of the thing it self there is an accruement of present Happinesse from true Christianity not only by virtue of Promise but even by natural dependence of Causes and Events especially when that Christian frame of Spirit has arrived to any considerable degree of perfection and maturity For there is no such obliging person in the world as a mature and ripe Christian nor any truer Policy then to be obliging Which Temper the more sincere it is the more taking it is and the more sure Fortress against adverse Fortune Wherefore what advantage Humanity has he has it in the greatest measure Besides that his calm and castigate spirit makes him sensible discreet above all expression and of a sagacity beyond all conceit of the unregenerate man His Faithfulnesse also and honest and chearful Industry have their proper blessing attending them And his moderate desires of Riches and Honours and his laudable use of them unblemished with any blot of either sordid Covetousnesse or vain Ostentation prevents or beats back the ill-aimed darts of secret Malice and Envy And if but a meaner share of the things of this world be allotted to him yet his contentments are not the lesse he finding that true which both David and Solomon have pronounced That better is a little that the righteous has then great possessions of the ungodly And when more unsupportable pressures and afflictions fall upon him such as great Fits of Sicknesse Imprisonment and the Approaches of Death his Advantages in this Condition are unspeakably above what any other mortal is capable of For the more these urge his outward man the more his inward is inflamed and excited to the exercise of those powers that are most holy and precious and needing no admonition though so fit and apposite as that of Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circumstances of things themselves will assuredly awaken this Christian Champion to the exertion of all the strength of his Soul and to the successful use of his spiritual weapons wherewith he is armed against the day of battel For
contract and covenant in a familiar and kind way one with another And the holy Writers are so far from giving any considerable occasion to title the Gospel by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they frequently set it in opposition thereunto And if at any time they attribute that term to it it is ordinarily not without some softning or mitigating qualification as the Law of Faith not of Works and the Law of liberty Jam. 1.25 So that we see that there is a very sufficient ground why notwithstanding the Jews call'd their Pentateuch and other holy writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law that the primitive Christians should call the Evangelical writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant it usually also signifying Testament to which the Author to the Hebrews alludes chap. 9.17 which comes exceeding near to the nature of a Covenant where one is constituted Heir upon Condition 9. The very Title therefore of that Authentical Volume of our Religion gives some general knowledge of the nature of it if it had been fitly translated out of the Greek But the Latine Christians as well in the old as in the new Testament ever translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testamentum etiam ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nominatur as Grotius takes notice whenas God yet cannot die and therefore will never have occasion to make his last Will and Testament have given occasion to our English Translatours to follow them in the Title of this Book and to render it Testament rather then Covenant by which notwithstanding is to be understood Covenant Otherwise if you understand a last Will and Testament what sense will the Old Testament bear CHAP. VI. 1. That there were more Old Covenants then one 2. What Old Covenant that was to which this New one is especially counterdistinguished with a brief intimation of the difference of them 3 4. An Objection against the difference delivered with the Answer thereto 5. The Reason why the Second Covenant is not easily broken 6. That the importance of the Mystery of the Second Covenant engages him to make a larger deduction of the whole matter out of S. Paul 1. IN general therefore our Christian Religion is a Covenant the Terms and Conditions whereof are comprehended in those Books which we ordinarily call The New Testament which were better and more significantly rendred The New Covenant The nature whereof we cannot so well understand unless we reflect back upon the Old Covenants mentioned in the Scripture which preceded this and there being more then one take notice which of them especially this New one is set opposite to That there is mention of more Covenants then one is manifest from Ephes. 2.12 And particularly Circumcision in the book of Moses and the Prophets is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New Testament Acts 7.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God gave unto Abraham the Covenant of Circumcision 2. But questionless that One most eminent most solemn and most formal Covenant which God made with the Children of Israel beginning it at their going out of Aegypt but perfecting it on Mount Sinai in Arabia this is that Old Covenant chiefly glanced at by them that styled our Religion The New Covenant and they had a very good warrant for it out of the Prophet Jeremy ch 31. v. 31 32. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Aegypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Which promise also is recorded in the 54. of Esay And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children So that there is found an Old and a New Covenant set opposite the one against the other by the Prophets own ordering The difference of whose natures consists mainly in this That the Old Covenant is an external Covenant something without a man the other an inwardly-ingrafted principle of Life This is that word which is in our heart as well as in our mouth of which Paul professes himself a preacher and therefore must be the gospel of Iesus Christ. 3. But you 'l say The Evangelists and the Apostles Writings are without too as well as the letter of Moses I but yet for all that it is very manifest and plain that they have not reached the Dispensation of the Gospel that have not attained to an inward principle of life Which being the great distinguishing design of the Gospel we are to look upon it in this design and end and that it has not done its work and is in a manner nothing to us till this be done He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of water And John 6. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Which passages plainly enough import the most intimate principles of life that may be the divine nature being turned as it were in succum sanguinem within us being converted into the juice and nourishment of our Souls 4. But our conversation under the Mosaical Covenant and our frame of Spirit there is but an ordinary accustomary temper or habit of doing or not doing such and such things and consequently all that righteousness but a fleshly rational fabrick of minde which Fear and Custome have carved out in the surface as it were of our Souls which characters by the same instruments are so preserved legible But under the Covenant of Christ nor Fear nor Custome but an inward spirit of life works us into everlasting holiness and a permanent Renovation of nature and Regeneration of the hidden man 5. From whence the reason is to be understood of that difference the Prophet Ieremie intimates betwixt the Old Covenant and the New That the old Covenant was broken by his people but the new one should not be broken For the one being an external yoke and the other the inward pleasure of life and radicate desire of the Soul it is no wonder that what is forced lasts not long but that upon the first opportunity and provoking occasion like unmanaged horses we cast off the burden that so pinches us and galls us in lying so heavy upon us and being no part of us But the perfect Law of liberty becoming as it were our own life and nature our greatest burden would
Nature 7. The fourth Gospel-Power The Example of Christ. 8. His purpose of vindicating the Example of Christ from aspersions with the reasons thereof 408 CHAP. XIII 1. That Christ was no Blasphemer in declaring himself to be the Son of God 2. Nor Conjurer in casting out Devils 3. That he was unjustly accused of Prophaneness 4. That there was nothing detestable in his Neutrality toward Political Factions 5. Nor any Injustice nor Partiality found in him 6. Nor could his sharp Rebukes of the Pharisâ—es be rightly termed Railing 7. Nor his whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple tumultâ—ary Zeal 8. Nor his crying out so dreadfully in his Passion be imputed to Impatience or Despair 9. The suspicion of Distractedness and Madness cleared 10. His vindication from their aspersions of Looseness and Prodigality 11. The câ—oâ—ked and perverse nature of the Pharisees noted with our Saviours own Apology for his frequenting all companies 12. That Christ was no Self-seeker in undergoing the Death of the Cross for that joy that was set before him 412 CHAP. XIV 1. The reason of his having insisted so long on the vindicating of the Life of Christ from the aspersions of the Malevolent 2. The true Character of a real Christian. 3. The true Character of a false or Pharisaical Christian. 4. How easily the true members of Christ are accused of Blasphemy by the Pharisaical Christians 5. And the working of their Graces imputed to some vicious Principle 6. Their censuring them prophane that are not superstitious 7. The Parisees great dislike of coldness in fruitless Controversies of Religion 8. Their Ignorance of the law of Equity and Love 9. How prone it is for the sincere Christian to be accounted a Railer for speaking the truth 10. That the least Opposition against Pharisaical Rottenness will easily be interpreted bitter and tumultuous Zeal 11. How the solid Knowledge of the perfectest Christians may be accounted Madness by the formal Pharisee 12. his Proneness to judge the true Christian according to the motions of his own untamed corruptions 13. His prudent choice of the vice of Covetousness 14. The Unreasonableness of his censure of those that endeavour after Perfection 15. His ignorant surmise that no man liveth vertuously for the love of Vertue it self 16. The Usefulness of this Parallelisme betwixt the Reproach of Christ and his true Members 422 CHAP. XV. 1. The Passion of Christ the fifth Gospel-Power the Virtue whereof is in a special manner noted by our Saviour himself 2. That the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a prophetick Type of Christ and cured not by Art but by Divine Power 3. That Telesmatical Preparations are superstitious manifest out of their Collections that write of them 4. Particularly out of Gaffarel and Gregory 5. That the Effects of Telesmes are beyond the laws of Nature 6. That if there be any natural power in Telesmes it is from Similitude with a confutation of this ground also 7. A further confutation of that ground 8. In what sense the Brazâ—n Serpent was a Telesme and that it must needs be a Typical Prophecie of Christ. 9. The accurate and punctual Prefiguration therein 10. The wicked Pride and Conceitedness of those that are not touched with this admirable contrivance of Divine Providence 11. The insufferable balsphemy of them that reproach the Son of God for crying out in his dreadful Agony on the Cross wherein is discovered the Unloveliness of the Family of Love 429 CHAP. XVI 1. The End of Christs Sufferings not onely to pacifie Conscience but to root out Sin witnessed out of the Scripture 2. Further Testimonies to the same purpose 3. The Faintness and Uselesness of the Allegory of Chrâ—sts Passion in comparison of the Application of the History thereof 4 The Application of Christs Sufferings against Pride and Covetousness 5. As also against Envy Hâ—â—red Revenge vain Mirth the Pangs of Deaâ—h and unwarrantable Love 6. A General Application of the Death of Christ to the mortifying of all Sin whatsoever 7. The celebrating the Lords Supper the use and meaning thereof 436 CHAP. XVII 1. The sixth Gospel-Power is the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. The priviledge of this Demonstration of the Soul's Immortality above that from the Subtilty of Reason and Philosophy 2. The great power this consideration of the Soul's Immortality has to urge men to a Godly life 3. To â—ean themselves from worldly pleasures and learn to delight in those that are everlasting 4. To have our Conversation in Heaven 5. The Conditions of the Everlasting Inheritance 6. Further enforcements of duty from the Soul's Immortality 440 CHAP. XVIII 1. The Day of Judgement the seventh and last Gospel-power fit as well for the regenerate as the unregenerate to think upon 2. The Uncertainty of that Day and that it will surprize the wicked unawares 3. That those that wilfully reject the offers of Grace here shall be in no better condition after Death then the Devils themselves are 4. A Description of the sad Evening-close of that terrible Day of the Lord. 5. The Affrightment of the Morning-appearance thereof to the wicked 6. A further Description thereof 7. The Translation of the Church of Christ to their Aethereal Mansions with a brief Description of their Heavenly Happiness 443 CHAP. XIX 1. That there can be no Religion more powerful for the promoting of the Divine Life then Christianity is 2. The external Triumph of the Divine Life in the person of Christ how throughly warranted and how fully performed 3. The Religious Splendour of Christendome 4. The Spirit of Religion stifled with the load of Formalities 5. The satisfaction that the faithfully-devoted Servants of Christ have from that Divine homage done to his Person though by the wicked 447 CHAP. XX. 1. The Usefulness of Christianity for the good of this life witnessed by our Saviour and S. Paul 2. The proof thereof from the Nature of the thing it self 3. Objections against Christianity as if it were an unfit Religion for States Politick 4. A Concession that the primary intention of the Gospel was not Government Political with the advantage of that Concession 5. That there is nothing in Christianity but what is highly advantageous to a State-Politick 6. That those very things they object against it are such as do most effectually reach the chief end of Political Government as doth Charity for example 7. Humility Patience and Mortification of inordinate desires 8. The invincible Valour that the love of Christ and their fellow-members inspires the Christian Souldiery withall 449 BOOK IX CHAP. I. THe four Derivative Properties of the Mystery of Godliness 2. That a measure of Obscurity begets Veneration suggested from our very senses 3. Confirmed also by the common suffrage of all Religions and the nature of Reservedness amongst men 4. The rudeness and ignorance of those that expect that every Divine Truth of Scripture should be a comprehensible Object of their understanding even in the very modes and