you not with him turn your faces to the wall and weep sore And yet I tell you Hezekiah had done a great deal of Work for God during the time of his Reign unto this sickness He lost no time but fell hard to the Work of Reformation in the first moneth of the first year of his Reign And he did a great deal during his fourteen years before his sickness and he did it also in Truth and with a perfect heart But still what have you done if you were now as near the gates of the grave as here he was And to these Gates you must come at last and pass through them also to the highest Tribunal to answer to this Question What hast thou done How hast thou improved time occupied with thy Talent filled up thy Relations maintained good Works for necessary uses been active for the highest end Peradventure you will plead your small capacity and that you are but of mean degree an obscure person and ezercised in Low Employments and of weak parts c. Yea but still what saith Hezekiah The living the living he shall praise thee And are not you living Are you not alive For any Man or Woman living may praise the Lord or else Hezekiah saith not well But it is true what he saith for any Man living may do his his generation-work Is your capacity than such that you cannot praise the Lord what saith the Psalmist Praise ye the Lord who Kings of the Earth Yea they are in a capacity indeed Such as Hezekiah may do much that way they are great Men and have great opportunities But what followeth Kings of the Earth and all people Princes and all Judges of the Earth Both young Men and Maidens and old Men and Children Let them praise the Name of the Lord. Men and Maids old and young all may and all must attend the service none excepted And therefore plead not your mean capacity but serve your age according to your Talent For he that had but one Talent doth not say Lord I had but one and what can a Man do with one My fellow-servants had one five Talents the other two and they might well employ and improve them No he saith not thus He was convinced that one Talent might be improved to advantage as well as five and that every one is bound to be Trading for God with what he hath given him for saith the Text He gave to every Man according to his several ability So that all of them had an ability though several â— One had a five-fold ability another a two-fold another a single And he that had but a single capacity was called to an account for his unprofitableness and cast into outer darkness The meanest therefore among you hath some ability and woe be to him if he doth not improve it A young Man a Servant a poor Man a mean Man may do many things in tendency to God's Glory and the good of others whil'st he is living and the living the living he shall praise thee You that are stricken in years you have much to account for For you have lived lon and perhaps are now grown old but have you been old Traders Yes as to a worldly account Yea but there is another and a better Trade what have you done therein God will call you to a reckoning for your worldly Trade and especially for your Spiritual You have gained thus much in the world he will say but what redounds to my share of all that you have done This is the great Question Think ye Oh how many opportunities have you out-lived which will never have their Resurrection If therefore you should say as John Baptist's hearers what shall we do then I answer First Be humbled for your former neglects and mispence of time who in doing much have hitherto done nothing and judge your selves for your omissions before your Lord and Master calleth you to account For if you judge your selves you shall not be judged Bring forth fruit meeâ— for Repentance For though it is as impossiibe that your former individual opportunities should return as that you should grow young again yet God may please to minister new occasions to you upon your repentance whereby to bring forth fruit in old age It seems that Nicodemus was an old Man when he came to Christ by night For saith he Can a Man be born when he is old As much as to say As I am But when he is converted he thrives apace and comes to Christ at noon and owns him in the place of publick Judicature and is a mean to dissolve the Session And afterward he owns Christ crucified and is at much cost to embalm him when his Disciples deserted him The Old Man got the start of them all and of many others that set out before him So it is sometimes The first are last and the last first Now therefore bestir your selves and redeem lost time by improving what remaineth to the utmost and see what you can do with a little remnant of life and whether you cannot grow as fast as Old Nicodemus did Project improvments of life which is a kind of Saveall now that your light is near extinguishing Make up in affection what may be wanting in action If you cannot do much yet love much and you have cause enough to do so in that God hath given you to live so long who have done so little If our Servants should work no better for us than many have done for God we should soon turn them out of doors And therefore love the Lord the more and that will also provoke you to do the more Stir up others to work for God that what you cannot do by your own hands you may do by others For you shall have a share in their good actions who work by your incitement What good was done by the hands of thousands in the dayes of the reforming Kings of Judah is still imputed to the Reformers that set them on work as you may see in the Reign of Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah and Josiah And though the persons imployed might act from Principles of Hypocrisie as some at least did in Josiah's Reformation Yet the works were done in sincerity as to the Reformers They were done in Hypocricy as to the Instruments in sincerity as to the principal Agent Your time therefore is but short and you cannot do much with your own hands see what you cad do by others as by your Wife Husband Children Relations Friends Neighbours and it shall be imputed unto them if they do it sincerely but to you howsoever if you did set them on work in the uprightness of your heart Pray for death-bed Grace Faith Hope Patience Peace of Conscience composedness of Spirit such a frame as is fit to glorifie God and edifie others at your last farewel to friends This is that which we should all pray for and it is
these praises cry with the throat and lift up your voices like Trumpets And this argues that God's praises comes from your hearts when they are thus sounded as it were from your throats And this work exalteth you and that as high as the Heavens for it is the very service of Heaven only it is a greater service seeing the Proclamation of God's praises upon Earth tends to the propagation of them so as it is not in Heaven And truly he that is good at this is good indeed He is no Hypocritie for he is a self-denying man and one that loves God far above himself one that lives in God and delights in him and gives him the highest place in his heart Do what you can therefore this way and it will redound to a singular evidence of your sincerity 2. Endeavour also the Propagation of Christ's Kingdom pray for it and according to your capacity promove it You may remember what is written Psal 72. 15. where it is said of Solomon in the Type and of Christ in the Truth He shall live and to him shall be given of the Gold of Sheba Prayer also shall be made for him and daily shall he be praised Why must we pray for Jesus Christ yes by all means Of all that we pray for we must be sure to pray for Jesus Christ but not considered personally but Mystically You know how the people and the children prayed for Christ when they cryed saying Hosanná to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest The words are taken out of the 11th Psal ver 25 26. They cryed saying Hosanna that is Save I beseech thee It is as much as God save the King send now prosperity It is meant especially of Christ as King Christ and his Kingdom And we never say Thy Kingdom come but thus we pray for Christ who prayeth for us every day or else we should be in a very sad case And truly if the Kingdom of Christ be within us we shall be very sollicitous and active for the Kingdom of Christ without us which Kingdom of his this day is in a very low condition as to the professed power and purity of the Gospel And yet if we can do little or nothing else yet we may pray for the Kingdom of Christ Let us therefore lay the state thereof to heart this day How often do the Saints under the Old Testament pray for the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus under the New say they God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us That thy way may be known upon Earth thy saving health among all Nations c. Mark ye That singular blessing which God commanded Aaron and his Sons to pronounce upon the people of Israel The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The godly in David's time turned it into prayer for the enlarging of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus under the Gospel accounting it a great blessing to themselves to have it enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles though yet it was to be accomplished in the rejection of the Jews but it is as if we should say Let God do what he pleaseth with a Nation so that his Gospel may be propagated and his Kingdom enlarged in the World If God's way may be known upon Earth and his saving health among all other Nations We should account that the Lord is merciful to us aud blesseth us and causeth his face to shine upon us We should love the Kingdom of Christ above all the Kingdoms in the World and That it shall come to pass in the last dayes that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be established upon the top of the Mountains and exalted above the Hills and that all Nations shall flow unto it You know what great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart Paul had for his Brethren the Jews and kinsmen according to the flesh and yet he magnified his Office in that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles That is he accounted it to be a glorious Office to be a Preacher to the Gentiles So that Le◠the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus come whatsoever become of any Kingdom or of all the Kingdoms under Heaven Thirdly Live exemplarily that your paterns may survive you and live when you are dead Thus Paul lived Brethren saith he be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample And he denied himself to make himself an example to others You know saith he how ye ought to follow us viz. in orderly walking in your particular Callings for we behaved not our selves disorderly among you neither did we eat any mans bread for nought but wrought with labour and travel night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you Not because we have not power that is night to be maintained at your charge but to make our selves an ensample unto you to follow us And thus also he did unto the Corinthians For thus did Christ deny himself to give us an example Joh. 13. 14 15. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye ought also to wash one another's feet For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you Consider also 2 Cor. 8. 9. For ye know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich And when Paul took his leave of the Elders of Ephesus who were never like to see his face more he leaves his example with them I have saith he coveted no mans Silver or Gold or Apparel Yea you your selves know that these hands have ministred unto my necessities and to them that were with me I have shewed you all things how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak The like did Samuel Thus also David left his example behind him for God set him up for a patern to all succeeding Kings in Israel whose Life and Reign God therefore measureth by their care to follow him as you may read frequently in the Books of the Kings and Chronicles For of such such Kings it is said They walked in the ways of David and of others that they did not so walk Examples are very prevalent in utramque partem either one way or t'other either for good or evil And therefore so walk according to God that others may follow you seeing your example will live whilest you live yea and when you are dead too For it will be said such a one lived thus and walked thus and thus he behaved himself in his family and thus in his fellowship with the Saints and thus in his dealings with his neighbours and with all men and thus he carried it under
Hezekiah saith here The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day Yea but how many days did this continue For by and by he is praising himself Ye see the deceitfulness of the Heart of Man This by the way Only consider the uncertainty of the opportunity and how soon it may be at an end and that the dead cannot praise God nor they that go down into silence Now your Tongues may speak for God and so may your Lives and Examples too but shortly there will be nothing but silence Oh! be not silent before death for then you will be silent for ever Peradventure you have spoken too little already in order I mean to the work of your day Speak therefore and act to God's honour and the benefit of others whil'st you live or for ever hold your peace I have laid several particulars before you concerning the service of this life have you not been wanting in many of them And is not your day also far spent and are not the shadows of the evening stretched out make it up for the future as far as your remaining dayes will give you leave And to this end Consider the account you are to give when your opportunity is ended What saith the Apostle Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God And this is the very next thing after death It is appointed unto Men once to dye and after this the judgment Once to dye not twice for there is an Emphasis in that little word once as appeareth by the next verse So Christ was once offered c. And after this the judgment 1. Dye 2. But once 3. Men that is all Men. 4. Then to judgment and there is a statutum est upon all this four And the judgment will pass upon your managing your present opportunities For when the Lord cometh he cometh to reckon so when you go to the Lord you go to reckon viz. how you have praised him here among the living how you have endeavoured to further his Kingdom according to your capacity how you have lived exemplarily embraced and improved all opportunities to appear and speak for Christ how and for whom you have prayed how you have comforted the feeble minded and supported the weak supplyed the outward wants of the Saints according to your ability how you have stood for Christ in a suffering time how you have improved those Gifs of Grace which are proper to this Life how you have endeavoured to transmit pure Religion and undefiled to your Posterity by recommending it especially to your Children I tell you these are the great things and all of them are the Work of the Living and not of the Dead How far you have attended them hitherto you best know If you have been wanting you had need to make up in repentance what hath been lacking in duty and a great part of your repentance must be exercised in fruits worthy amendment of life For so soon as ever your Soul is quit of its earthly Tabernacle you must presently appear before God's Judgment-Seat Consider the greatness of the reward of good and faithful servants They shall have as much joy as their hearts can hold For they must enter into it seeing it cannot enter into them Neither the Sufferings nor the Duties and doings of this present time are worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us But our Eyes are too seldom upon the recompence of reward nor do we consider what God hath prepared for them that love him Whereas did we seek for Glory Honour Immortality we should continue patiently in well-doing But few that fear God have Faith enough to take in the exceeding eternal weight of Glory that is prepared for them If glorified Saints were to return to live again upon Earth they would double and treble their duties beyond what they did in former times For what do they think when they are entring into the joy of their Lord what All this Glory all this Joy an Heart full and a Heaven full and to Eternity also and that for so few imperfect services And must I now spend Eternity in the enjoyment of God and do none of those services any more for him which were proper and peculiar to my temporal life And must I be on the receiving hand as to all this Glory for ever and for ever Certainly if it were possible This would make the Saints repent in Heaven that they had done no more for Jesus Christ on Earth But if such thoughts were incident to glorified Saints they come too late when once they are in Heaven Now is your time to be working for that inestimable reward When therefore you come to God you must have a full perswasion not only of his Being but Bounty that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as the Apostle speaks But remember that it must be diligently And be you never so diligent he will abundantly reward it And if Saints could but look into Heaven and see how 't is there before they come thither they would soon double their diligence and work their fingers to the stumps for Christ But many want Faith to believe so great a reward or to apply it to themselves as that which God will certainly bestow upon them after their work is ended Consider yet further That the good you do upon Earth may encrease when you are dead and as that encreaseth so shall your glory still be enlarged For though the least Glory above is unconceivable and the words there spoken unutterable yet there are aboundance of Argumentations in Heaven and the ywho at their first entrance wore but single Crowns after a while wear double ones For it is said God will give to every Man according to his wayes and according to he fruits of his doings So that if their former doings on Earth do fructifie after they are dead God will reward them according to the Fruit thereof For not only their works but the fruit of them also doth follow them And so do the evil works of wicked men follow them as Jeroboam's did for above three hundred years together after his death for that at last he felt a sevenfold Hell for what he did at first Upon this account it is conceived that Dives desired Abraham to send Lazarus to go and preach to his five brethren that they might avoid that place of torment why is there charity in Hell no it was not out of love to his brethren but to himself because he had corrupted them with his wicked life and left a bad example behind him which they followed therefore he desired that they might if not be saved for that I think a damned Soul cannot desire yet that they might not for his cause and example be brought into that place of torment because this would be the encrease of his torment too In like manner on the other
hand the glory of the Saints receives encrease as their labours and pains are fruitful as Divines say of Paul's glory One Heaven is too much for the best Saint that ever lived were not the reward of Grace and yet your Heaven shall multiply according to the fruit of your good doings which you left behind you And this will be instead of doing good in Heaven when the Saints leave that behind them which keeps fructifying after they have left this world Why what is that which they may thus leave behind them Their good Works and Words and Examples and holy Lives their Instructions Exhortations Counsels Encouragements their remarkable Actions and Sufferings for Christ By all which they act and speak even after death And there is no other way that I know whereby to do good when you are in Heaven And in this way shall the glorified Saints know in Heaven whether the good works which they left behind them do fructifie for they shall find and feel it in their enlarged Crowns further Augmentations and additional Glories And then they shall break out into new Songs of praise to God and the Lamb for helping them to sow their Seed on Earth which still fructifieth after they are gone to Heaven And in this way a Father may convert his Child or Children after his death as as I doubt not but many have done And then he heareth of it in Heaven two wayes 1. By his additional Glory 2. By the joyful Acclamations of the Angels for the conversion of a sinner Wherefore let us endeavour so to live here a little while that our good Works may live when we are dead and act when we are at rest and speak when we are gone down into silence and bring forth fruit unto holiness when we are in endless happiness and bring Souls to Heaven after us to tell us that our good Works and Words and Examples Instructions Exhortations Counsels sufferings Graces are yet all alive and well and like to yield a further Crop and Harvest of Joy and Honour to them that sowed them before their death Oh it is a blessed thing and the Wisdom of Saints to leave a stock of good Works behind them whereby to have a Trade going here on Earth which will afford them fresh Incomes of Glory whil'st they are already shining as the Sun in the the Kingdom of their Father And thus much for the first Use of Exhortation to do all the good we are able during our dwelling here on Earth 2d Branch of Exhortation Let the second Exhortation be to call upon you to value your Opportunities to make the best improvements of time whil'st you are in the Land of the living so as the World is often called For Hezekiah began now to consider the price of time who but lately was at the Gates of the Grave and deprived as he thought of the residue of his years that is which he might have lived according to the ordinary course of Nature Saith he Mine age is departed and removed from me as a Shepherds Tent That is which the Shepherd removeth from Plain to Plain according to his occasions as the matter shall require Now I am living here by and by my Body must lodge in the Tent of the cold Grave and my Soul return to God that gave it I have cut off like a Weaver my life he that is God will cut me off from the Thrum Ver. 12. I have cut off my life by my Sins and God hath cut it off by his righteous hand upon me Saith he I reckoned till morning Ver. 13. I shall be dead by the morning And now Hezekiah begins to prize time and cries The living the living he shall praise thee Thus when once the swift Shuttle of your life is come to a Thrum then you will see the value of Opportunity and cry The living the living c. and reckon till the morning and say There is but one day more between my life and Eternity And it may not be long ere that Morning or Evening cometh For little did Hezekiah a few dayes before think that he had been so near unto death being now but thirty nine years old and God having wrought so wonderfully for him in his late preservation from Senacharib For saith he Behold for peace I had great bitterness God lately destroyed the Host of the King of Assyria and gave me peace and I said I shall now now dye in my Nest and multiply my dayes as the Sand but I little thought of such a sickness to ensue my peace It seems he was surprized and so may you be if you look not well to it for God now gives fair warning of it They that will not prize Opportunity shall have an opportunity to prize it If they prize it not living they shall prize it dying Wherefore manage your seasons for the best ends while you have them and fill up your dayes with duty and be not so eager upon the World and the things thereof Opportunity is a golden Mattock to dig for Heavenly Treasure do not wear it out as many do in digging for Pibbls and at your latter end become a fool Beware therefore of idleness on the one side and cumbring your self with Worldly Occasions on the other but consider wherefore hath God given you life and time but to be serviceable in your day and to work for him in whom you live He did not give you time to play the Truant and design and labour to be rich and to grow great in the World and to arrive at such a Revenue and proportion of worldly Estate but he sent you into the World to do his work and to improve your Time and Talent for him And therefore when the World or the Flesh is putting such Employments upon you which will devour much time and divert you from the one thing necessary tell them That you must give an account of your time and you must not rob your Lord and Master of his hours which he sent you to improve in his service c. And certainly it is an undervaluing also of Heaven to think to go thither and to do little or nothing for God upon Earth though yet the recompence of reward is purely gracious or of meer Grace let our Labours for the Lord be never so many for what are all our Studies Works Sweat and blood and Spirits and Cost and Care and Time expended upon Christ in comparison with an exceeding Eternal weight of Glory Prize therefore and improve your times Here are several of you that are young or in your middle age or about Hezekiah's years Call your selves to an account and enquire of your own hearts what you have done Peradventure but little for God and what will turn to a comfortable account What then if God should now lay you as he did Hezekiah upon your sick Bed and threaten to cut off the Thrum of your lives Would
instead of a Father to him that it went well with him and his Kingdom whiles he lived but miserably with both afterwards Many Children have lost themselves together with their Parents Consider what I say And then you that have such Ministers of Jesus Christ as labour in the Word and Doctrine and watch for your Souls prize them pray for them and improve them for you know not the consequences of their removal 5th Use of Exhortation Lastly Seeing there is more service to be done on Earth than in Heaven how should this exalt Christ Jesus in our hearts and enlarge them in love to him who as he wrought so much for us on Earth so still is he at work for us in Heaven He He is the great Worker in the highest World You know what he saith in his prayer to his Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Yea but we are to understand it of his Work upon Earth for his Work in Heaven is not as yet finished nor will before the end of the world Alas we can do little for Christ in Earth and less in Heaven Yet Jesus Christ whether in Earth or Heaven is still at work for us It is not with him as with us Heaven takes the work out of our hands but it puts it into his For thither is he gone to take and keep possession and to prepare places for us There he executeth his Mediatory-Office continually appears and makes intercession for us sheds abroad his Spirit gives Commission to the Angels and Gifts unto Men calleth and gathereth in his Elect ones enableth us to work on Earth governs the World upholds his Church and subdues their Enemies All the Work of Heaven lies upon Christ's hands and it is well it doth oâ— what would become of us on Earth And as this should raise our Esteem anâ— Love of Christ so should it quicken us the more to work for him on Earth seeing he is still at work for us in Heaven He wrought above thirty years for us here on Earth but in Heaven above sixteen hundred and thus he will continue his work to the end of the world To him therefore be glory and honour for ever and ever Amen A short Discourse OF THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE Gospel-Day Reaching from the Destruction of the OLD to the erection of the NEW JERUSALEM Zach. 14. 6 7. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light By W. H. London Printed for John Wilkins and are to be sold at his shop in Exchange-Alley next door to the Exchange-Coffee-House over against the Royal-Exchange 1673. COURTEOUS READER THou hast added a brief Treatise of the nature of the Gospel-Day in its Rise Progress and Perfection The Morning of which Day beginning in the Apostles times had much darkness mingled with a little light You know what stiff and earnest contentions there were for the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies yea the very Articles of Faith called in question the Spirit of Anti-christ working even then in the Evangelical Churches which in after Ages grew to a greater height in the exaltation of the Man of Sin But still the Light and Purity of the Gospel prevailed though sometimes the darkness was such as to threaten an utter extirpation God raising up some faithful Witnesses in all Ages to hold forth and vindicate the Light against all that opposition made against it The Truth had its Champions even then when the whole World wondred after the Beast And from them to us it is continued by an uninterrupted succession being still of a growing and encreasing Nature like the path of the Just shining more unto the perfect day What cause have we to bless God that we see the Truth and Gospel going on conquering and to conquer all Errour and Opposition Well the night is far spent and the day is at hand and go let us cast off the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light and so much the more as we see the Day breaking when Shadows shall flee away Light shall overspread the face of the whole Earth Peace Truth Holiness and Comfort shall then abound In the mean time it is no wonder if Light and Darkness conflict together Light of Peace with Trouble of Truth with Errour and go let us not be secure God may soon bring a Cloud over our Peace and Liberty And let us also who are of the day be sober bearing with and forbearing one another forasmuch as yet we know but in part and see through a Glass darkly but when the Evening of this Gospel-Day cometh the Lord shall be one and his Name one Zech. 14. 7 9. one heart and one way Jer. 32. 39. In the Faith and Hope hereof Let all the Children of Zion rejoyce and endeavour to be a People prepared for the Lord. Reader I shall detain thee no longer from this useful and seasonable Discourse The blessing of God go with it and make it fruitful so prayes Jan. 18 th 1673-4 Thy Servant in the Gospel H. J. ZECH. 14. 6 7. And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light THis Chapter begins with the revenge of God upon Judah and Jerusalem for their crucifying the Lord of glory Ch. 13. 7. of which vengeance Christ himself foretold and he calls them days of vengeance where he amply fieth what the Prophet here speaketh briefly Yet God threatneth to be avenged on the Nations that dealt thus with Jerusalem and the Jews They should have no thanks for this their service as minding only the fulfilling of their own wills and not Gods Ver. 3. But though Jerusalem should be overthrown and the Temple burnt and the Temple-Worship abolished yet the Lord would have a care of his Church and make way for the conversion of the Gentiles and expose the Truth and Way of his Worship to the open view of the Jews and Gentiles from East to West For the Truth and Way of God's Worship and of Salvation was pent up before Christ's coming in the narrow confines of Judea and obscured also and darkned with shadows and Ceremonies as Jerusalem the Seat of God's Worship was with Hills But now all should be laid open before all the world from East to West And this here is signified by an Allegory of the cleaving of Mount Olivet one famous Hill being put for the rest in the mid'st towards the East and towards the West whereby the City of God which is the Church should no longer be obscured but patent
as Hymeneus and Philetus and their word did eat like a Gangrene And some such there were that turned the Grace of God into Lasciviousnes c. Both Peter and Jude give us a sad character of them And in John's time there were many Antichrists and Apostates from the Faith and many false Prophets were then gone out into the World who denied that Christ was come in the Flesh And Pride and Ambition began then to appear in Diotrephes And false Apostles we meet with several times and with Balaamites and Nicolaitans in the Church at Pergamus and the woman Jezebel a false Prophetess and a Seducer in the Church at Thyatira You see the Morning of this Day red and lowring presaging foul weather throughout the remainder of it In the times succeeding the Apostles arose the Simonians Menandrians Carpocratians Cerinthians Ebionites Marcionites Apollinarians c. which did somewhat darken the Primitive Day wherein yet there was a comfortable mixture of Light held forth by Ireneus Lactantius Tertullian Justin Martyr Cyprian and others Afterward arose the Arrians who denied the God-head of Christ greatly obscuring the Day but were opposed by Athanasius Hilary and several others and condemned by the Nicene Council Not long after the Heresy of Macedonius who denied the Personality of the Holy Ghost was condemned by a Council at Constantinople And so was the Heresy of Nestorius who held that Christ had two Persons as well as two Natures opposed and condemned by a Council at Ephesus not long after the same time Opposite to this Heresy was that of the Eutychians who held Christ to have but one Nature confounding his Natures as the Nestorians had divided his Person For thus we find most of the Primitive Heresies to be about the Natures and Person of Christ the great Light of the World which the Prince of Darkness endeavoured to extinguish that so he might turn this Day into Night But still you will find that there was Light in opposition to his Darkness And when afterwards the Devil stirred up Pelagius to assert the Freedome of Mans Will God raiseth up Augustine to oppose him Onely what shall we say about the close of the Sixth Century when the bottomless Pit was opened out of which there arose a smoak as the smoak of a great Furnace insomuch that the Sun and Air were darkened by reason of the Smoak Where now was the Light and where was the One Day in my Text Yea and as the Centuries encreased so did the Darkness by a continual succession and series of Errors and Heresies for many Hundreds of years together And you know what dark Lights the Schoolmen were in their Generations who did rather obscure than illustrate Theology These things are true And a man had need of a great deal of knowledg in Church-History and the Centuriators to give particular satisfaction in this point and it would also require a large Discourse I shall therefore give you some general grounds of Proof that still the Light did run through the darkest Times First Christ promised that the gates of Hell should never prevail against his Church and that he would be with it to the end of the World Secondly It is held by several Learned and Orthodox That the Seven Churches of Asia had their Antitypes one after another throughout the day of the Gospel in my Text. And then surely there was alwaies Light in the Candlesticks Thirdly When Christ began to shew John things to come the First thing that he shewed him was God sitting upon his Throne with the Church round about Him and so described as you know Revel 4. For in shewing John things to come at so great and vast a Prospect God must needs shew him great and dreadful things as He did under the Seals Trumpets and Vials And therefore at the very entrance of this Discovery God secureth to John the safe condition of the Church in all times and letâ— him see that his Eye was still upon that as standing round about his Throne encompassed with ten thousand times ten thousand of Angels that so what sights soever John should afterwards see he might be assured that the Church was safe enough For God is before and his Angels behind the Church And hence it is that ever and anon the Church puts up her head in such and such periodical times and daies of danger and darkness in the Revelations Fourthly When God intended great Mutations in the World He made provision for his Church and People so that the four Angels must not hurt the Earth nor the Sea nor the Trees till the Servants of God were sealed in their Foreheads and the number of the sealed was 144000. And when the four first Trumpets sounded though there followed alwaies a sore judgment yet still a third part escaped under every one of them And with this agreeth that of Zechary Two parts shall be cut off and die but the third part shall be left therein And when again the fifth Trumpet sounded and the mouth of the bottomless Pit was opened out of which a dreadful smoak ascended and Locusts out of the smoak they had not power to hurt the grass of the Earth nor any green thing nor any tree but onely those men which had not the Seal of God in their foreheads Rev. 9. 4 Fifthly If we come to the Sixth Trumpet which began to sound about the Year 1300. when the Ottoman Power arose which yet continueth to this day it was a very dark and dismal time yet not void of Light For the Waldenses and their Followers were up long before that time and Wickliffe arose somewhat about the same and as I take it Bernard Afterwards John Huss and Hierome of Prague But seeing the time was so doleful and that it might well be admired what was become of the Church and where the Light was to be seen our Lord Jesus Christ cometh down from Heaven in the form of a mighty Angel clothed with a Cloud and a Rainbow upon his Head and his Face shining as it were the Sun For this was in the dark times of the Sixth Trumpet when although Christ was much clouded to the World and little of him seen yet the Sun did shine through the Cloud even in those times for he was mindful of his Covenant signified by the Rainbow And moreover Christ had in his Hand a little Book open so that there was some Light shining in those very dark times Sixthly When Antichrist was at his greatest height a little before the Light so brake forth that some Reformation began our Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God appeareth standing on Mount Zion and with him an Hundred and forty four Thousand having his Fathers name written on their Foreheads shewing us That Christ had his Church in the times of the greatest Apostasie and that there was not wanting Light in Darkness The sealed Number Rev. 7 ran through about a thousand
World to gather them to the battel of the great Day of God Almighty And that must needs be a very sad Evening especially in respect of trouble great oppositions and commotions For there shall be as terrible Signs and Presages fore-running the erection of the New-Jerusalem as there were before the Destruction of the Old Hinc illae Tenebrae But how then shall it be light at this Evening time Secondly In some respect therefore it shall be the most lightsom part of the Day hitherto And indeed it will be the light of the Evening that will very much occasion the Darkness of it I mean the Light of the Truth that shall then shine forth shall darken the Kingdom of the Beast and cause his Followers to gnaw their very Tongues for pain For that is under the Fifth Vial and if the Kingdom be full of Darkness it must needs be that Christ's Kingdom will then be full of Light For the Witnesses will be â—isen long before the effusion of the Fifth and Sixth Vials and Antichrist be greatly consumed with the breath of Christs mouth viz. in the Preaching of the Gospel And therefore in this respect it must needs be a lightsome Evening and a time of greater Light than ever shined since the daies of the Apostles Thus you see what a time the Evening shall be But shall this Evening then determine this Day so that the Conversion of the Jews shall become another Day No But as this Day is one and the same and constant to it self as we have heard so shall the Day of the Jews Conversion and the time following be one and the same day with this But how Not in respect of Light and Darkness intermixed so as in the Day before the Evening but in respect of one and the same Covenant and way of Holy Administration still continued For the Ordinances now used shall be continued to the coming of Christ For it is observable First That this dark Time is not called The Evening but the Evening-time Quo tempore advesperascere Nox esse solet At what time it begins to be Evening or to look like an Evening and the Sun seems to be setting And therefore Seâ—â—ndly Though it is called an Evening-time yet there is no Night said to follow it Sol occubuit Nox nulla secuta est It is such an Evening wherein the Sun setteth and no Night succeedeth It is true One would little expect light in the Evening especially more light than in the Day before But such an Evening-time is this after which shineth the greatest Light that ever was seen since the daies of Jesus Christ You see then what this Evening is Secondly What is that Light that shall shine so gloriously at the Evening-time especially at the end of it Answ It is the same in kind and quality with that which shined before this Evening-time only it differeth in degrees For now the Light shall excel and that shall be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Arise and shine for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee c. Now as I may say the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold as the light of seven Daies Yea The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light and thy God thy glory The Sun shall no more go down neither the Moon withdraw it self for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light But wherein shall this Light consist First There shall be a great effusion of the Spirit of God in those times whereof a Pledge was given in the Morning of this Gospel-day It shall come to pass in the last daies that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh And the like we find in the words following my Text And it shall be in that Day that living Waters shall go out from Jerusalem c. And hereby is meant the Spirit of God with his Gifts and Graces compared to living Waters And these I take to be the same with Ezekiel's waters which rose at last to a very great depth Secondly Hence it followeth That there will be a very great light of Knowledg in this Day so that there shall not be so much need as now there is for one to teach another saying Know the Lord for they shall all know him from the least to the greatest And that shall be the time especially when The Earth shall be full of the knowledg of God as the Waters cover the Sea Thirdly This Light of Knowledg shall have a great influence into the Hearts and Lives of Men who shall shine eminently in Holiness insomuch that the inscription upon the Fore-head of the High-Priest shall then be put upon the bells of the Horses and the very Pots in Jerusalem and Judah shall be Holiness to the Lord Even Carters Cooks and Kitchin-Maids shall then shine in purity of life and there shall be no more the Canaanite in the House of the Lord of Hosts Fourthly That Day shall shine with the Light of Peace Tranquillity and Joy for these go together Esth 8. 16. Swords shall then be turned into Plough-shares and Spears into Pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Fifthly In that Day there shall be the Light of Comfort for this will follow necessarily from all the former and the Consolation will be both External and Internal viz. When the Spirit of God the Comforter shall be poured out so plentifully and when the Spirit shall have his Day as the Father and the Son had theirs And when Knowledge Holiness and Peace shall abound on the Earth when Turk and Pope and all that oppose the Kingdom of Christ shall be destroyed and Satan bound and confined to the bottomless Pit during the Thousand years I say This must needs be a very comfortable time Great then shall be the peace of Zions Children when God shall make her an eternal Excellency and a joy of many Generations when violence shall no more be heard in her Land wasting and destruction within her Borders but men shall call her Walls Salvation and her Gates Praise and when they shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord who shall turn the former Mourning of his People into Joy and comfort them and cause them to rejoice from their sorrow For they shall come to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon their Heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away And thus you see the Light that shall be at the Evening-time and the Doctrine cleared in the several parts of it the Uses whereof now follow Uses First What hath