thy self that speakest to my Soul that I may say It is the voice of my Beloved c. Christians I know God may and doth oftentimes convey his comforts by the lips of his faithful Messengers and Servants Isai 40.1 Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem c. speak to her heart as the Hebrew phraseth it I say the Prophets were but Gods mouth to deliver the message and so are the Ministers of the Gospel and other of his Saints but be sure the comforts which you administer be Gods comforts see that ye can say with the Apostle in another case 1 Cor. 11.13 That which I have received of the Lord deliver I unto you Be sure what you dispence from God be these words be sure your words of comfort be none but such as Christ himself would speak were he upon the place Do not my words do good Mic. 17. Jer. â—3 28. saith the Lord Yes they be Gods words only that can comfort fainting souls But what is the chasse to the wheat saith the Lord It is true the Devil and the World have their counterfeit Cordials their guilded Pills and Plaisters which like Quacksalvers make quick Cures but they never heal to the bottom they may for a time stupifie the sense but they do not mortifie sensuality ease the smart but not cleanse the wound Saul when the evil Spirit was upon him calls for a Fiddle and when God hath forsaken him he goes to the Witch as if because God would not answer him the Devil should Most people have learn'd a way of their own some to drink down their sorrow and sleep out the sense of those breaches which God hath made upon their Relations or in a crowd of worldly business can lose their sorrows yea many carnal Professours there are when they have disturbed their peace and wounded their Consciences can make a shift to lick themselves whole with their duties a few Pater-nosters Church-absolution a morsel of Sacramental bread and a drop of the Sacramental cup will make them as well as ever though that which stilleth conscience never killeth corruptions what a world of souls doth Satan gain by such cures Eating and drinking damnation to themselves 1 Cor. 11.30 In this affliction of the loss of dear Relations the World when she comes to visit the surviving Mourners wants not her Cordials but oh what pitiful puddle water instead of water of life doth she administer We must be contented say they there is no remedy God will have it so we cannot help it and however their friends have lived in-grace-a-God they are well we must live by the living and not by the dead and with such dirty rags as these they bind up one anothers dreadful stinking wounds or peradventure others there be that with the stout shoulder of fortune may bear their wounds without complaining some Porters can carry greater loads than others can or else on the other hand some corky spirits ye have whom much lead will not make sink in the waters of affliction But alas all these are but lying vanities and will stand men in least stead when they stand in most need of comfort Oh that men had faith to believe that all these are Physitians of no value Christs words are the only words of comfort Then shall we be ever with the Lord. So our Lord again Let not your heart be troubled John 14.1 2. ye believe in God believe also in me in my Fathers house are many mansions With thee is the fountain of life Psal 36.9 and in thy light we shall see light These these indeed are Apples of gold which when they meet with Pictures of silver Prov. 25.11 hearts truly capable of such consolation are very beautiful Comfort one another with these words Hence be we instructed 7. Branch of Information If it be the duty of Christians to administer words of comfort to Mourners then it is also the duty of Mourners to open their ears and hearts to receive those words if those Apples of Gold meet not with pictures of silver they are lost and cast away If God should send an Angel or any Messenger of peace to comfort you in your trouble what a sin would it be to make him go away ashamed with an Who hath believed our report Or Lord I have delivered thy message and all thy precious Cordials were of no value I know there be few or none of Gods Mourners that dare do this in terminis in express language but what and if a deaf ear and a dejected countenance and a dead heart unchearful conversation alter all the words of comfort which God sends thee by his Messengers be soâ— with God by interpretation May not this provoke God to afflict thee more and to increase thy sorrows until the pride of thy heart be abated May I not say unto thee as Joab to David when he grew sullen upon the death of Absalom Thou hast shamed the face of Gods Messengers â— Sâ—m 19.5 and hast declared that the consolations of God are small in thine eyes Now therefore arise and thankfully embrace their message of peace or else it may be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now Surely it is as great an indignity to slight Gods comforts as it is to scorn Gods counsels this spurns against Gods Authority that tramples upon his compassion this man doth resist the Spirit that man doth grieve the Spirit and if thou grieve away the Comforter who shall comfort thee at length If David took the affront which Hanun put on his Messengers sent to comfort him over his Fathers death so heinously that he armeth Joab and all his men of war against him to avenge the indignity how justly may God send forth Armies of afflictions against thee for thy sullen refusal of his tender hearted consolations Surely there is more pride in such refusals than Christians are easily convinc'd of for is it not by interpretation to say my loss is not to be repaired my wound is incurable there is no balm in Gilead that can heal thy hurt Is it not as if thou shouldst say there was but one intollerable thing in the world and God must needs send that upon thee Dear Christian be afraid by thy frowardness of running the hazard of such an interpretation That Question of Eliphaz to Job Jâ—b 15.11 Are the consolations of God small with thee implieth greater unkindness in refusing divine comfort than Mourners are willing to believe God could not do thee wrong in taking away thy amiable Relation from thee it was but calling for his loan again which he lent thee and yet doth he send to comfort thee Oh how thy head and worship and say Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy Word Poor disconsolate soul know thou that every crumb of comfort which falls from Christs mouth is
priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
thy self nor set any of the houshold of Faith at work for an higher Boon than for Assurance Oh get some special Favourite under the great Mediator some Noah some Job some Daniel c. Men or Women of great acquaintance and much communion with God Christians of large experience and eminent holiness to such God usually denyeth nothing And Heb. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 his Covenant to make them know it Speaks to others as men and women ordinarily bespeak prayers Pray pray for me and the like and truly for the most part it passeth for a common if not a vain Complement and there 's an end of it speak to some not Heathen and they will laugh at thee they know not what thou sayest speak to others and they 'l forget thee He that makes not assurance his own concernment how can he make it thine Speak to serious solid broken-hearted Christians who know what assurance is and what it is worth earnestly beg of them If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies That they would plead hard for that in the interest of our Lord Jesus if God would remember your poor thirsty soul for one draught of this wine of this consolation Assurance and they cannot yea they dare not forget thee They know whose prayers have prevailed for themselves in the like petitions and they dare not but pay their debts But whilst thou settest others to pray for thee Caution forget not to pray for thy self forget not to pray for thy self If thou settest others to pray for thee and prayest not thy self thou art an Hypocrite and God will account thee as one that mockest and thou wilt get a curse and not a blessing wherefore pray pray constantly and pray instantly Vehementia constantia in istu petitionibus requiritur c. knock hard at the gate of heaven for this grand mercy and if God open not the first or second or twentieth or the hundreth time yet with Peter continue knocking let God know as it were that thou art resolved to take no denial to thy Petition for assurance This was the greatness of the poor woman of Canaans Faith Mat. 15.27 she would not be denied Be constant and conscientious in your attendance upon Christs Table 9. Help behold it is the sealing Ordinance his Banquetting-house his Presence-chamber his Marriage-feast his Bed of love where he doth use to give out to his Spouse his Loves Cant. 6.12 〈◊〉 Behold the Spirits run in the blood and the sealing Spirit of Christ is not seldom conveyed in the precious streams of Christs blood in that mysterious Ordinance The holy Supper was the pledge of his dying Love a Seal of his last coming to receive home his Spouse to himself This Cup is the New Testament in my blood 1 Cor. 11.25 26. this do ye as est as ye drink it in remembrance of me As oft as ye eat c. Christ would have his Spouse perpetuate the remembrance of his dying love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 3.12 that thereby they might look for a hastning of his coming Oh let not thy place be empty at such a glorious festivity who can tell whether the Lord may come in the very hour of this solemn Ordinance which he hath appointed to be the very sanction and pledge of his glorious and triumphant coming Sam. 20.27 and say concerning thee Where is the son of Jesse to day Oh at such a time for the Bridegroom to find thee absent how unkindly may he take it Who that he might be sure not to miss thy company at this Love-feast hath said As oft as ye eat c. Lastly Wait. This is blessedness in assurance 10. Help next to the beatifical vision it self and there wants not blessedness in waiting for it while short spirited Christians can find no sweetness but in a plerophâ—ry gracious souls can tast blessedness in waiting for it Lam. 3.26 The Saints in Scripture have been not only a praying generation but a waiting generation the old Testament Believers waited for the Promise of the Messiah Luke 2.25 It is said of good old Simeon He waited for the consolation of Israel And the Primitive believers in the new Testament after Christs Ascention were commanded by our Lord to wait for the Promise of the Father Acts 1.4 which said he ye have heard of me namely the Promise of the Holy Ghost which should fill their hearts with assurance and seal them up to the day of Redemption Indeed there is Patience in Faith as well as Power it knoweth as well how to stay the Lords leasure as to wrestle with him for the blessing Indeed it is a rare temper to be importunate with God and Christ willing to stay Gods leisure but it is most excellent and there is nothing lost by it Holy David gives us his own experience Psal 40.1 I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry Go you and do likewise Pray and wait wait and wait patiently and if the Lord answer not as soon as your souls could wish know this that you do not so much wait for God as God for you Isai 30 18. The Lord waits to be gracious God doth but wait the fittest season of mercy and therefore blessed are they that wait for him And let me tell you this for your unspeakable encouragement that if assurance come not till your dying hour nor then neither to your own or others sence and observation yet vigorous and persevering indeavours shall wear the same Crown with assurance in heaven not want of assurance but the neglect of it is the sin which God takes unkindly It was the last words wherewith holy Jacob went triumphing out of the world I have waited for thy salvation Gen. 49.18 O Lord. And thus I have done with the second Use of this Ever I come to a third Ever with the Lord. Use 3. 1 Cor. 15 ult It may serve as a spur to diligence and activity in the wayes of God It is the very use the Apostle makes of this blessed Doctrine Therefore my brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Not in vain a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more is to be understood than is exprest the meaning is your reward shall be great and glorious What is that this motive hath relation to the glorious resurrection treated on in the whole foregoing Chapter q. d. on the other side of the resurrection God hath prepared an eternity of glory for you and therefore bestir your selves in good earnest do somewhat for God on this side the grave that may if possible bear some proportion with your future expectation Whatever thy hand findeth to do do
12. Ch. 5.8 Their patient bearing of the Cross Their keeping of the word of God in the precepts of it and keeping close to it in the Truth of it Their superlative Love to Christ Math. 10.37 Their Cordial Love to the Saints 1 Jo. 3.14 Their Contempt of the World 1 Jo. 2.15 Their Love of Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 In a word Their conformity to Christ their Head Rom. 8.29 These and the like Divine Vertues although not seldome more visible to a judicious stander by than to themselves and not to be weighed but with some graines of allowance in the ballance of the Sanctuary these I say may administer abundant matter of hope and rejoycing to surviving Friends that those Relations which are fallen asleep were a people whom God hath set apart for himself pretious in his sight honourable and beloved of him a people formed for himself to shew forth his praise Col s 1.13 and made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Yea even in them whose Sun goes down in the morning of their Youth A teachable Spirit Math. 13.16 Isa 28.9 71 Psal 5. Jo. 16.8 1 John 2.13 John 17.3 Pious Inclinations Sense of a lost Estate by Nature A Competent knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in his Offices A real sense of the need and use of Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.15 Ps 119.13 An early acquaintance with the Scriptures A good understanding of the Word Preached not without some savour of it Respects to Gods Sabbaths And in a word 1 Kings 14.13 Any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel These early Impressions I say where ever they are found though according to different ages and capacities more or less legible in them are so many hopeful Indiciums that God hath been at work upon their hearts betimes and that he doth not untimely take them away in judgment but are polished Jewels which he hath of special grace laid up and secured from the violence and prophanation of a reprobate world Nay once more Those very Babes and Sucklings whom God is pleased to remove from us very early snatched from their Mothers Breasts yea possibly who pass swiftly from the Womb of their Natural Mother unto the belly of the Earth their Original Mother even these I say they being A Covenant seed Appendices of their believing Parents Children of promise Act. 2.39 Consecrated unto God by their Baptisme or by the Tears and Prayers of their holy Parents in the want of it having a right to the mercies 1 Cor. 7.14 Rom. 9.11 Mar. 10.4 Luk. 1.44 Gal. 1.15 Renatiante quam nati Aug. priviledges of the Covenant as well as to Baptisme Among whom is dispersed God the Father's Election God the Son's purchase God the Holy Ghost's Influence and Operation Even these are not to be looked upon as a lost Generation but may in the warrantable judgment of Scripture Charity be hopefully reputed for an Holy Seed Gods adopted Children owned by Christ and in him heires co-heires of the Kingdome of Heaven by special prerogative advanced to their Inheritance as it were before their time Upon this Foundation stands our hope concerning our Godly Relations which are fallen asleep of what age or state soever we are not to mourn for them even as others which have no hope Let them mourn excessively who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God in raising the Dead who bury their Relations and their hopes together in one Grave but you that upon these Scripture evidences have good hope through grace concerning your deceased Friends that while you are mourning on Earth they are rejoycing in Heaven that whiles you are Cloathed with black they are Cloathed in white even in the long white Robes of Christs Righteousness while you are rooling your selves in the Dunghil they are sitting with Christ upon his Throne Do not I beseech you profane your Scriptural hope with an unscriptural mourning give not the world occasion to judge either your selves to live without Faith or your Relations to dye without hope but let your Christian moderation be known to all men that it may be a visible Testimony to all the world of God's grace in them and of your hopes of their glory with God Therefore comfort one another with this word also A third word of comfort followeth and that is A third word of Comfort Our gratious Relations are not alone in their Death The Captain of their Salvation did march before them through those black Regions of Death and the Grave Jesus died this is implied in the following words If we believe that Jesus died This is a third consolatory Argument and it carryeth in it strong consolation Our sweet Relations in dying run no other hazard than Abraham Isaac and Jacob did no other hazard than all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles did in their generations they all died and were resolved into their first dust Yea what shall I say They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles did Jesus died this is wonderful indeed the Lord of Life died The eternal Son of God was laid in the Grave If our Children die we know we begot them mortal The Son of God had no principle of mortality in him * i.e. No sin in him to deserve it nor disease to cause it and yet he died Be our Children never so precious to us they cannot be so pretious to us God forbid they should as the Lord Jesus was to His Father who testifies concerning him from Heaven with a loud voyce This is my well-beloved Son Math. 3.17 in whom my Soul is well pleased And yet God gave up this well beloved of his Soul to the death Jesus died And we indeed justly Death is but our wages wages as truly earned as ever was a penny by the poor hireling for his days labour both we and our Off-spring have forfeited our lives over and over again by continual reiterated Treasons against the supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth yea the best blood which runs in our veins is Traytors blood by succession from our first Rebellious Parents for which God might justly have executed the sentence at first imposed even as soon as ever we draw our first breath Thou shalt dye the death Gen. 3. But He what evil had he done He was holy harmless undefiled Heb. 7.26 Isa 53.61.71 Heb. Ho hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him separate from sinners He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth He fulfilled all Righteousness and yet Jesus dyed And why so Surely he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we all like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity
hath made them sc by vertue of their Union with Jesus Christ Doth Christ call God his Father and his God behold He Heb. 2.11 being not ashamed to call them Brethren lets them know that he is their God and Father God to my Brethren and say to them John 20.17 I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Once more Hath the Father appointed him a Kingdom so doth he appoint unto them a Kingdom Luk. 22.29 Hath the Father assigned him a Throne so doth Christ assigne unto his Saints a Throne also To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me Rev. 3.21 in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne My Brethren what a Soul-enriching beatifical Union is this There be Unions in nature which convey nothing communicate nothing but empty and insignificant titles which make the person admitted into them not a whit the richer the better not a jot the more noble or happy but this Union as that divine essential Union between the Father and the Son doth invest Christ into all divine properties and prerogatives with the Father so this between Christ and the Believer invests the Believer into the whole Christ and all his riches and all his glory in so much as the Spouse gives in the whole accompt in this vast and invaluable sum Cant. 2.16 My Beloved is mine and I am his he is mine the whole Christ is mine in his natures offices excellencies prerogatives and inheritance In all he is and in all he hath it is all mine for my good and for my glory This is the voice of her Faith and then I am his this is the voice of her love I am his in all I am in all I have in all I can make by my interest in the world and if it were a thousand times more he should have it all and all too little for him who hath loved me and washed one in his own Blood and hath taken me into so rich and glorious an Vnion with his own self To him be glory for ever Amen This is the fourth Property I proceed to a fifth property of the Union Fifth Property an intimous Vnion and it is a near inward intimous Union To hint the intimateness of this Union the Holy Ghost in Scripture carries us through the climax of all Unions under Heaven and compares it with them of what nature and kind soever Whether Artificial Whether Political Whether Natural Wherein although you may find different degrees one exceeding another yet all falling short of this blessed Vnion in respect of closeness and intimacy It tells you that look how the house and foundation are one so are Christ and Believers 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. yea higher It tells you that look how Husband and Wife are one so is Christ and his Saints Hos 2.19 Eph. 5.30 only with this incomparable difference Husband and Wife make but one flesh 1 Cor 6.16 17. but Christ and the Believer make one Spirit ut supra It tells us yet higher that look how the Head and Members are one so is Christ and his Church 1 Cor. 12.12 how root and branches are one John 15.1.6 so Christ and Believers and closer yer the Scripture tells us that look how Food and the body are one so also is Christ and the Believer one hence we hear of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood John 6.51 53 54 55 56. and nearer yet if nearer can be It 〈◊〉 that look how the Soul and Body are one how Life and the subject wherein it resides are one so is Christ and the Believer Colos 3.4 when Christ who is our life shall appear c. Behold here Christians is an Union which amounts tantum non to an identity say only with Cyprian it is not such an Union as is between the two natures in Christ Non miscet personas nec unit substantias Cypr. It is indeed an Union of persons but not a personal Union Mystici Theologi A Believer trans-essentiated into God and Bread and Wine transsubstantiated into Christ are much of a Language So they call the Holy Ghost auram zephyri caelestis and pardon of sin Deos superos manesque pacare Card. de Bemb which makes them but one person not such an Union as is between the three glorious Persons in the blessed Trinity who notwithstanding the distinction of their personality are but one nature and essence and you cannot say or think too highly of this Vnion yea whatsoever you can say or think will be short of the intimacy and excellency of this Union Onely we must tell the world that those mystical divines amongst the Papists as they call themselves who talk of the Saints being trans essentiated into God and those Seraphicks amongst us as they would be called but Phanatiques more truly and properly who rant at the same rate Christed with Christ and Godded with God these speak as men so ambitious of being accounted sublime and Angelical in comparison of all other men whom they scorn as illiterate Literatists that they think it a lessening to them to speak in a common and sober Dialect and rather then not speak bigger words then other men they fear not to speak Blasphemy The Lord convince them Notwithstanding I must add this to what I have said that because no Union under Heaven was close enough to express the oneness which is betwixt Christ and the Believer therefore our Lord Jesus himself carries us up to Heaven there to contemplate the essential Union which is between the Father and the Son Jo. 17. and puts them into the same parallel As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in us yet still we must be careful to understand the words of Christ in a sober sense lest whil'st our Lord doth honour our Union with himself by comparing it to divine Union in the Trinity we do in the least dishonour that Union by levelling it with ours we must duly remember that this comparative particle as doth not here intend equality but likeness oâ—â—y the truth of the intimacy and not the nature or the degree of it to lift up this mystical Union above all other Unions in nature but we must still keep the divine Union in its own place This is the fifth property The sixth property Sixth property total It is a total Union The whole Christ is United to the whole Christian as the whole humane nature in Christ is joyned to the whole divine nature so the whole person of a Believer is joyned to the whole person of Christ yet not so as to make Christ and the Believer but one person but as in the conjugal Union between Man and Wife making up one mystical body or as in the body natural every Member is joyned to the head and the head to every member so is Christ and the Believer Yea once
three glorious persons in Trinity and that other like unto it between the two natures in Christ profound and ineffable 1 Cor. 2.14 Quia nihil animal animali superius cogitare potest the heart of man is not able to conceive it nor the tongue of an Angel to express it the natural man knows it not at all no more of it than a Swine knows what the Union is between the Soul and body in man it is above his principle 1 Cor. 2.14 The spiritual man understandeth it very imperfectly all we know is rather that it is than what it is the full and perfect knowledg of it is reserved for the future state so our Lord hath told us John 14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you then and not till then we shall never perfectly understand this Union until we come fully to enjoy it In the mean time if a short improvement of such a rich point might not be judged too much improper in such a contemplative discourse as this is a few things might be hinted from hence by way of Use Use First Here we may discover the main Foundation 1 Perseverance stands not in the nature of Grace and Reason of the Saints perseverance surely it consists not in the nature of Grace infused in their Regeneration this differs not specifically from the Grace which Adam received in his first Creation that was the Image of God Gen. 1.26 27. and so is this Colos 3.10 and therefore of it self cannot produce any higher or more noble effects under the one Covenant then it did under the other Secondly 2. Nor in freedom of will Nor doth it consist in the liberty and rectitude of their own Wills though Regenerate for if Adams free will did him so little service in his perfect state when it was entire free without any mixture of servility how little security think you can the liberty Ex nolentibus facit volentes Aug. wherewith Christ maketh the will free in the new Creation afford the Saints wherein the state of Grace is yet imperfect and the freedom of their wills mixt with so much bondage that it made the holy Apostle look upon it little different for the present from a captivity Rom. 7.24 and to cry out to astonishment for a Redeemer to come in and make a rescue O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me c. He found by experience that if it were not more for a Christ than for the freedom of his own will that body of death which he carried about him would infallibly prove his total and final ruine but I thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord there was his security But 1. In the Covenant of Grace Where then shall we bottom the stability and fixedness of the Saints surely upon a two-fold Foundation First Divine Compact Grace in the Saints is under a Covenant God the Father hath Astipulated with the Mediator for his spiritual believing seed not only to repair the Ruines of the first Creation his Image in them but to uphold and secure it from ever dissolving decaying again totally or finally partial temporary decays and recidivations there may be but saith the word of the Covenant to the Redeemer in Reference to his divine off-spring my Spirit which is upon thee Isa 59.21 and my words which I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Adams grace was under no such Covenant and therefore left to it self it was exposed to the power of Temptation and perished This is one account of the Saints perseverance But Secondly Secondly Union with Christ The next and immediate Foundation of it is this blessed Vnion whereof we are now speaking by vertue whereof the true Believer is so made one with Christ as Christ is one with his Father ut supr As we are one as that is as it hath been expounded spiritually really operatively enrichingly intimously indissolubly in a word infallibly and availeably to all saving intents and purposes Here is the ground and foundation of the Saints perseverance Rev. 3.1 They are not only fixt Stars in Christs right hand if no more it would be hard pulling them thence But their lives are bound up in the same bundle with Christs own life Jo. 14.19 our life is hid with Christ in God Christ and his Saints have as it were but one life between them and that life is Christs whence Christ himself makes the inference because I live Col. 3.3 you shall live also Upon such an instance it may be questioned and possibly without breach of charity whether they who deny the infallible perseverance of the Saints did ever truly study or believe the notion and nature of the happy and glorious Vnion which is betwixt Christ and them * The inseparableness of the Union is given as the account of the Saints perseverance Nothing can separate us Rom. 8 39. If we should form what hath been said unto such a Syllogism as this namely They that are United to Christ by a spiritual real operative enriching intimate inseparable Union can never totally or finally fall away But all true Believers are so United Therefore they can never so fall away I say cast all into such a form and we find that both the Premisses and the Conclusion are of Christ's own making Because I live ye shall live also And therefore until I hear that Christ is dead the second time which I am sure I shall never do for Christ being raised dieth no more Rom. 6.9 death hath no more dominion over him c. I dare not believe this doctrine The possibility of the Saints total and final Apostacy Only because Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and the heart is deceitful above all things Caution and desperately wicked my earnest advice and obsecration to all such as do pretend to this blessed Vnion as to mine own Soul is To give all diligence upon solid Scripture-evidence that is to say by the precious and powerful influences of this Vnion upon their Souls and by the gracious Reciprocations of Faith and Love and sweet holy communion with the Father and the Son c. by these I say and the like to secure the Assumption But I am thus Vnited to Christ And the Conclusion need not fear the gates of Rome or Hell but the Believer may boldly send forth St. Pauls challenge Who shall condemn What shall separate 1 Cor. 15.57 Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ In the second place Second Use Hence we may take notice of the honour and dignity of the Saints how meanly and basely so ever reputed in The Dignity of the Saints 1 Cor. 4.13
thoughts of death O ye Saints of God! and why do you indeed what the Jews supposed Mary did John 11.31 go so oft to the Sepulcher to weep there behold your beloved Lazarus is not dead but sleepeth yea that which is of an infinitely higher consideration he sleeps in Jesus Did he live in Christ behold he died in Christ also Did he dye in Christ behold he sleeps in Christ Christ is nearly related to the Saints dust their ashes are not laid up in the Grave so much as in Christ yea though after death they should pass through never so many changes and revolutions and should be scattered at length into all quarters and corners of the world Dormire in Christo est conjunctionem retinere in morte quam habemus cum Christo Calv. in loc he that calls the Stars by their own names knows every dust of their precious bodies keeps them in his hand and is as really united to them as to his own humane nature in Heaven This may be as Jonathan's honey upon the top of the rod taste of it oh ye mourners of hope and your eyes will be enlightned look not on your pretious Relations so much as they lye rotting in the Grave or resolved into dust as upon their dust as it is laid up in a sacred Vrn in the hand and bosome as it were of Jesus Christ for which he himself will be responsible and bring it forth safely and entirely in the morning of the Resurrection there shall not be so much as a dust wanting for so it followeth Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which is a wider breach The sixth Word of Comfort Sixth word of Comfort God will bring his Sleeping Saints with him God will come and when he cometh He will bring them with him which sleep in Jesus God will or God shall c. Some understand it of God the Father others of God the Son I know not why they should be separated they that say God the Father include God the Son i. e. God the Father shall bring them with him in Christ of by Christ referring he shall bring unto the former clause in Jesus The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Erasmus and Tertul. Or by Jesus so reading it God shall bring them by Jesus And they who understand here God the Son exclude not God the Father And verily the order of working which is between the three glorious Persons in Trinity will not allow us to seclude either in this place For as all the external works of the Trinity are common Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa and undivided so Divines observe this method or order in their working The Father worketh all things of himself in the Son by the Holy Ghost The Son worketh from the Father by the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost worketh from the Father and from the Son by himself The Original of the action is ascribed to the Father The Wisdom and manner of working to the Son The Efficacy of the operation to the Holy Ghost All external operation begins in the Father is continued in the Son and terminated in the Holy Ghost This is a mystery rather to be adored Psal 139.6 than curiously to be pried into such knowledg is too wonderful for us it is high we cannot attain unto it But as to the words of the Text God will bring them with him I conceive they relate more properly and peculiarly to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Lord. For so it follows The Lord himself shall descend c. And when he cometh he will bring them with him that sleep in him The propriety of the work is ascribed to Jesus Christ God-man the Mediator between God and man he shall bring them with him when he descendeth from Heaven And that in a four-fold respect 1. Their Spirit or Souls from Heaven 2. Their Bodies from the Grave 3. Body and Soul united he shall take up to himself into the Clouds 4. And then carry all his Saints back with him into Heaven First when the Lord shall descend he will bring the spirits of just men made perfect with him from Heaven The Souls of all his glorified Saints whose bodies to this moment have slept in the Grave shall follow Christ out of the gates of the New Jerusalem to attend that glorious solemnity so it is prophesied Behold Jude v. 14. the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints When Christ cometh to judg the world there shall not be a Saint left in Heaven saith Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven shall as it were be left empty to attend the King of Glory going forth out of his Royal Palace to finish the work of the great and last Judgment of the world he shall come attended with all his Saints they shall fill up his Train Secondly As Christ will bring their Souls with him from Heaven so he will bring their bodies from the Grave It is noted how that in the Transfiguration the body of Moses which was hid in the Valley of Moab appeared in the Mount of Tabor which assures us that the bodies of the Saints where-ever they be lodged are not lost but laid up to be raised to glory the same numerical body that was laid down in dust Christ at his coming to Judgment will first go to the Graves of the Saints and cry to them aloud in some such language as once he did to their Souls in the days of their unregeneracy when dead in sins and trespasses in the Gospel-call Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee Life Or as somtimes in the days of his flesh he did to Lazarus John 11.41 when he had lien four days rotting in the Grave Veniet aliquando Christus cum potestate et majestate carnem illam quaerere illud corpus cadaverosum configurare corpors claritatis suae Bern. a lively Emblem and Type of the general Resurrection Lazarus come forth and they that are dead shall come forth It was the tenour of his own prediction while yet in the world The hour is coming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man and shall come forth c. I shall not stay here to inquire into the nature and properties of the Saints bodies when Christ shall raise them up out of their Graves that inquiry will be more proper and seasonable in some of the following clauses of this context Concerning the manner of it for the help of our Infant-understandings briefly The manner of the Resurrection we may conceive it after this method First The holy Angels of God shall be sent abroad to gather together the scattered dust of the Saints though separated one from the other at never so great a distance into all the quarters and extremities of the earth Math. 24.31 and
as lying in the Grave their Beauty turned into Rottenness and deformity think not of them as possibly by a premature death as you may think snatcht from an earthly Inheritance before their time but think on them as co-heirs with Jesus Christ riding now in Triumph with him and with the whole general Assembly and Church of the First born whose names are written in Heaven to take possession of their Inheritance with the Saints in Light Thus behold them not as they are in the night of the shadow of death but as they shall be in the morning of the Resurrection when God will bring them with him and I had almost said Mourn if you can So much for the Sixth word of Comfort MOVNT PISGAH OR THE SECOND PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Have opened unto you the first part of this Apostolical Model of divine Comforts over the Death of our Godly Friends and hopeful Relations which conteined in it six words of Consolation sc 1. That they are not said so properly to be dead as to sleep They are but fallen asleep 2. That their condition is a condition full of hope they are not in an hopeless state as others are 3. Jesus Christ the Captain of our Salvation went before them and shewed them the way Jesus Died. 4. He died indeed but he remained not long in the state of the Dead He rose again And that First By his own power as a Conquerour Secondly By Office as our Sponsor or Surety our Jesus Thirdly As a second Adam or publick person the head and Representative of all his spiritual Seed This also is in his name Jesus Jesus rose 5. The Saints Vnion with Christ so intimous and so inseparable that it ceaseth not in the very Grave They sleep in Jesus 6. They shall be brought back again at the Coming of the Lord God shall bring them with him these are conteined in the 13th and 14th verses of this Chapter I come now to the Second Part of this Divine Model Second Part. which is conteined in the three following Verses viz. the 15 16 17. together with the improvement of the whole context in the 18th verse which is mutual comfort and support Comfort one another with these words Now this later part contains in it four of these ten words of Comfort held out in this Model 1. The first is an obviating and removal of a discouragement and temptation which might possibly be upon the spirits of dying Saints namely lest the condition of the Saints which shall be found alive at the last day should be happier or at least sooner happy than the Saints which are fallen asleep long before and the removal of this discouragement makes a seaventh Word of Comfort in this Model 2. A second word is The coming of Christ his last appearance the Lord himself shall descend c. and this is the eighth word conteined in this Model 3. The third is The joyful and triumphant Meeting which all the Saints of God shall then have with one another and with Christ their Head and Husband ver 17. And this is the nineth Consolatory Argument in the order of the context 4. The last word of Comfort is That blessed co-habitation and Communion which the Saints shall enjoy with Jesus Christ for ever then shall we ever be with the Lord vers 17. And this is the tenth and last Consolatory Argument conteined in this Model I shall figure them in my opening of them as they stand in the order of the whole Model and make up the number of Ten words of Comfort conteined therein Seaventhly therefore Seventh word of Comfort the next word of Comfort in this Model is The obviating or removing an objection or discouragement which probably might possess the Spirits of God's dying-Saints and that is lest the Saints which shall be found alive at the last day might possibly be happier or at least sooner happy than the Saints which are fallen asleep before that day Now for the rolling of this stumbling block and stone-of-offence out of the way The Apostle doth these three things 1. The method of the last Judgment He sets down the order and method of the procedure of that great and solemn Transaction at Christs coming vers 15 16. 2. He quoteth infallible Authority for what he saith The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tells us he speaks not a presumption of his own head but that which he had received of the Lord This we say unto you by the word of the Lord. 3. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He gives us the ground and reason of this comfortable assertion and that is the coming of Christ in person For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven c. vers 16. First 1. Branch of the word of Comfort The order method of Christs procedure The Apostle acquaints Believers with the order and method of that great and solemn Transaction at Christ his coming And this he doth Two ways 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively First Neg. Negatively He peremptorily denieth that the living Saints at Christs coming in glory shall have any the least advantage above the sleeping Saints by their being found alive at that day We which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep Vers 16 i. e. The living Saints shall not prevent the dead Saints in any priviledg of the Resurrection or of the appearance of the Lord Jesus It might probly be a temptation upon the Thessalonians or other Christians 1. Either that the Saints only which should be found alive at the last day should have the happiness of seeing the Lord Jesus coming in his Glory with all his mighty Angels to judg the world and they only should enjoy the priviledg of his Glorious appearance that all the Saints that died before that day even from the beginning of the world were a lost generation that should never come forth again to the light or to behold the glory of that day or to enjoy the blessed fruits and consequences of it 2. Or at least that they should be the first in that happiness to see his Glory and have the first share in the felicities and triumph of that day or ever the sleeping Saints should be awakened or get out of their beds of dust The Apostle doth therefore I say peremptorily and positively remove this scruple and fear out of the minds of Christians he assures us that it is an utter mistake it is neither so nor so he tells us that all Believers who had died from the first Adam downward until the coming of the second Adam shall have as good a share caeteris paribus in the priviledges and glory of that day as they who stand upon their feet and are found inter vivos at Christ's coming Secondly and as soon the living shall not prevent the dead in any one of the beatitudes and honours of the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ They shall neither go forth to meet this glorious Bridegroom one moment sooner than their Brethren that are in their Graves nor shall they see him coming in his Glory one moment sooner nor consequently be owned by Christ or received by him or taken up to him or be placed upon Thrones with him or receive their absolution and justification from him or their glorification with him one moment before their fellow-Saints that are yet in their dormitories And truly this is a comfortable word even in the negative part of it Believers may lye down to sleep in their beds of dust not only with the Psalmist's even-Song I will both lay me down in peace and rest Psal 4.8 for thou Lord only wilt make we dwell in safety but with the Lord Jesus his Triumph Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth Psal 16.9 10. my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell c. Christ will not forget his dead in the Grave the living Saints at his coming shall not be made happy without them nor one moment sooner happy in any of the Beatitudes of Christ his coming at the end of the world This comfort I say the very negative part of the Apostles answer to the Objection doth import But then How much stronger Consolation doth the affirtive part afford which although it lye in the close of the next verse yet it being the main branch of the Apostle's accompt whereby he satisfieth the doubt of the dying Servants of God ut suprà we must of necessity speak of it here also with the Negative at least so far as it referrs to the Apostle's scope reserving the consideration of what special and peculiar Import the words carry in them to their own place We are therefore to take notice that the affirmative part of the Apostles satisfaction to the Saints doubt or objection lieth in these words The dead in Christ shall rise first He doth exactly state the method of Christ's procedure at the last Judgment Affirmatively vers 16. viz. That the first business which shall be then transacted shall be the awakening and raising all the Saints of God out of their Graves which from Adam until that moment have slept in the dust The dead in Christ shall rise first nothing shall be done till that be done The very first work Christ will do at his Coming will be to send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet first to awaken the Elect out of their sleep Math. 24.31 Awake you that sleep in the dust and then to gather them from the four winds from the one end of Heaven to the other and when they shall have put on their Wedding garments to conduct them in State and Triumph to meet with their Royal Bridegroom now comn forth more than half way to meet them and to consummate the Marriage which was long since Contracted in the day of their Espousals It were easie to enlarge here but in a word the sum of this Affirmative account is this That the Saints who sleep in the Grave at Christ's coming shall be so far from being made less happy or later happy in the coming of Christ than the Saints who then shall be found alive that they shall be first remembred the first care Christ will take when he comes in the Clouds shall be not about the living Primitiae Resurrectionis but the dead Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first They shall be the first Fruits of the Resurrection They that have slept so long in their beds of dust Ab illis ordo Resurrectionis incipiet shall be first awakened before any thing be done about them that never slept They that were uncloathed and saw corruption in the Grave must first have their bodies cloathed upon with incorruption and then the surviving-Saints at Christ's coming shall be joyned to them that have for so many years and ages slept in Jesus The dead in Christ shall rise first and both be presented together before the Judge It were too little to say Use This may much alleviate the bieterness of death our own or our godly Relations surely it may greatly augment our joy They and we shall be so far from being losers by laying down our earthly Tabernacles in the dust before we see Christ coming in his Glory that it shall be our advantage If there be any priviledg any joy any glory any triumph at that day it shall be theirs who sleep in Jesus and theirs as soon as their surviving-Brethrens The first dawnings of the Sun of Righteousness coming in his Majesty shall shine upon their faces the first-fruits of that Jubilee shall be reserved for a recompence of their long sleep in the Grave they shall begin the health in this cup of Salvation the primacy of all that blessed solemnity belongs to the departed Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first Oh Christians Comfort one another with this word And the rather because this is not an uncertain conjecture which the Apostle laies down here but an assertion of infallible certainty which he had from the divine Oracle Second branch of this Comfort The Authority quoted the Word of the Lord which brings me to the second branch in this seaventh word of Comfort and that is The Authority which the Apostle brings for this Doctrine sc the Word of God This I say unto you by the word of the Lord. He quotes divine Authority for what he delivereth It being a Doctrine of so much encouragement and satisfaction unto dying Saints Praefatur nihil se preferre vel suum vel humanum Calv. a Doctrine above humane capacity and it seemeth not commonly understood by the Churches Saints of God at that time he doth not pass it in his own name or upon his own Authority When he speaks as one that hath obtained mercy to be saithful then it is 1 Cor. 7.12 I speak not the Lord i.e. not by express dictate of the Spirit but by way of Faith Christivice as agreeable to the word but when he speaks as an Apostle insallibly inspired then it is not I but the Lord and so it is here but tells us from whence he had it q.d. What I deliver now unto you I speak not of my self sed ex ore Domini from the mouth of him that is the truth it self the mouth of Jesus Christ This we say unto you in the word of the Lord. Qu. But where or when had the Apostle this Doctrine from Jesus Christ Ans Others are of opinion he had it by immediate Revelation but as to the time they differ Some conjecture 1 Cor. 12.2.4 the Apostle had this mysterie revealed to him at what time he was rapt up to the third Heaven and there heard unspeakable words amongst which one was this comfortable Doctrine that the living Saints shall not prevent the dead Saints in any glorious
Rags of mortality before they put on the Robes of Glory and this must be done Partly that the Statute of Heaven may not be broken Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decreed wherein it is appointed for all men once to dye It was a Statute Law past in the Parliament of Heaven Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Heb. in dying thou shalt dye Christ himself as man submitted himself to this Statute and so must all the Sons and Daughters of Adam they must dye either literally or analogically Death makes a change in some and this change is a death in others a death to mortality and a death to corruption Partly that hereby they may also be made partakers of the Resurrection Our Saviour's prediction of the Resurrection comprehends all the Saints of God and the living Saints at that day can by no other means be counted the Children of the Resurrection than as they are begotten again as it were by this mysterious and ineffable change Math. 19.28 whence possibly it is called the Regeneration because all the Elect of God shall then begin to live their new perfect life all over in their bodies and Souls both the quick and the dead From these Premises we draw this Conclusion c. That our Apostle here doth not start any new doctrine of his own or as * 1 Cor. 7.12 somewhere he doth deliver his own judgment as an holy knowing man and not as one infallibly inspired from above but he doth expound Christ unto us and gives us the sense of His words who was both the Truth and the Resurrection So that the doctrine here laid down as it is a word of exceeding comfort to dying Saints and to their surviving Relations Non primi extitimus Resurrectionis testâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here is a consideration which may adde great weight to it and make it so much the stronger consolation in as much as it hath the stamp and sanction of Christ's own Authority Christ himself hath made assidavit to it we have the word of him that cannot lye the Apostle being in this but Christs Interpreter From hence by the way we are informed of these two things Use of Inform. worth our notice First Vse 1 There is no sure and infallible foundation for our faith to stand upon but the word of God Thither therefore the Holy Ghost sends us Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle himself would not aver such a solemn truth as this is but from the mouth of Christ himself Uncertain Revelations dubitable Traditions Authority of the Church and all humane Testimony whatsoever is too weak a foundation to build our Faith upon in any Article of Religion Search the Scriptures for in them ye hope to have Eternal Life Jo. 5.39 Secondly We gather hence that Scripture-Inference Vse 2 is Scripture that is to say That which may be inferr'd from Scripture by natural and necessary consequence is to be received as the Scripture it self The word of God rightly interpreted is the word of God Thus our Lord himself Luk. 12.27 proves the Resurrection out of the old Testament by inference and deduition from the words which God spake to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he thence inferrs God being not the God of the dead but of the living that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in their better part sc their Souls and shall live again in their inferiour part sc their bodies So the holy Apostle here inferreth this comfortable truth that the dead Saints shall lose nothing by their not being found alive at Christs coming from Christ's own doctrine of the Resurrection in general And doubts not to honour it with this Title The Word of the Lord This I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Let the Ministers of the Gospel take heed how they Preach any doctrine opinion or practise 1 Caution to Ministers which cannot either in terminis or at least by just and necessary consequence be justified to be the word of God lest they incurre the brand and censure of false Prophets Jer. 29.9 And let Christians take heed how they reject any doctrine which is so evidenced 2 Caution to private Christians lest they be found to reject the Word of the Lord Jer. 8.9 I have done with the second branch of the seventh word of Comfort sc the Authority quoted for it save only that there is one scruple yet to be removed and that is Quest Why the Apostle in delivering this truth doth use this phrase we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord and not rather they which are alive for Did the Apostle indeed think that he himself should live to see Christ coming in glory to judg the quick and the dead Ans Certainly No for 1. Grotius aliter opinatur quem vide in loc arque etiam Bez. The event shews that that had been a mistaken presumption in him that day is not yet come and the Apostle is long since fallen asleep 2. We hear him Prophesying of his own dissolution and that as a thing hard by 2 Tim. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Gr. it is instant upon me See the Apostle was far from flattering himself with any such conceit of being one of them that should live and remain unto the coming of the Lord. What means the expression then Ans The holy Apostle divides all the Elect of God into two ranks sc 1. Such as are fallen asleep from the fall of the first Adam to the coming of the second or 2. Such as should survive and remain unto that day not making himself of the number of either the one or of the other but one of the whole number of Gods Elect some of whom should sleep some should live till Christ's last coming and when he saith we that are alive and remain it signifies no more but this in general such of us as are then alive shall not prevent such of us as are then asleep this is all he intends in this expression Beza and others spy out a mystery in this manner of speech Doct. as if hereby the Apostle would hint unto us the uncertainty of Christ's Coming Vult omnes suspensos tenere ne sibi tempus aliquod promittant that for ought that was revealed of that day Christ might come while some of that generation were superstites living upon the face of the earth If that doctrine be in the Text Vse Christ himself hath made the use of it Lanet ultimus dies ut expectetuâ— singulis ut fideles emnibus horis parati essent Math. 24.36 of that day and hour knoweth no man no not
the Angels of Heaven but the Father there 's the doctrine and then the use is verse 42. Watch therefore for ye know not the hour when the Lord doth come Therefore indeed is the last day concealed from us that we may watch every day And therefore Christians look about you what have you been doing so many years together under the ministry of the Gospel are your accompts yet ready are your evidences cleared is your pardon sealed your interest in Christ secured your calling and Eleclion made sure have ye wrought out your salvation with fear and trembling Luk. 12 35 36. Are your lights burning and your loynes girded and you your selves like unto men that wait for the coming of the Lord that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediatly up and for the Lords sake yea for your own sakes make haste this may be the day the hour when the Son of man may come Wo unto that man to whom the coming of the Lord will be a surprize Therefore I say again watch what you do do quickly I come now to the third branch of this seventh word of Comfort sc Third branch of the seventh word of Comfort The ground and reason of this comfortable truth which lieth in the first clause of the next verse For verse 16. the Lord himself shall descend c. The words are of a twofold consideration sc Absolute And Relative The absolute and positive holds forth a main Article of our Faith sc Christ's last coming to judgment in person The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative and so they are a confirmation of this comfortable truth They which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep and why so For the Lord himself shall descend c. In their absolute sense the words are as I say a main Article of our Faith concerning Christ's coming to judgment in person and therefore may justly challenge their room to make up one entire and distinct word of Comfort in this divine context And so I will first consider them and then in their relative tendency sc as they are a ground or reason of the former Comfort In the order of this second part they are the second but in the method of the whole Context 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are The Eighth word of Comfort Eighth word of Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself shall Descend Here the Apostle describes unto us the last coming of Christ to judgment In which description we have three considerable particulars sc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person that shall come The Lord himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certainty of his coming He shall come 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of his coming With a shout I begin with the first of these The Person that shall come 1. The Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself i. e. Jesus Christ God-Man the Mediator between God and Man He that came at first to purchase and redeem the Elect of God the same person will now come to raise them out of their Graves to gather them together and to bring them with him unto Glory He will not send a Deputy-Angel about the solemn work of that day but will descend Himself in Person to finish that last and grand trust of his Mediatory-Office And that upon a twofold account 1. R. Why Christ will come personally sc because the Judgment must be visible 1. The Lord himself will Descend in his own Person Because the judgment must be visible and therefore the Judge must be so too There is a dispute whether Christ shall sit on a visble Throne and it is very probable he shall sure we are from the Scripture that he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven that He may be heard and seen of all Behold Rev. 1.7 he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him Clouds are visible things and these Clouds shall not obscure him but rather render him more conspicuous Every eye shall see him He shall so come with Clouds that they shall be a Throne to exalt and lift him up to the view of all the world therefore is the posture noted as well as the Throne Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power Math. 26.64 and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Clouds shall be his Throne and sitting will be the posture the posture of a Judge To judge the world is an act of supream Authority and therefore it must be done by one of the three Persons Now the Father and the Spirit are invisible therefore hath the Father appointed a day Act. 17.31 wherein he will judge the world by the man Christ Jesus The Flesh of Christ is a Veil to his Deity by which God is made visible to an eye of Flesh Christ is God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God conspicuous in the humane nature and in that humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin will Jesus Christ appear in Judgment that so every eye may see him the wicked to their terror but the Godly to their unspeakable joy Isa 66.5 Secondly 2. R. for the recompence of his abasement The Lord himself shall appear for a recompence to his abasement It is requisite that he that was judged by the world should now come to judge the world He came at first humble lowly despised sitting upon an Ass spit upon Crucified but he shall come again in power and great glory It is good somtimes to compare the two Comings of Christ together At first he came into the Flesh In Carâ—â—â— he shewed himself in the nature of man to be judged But at his second coming he shall come in the flesh In Carne He shall come from Heaven in the same humane nature which he carried up with him into Heaven there to be the Judg both of the quick and the dead His fore-runner then was John the Baptist the voyce of one crying in the Wildeâ—ness At his second coming his fore-runner shall be an Arch-Angâ— With the voyce of an Arch-Angel and the Trump of God as in the Text. Then his Companions were poor Fisher-men Now his Attendants shall be the mighty Angels of Heaven 2 Thes 1.7 Then he came riding on an Ass a Colt the Foal of an Ass Now he shall come riding on the Clouds sitting on a Throne At his first coming he appeared in the form of a Servant Now he shall come as a Lord in the glory of his Father Then he came in the likeness of sinful Flesh to suffer as a Sinner for Sinners Now he shall appear the second time to them that look for him Heb. 9. last without sin unto Salvation Then he drunk of the brook in the way but now shall he lift up his head This for the recompence
awakened and set upon their feet again in a most beautiful perfect state I say where He and none but He who long since became their Adocate shall now by the appointment of the Father be their Judge Oh what matter of Joy and Triumph will this administer unto the Saints at that day How may they lift up their heads with joy because their Redemption and Redeemer shall then draw nigh Second branch of Comfort in reference to the Saints departed Again The Doctrine of Christ his Personal Appearance at the last day affords no less Consolation in reference to the Saints departed and to this very end doth the Holy Ghost mention it in this place The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative consideration I told you the words have a Relative consideration in them as they do imply an account why the Saints which are alive at the coming of Christ shall not prevent them which are asleep why it immediatly follows For the Lord himself shall descend The Saints of God need not doubt of this either in reference to themselves or to their Relations whom they have sent before them to the Grave The Lord that bought them will see to Their Resurrection in the first place It was the will of him that sent him that of all which he hath given him Joh. 6.39 he might lose nothing but that he should raise it up again in the last day And Jesus Christ is so punctual to his trust that He will not delegate it to any of the Angels or Seraphims but will come in Person to accomplish that charge that so not any one of his little ones may possibly be forgotten * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing may be lost neither Person nor Member nor Dust but that Christ may present it entirely to his Father at his coming in the same language he spake when he went out of the world Those that thou gavest me John 17. I have kept and none of them is lost He bought them at too dear a rate to leave any one of them in the Grave and therefore to make all sure He will come in Person and finish his work Himself As sure as He ascended up into Heaven after his own Resurrection so surely shall he descend from Heaven to perfect that Resurrection in his Saints which brings me to the second Particular The second particular in this Eighth word of Comfort The second word of Comfort He shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is The Certainty of his coming couch'd in the Verb here He 〈◊〉 shall descend from Heaven He shall i.e. most certainly and infallibly And so all the Scriptures which mention the Coming of the Lord speak of it in the notion of a most unalterable Decree and Statute of Heaven thus the Apostle to the Athenians God hath appointed a day wherein he will judg the world in righteousness Act. 17.31 by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given us assurance c. See how many words here are heaped one upon another to assure our Faith of the infallible certainty of Christs Coming First he hath appointed a day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Statuit diem There is the divine Appointment and Decree past upon it in Gods Eternal purpose and Counsel It is a Statute enacted in Heaven that there shall be a future Judgment a Statute more sure than ever the Laws of the Medes and Persians for Heaven and Earth may pass away but Gods Decree shall stand c. And then there is a certain Day appointed for it a stated time by the same Power A day which can neither be adjourned nor accelerated The time is fixed He hath appointed a day and it cannot be altered And then the Work is determined as well as the day and that is judgment wherein He will Judge The Judgment is not left Arbitrary or Contingent but God is resolved on 't He will Judg not peradventure he may Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as sure as He is God he will Judg. The Persons to be judged are also specified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not less than the whole world He will Judg the world not a single Person shall escape that Judgment 2 Cor. 5.10 we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ As the Persons to be Judged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise the Person that is to Judg is named and designed to it already That man that special that peculiar man the man Christ Jesus And to make all sure he hath his Commission already That man whom he hath Ordained the Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 6.27 is Elected and commission'd under the broad Seal of Heaven is passed And if all this be not enough there is yet further Assurance and evidence given of it already to the world open and evident demonstration if men will not shut their eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fide palam facta omnibus of which he hath given assurance unto all men what that assurance is I shall shew anon In the mean time see how the Holy Ghost useth all the words and expressions which may create a firm assent to the doctrin of Christs coming to Judgment that there may be no room for doubting left Formid Oppositi as the Schools calls it no hesitancy in the minds of men And not here only but in many other Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.10 that hinted even now We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ c. Not we may only but we must Christ must Judg and we must all appear But not to multiply Scriptures take we a brief account of the Grounds And Behold 1. Reason says Reasons or Grounds of the certainty of Christs coming He may Come 2. Faith says He must Come 1. Reason saith He may Come The very Course of Providence shews it The Godly are not the happiest in this world 1 Cor. 15.9 If in this life only says the holy Apostle we had hope in Christ we were of all men most miscrable Vertue hath not a full reward nor Vice sufficient punishment in this life Dives the Representative of the Voluptuous world flowed in ease and pleasure while Lazarus a godly man afflicted with pain and hunger was glad to dine with his Dogs at the dore The Dogs were both his Almoners and his Chirurgeons Things must not go after this rate for ever Sooner or later a man shall say i. e. He that is no more than a man that hath no better eye in his head than the eye of Sense and Reason shall be convinced of this and compelled to confess of a truth There is a reward for the Righteous Verily he is a God that judgeth the Earth Sin is now somtimes punished with * In judicijs suis quae Deus in hoc mundo exercet non est ista plena mensura justitiae quae erit in judicis ultimi Dici
Mountains Mountains of God A great fire 〈◊〉 fire of God Job 1.16 it may signifie a mighty Trump after the manner of the Hebrew phrase which useth to call works and wonders of unusual proportion works of God and wonders of God so the Trump of God i. e. a mighty Trump a voyce of more dreadful horror than all that went before But whether it be to be understood metaphorically or properly is questioned amongst Expositors Some understand it only metaphorically and in an Analogical sense signifying no more than the Vertue and Power of Christs Voyce and Proclamation summoning both the living and the dead to appear at his Tribunal But why we may not take it literally and in propriety of speech I see no reason so for the voyce of an audible Trump which shall be lowder than all the former And it may well be the same with that which the Apostle calls the last Trump this sounding last of all 1 Cor. 15.52 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonora vocalissima tuba Bull. Numb 10.1.9 In quo specimen quoddam editum fuit hujus ultima populi Dei congregationis Id. or continuing longer than the former our Lord calls it The great sound of a Trumpet Thus are these three Summons distinct and each of them lowder and shriller than the former And it may allude to the manner of the calling together of the Jews to their publick worship and that possibly typical to this signifying thus much to the world that like as their Assemblies were summoned by the sound of Trumpets so the last and solemn day of judgment that great general Assembly of the Living and the Dead shall be summoned together by the sound of Trumpets from Heaven the vastest and most universal Assembly that ever was beheld by the eye of Creature But a clearer Type and Prophecy hereof seems to be that at the giving of the Law when Christ came down on Mount Sinai to give the Law it was in a very glorious manner sc with Thunder and Lightnings Numb 19.16 and a thick Cloud upon the Mount with the voyce of the Trumpet exceeding loud c. This did Typifie Unto us Christ his second Coming at the end of the world to require the Law which surely ought to excel in glory Let us compare these two Comings together a little At his coming to give the Law 2 Pet. 3.10 Deut. 33.2 Jud. v. 14. Dan. 7.10 Exod. 19.19 Mount Sinai was all in a flame Now the whole world shall be on fire Then Christ came with ten thousands of his Saints but Now thousand thousands shall Minister unto him and ten thousand times thousands shall stand before him Then the voyce of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed lowder and lowder In like manner Now there shall be first a shout of all the Angels of God with a joynt acclamation Next the voyce of the Arch-Angel which shall be lowder and shriller than they And last of all the Trump of God by way of eminency distinct from the two former lowder shriller than either God then spake with a voyce the voyce of a Law-giver commanding the Law God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God c. Exod. 20.1.2 Now God shall speak with the voyce of a Judg requiring an account of the Law viz. what men have done with that Law whether they have obeyed or rebelled against that holy Command and he shall accordingly Judg them This now is the third Circumstance or considerable particular which the Holy Ghost commends to our notice in the Coming of Christ which is the Eighth word of Comfort in this Model sc The manner of his coming And this is to set forth unto us the Glory and Majesty of Christ his coming to Judgment These fore-runners of the coming of Christ these various Heraulds which shall proclaime his Advent scl 1. The Hortatory clamour 2. The voyce of the Arch-Angel 3. And the Trump of God These shall add much to the State and Solemnity of this great Judg his approach When he came into the Flesh his Herauld was John the Baptist a man of a mean and contemptible presence Math. 3.2 a Preacher of Repentance Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Now his fore-runners and Heraulds shall be The mighty Angels of God Then he came in a still soft voyce Math. 3.3 the voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight Now he shall come with a loud and terrible voyce Voyce upon Voyce Trump upon Trump Alarm upon Alarm Each lowder and more dreadful than other in comparison whereof the lowdest Thunder which was eyer heard from the Clowds of God shall be but as the shooting off of a pistol or the blowing of a Rams Horn A dreadful shout which shall even shake the Heavens and the Earth Heb 12.26 and Hell it self And it makes much for the terrour and astonishment of the wicked Use A Terror to the wicked who in the pride of their hearts would not lend an obedient ear to the sweet and gentle summons of the Word saying Repent Deut. 29.19 and believe the Gospel but blest themselves in their hearts saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart and add Drunkenness to Thirst Oh to all such surely this will be a tremendous blast which shall not so much raise as affright them out of their Graves Some of the Jewish Doctors have a Conceit that wicked men shall never rise again which they ground upon their own mistake of that Scripture Isa 26.14 But though it cannot be properly said they Rise yet they shall be raised not from Death to Life but from one Death to another from the first Death to the second Death from Death to Judgment and from Judgment to Execution to torment with horrour and amazement Behold the Judg cometh Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment This will be the dreadful meaning of that Ministerial Excitation in the Consciences of the Reprobate world Appear in Court there to answer for all the Contempt to the Calls and Counsels of Jesus Christ in his blessed Gospel Oh what would Drunkards and Swearers and Adulterers give that they might never be raised out of their Graves or being raised What would they give then for a Rock or a Mountain to fall upon them that might hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb but all in vain Then to hide will be impossible and to appear will be intolerable Use 2 But as glorious and acceptable is this description of Christ's coming to the Saints Comfort to the Saints for whose sake this clause is added as a word of Comfort even to them that sleep in Jesus This three-fold Alarm Shout and Voyce and Trump shall be no more terror or amazement to them than the
roaring of Cannons when Armies of Friends approach a Beseig'd City for the relief of them that are within These sounds and ratlings how terrible a sense soever they may impress upon the hearts and Consciences of the wicked will be to them that sleep in Jesus as the sweetest melody that ever sounded in their ears as the voyce of Harpers harping with their Harps to awaken them out of their sweet sleep with the sweetest Musick and Harmony that ever sounded in their ears and these shall be their Heavenly Ditties Awake and sing oh ye that dwell in the dust c. Or as in the Gospel-Call a little varied Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen Vpon thee Isa 60.1.2 for behold darkness shall cover the Earth even everlasting darkness all the wicked of the world but the Lord shall rise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee to all Eternity In a word This terrible treble Summons shall have no other signification upon the hearts of them that have believed and obeyed the Gospel than that mid-night cry had upon the Wise Virgins Behold the Bridegroom cometh Math. 25.6 go ye forth to meet him Lift up your heads with joy Luk. 21.28 for your Redemption draweth nigh And therefore Oh ye Saints and Servants of God comfort one another with this Word also Concerning your gratious Relations which are gone to Rest The Lord Jesus Himself shall come to awaken them And those Triumphant Summons and Alarms which shall usher in his Coming as they shall add to the Glory and Majesty of their Lord in whose bosom they have slept all this while So they shall on the one side bid War and Battel to the Reprobate world and on the other side call together the Assemblies of the Saints Psal 50.5 who have made a Covenant with him by Sacrifice and it shall be for their Honour and Exaltation in that day of his Triumph The sum is this Your Dear ones whose immature departure you so much lament that are asleep in the dust shall arise Christ himself shall come for them Isa 66. ◠and that in a most Triumphant manner for their glory and their Enemies shame I have done with the Eighth Word of Comfort The Coming of Christ and come now to the Nineth Word of Comfort sc The blessed Consequences of his Coming which are three 1. Three Consequencies of Christs Coming The Resurrection of the Saints which are fallen asleep The dead in Christ shall rise first 2. The Triumphant Ascent of both the living and sleeping Saints together into the Clouds We which are alive shall be caught up together with them into the Clouds 3. The Blessed meeting of all the Saints together with Jesus Christ their Lord and Bridegroom who comes from the Sedes Beatorum the third Heaven to meet them above half way even to the lowest Region of the Aire To meet the Lord in the Aire The first Consequence is the Resurrection of the Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first To which notwithstanding I have already spoken under two distinct Notions lead thereunto by some of the former passages in the Context sc 1. In reference to the Author of the Resurrection Jesus Christ Christ shall bring them with him v. 14. 2. In reference to the precedency of it in that transaction They that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep i. e. The dead in Christ shall rise first as here verse 16. Yet notwithstanding this being a main Circumstance in the Resurrection of the Saints worthy to be taken notice of before I proceed to the following circumstances of Christ his coming I judg it very proper to speak a word or two of it also in this place The manner of Resurrection 1. Cor. 15.35 sc 3. The manner of the Resurrection The Apostle supposeth the Query 1 Cor. 15.35 Some man will say How are the dead raised i. e. with what body do they come A Query neither frivolous nor impertinent and therefore himself by the Spirit thinks it worth the resolution And the resolution of it A twofold description of the Resurrection is two-fold 1. In general 2. In particular 1. In general He gives us to understand 1. General the same bodier that the Saints shall rise with the very same bodies they lay down with in the Graves it is expressed under the metaphor of Seed God giveth it a body c. and to every Seed his own body his own body not specifially only but numerically its own proper body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no ways alienated or transformed into another And holy Job even upon the Dung-hill believed and Preached the very same Doctrine long before Though after my skin Job 19.26 27. Worms destroy this body i. e. after Worms have dig'd through my skin to consume my flesh yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eye shall behold and not another c. Observe how express and significative the words are weigh them well first This body Job points as it were with his finger to his body and crys This there is no more in the Text body is supplied to make up the sense this Heb. Soth So the Antient Believers were wont when they repeated the Article of the Resurrection to adde Etiam hujus Carnis as the Apostle this Corruptible 1 Cor. 19.5.8 Pointing to his own body as it were Heb. 12. to express the contemptibleness of his body q. d. this Ulcerous and already Worm-eaten Carcass this putrified rotten flesh this nothing this worse than nothing Yet this as vile and putrid as it is shall be raised up again at the last day In my flesh I shall see God I shall not see God with my Soul only amongst the Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect but I shall see my Redeemer God-Man in my flesh in this body of flesh wherewith I am now cloathed And I shall see him for my self i. e. not by a deputy or proxy but in mine own person to my own infinit happiness and satisfaction And yet again mine eyes shall behold him a further declaration of his individual seeing of Christ from the Instrument or Organs mine eyes these numerical eyes that are now in mine head with these eyes wherewith now I see the Sun the Heaven the Earth and all these objects of sense here below with these I shall have the viewing of my Glorious Redeemer And yet to express it more Emphatically he addes the Negative to the Affirmative not another a phrase of speech which men use when they would be sure to prevent all mistakes with my own body not a strange body not transformed or changed into any thing else than now it is with mine own eyes not anothers not a borrowed eye not a new created eye placed in the room of this c. Thus Job in variety of words doth express the
wailing and gnashing of Teeth which shall never have an end For Use In the first place it may serve as a Cordial to the Saints of God Use 1. A Cordial whether in reference to their own dissolution or the dissolution of their precious Relations already fallen asleep Behold the descent of the Saints of God into the Grave is not with so much weakness ignominy and abasement as their Ascent after the Resurrection to meet their Lord in the Air shall be with Power Triumph and Glory Christ shall draw them Clouds shall carry them Angels shall conduct them Yea they shall mount up to Heaven by vertue of those Christ-like impressions stampt upon their glorified bodies in the Resurrection Each one of these were sufficient All these must needs be exceeding Glorious yet Such honour have all the Saints Secondly There is Caution in it as well as Comfort Use 2. Caution And that is Begin this Ascention betimes Labour to experience this Heavenly motion on this side of the Grave Sursum corda Lift up your heads Oh ye Gates and be ye lift up Oh ye everlasting Doors behold The Resurrection and Ascention in the future state of happiness have their spring and rise in the present state of holiness they are linke in and joyned one to another in the eternal counsel and purpose of God with the very same Connexion wherewith Birth and Conception are lincked together Harvest and Seed-time So that look what impossibility there is in nature that there should be a Birth where was no Conception or an Harvest where no Semination the same impossibility there is that such a person should share in the Resurrection of Glory that is a stranger to the Resurrection of Grace the new Birth or that a Man or Woman should Ascend to meet Jesus Christ in the Clouds who in the state of Regeneration labours not often to meet Christ in the Mount of holy Meditation If therefore ye be risen with Christ Colos 3.1 2. seek those things which are above where Christ sits at Gods right hand set your affections on things above Christ after he arose from the dead did often ascend to his Father till at the end of 40 days He went up to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples Acts 1.9 10. Do ye also imitate your blessed Lord in your frequent ascentions after him and thereby evidence to your selves not only that you are already risen with Christ in the Resurrection of Holiness but that ye shall also arise with Him and Ascend to Him at his coming in his Glory Christians let not that man think ever to be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air who is patient of being a stranger to Christ in the Spirit without God in the world Eph. 2.12 and without hope he burieth his hope of Ascending where Christ is who burieth his heart and affections in the dunghil of worldly and sensual fruitions Oh labour to say with the Apostle though our Commoration be on Earth our * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traffique Burgesship Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour Phil. 3.20 though ye walk below Aug. The Saints do uti mundo but frui Deo Carnal men do uti Deo frui mundo Corpore ambulamus in terra corde habitamus in coelo Aug. yet live above Though ye use the world yet labour to enjoy God and to be able to say with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.26 Though ye have your converse with men let your Communion be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.3 Labour to say with Augustine Our bodies are on Earth our hearts in Heaven while the men of the world Earthlize Heavenly things do you study how to Heavenlize Earthly things labour as he did to eat and drink and sleep Eternal Life So may you with an holy Confidence go along with the Apostle from whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christians can no further look for the Lord Jesus to Descend from Heaven then as they themselves in the mean time labour to be often Ascending with him into Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is the Saints Evidence and first-fruits of their Heavenly-blessedness I have done with the second Consequent I come to the third Consequent of Christ's Coming Thirdly Third Consequent of Christs Coming The Saints joyful meeting and it is two-fold 1. One with another 2. With Christ their Head The one is Implied the other Exprest The Saints meeting one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is implied in this Adverbial particle Vnà Together we shall be caught up together with him i. e. We which shall be found alive upon the face of the Earth at Christs coming together with them which being fallen asleep before of elder or later time Christ hath now raised up out of their Graves we and they shall All be caught up together c. This I say presupposeth their meeting together antecedaneous to their Ascention how else can they co-Ascend if not congregated before they Ascend And therefore in order of nature though the Saints meeting together should have been spoken to before their Ascention yet the series of the words not well admitting this method it will not be improper to consider it where it meets us The Scripture takes notice of the Saints meeting one with another as distinct from their meeting with the Lord Jesus Mat. 24.31 The Elect shall be gathered together from the four winds from one end of the Heavens to another At what distance soever imaginable they were disperst and scattered they shall all meet together into one distinct body or Assembly And then co-ascend to meet their Lord. Some of the School-men apply that passage of the Prophet Isa 10.34 They shall Mount up with wings as Eagles to this ascention of the Saints after the Resurrection Whether that be so or no we may not incongruously suppose the Elect of God to be gathered together into some one * Some suppose the Valley of Jehâ—shaphat vast capacious tract or region of ground on the right hand of the Judgment-seat from thence to take their flight together to meet the Judg in the Air. We must understand the placing of the Sheep on the right hand and the Goats on the left hand to be upon the ground for the Wicked shall not Ascend to meet Christ and the Godly when Ascended shall be placed on Seats round about the Throne Mat. 25.33 And of this Congregation of the Elect the Scripture assigneth a two-fold Cause 1. CHRIST the principal efficient Cause The Son of man shall come in the Clouds and shall send his Angels and shall gather the Elect from the four winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven He not They Christ not the Angels shall gather his Elect together Christ Autocratorically by
then either as it is an Habit or as it is an Act not verily as an Habit for so it falls within the List of Graces and is a branch of Sanctification Nor as it is an Act For so it is a Work and would confound the two Covenants We assert indeed with the current of Scripture Justification by faith but in the sense of the reformed Churches sc Not by vertue of any intrinsic merit in faith but by vertue of the extrinsic object which faith layeth hold on namely Christ the great Sponsor of the New Covenant fulfilling the Righteousness of the Law for Believers Fourthly lastly And least of all can Remission of sin supply the office of the Fac hoc Take it in the utmost extent and latitude that may be sc as including Commissions Omissions Defects or imperfections even to the least want of Conformity to the Law either in 1. Life or 2. Nature Pardon can no more make a man Righteous Anth. Burgess do justificat The Law is not fulfilled by the passive Righteousness of Christ only and therefore pardon alone cannot justifie then it can make a man Learned Remission not being the qualification which the Eternal Law of God calls for Object To which if it be Objected No more is imputed Righteousness The Righteousness which the Law requireth upon pain of Damnation is a perfect obedience and Conformity to the whole Law of God performed by every Son and Daughter of Adam in his own person To this Objection I offer these particulars following by way of Answer 1. Imputed Righteousness is the same materially with that which the Law requireth It is Obedience to the Law of God exactly and punctually perform'd to the very outmost iota and tittle thereof without the least abatement Christ hath paid the uttermost farthing He is the fulfilling of the Law for Righteousness ut suprà 2. Christ's fulfilling or accomplishing of the Law was performed in and by the humane Nature For verily to this purpose Heb. 2.16 Rom. 9.8.14 It is not always necessary the debt be paid by the Principal if it be done by the Surety it is all one as if the Principal had paid it himself Rom. 8.3 Especially if the Creditor gave his consent the Lord Jesus took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham Because the Children of Promise undertaken for were partakers of flesh and blood He also took part of the same to the intent the Law might be fulfilled in the same Nature to which it was at first given 3. It was expresly done in their names and on their behalf that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us as if our Lord had said This I suffer and this I do to the use and in the stead of my Covenant Seed that they may have a Righteousness which they may truly call their own 4. All was done not without full consent of all parties for 1. As to the Law-giver it was his own free gratuitous motion I will send my Son God seeing how the case stood with poor lapsed man took up a resolution to save some whatsoever it should cost him Well said he I will send my Son 2. God the Father no sooner made the motion Heb. 10.7.9 but the Son echoeth unto it Lo I come Yea observe how quick he is then said I The word was no sooner out of God's mouth but it laid a Law of sweet Compulsion upon Christ's heart his bowels yern'd within him and then said he Lo I come to do thy Will by the which Will we are Sanctified i. e. either the Will of the Father appointing the Son to his Mediatory Office or the Will of the Son accepting it so readily or by both we are Sanctified freed from the evil of sin and accounted Righteous and holy before God And though as we may so say the Lord Jesus ensnared himself by the words of his mouth yet he never repented to this day nor ever sought to be released from this Suretiship but rejoyceth in it as if he were the gainer Psal 16.7 I will bless the Lord who hath given me Counsel He giveth thanks to his Father for imploying him in this Work Hereunto if it be objected that the Lord Jesus Object when the hour of His Sufferings drew nigh did Repent of his Suretyship and in a deep passion prayed to his Father to be released from his Passion Father Math. 26. if it be possible let this Cup pass from me and that three times over ver 39.42.44 We Answer Answ that in those words of our Lord there is a twofold Voyce sc 1. There is Vox Naturae the Voyce of Nature Let this Cup pass from me 2. There is Vox Officii the voyce of his Mediatory Office Nevertheless Not as I will but as thou wilt The first Voyce let this Cup pass intimates the Velleity of the Inferionr part of his Soul the Sensitive part proceeding from a natural abhorrency of death as he was a Creature The later Voyce Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt expresseth the full and free Consent of his Will complying with the Will of his Father in that grand everlasting Designe of bringing many Sons unto Glory by Making the Captain of their Salvation perfect Heb. 2.10 through sufferings It was an Argument of the truth of Christ His humane Nature that he naturally dreaded a Dissolution Omne appetit Conservationem sui He owed it to Himself as a Creature to desire the Conservation of his Being and He could not become unnatural to himself Phil. 2.8 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh c. But being a Son he learned submission and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross that Shameful Cruel Cursed death of the Cross The suffering whereof he owed to that solemn Astipulation which from everlasting passed between his Father and Himself 1 Joh. 5.8 As to Christs humane Nature the Cup was Calix ameritudinis the third Person in the Blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost being Witness And therefore though the Cup was the bitterest Cup that ever was given man to drink as wherein there was not Death only but Wrath and Curse yet seeing there was no other way lest of satisfying the Justice of his Father Nor did Bridegroom go with more chearsulness to be Married to his Bride then our Lord Jesus went to his Cross Luk. 12.50 Ratione officij it was Calix Salxtis and of saving Sinners most willingly He took the Cup and having given Thanks as it were in those words The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it He drank it It was Bitter indeed but he found it sweetned with three Ingredients 1. It was but a Cup not a Sea 2. It was his Father that mingled it not the Devil 3. It was a Gift not a Curse as to himself The Cup which my Father giveth me He drank it I say and drank
it up every drop leaving nothing behind for his Redeemed but large draughts of Love and Salvation in the Sacramental Cup of his own Institution saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood 1 Cor. 11.25 Math. 26.8 for the remission of sins This do ye in remembrance of me Thus my B. look upon Christ as a Mediator in which capacity only he Covenanted with the Father for the Salvation of man-kind and there was not so much as a shadow of any receding from or repenting of what he had undertaken 3. As for the Elect whose Salvation lay at stake there was no doubt to be made of their free consent to the Contract For though they were not originally consulted à parte antè yet as soon as in their several ages and successions they come to be acquainted with the compact between the Father and the Son and begin to understand how deeply they are concerned in it they do not only give in their own affirmative vote but falling down on their faces they break out into joyful acclamations Rom. 7.24 and sing We thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord and again Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1. Cor. 15 57. 4. Lastly The whole Astipulation between the Father and the Son was solemnly Transacted in open Court in the presence of a publick Notary the Holy Ghost Who being a third Person in the Glorious Trinity of the same divine essence and of equal power and glory makes up a third legal Witness with the Father So the King writes Teste Meipso 1 Jo. 5.7 and the Son They being after the manner of Kings their own Witnesses also For there be three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Behold what can be desired more to make commutations of parties in publick contracts authentique in Courts of Justice than Consent of all parties the Allowance of the Judg and Publique Record And if this self-same commutation of Pennance must be allowed of by those who are for justification by way of satisfaction only Bellar. de justific li. 2. ca. 7. Sec. 4. Stapleâ—on c. Their own argument will serve to prove the necessity of imputation of Christs active obedience to the Law for justification because Nothing say they can satisfie for sin which is an infinite wrong to God but that only which is infinite in value By the same reason Nothing can give us right and title to Eternal Life which is an infinite reward but that which is of infinite worth why should it seem incongruous in this other branch of justification sc by imputed Righteousness Surely God would have the Active as well as the Passive obedience as near the same required by the Law as might be that he might dispence with as little of the Law as was possible It only admits one Objection more and that is Object This Doctrine seemeth to reduce the Law again into Office and to put the crown of Justification upon the head of works against the universal suffrage of the holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament To which I reply Answ This doctrine neither destroys the Law with the Antinomian nor establisheth it as a Covenant of works with the Papists But As the great Office of the Lord Jesus Christ was to reconcile all things Colos 1.20 whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven Ex. gr God's Justice and God's Mercy God and Man Jew and Gentile Man and Himself So herein hath our blessed Lord and Mediator magnified his infinite Wisdome and Power in reconciling the Law and the Gospel in this great mystery of Justification wherein the material cause of our Justification is still the Righteousness of the Law so that the Law hath no cause to complain Christ hath done it any wrong And the other Causes are supplied by the Gospel Ex. gr The efficient cause Christ his fulfilling the Law Rom. 10.4 The formal Cause God's Imputation Rom. 10.4 The Instrumental Cause so our Divines phrase it Faith And the moving Final Cause the exaltation of free Grace Rom. 1.20 Accordingly we find the Righteousness of Justification to take its various denominations that is to say In respect of the Material Cause it is called the Righteousness of the Law In respect of the Efficient Cause the Righteousness of Christ Rom. 5.17 1 Cor. 1.30 In respect of the Formal Cause the Righteousness of God the imputing it Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 In respect of the Instrumental Cause the Righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.9 And in respect of the moving and Final Cause we are said to be justified freely by Grace Rom. 3.24 Tit. 3.7 In a word The Law as it was a Covenant of works required exact and perfect obedience in mens proper persons this was legal Justification In the New Covenant God is contented to accept this Righteousness in the hand of a Surety this is Evangelical Justification Thus hath our blessed Lord reconciled The Law also The and also The Gospel also I have done with the Second Accompt I come now to a Third Accompt The Necessity of a Sinner 3d. Accompt The necessity of a Sinner The state and condition of a Sinner doth necessarily require a Righteousness should be imputed to him for his Justification and that to a two-fold End 1. The Setling of solid Peace in his Conscience 2. The Securing of his Appearance in the day of Judgment 1. A positive Righteousness is necessary for the setling of solid Peace in the Conscience of the Sinner The Peace and Comfort of a poor sensible Sinner can never stand firm and stable but upon the basis of a positive Righteousness This is one of the great Arguments whereby the great Apostle in his Christian Caâ—chism so some of the Fathers were wont to call the Epistle to the Romans doth invincibly prove Justification by Faith chap. 5.1 The argument lyeth thus That way of Justification which tends most effectually to settle Peace in the Conscience of a poor Convinced Sinner that must needs be God's way of Justification But Justification by Faith is the most effectual medium to this end Ergo. The first Proposition is founded upon that blessed Truth which the Holy Ghost witnesseth Heb. 6.18 19. the willingness of God that the Heirs of Promise may have strong Consolation the result thereof is this that what-ever medium is aptest to beget strong Confidence and Assurance in their hearts God is graciously pleased to make use of it for their abundant satisfaction The second Proposition namely that Justification by Faith in the sense before explained is the aptest medium to establish solid peace in the bosom of a poor sensible Sinâ—â—r may appear by comparing Works and Faith together Send a poor Sinner to his own Righteousness which is of the Law sc his own good works Holmess Fasting Prayer or the best Service that ever he did for
one another and yet unseparable by reason whereof when but one of them is mentioned both of them are to be understood 6. If satisfaction be imputed Righteousness must be imputed also both being the peculiar and proper Office of the Mediator neither of them falling within the capacity of the Creature standing at the Bar of Divine Justice The third end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air â— Psal 116. 3d. End Consummation of the Saints Nuptials is The solemn Consummation of the Saints Nuptials with Christ their Bridegroom They were Contracted here on Earth when Christ and the Saints gained one another's consent Jesus Christ did then solemnly Espouse the Saints to himself Hos 2.19 20. I betrothed thee unto me for ever yea I betrothed thee unto me in Righteousness and in Judgment and in loving kindness and in Mercies I even betrothed thee unto me in faithfulness Indeed the Church in her self when Christ came to make Love to her was a very unlovely Creature whose emblem therefore is a poor wretched Infant in the Blood of its Nativity Ezek. 16.4.6 But Jesus Christ did first Love her with a Love of Pity Ezek. 16.6 I saw thee polluted in thine own Blood I saw thee that is I cast an Eye of Pity upon thee my bowels yearned towards thee And then as Love-less as she was that he might have a Legal right to her Eph 5.25 he Purchased her of his Father He Purchased her at a dear rate for He gave himself for her first He gave himself for her and then He gave himself to her They were wont to buy their Wives of the Father of the Damosel but never did Husband buy a Wife at such a Rate as the Lord Jesus did the Church Shechem bid fairly for Dinah Gen. 34.12 Jacobs Daughter Ask me never so much dowry and gift and I will give according as ye shall say unto me Jacob served seven years for Rachel as it fell out twice over c. yea but the Lord Jesus gave himself for his Church he purchased her with his own blood Act. 20 2â— Thirdly That he might love her with a love of Complacency he doth sanctifie her Eph. 5.27 and cleanse her by the washing of water by the word As he doth purchase the Church with his blood so he doth purifie the Church by his Spirit compared to water for the cleansing vertue thereof in the Ministry of the word as Ahashuerus had the Virgins first purified and perfumed before he took them into his bed Fourthly He woeth her by the Ministers of the Gospel who love their Lord and poor Souls so well that they will take no denial at her hand as Eleazer Isack's Steward Gen. 24.33 would not eat before he had sped for Rebeccah to Wife for his Master's Son 2 Cor. 11.2 And when they have gained her consent then they present her as a chast Virgin unto Christ Fifthly Christ and his Church upon their mutual interview like one another so well that they mutually engage and contract themselves one to another Cant. 2.16 they do mutually give away themselves one for and one to another My Beloved is mine and I am His. Sixthly Christ doth nourish her and cherish her until she be of age fit for his Marriage-Bed Seventhly And then He cometh for her and meets her by the way as Isaack met Rebeccah sc in the Air as here in the Context Lastly Consummation of the Marriage Then and there he Consummates the Marriage before God and Angels and Men and Devils he doth take her to himself as his Royal Queen saying Come my Love my Dove my Vndefiled one He embraceth her and kisseth her with a Marriage kiss and takes her to Wife The Marriage knot is knit Heaven and Earth are witnesses to it thousand thousands yea ten thousand times ten thousand even a great multitude whose voyce is as many waters and as the voyce of mighty thunderings This was the Wedding unto which John was invited Rev. 21.9 Come hither I will shew thee the Bride the Lamb's Wife He that had the Bride was the Bridegroom the Lord Jesus King of Kings c. but John the Friend of the Bridegroom Jo. 3 29. stood and rejoyced greatly to hear the Bridegrooms Voyce then indeed was his joy fulfilled At the Consummation of this Marriage what inconceivable Triumph and Rejoycing will there be the loud Musick of Heaven shall sound the voyce of mighty thundrings all the Angels Cherubims Seraphims with all the Blessed Quoire of Celestial Spirits who attend this glorious King of Saints shall praise God with the still Musick of their Hallelujahs yea all the Saints of God whether Patriarchs or Prophets and Apostles all the Martyrs and Confessors of Jesus Christ with the whole number of the Redeemed who are both Guests and Bride in this glorious solemnity will make the Arches of Heaven to Eccho when they shall be joyful in glory and the high praises of God shall be in their mouths Rev. 19.7 singing one to another Let us rejoyce and be glad for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready The Gates of Hell and the very foundations of the Kingdom of darkness shall tremble and be confounded at the report of this Triumphant Jubilâ—e This Nuptâ—ll solemnity finished Fourth end of Saints meeting Christ To sit as Assessors with him Psal 45.9 the next and fourth act in that solemn meeting will be that the Bridegroom will take the Queen his Bride and set her upon his Throne at his right hand as King Agrippa did Bernice Act. 25.27 as a Confessor with himself in the following part of the Judgment which He as Judg shall pass upon the Reprobate world of men and Devils who have all this while stood trembling below upon the Earth beholding to their infinite shame and horror all this glory put upon the Saints and fearfully looking for their own Judgment and that fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries which now succeeds For the Elect Angels who are appointed to be the Satellites or Posse comitatus to attend the Judg shall now drag that miserable company of Jale-birds those reprobate Caitifs of infernal Spirits The judgment of the wicked and wicked Men before the Tribunal of the great Judg there they shall pass under a most impartial exact and severe Tryal Mal. 3.16 the books shall be opened the book of Gods Remembrance and the book of their own Consciences and out of them they shall be judged for all the evils which ever they committed from the time they first had a being in the world The Reprobate Angels shall then be judged for their first Apostacy Ad solomen calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi perdere Min. Fel. Oct. and for all their malice and revenge which since that cursed defection they ever acted against God and against his Saints yea and against the
hated them because they were not of the world even as I was not of the world O Righteous Father for these I opened my mouth and for these I opened my sides and my heart for those was I mocked and scourged and blindfolded and buffetted and Crucified for these I wept and sweatt bled and died Father I will that they whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the Foundation of the world c. Then shall the Father rise from his Throne and say unto them Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you See the smell of my Children is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Then shall he call for Crowns to put upon their heads bracelets upon their Arms Rings upon their fingers palms of Victory Scepters of Royalty into their hands appoint them their several Thrones the Mansions which their Lord went before to prepare for them upon which they shall be placed that they may sit and live reign with Christ their Heavenly Bridegroom for ever and ever everlasting joy shall be upon their heads all Tears shall be wiped from their eyes sorrow and mourning shall fice away And so shall they ever be MOVNT PISGAH OR THE THIRD PART OF THIS Model of Consolatory Arguments OVER THE Death of our Godly Relations I Come to the tenth and last word of comfort The Saints blessed cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord so shall we beever with the Lord. This consequent of Christ's coming is the perfection and crown of all the rest cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord together with the extent and duration of it Ever Now cohabitation containeth four glorious Priviledges viz. 1. Presence 2. Vision 3. Fruition 4. Conformity 1. 1 Priviledge The first Priviledge which cohabition implieth is presence The Saints after their triumphant reception by Christ into his glory shall ever be where he is The Scriptures abound with expressions of this nature appearing in Gods presence Psal 42.2 Col. 3.4 Luke 21. â—â— Psalm 15.1 Rev. 3.21 and 1.5 6 John 17.24 and 14.3 standing before him abiding in his tabernacle dwelling in his holy hill yea dwelling in him and he in us sitting upon his throne and following of him where-ever he goes if at least that Scripture be to be underderstood of Heaven a glorious priviledge certainly for it is the purchase of Christ's blood the fruit of his prayer and one of the great ends of his coming in person at the end of the world that his Saints may be where he is dwell in his family be as near him as â—ationally they can desire 1 Kings 10.8 even stand before him and enjoy â—â—terrupted cohabitation and fellowship with him If the Queen of Sheba accounted it the happiness of Solomon's Servants that they might stand continually before him and hear his wisdom how much rather may we proclaim them happy thrice happy whose feet may stand within the gates of the new Jerusalem for behold a greater than Solomon is here even he Psalm 16.11 of whom the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore A second Priviledge is Vision 2 Priviledge Vision The Saints shall not only be where Christ is 〈◊〉 but they shall enjoy the beatifical viston they shall see and beh'ld that which the seeing and beholding of will make them blessed for ever Now there are six beatifical Objects in Heaven 1. The seat and mansions of blessed Souls 2. The glorified Saints 3. The elect Angels 4. The glorified body of the Lord Jesus 5. God in the Divine essence 6. All things in God The first vision which the Saints shall see 1 Vision the seat of the blessed John 14.2 2 C◠〈…〉 Luke â—â— 4 2 Cor. 12.4 Rev. 2.7 is that which is called Sedes beatorum the seat or babitation of blessed souls the mansions of glory which our Lord hath purchased for his redeemed and which he went before to prepare for them the third Heavens the Palace of the great King A glorius place certainly for therefore it is called Paradise to set forth the beauty and pleasantness of the scituation that as the Paradise wherein God put man in his innocency was the beauty and delight of the whole neather world so Heaven the place which God hath prepared for man restored to perfection is the beauty and glory of all the upper Regions the top and perfection of the whole Creation Behold the outside of this stately Palace is very glorious beautified and adorned with all those bright and glittering Luminaries the Sun Moon and Stars what think you is the inside Consult that description which the Spirit of God hath made of it in the Revelations Chap. 21.18 19 20 21. the wall of jasper the City of pure gold the foundations of the wall of the City garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates of twelve pearls every several gate of one entire pearl the street of the City of pure gold as it were transparent glass and you will surely say Heaven is a glorious place and yet behold this description of it is levelled to the low and childish capacity of our weak and fleshly senses as we judge of things in this imperfect state of mortality what think you then will the glory of the new Jerusalem appear when glorified sense shall be â—levated and raised up to a perfection sutable to its object Surely Heaven will as much exceed the description of it in glory as the bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shall exceed in beauty these vile bodies of ours when they are resolved into dust and rottenness What shall I need say more Heaven is a place as beautiful and glorious as the wisdom and power of God could devise to make it that it might be the Royal Palace of his own Residence That august and magnificent fabrick which the proud Babylonian Tyrant stood tracking and boasting over Dan 4.30 Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty was but a prison or hovel in comparison of this building of God 1 Cor. 5.1 that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and those words are proper only for the mouth of God Is not this the new Jerusalem which I have built for the house of the Kingdom and for the glory of my Majesty What David spake of the Temple that little type of Heaven in decimo sexto The house that is for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory c. must be infinitely more august and magnificent in the antitype this the glorified Saints shall behold and it will beyond conception be marvellous in their eyes Secondly a
have sought for or so much as to have thought of Such a wish in the standing Angels Oh that God would give his own essential eternaly begotten Son to take the humane nature upon him and therein to recover lost man would have been a presumption without doubt which no less than the first ambition of the Apostate Angels probably conceived only in thought might have justly merited their ejection also out of Heaven Oh for the second Person in the glorious Trinity to take upon him the nature of man and that too when it was at the worst when it was fallen and stript of all its original beauty and excellency was more than for all the Angels of light to have been degraded if I may so say into so many Chimney-sweepers or Kennel-rakers or to have been condemn'd to have been made hewers of wood and drawers of wtaer for the service of the reprobate world had it been to have stood for ever This this is the great stupendious mystery which may fill the understanding of men and Angels with wonder and delight to all eternity * Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh the Son of God incarnate Justly then may it swallow up our thoughts with horror and astonishment to descend step by step to the bottom of the Lord Christ his mediatory humiliation and abasement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex omni Scipsum ad nihilum redegit exhausit Tertul. lib. 5. adversus Maâ—cion v. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he debased or vilified himself to find him emptying of himself as it were to the last drop of his glory meekly submitting himself to all the affronts and insolencies of a reprobate world all the temptations and harassing of infernal Spirits and at length to death it self even the death of the cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the cross that death which was proper only to accursed slaves and therein drinking up the bitterest cup that ever was put into the hand of a sinner the cup of his Fathers wrath the venom whereof filled his soul with unconceivable anguish and made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth My God my God why bast thou forsaken me In a word if you would come to the bottom of our Lords abasement you must dig to the very bottom of hell it self if there be a bottom there for though Christ did not suffer poenas inferni he did suffer poenas infirnales hellish pains though not the pains of hell Why now then if you would make any discovery of that glory wherewith the humane nature of our blessed Lord is invested at the right hand of God you must skrew up your thoughts to a glory every way adequate and commensurate to his inanition and abasement for less than that not only the love but the justice of his Father could not proportion to him It were good sometimes in our thoughts to compare the abasement of Christ and his exaltation together to set them as it were in columes one over against another He was born in a Stable but now he reigns in his Royal Palace then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sets in a Chair of state then Oxen and Asses were his Companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand thousands of Angels minister round about his Throne then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than the Angels for to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Then he was led away into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be the heir of all things in his state of humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels then he had no form or comeliness when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazle the eyes of all the celestial Inhabitants round about him once he was the shame of the world now the glory of heaven the delight of his Father the joy of all the Saints and Angels once he was the obiect of the Reprobates scorn and the Devils malice now they shall be the objects of his most righteous vengeance he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Crucifiges will then be turn'd into Hallelujahs he that was called the Deceiver shall now be adored as the Amen of the Father the faithful and true witness a man of sorrows then but now the mirror of glory Prince of peace then accounted a servant of servants now he shall be called the Lord of Lords King of Kings then they put upon him a mock-robe a fools-coat but now he shall be cloathed with a royal garment down to the foot girt about the paps with a golden girdle the feeble reed shall now be turned into a massie Scepter of gold his Cross of wood into a Throne of glory and the Crown of Thorns into a Crown of Stars In the day of his abasement he was the foot-ball of his enemies kickt up and down the world by every prophane fool but now in the day of his exaltation his enemies shall be made his footstool yea Thrones and principalities being made subject unto him Surely the very prints of his hands and feet and the holes that were bored in his sides shall be so many signal marks and trophies of victory and Thomas 〈◊〉 set now above all doubting may sing in triumph My Lord and my God And lastly the Lord Jesus himself instead of his desertion the lowest step of all his abasement shall solace himself for ever in the vision and fruition of his Father and of the blessed Spirit and instead of my God my God why hast thou forsaken me shall be that triumph I and my Father are one thou Father in me and I in thee These be some crevices through which we may have a glimpse of the glory of our Lords once crucified body the full discovery of it you will never be able to make until you come eye to eye to see and enjoy it in the Kingdom of Heaven witness a second Consideration A second consideration evidencing what a glorious beatifying object the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus will be in Heaven is 2. Consider The personal and hypostatical union which the humane nature hath with the divine nature of the Son of God Col. 2.9 the sulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily i. e. in his body the fulness of the divine essence dwells in the humane nature and is as it were transparent through his flesh and this makes it to be the most beatifying vision next to the vision of God
is holy be ye holy because God is holy In a word study an holiness that knows no limits but what it shall have in Heaven an holiness without any stint still pressing after further degrees of conformity unto Jesus Christ unless your holiness be of this impression you can never hope to see Gods face and if your hope be a true Scripture hope your holiness will be a right Scripture-holiness 1 John 3.3 S◠diaeeru fot est periisti He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Where ever you stick you perish Labour for such an holiness as will give you admittance not into the Church only but into Heaven without which no man shall see God no men of what classis or form soever they be whether such as have no holiness and care for none all profane persons Shall eyes full of adultery ever see God the holy God Shall eyes full of anger and revenge see God! the meek merciful God Et sic in caet All such as deride holiness or despise holiness or persecute holiness such as have neither name nor thing yea that perfectly hate both shall they enjoy God The Apostle sends them this word expresly There is no room for them in Heaven And indeed what should such do there There is nothing in Heaven but what is holy holy Angels and holy Saints and above all a thrice holy Trinity Father Rev. 4.8 Son and Holy Ghost Holy Holy Holy the Lord God Almighty the beauty of whose face is holiness alas there is nothing for them to see or hear but what is an abomination to their souls Holy words yea the very word Holiness they now stop their ears at it it is vinegar to their teeth they make faces at it holy Ordinances they cannot bear them the impurer the Ordinance is the better they like it An Holy God they say of him Isai 30.11 Cause the holy One of Israel to depart from before us preach as much as you will of the merciful One of Israel and of the bountiful One of Israel c. but tell us not so much of the holy One of Israel Molest us no more with messages of holiness and the severities thereof yea See learned Gataker in loc they say not only so of God but they say as much to God to his very face They say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes they say so by interpretation if not in words at length he that can expound actions as well as language tells us they say so yea they are not ashamed of the very language it is a piece of their gallantry to profess to them that reprove them or but meekly admonish them I say to answer with scorn enough We are none of your Saints Proud scorner what art thou then An unclean swine yea an unclean spirit incarnate Devil a profane Hellitean as one faith for thy speech betrayeth thee What need farther proof Ex ore suo c. Put such an herd of Swine into Heaven and verily they would need no other damnation But God made Heaven for better purposes than to be an Hell for the haters of holiness Tophet is prepared of old for them Isai 30.33 and thither they must be packt away with the reprobate Angels down they came when they had laid aside their holiness and shall such maligners of holiness and holy ones ever come there Let them not fear the company of Saints shall never molest them they would have none of their society on earth and they shall have none of their society in heaven Possibly with their elder brother Dives they may have a prospect of Heaven where they may see * Luk◠16.23 Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and with others of the reprobate family they may see Abraham Luke 13.28 Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire Et ante praeteritur conspectum perire but that vision will be so far from beatifical as that it will be the aggravation of their damnation for as it follows verse 28. They themselves shall be thrust out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out with as much contempt and violence as ever they themselves cast the Saints out of their Societies Certainly that vision will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These haters of holiness would have none of God Psal 81.11 They said to the holy One of Israel Depart from us When it was too late And now God will have none of them I know you not whence ye are they bad the first word but will have the last They said depart from us Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity not a man of them shall stand in Gods presence but be cast out for ever into utter darkness Then shall the back slider in heart be indeed filled with his own wayes Mal. 25.41 They banished God and his Saints out of their company and now they themselves shall be punished from the presence of the Lord and his Saints and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 Second Use Vse 2 Labour to see God on this side glory to begin your vision on Earth which shall never cease in Heaven Indeed the vision in Grace and the vision in Glory are one and the same vision the object is the same God and the faculty is the same the eye of the Soul they differ only in two circumstances First In the Medium Here we see in glasses the Works of God Psal 19.1 2. the Creatures are a glass the Heavens declare the glory of God Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum and the providences of God are a glass Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge Every dayes experience and every nights experience is a glass wherein much of God is to be seen and the Gospel is a glass wherein we all as in a mirrour 2 Cor. 3.18 behold the glory of the Lord And lastly the glass of Ordinances Preaching and Prayer and Sacraments all these be glasses and meditation is a glass faith is another way of vision by faith Moses saw him who is invisible all these I say Heb. 11.27 are glasses wherein we may see God But alas The glass takes away from the object and darkens our vision as painted glass in the Church windows they let in some light but keep out more but in Heaven we shall see without glasses face to face the Lamb shall be the light in that Temple Secondly These visions differ in their degree of light and clearness here we see in part this is but a partial vision that in glory is extensive a full-eyed vision as one calls it a most ample perfect vision we shall know as we are known the understanding here is dark dim and narrow there clear and vastly capacious Now that which this word of Exhortation calls
day of redemption whereby ye are sealed i. e. whose office it is to seal up believers Grieve him not Malitious sins despise the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.29 Wilful sins vex the Spirit Isai 63 10. Obstinate going on in sin resists the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Immersing our selves in pleasures and profits of this present world doth quench the Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 But the least sins convinced of grieve the Spirit He is an holy Spirit and therefore sin must needs grieve him sin quâ sin being a pure contrariety to his holy nature Enemies do despise and vex and resist and quench but friends are properly said to grieve and such are the persons to whom the Apostle directs his exhortation friends believers unkindnesses do most properly grieve a friend Oh all you that desire assurance take heed of Vnkindnesses take heed of small sins appearances of sin take heed of neglecting your communion with God in holy duties take heed of bitterness wrath anger be ye kind one towards another Res delicato est Spiritia sanctin tender hearted c. for so it exegetically followeth the Text q. d. by all these the Spirit is grieved It is a tender thing and you may quickly grieve it and if you grieve your Comforter who shall comfort you And if you grieve the holy Spirit who shall sanctifie you And if you grieve the sealing Spirit who shall seal you to the day of redemption Never look for assurance as long as you are not afraid of grieving the Spirit which is the earnest of the inheritance Carnal mens question is May I do this and not be damn'd But a godly mans question is Can I do this and not grieve the Spirit of God Will not Jesus Christ take this unkindly 5. 5. Means Take heed of blotting that evidence Take heed of any thing that may darken your evidences or damp your comforts a small drop of ink or dirt falling upon an Evidence may make it illegible or darken it people make nothing of small sins but small sins do not the least hurt to the soul if it were no more than this small sins will raise up a jealousie between God and the soul great sins will destroy peace little sins will disturb it the least hair casts its shadow and a barly corn laid upon the light of the eye will hinder the sight of the Sun as well as a mountain abstain from all appearance of evil if you desire God should be a God of peace to you 1 Thess 5.22 cum 23. Abstain from all appearance of evil and the God of peace sanctifie you Make much of the least intimations of love and favour from God in prayer hearing or reading meditation 6. Means Make much of the least hint of Divine love at Christs Table or any other of your holy converses with God the least beam or ray of Gods face upon thy soul let it be as life from the dead do as Benhadad's servants 1 Kings 20.33 did to the King of Israel Diligently observe whether any thing will come from him any smile from Christs face any wink of his eye any sweet breath any whisper of peace from his lips such possibly Son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee or the like and hastily catch at it thy Son Lord I am most unworthy to be called so not worthy to be an hired servant but Lord since thou pleasest to deign me so infinite an honour Luke 1.33 Behold the servant of the Lord and be it unto me according to thy word come in thou blessed Lord and take possession of my soul and rule in me according to all the desire of thine heart Object But how shall I know whether such a whisper of peace may be indeed the voice of God or a delusion of Saan Answ For answer briefly 1. Such breathings of God upon the soul do usually carry their own evidence with them if God say I am thy salvation the irradiation carrieth a satisfying light with it the Sun needeth no other luminary to comment upon its own light but its own nor the Spirit of God any other manifestation of its own presence but it self 2. We say though it want no other manifestation it hath other the effects as Christ said of his miracles John 5.36 and impressions of such whispers and breathings upon the soul will witness of them whence they come Springs will rise as high as they fall that which cometh from heaven will carry up the soul to heaven Do therefore such hints and intimations of love and favour endear God to thy soul cause that to say as Psal 103.1 and 116.1 Do they make Evangelical Ordinances publick and private more sweet and delightful to thee To say as Psal 43.4 I will go to God my exceeding joy Do they make thee more active and vigorous for God and for the promoting of the interests of Christs Kingdom in thy place and station Fear not thy God and the God of thy Fathers hath given thee treasure in thy sack That is the answer which in my poor ministry I have used to give to all those who have repaired to me for satisfaction whether their peace and comfort be good Doth your comfort make you more humble more active for God more holy Peace be unto you your comfort is heaven-born comfort and you may christen it Gad for behold a troop cometh Oh be very thankful for the least of such messengers of peace to thy soul and write down such divine testimonies in thy book Habemii dabitur Mat. 25.29 with the year and day of the month that it may never be forgotten be thankful for what thou hast and thou mayst comfortably expect more Be much in duties of mortification 7. Help lye often in sackcloath and ashes before the Lord exercise thy self in frequent acts of Self denial little dost thou know how soon God may put a new song into thy mouth Lord thou hast turned for me my mourning Psal 30.11 thou hast put off my sack-cloth and hast girded me with gladness to the end my glory may sing praise unto thee and not be silent c. Be careful to mortifie corruptions and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 A mortified Christian is the fittest vessel to contain the precious liquor of assurance Mortification first purifieth and then dilates the heart and makes it capacious to divine consolations I keep under my body and bring into subjection 2 Cor. 9. ult 2 Cor. 5.1 was his voice that could say We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. He filleth the hungry with good things Set others to pray for thee Yet not every one 8. Help who it may be can pray Assurance is not an errand to send every common Christian to the Throne of Grace about Special Favourites are imployed to Princes for special Favours thou canst not pray
heaven and they are safe for ever Persecutors to be sure will not follow them thither but they shall be looked up in hell for ever bound in chains of everlasting darkness for their fury against the people of God suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Ever with the Lord here 's a short fight but an eternal triumph a short race but an immarcessable crown of glory a short storm but an eternal harbour who would not almost be covetous and ambitious of suffering upon such gainful terms One day with the Lord will more than pay for all the Saints sufferings how much more this ever with the Lord There is no proportion between a Christian his Cross and his Crown Rom. 8.18 if the Apostle have brought us in a true account I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Compare a Mole-hill with a Mountain a Glow-worm with a Sun beam a drop with the Ocean and more disproportionable are a Saints sufferings unto his glory here he lets drop a few tears there he swims in a river of pleasures for evermore To convince us of the odds the Apostle puts both into scales and the scales into the hand even of Reason it self see saith he how infinitely the reward praeponderates the sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction light Glory heavy a weight of glory yea an exceeding weight yea a far more exceeding weight hyperbole upon hyperbole Affliction but for a moment Glory eternity let sense and reason give sentence what equality or proportion an heavy burden may be born a moment how much easilier a light one especially if ye add this consideration that after that little little moment past burden shall never be laid upon the back any more for ever We are apt to think that our sufferings are not only heavy but intollerable the only unparallel'd affliction in the world never sorrow like our sorrow but they will appear as they are poor and inconsiderable when we come to heaven then our Mountains will appear Mole-hills How will a prison look then when for a few dayes confinement we shall have the glorious liberty of the Sons of God in the highest heavens dayes without end How will then the reproach of Christ appear to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt when for a little shame and ignominy thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Firmament for ever How will thy former poverty for Christ look then 1 Pet. 1.5 when thou shalt be possessed of the inheritance of the Saints in light Incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for thee Nay if thou shalt loose thy life for Christ it shall seem but a poor stake when thou shalt be crowned with all the beatitudes of life eternal Oh labour for such thoughts of sufferings now as thou wilt have then and this will carry thee through fire and water for Christs sake and with the Daughter of Sion cause thee to shake thy head at them Though sufferings offend thee now and are very grievous to the fleshy part yet it will be no grief of heart to thee then when thou comest to put on thy Robe and thy Crown and to sit down with Christ on his Throne If there could be grief in heaven about sufferings it would grieve a Saint that he had suffered no more for Christ or suffered with no more patience courage and holy insulting over the persecutors 40. Martyrs in Basil now led by his sufferings into so much glory Pore not then upon thy sufferings but look up to the Crown that is prepared to be set upon thy head after thy sufferings behold Martyrdom it self shall be but as Elijah's Chariot to carry thee up to heaven in triumph If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him if we wear his Crown of thorns we shall wear his Crown of glory if we dye with him we shall also rise with him and reign with him for ever Think much of the Kingdom to expel base fears in sufferings This is the glorious recompence which Christ sets before his Church Luke 12.32 to encourage her in the midst of her persecutions Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom If a Kingdom yea the Kingdom of Heaven be able to make you amends for your sufferings you shall not be losers by them well you may be losers for Christ but to be sure you shall not be losers by Christ Our Lord Christ himself did set the joy of this Kingdom before himself in his temptations and sufferings Heb. 12.2 and the Apostle therein set Christ as an example before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy which was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame c. Surely the joy of our Lord may well make the servant willing to endure and able to despise the greatest sufferings to laugh at reproaches and to sing in prisons to be like the Leviathan Job 41.27 He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrows cannot make him flee sling-stones are turned with him into stubble darts are counted as stubble he laughs at the shaking of the spear c. Heaven in our eye will make us thus heroick in our persecutions Rom. 5.3 We glory not only in God but we glory in tribulation Hold out then faith and patience but one stile more said Doctor Taylor when he went to the Stake and I am at my Fathers house Oh this word at my Fathers house at home Ever with the Lord this made the holy man to leap over the stile as if he had been a young man going to be married to his Bride Ever with the Lord Vse 5 It may serve as a soveraign cordial against the fear of death man having an immortal soul naturally desireth and breatheth after eternity but man in his corrupt estate being ignorant and mindless of a blessed eternity with God is not willing to dye to leave the shore of this life and to venture upon the unknown immense Ocean of eternity therefore the ungodly mans soul is said to be taken from him Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Sinners do not willingly part with their souls they are torn out of their bodies by violent hands none but a Paul who is ballasted with the hope of everlasting cohabitation with the Lord can desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose from the shore to hoise up sail and make for the heavenly Canaan And well may he that hath made a rich though stormy voyage to the Indies set sail for his own native Country where he may sit down in peace and enrich himself with the gain of his adventure Come hither then oh you trembling souls who through the fear of death have all your lives time been subject to
not as men without hope but comfort one another Obs There is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not We are forbid an hopeless sorrow v. 13. but simply to mourn for the loss of our gracious Relations we are no where forbidden He that hath wrapt up natural affections in our bowels doth not prohibit the due and moderate exercise of them Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons without natural affections are in the black Roll amongst the most ulcerous and excrescent part of mankind To be without natural affections is to do violence against Nature her self and to violate the law of humanity Covenant breakers without natural affection are monsters not men Christ himself who knew no sin yet being acquainted with all our griefs even had this kind of sorrow for the dead John 11.35 Jesus wept and his tears do here instruct us in our duty Holy Paul blots his Epistle to the Ephesians with his tears for Epaphroditus Lest saith he I should have sorrow upon sorrow he was sorrowful for his sickness had he dyed there would have been another flood of tears sorrow upon sorrow Where mention is made of the death of publick persons there publick lamentations for them is mentioned also The Spirit of God doth no where reprove those tears but rather puts a value upon them as so many pearls As in the mourning for Jacob Gen. 50.11 for Josias 2 Chron. 35.24 for Samuel 1 Sam. 25.1 for Stephen Acts 8.2 It s reckoned amongst Gods thunderbolts Psal 78.64 Their widows made no lamentation The removal of Gods peace from a people and prohibition to mourn for their dead are twin-judgments or one the birth of another Enter not into the house of mourning neither go to lament nor bemoan them for I have taken away my peace from this people Tears are like wine you may pour them out but take heed of excess Be not drunk with tears wherein is excess you may weep but as those that weep not you may mourn but not as others which have no hope 1 Cor. 7.30 these affections are natural but this hope will baptize and regenerate them Secondly Hence we learn 2. Branch of Information There is another work or duty incumbent on Christians under the loss of gracious Relations Then only to mourn for them namely to enquire yea 1 King 20.33 with Benhadad's servants diligently to observe what words of comfort do fall from the lips of Scripture and hastily to catch at them q. d. Comfort another with these words yea Lord with these words do thou comfort thy servant We are usually either sensless under or swallowed up with great losses either our bowels are made of iron or they melt like wax and we faint away Vehement sorrow is like raging fire that turns every thing into its own nature It 's thy work therefore to study recruits as well as to pore upon thy losses to ballast thy soul with divine comforts If I go not away the Comforter cannot come John 16.7 Many times the best of our earthly enjoyments stand between us and our heavenly consolations But if I go away I will send him unto you It is good to resolve with our selves be my loss in this world never so great it is capable of a reparation For certainly if the loss of Christ in his bodily presence were to be repaired there is nothing under the whole heaven the loss whereof we can sustain but may much easilier be made up with advantage to be sure the presence of the Comforter is able to do it with an infinite overplus It is thy wisdom therefore to ballance thy soul with divine comforts as afflictions abound run to thy Cordial these words that thy consolations may abound also if the affliction scale be heavier than the consolation scale thou wilt certainly sink in thy spirit and then thy burden will break thy back Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man is able to sustein his infirmity Thou mayst mourn but that is not all thou hast to do 2 Cor. 4 14. it concerns thee to get a cordial to keep thy heart from fainting For this cause we faint not Mark the Apostle had alwayes his Cordial about him so do thou be equally just to thy self as to thy deceased friends Thou owest them a debt of tears hast thou paid it Now be just to thy self thou owest a care to thy soul that thou sin not to thy spirit that it sink not must thou needs dye because thy Husband thy Child thy Friend is dead Look after divine consolation let it not be a small thing to thee neither say thou by interpretation nay if God will have this comfort from me let him take all Take heed of weeping thy self blind as to the consolations of God as Hagar did there was a well spring of water close by her but she had cried out her eyes and could not see it Gen. 21.16 until God opened her eyes verse 19. There is too much of the pride and sullenness of the Babylonish Favourite in us who when he had made a large and boasting recital of his Court favours could throw away all in a pet for want of a complement Yet all this availeth me nothing Hest 5.12 13. so long as I see Mordieai the Jew sitting at the Kings gate In all things pray and give thanks Phil. 4.6 Oh labour for the quick eye of faith which can spy out a little mercy in a great deal of affliction and can fit down and give thanks A Christian is never in such an affliction but he hath as much cause to praise God as he hath to pray unto him Lum 3.2 yea many mercies for one affliction that it is not so bad but it might be worse to be sure it is not hell◠2. That when ever he takes away one comfort he leaves more 3. Psal 30.5 That heaviness may continue for a night but joy in the morning 4. And in the mean time he hath a God to go unto Oh love the Lord all ye his Saints Psal 31.23 3. 3. Branch of Information Observe further the goodness and condescentions of God who hath laid in comfort before hand against a time of sorrow and mourning Cordials ready prepared to keep the hearts of his people from fainting in the hour of temptation like a good Chirurgeon he hath in his Chest a Salve for every Wound a Cordial for every Qualm there is not a fear in Gods peoples hearts but there is a fear not in Gods Book to antidote it withall and yea here in this model of divine comfort you have ten fear nots for one fear ten words of comfort for one grief conceived for the loss of a dear Relation These words 2 Cor. 1.5 that if our sorrow should abound our consolations may much more abound by Christ God dealeth in this case with his people just as he dealt with our first Parents providing a plaister before-hand to
clap on the wound of conviction of sin in the promise of the seed of the woman that should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 Lest the wound should take cold fester and by delay prove incurable all the Promises in Scripture they are but so many Receipts written down beforehand in the Book of the great Physitian of souls for the use of all Gods Family the Saints of God from the beginning of the world there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises i. e. concerning exceeding great and precious things 1 Pet. 1.4 and they are all yea and Amen in Jesus Christ verity and infallibility Thither therefore let all Gods Patients go and search and read and take whatever Receipt suiteth best with their Malady and they shall rightly applied find present ease and infallible cure in the constant and believing use thereof For whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Gods compassions over his mourners are great and therefore his consolations are not small Though God would have his people deeply humbled and tried to the quick yet he would not have their spirits sink under the temptation and therefore when he observes them to begin to faint he ceaseth contending with them and begins his comforting work for the iniquity of his covetousness Isa 57.18 I smote him and was wrath but when God saw that would do no good he trieth another course I will restore comforts to him Just as when a Parent is correcting a Child and the Child cryes and swoons presently away goes the rod and the strong-water-bottle is snatcht up and applied to the mouth of the Child so compassionately dealeth God with his fainting Children It is a wonderful expression which God useth towards Ephraim Jer. 31.20 My bowels are troubled for him Ephraim saith I smote upon my thigh and presently God smites upon his heart and cryes out My bowels are troubled for him I will have mercy upon him O ineffable sympathy answerable whereunto God hath a cup of consolation prepared in his hand which he putteth to their mouths and bids drink yea drink abundantly of it till they forget their sorrows even that overflowing cup Fulness of joy and pleasures for ever at his right hand Ever with the Lord. Psal 103.13 Surely as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him and such compassions would he have to fill the bowels of all his Evangelical Messengers Isa 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith their God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem c. Thus doth God fill up his Title brim-full and running over The Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort In the fourth place 4. Branch of Information here you may see the absolute and indispensable necessity of faith without which all the choicest consolations and richest cordials the Word can afford are but so much water of life in a dead mans mouth or as Elisha's Staffe upon the face of the dead Child â— King 4. which causeth neither voice nor motion Heb. 10.38 The just shall live by faith an unbelieving man is but a dead man for as faith is the first principle of spiritual life so it is the constant medium whereby the spiritual fewel and restoratives of that life are brought in and made vital to the soul The life I now live in the flesh I live it by the faith of the Son of God Christs flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed but it is to faith only it is not meat indeed if there be not faith indeed He that cometh to me shall never hunger What 's that He that believeth on me shall never thirst The Word of God is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 but it is to them only who believe God hath provided a cup of consolation for his fainting people in their swooning fits but it is the hand of faith that must take it and the mouth of faith only that can drink it The unbeliever is an unhappy man nothing can do him good Heb. 4.2 The word doth not profit not being mixt with faith The body and blood of Christ proves poyson instead of divine nutriment because it is not received by faith This is the will of him that sent me saith our Lord that he that believeth on me may have everlasting life Divine Cordials so magisterial that they are able as it were to put life into a dead man give them to an unbeliever they signifie no more than water in the shooes Oh get faith Saints act your faith or else ye are undone Great notions are but small comforts to a natural man and the reason is because they are above him nothing can act above its principle you can never comfort a Swine with arguments of reason no more can ye comfort a carnal heart with heavenly consolations the reason is Quiequid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientu because both are above the constitutive principles of either Divine notions may serve a man without faith to discourse by but they will never serve him to live by reason may discourse upon them but faith must live upon them The life I now live I live by the faith c. Therefore doth the Apostle there put the cup of consolation into the hand of faith ver 14. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again c. There is an inexhaustible fulness of comfort in Christ and in the Promises but not one drop to be drawn forth without faith The breasts of Scripture-consolation are full they even drop again but it is the mouth of faith that must suck them out the still-born Child may as well-draw the Mothers dug as a faithless Christian make the teats of Scripture to afford any drop of divine influence to his drooping soul but to the believer it is cried at least by way of accommodation Suck ye Isa 66.11 12. and be satisfied with the breasts of consolation milk out and be delighted with the abundance of glory A man may as well live and laugh without a soul as have true evangelical comfort without faith which is the bond of union between Christ and the Soul and so being united to the fountain 1 Pet. 1.18 Believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious This is that golden pipe through which all the golden oyl of grace and comfort is derived into the heart Zech. 4.12 The men of the world may have vast proportions of knowledge both natural and divine but meer knowledge is light without heat but faith warms the heart as they said one to another Did not our hearts burn within us when he spake unto us If I assent and consent to the glorious Doctrine of the Resurrection knowing with Job that my Redeemer liveth c. I can in that triumph over all occurrent
impossible for the Sinner to deny any particular but he will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-condemned Secondly As there will be no denying 2. No Extenuation so there will be no room for extenuation this was one of the Sinner's hiding places while in the Land of the Living Sinners have their buts Eccle. 5.6 Iâ— was an Errour per exteruationum It was but a mistakâ— now It was but thus and thus it was but a little one c. Great sins were but small sins and small sins were no sins Now the Sinner will have no such Sanctuary to fly unto the Account will now be inverted Those that were no sins before will be sins now small sins will be great sins and great sins will be infinite the last Judgment will give sin its just proportion that which the Law could never do though it were given on purpose the Fire of the day of Judgment will effectually do make sin appear exceeding sinful The Popish distinction of mortal and venial sin will vanish before that fire into smoak while Penitent reforming Sinners will find all their sins Venial in the blood of Christ secure impenitent Sinners will find every sin mortal and damning in its own merit and nature the Carnal Protestant will then find to his cost there is no such thing as a small sin because then he will be convinced there is no small God against whom sin is commited no small Law whereof sin is the violation no small Christ whom sin hath Crucified no small Heaven which sin hath forfeited no little Hell which sin hath merited and by its merit hath justly now plunged him into for ever Thirdly 3 No translating of sin there will be no translating of sin upon others as here below there was the Thief enticed me the Drunkard seduced me Gen. 3.13 the Harlot deceived me the Serpent beguiled me yea what bold Sinners are not afraid to speak will not then be heard amongst the Malefactors at Christ's Bar God tempted me Jam. 1.13 or God decreed it no these and all other palliations and colours wherewith men do wash the face of sin will melt before the fire of the day of Judgment God will say to the Sinner Jer. 2.17 Hast thou not procured these things to thy self yea Sinners shall then own their own guilt confess that their destruction is of themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—ut de seâ—â Num. vindict their heart shall cry out as Apollodore dreamt his heart cried to him in a Cauldron of boyling Lead O Apollodore I am the Cause of this Vengeance how have I hated Instruction and my heart despised Reproof and have not obeyed the voyce of my Teachers nor inclined mine Ear to them that instructed me Fourthly There will lye no appeal from this Tribunal 4. No appealing once there lay an appeal from Moses to Christ from the Law to the Gospel but proud Sinners scorned it or securely presumed they had made the appeal by a loose verbal Application of Jesus Christ whil'st yet they stuck in themselves and their own foolish presumptions their serving of God their good works and their good meanings and their good desires and why should not they be saved as well as others but now if they should appeal their appeal's with themselves will be cast out as Reprobate Silver this is now the supream and last Judicatory from hence is no appeal once doomed here the sentence is irreversible for ever Fifthly 5. No Pardon Neither is there any Pardon to be expected at this Judgment Seat Pardons were tendered in the Gospel upon gracious terms but ungracious Sinners would have none of them or would have them upon their own terms Sin and Pardon too their Pardons were nothing unless they might have dispensations also such as the Pope sells often times but Christ's Pardons sc Pardon Repentance Pardon of sin and forsaking of sin Pardon of sin and Hatred of sin Act. 5.31 Prov. 28.13 Jude 23. Heb. 12.14 Pardon and Holiness would not be accepted and now the time of Pardons is out the day of Grace is expired no cries nor entreaties will prevail with the Judg no though the Sinner would fall upon his knees and weep as many Seas of Tears as once the Ministers wept Tears of Compassion over them or as Christ himself shed drops of blood upon the Cross Christ was once upon his knees in the Person of his Ministers beseâ—ching them to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Though the Sinner was first in the Transgression yet God was first in the Reconciliation and followed the Sinner as it were on his knees intreating him to accept of Mercy as if God had stood in as much need of the Sinner as the Sinner did of Mercy but nothing would prevail a deaf ear was still turned to Christ's importunity and now Repentance is hid from the eyes of the Judg as once Repentance was hid from the eyes of the Sinner the things of their peace are everlastingly hid because they knew them not in that the day of their Vision As Sinners obdurated their heart against Christ's voyce so Christ will harden his heart against the Sinner's cry Prov. 1.24 Sixthly There shall be no mitigation of the punishment not a farthing abated of the whole debt 6. No mitigation Math. 5.26 there was once Mercy without Judgment before the Sinner now there shall be Judgment without Mercy now Sinners shall know that God is not mocked that the Lamb of God is also the Lyon of the Tribe of Juda His voyce was once Fury is not in me Isa 27.4 now the voyce will be Meckness is not in me mercy is not in me now must the Sinner expect nothing but the utmost severity of divine justice who once despised the yearnings of Christ's bowels the lowest condescentions of divine Grace the Sinner in his day knew no moderation in sin the Judg now in his day will know no mitigation of Judgment there will be a Sea of wrath without a drop of Mercy Seventhly Not a word of any good that ever the wicked did 7. No mention of any good that ever Sinners did shall now be mentioned to their honour or advantage as none of the sins which ever the Saints committed were mentioned to their shame in their Process so none of the good that ungodly Sinners have done shall be once named unless it be by way of aggravation of their sins for indeed they mannaged the good they did at such a rate Splendida peccata Aug. as even their duties differed not from their sin As under the Law the Sacrifice of the Wicked was abomination to the Lord killing Oxen but Murder Prov. 15.8 Isa 66.3 Sacrificing Lambs but cutting off Dogs necks Oblations as Swines blood Incense as Idolatry so under the Gospel their Prayers were but so many takings of God's Name in vain and hearing the Word mocking of God Fasting but holding
down the head like a bull-rush Isa 58.5 receiving the Lords Supper Christ-murder c. All their Services were but so many sins and the aggravations of sin so many provocations of God as all done from a Carnal principle by a Carnal rule to Carnal ends nevertheless the Scripture tells us these woful wretches will be ready there to plead for themselves their duties and services which they have done for Christ as vile as they are as they did in the dayes of their flesh Isa 58.3 We have fasted they said we have afflicted our Souls so now also in the day of Judgment False Apostles and scandalous Ministers will then be so bold as to plead their Preaching in Christ's Name and that possibly not without success Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils peradventure even to the work of Conversion Judas might cast out the Devil and yet himself be a Devil John 6.70 he might convert others and yet be unconverted himself they will plead their doing of miracles healing the sick and raising the dead Mat. 7.25 making the Blind to see and the Deaf to hear and the Lame to go and in Christs Name done many mighty works Lkewise loose Christians and formal Professors will then also plead for themselves their hearing Sermons and receiving Sacraments Luke 13.26 c. take it in their own Language We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our Streets their external familiarities with Christ in the Assemblies of the Saints their common gifts and graces any thing then that hath but the likeness of grace upon it Christ shall hear of it Rev. 2.18 23. But all in vain The Judg whose eyes are a flame of fire to search the hearts and the reins will reprobate their persons and performances with an I know you not Luk. 13.25 and again with greater Emphasis I tell you I know you not verse 27. yea once more with a more dreadful note of abhorrency I never knew you Mat. 7.23 I never approved of you nor of any of your Services which ever you performed from the first to the last but my Soul hated both you and them Eightly There will be No begging further time of the Judg no adjourning the Tryal to another Assize-day That Court knows no Reprieve the Sinner's Tryal and Sentence 8. No begging of Day and Execution goe all together the day of Patience was out in the other world I gave her space to Repent and she Repented not and now the Judg swears in his wrath that Sinners shall never enter into his rest Ninthly No days-man tointercede with the Judg 9. No Intercessor Prov. 1.28 God will not he will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear cometh Oh dreadful Calamity which God will stand and laugh at Angels will not Job 5. ◠and to which of the Saints will those miserable Caitifs turn themselves they are upon Thrones round about the Judg but quite to other purposes than to become Advocates to those guilty Malefactors as will anon appear For Tenthly Therefore the Judg shall proceed to the last Acts of Judgment Two Acts of Judgment 1. The Judg will pronounce them guilty which are Two first to Pronounce them guilty of all the Treasons and Misdemeanors which those wretches have been Indited of The Judg indeed to vindicate the justice and equity of the Court will demand of the Convict Sinner Whether he hath any thing to say for himself why he should not receive Judgment to Dye and Sentence to be Executed according to Law but now Conscience shall speak impartially between the Judg and the Sinner justifying the Judg and Condemning the Sinner who having before hand received in himself the Sentence of Death shall now be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without-excuse Rom. 2.20 not able to make the least apology or defence on his own behalf but shall confess before that formidable Assembly Lord though thou judg me to everlasting flames yet thou dost me no wrong but art justified in what thou speakest Psal 51.4 and clear when thou judgest and alas What a miserable thing is this that all the time that the Sinner and his Conscience dwelt together under one Roof and Conscience would fain have spoken out the vile wretch should stop the mouth of his own Conscience and never suffer it faithfully to do its office till now when it will do him no good and tend to no other end but to justifie God and to aggravate his own Condemnation Oh that Sinners would seriously consider this and lay it to heart in time and hearken to the secret whispers of Conscience before it be too late 1 Jo. 3.21 and deal kindly with Conscience now that Conscience may deal kindly with them in that day when one good word from Conscience will be worth a thousand worlds Oh if the Sinner would have done that once willingly which now he doth whether he will or no if he would have judged himself in the day of the Gospel it might have prevented this fatal Judgment now he should not have been judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.31 Oh if the Judg would now speak such a word to the Convicted multitude of Reprobate Cast-aways as once he did to wretched Sinners Behold I make you this Offer that if yet before I proceed to Sentence you will unfeignedly judg your selves I will not judg you neither shall the Sentence of Condemnation pass upon you Oh what an uprore of joy would there be among those miserable Catiffs how would they down on their knees and judg themselves worthy of a thousand Hells and be content to suffer a thousand years Torment to expiate their guilt but though they would do this and if it were possible ten thousand times more no such word shall ever be spoken to them by the Judg their time of Sinning is past and their time of being judged is come and though they do now really judg themselves yet the Judg will proceed to judg them also The Sinner having thus justified the Judg the Judg shall now Condemn the Sinner out of his own mouth and solemnly setting himself down in the Judgment-Seat shall openly in the Court proclaim the Sinner guilty guilty of the whole Indictment preferred against him And then proceed to pronounce Sentence in some such words as these Sinner thou hast been Indited Arraigned and Convicted of High-Treason against the Supream Majesty of Heaven in the breach of his holy Law and in contempt of his blessed Gospel trampling the Son of God under foot Heb 10 29. Chap 6.6 and Crucifying him over and over again and putting him to an open shame c Hear now therefore thy sentence Thou art Accursed for ever the Wrath of God abideth upon thee thou shalt not see light Mat. 25.41 Go thou Cursed into everlasting burnings prepared for the Devil and his Angels and what shall be said to one