the Lord or whether we die we die to the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords For to this end Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living In summ here is asserted to him a Dominion over both Worlds this in which we live and that into which we die whether the one or the other part of it And so in reference to Men who once have inhabited this World the sense of this â—ext and that we are insisting on is the same Tho' Hades is of vastly larger extent than only to be the receptacle of such as have liv'd here it having also in both the parts of it innumerable Inhabitants who never had a dwelling assigned them in this World of ours at all But thus far we have the vast extent of our Lord Christ's Dominion competently cleared to be the proper intendment of this Text. And that it never meant so faint and minute a representation of it as only to make him Keeper of the bottomless Pit Tho' of that also he hath the Key as we shall further take notice But are now to enquire of what will tak up less time 3. The Kind of that Power over so vast a Realm or manifold Realms signified by this emblematical expression of having the Keys â— Every one knows that the Keys are Insignia some of the tokens of Power and according to the peculiarity of the Object may be of Divine Power The Jews as some Writers of their Affairs say appropriate the Keys of three others of four things to God only Of Life or the entrance into this World Of the Rain or the Treasures of the Clouds Of the Earth say some as of the Granary of Corn. And of the Grave Of which says one of their own The Holy Blessed one hath the Keys of the Sepulchres in his hand c. And as we may be sure he admits thither so he emits from thence and as he says in the future Age the H. B. one will unlock the Treasures of Souls and will open the Graves and bring every Soul back into its own body c. Nor is this Key of the vast Hades when it is in the hand of our Redeemer the less in the hand of the Holy Blessed One for so is he too But it is in his hand as belonging to his Office of Mediator between God and Man as was before said And properly the phrase signifies Ministerial Power being a manifest allusion to the common usage in the Courts of Princes of entrusting to some great Minister the Power of the Keys as it was foretold of Eliakim Isa. 22. that he should be placed in the same high station in Hezekiahs Court wherein Shebna was of whom so severe things are there said and that the Key of the House of David should be laid upon his shoulder c. ver 20 21 22. And the House of David being a known Type of the House or Church of God and he himself of Christ who as the Son hath power over the whole house according to this typical way of speaking our Lord is said Rev 3.7 to have the Key of David to open so as none can shut to shut so as none can open i. e. to have a final decisive power in all he doth from which there is no appeal Nor could any thing be more congruous than that having the Keys of the Celestial House of God the Heavenly Palace of the Great King the Habitation of his Holiness and Glory in which are the Everlasting Habitations the many Mansions the Places prepared for his Redeemed he should also have the Keys of the Terrestrial Bethel which is but a sort of Portal or Vestibulum to the other The House of God and the Gate of Heaven And as he is implied to have the Keys of this introductive preparatory Kingdom of Heaven as the Keys of the Kings Palace where is the Throne or Seat of Government and the Keys of the Kingdom must mean the same thing when he is said to give them to the Apostle Peter and the other Apostles This was but a Prelude and a minute Instance of his Power of those Keys of Hades and of the glorious Heavenly Kingdom it self contained therein which he was not to delegate but to manage himself immediately in his own Person If moreover he were signified by the Anâ—el Rev. 20.1 who was said to have the Key of the bottomless Pit That also must import a Power tho' great in it self yet very little in comparison of the immense Hades of which he is here sâ—id to have the Keâ—s So remote is it that the Power ascribed to him there should be the measure of what he here assets to himself And the difference must be vastly greater than it is possible for us to conceive or parallel by the difference between having Power over the Palace all the most delightful most spacious Territories in the vastest Empire of the greatest Prince and only having Power over a Dungeon in some obscure corner of it Which for the great purposes whereto all this is it be applied we can can scarcely too much inculcate And to such application let us now with all possible seriousness and intention of spirit address our selves Which will consist in sundry Inferences or Deductions laying before us some suitable matter Partly of our Meditation Practice The former whereof are to prepare and lay a ground for the latter 1. Divers things we may collect that will be very proper for our deep Meditation which I shall propose not as things that we can be suppos'd not to have known before but which are too commonly not enough thought on or considered And here we shall somewhat invert the order wherein things lye in the Text beginning with what is there latter and lower and thence arising with more advantage to what is higher and of greater concernment As 1. That Men do not die at random or by some uncertain acciaccidental by stroak that as by a slip of the hand cuts off the thred of Life but by an act of Divine Determination and Judgment that passes in reference to each ones Death For as the Key signifies Authority and Power the turning this Key of Death that gives a Man his Exit out of this World is an Authoritative Act. And do we consider in what hand this Power is lodg'd we cannot but apprehend every such act is the effect of Counsel and Judgment What Philosophers are wont to discourse of fortuitous Events in reference to Rational Agents or Casual in reference to Natural must be understood but with relation to our selves and signifies only our own ignorance of futurities but can have no place in the all-comprehending Mind as if any thing were a contingency unto that For them that live as if they thought they came into this World by chance 't is very natural to them to think they shall die and go out
continue the later in Duties in the Evening saying we ought not to make that Day shorter than other Days Though he was very intent on his Studies yet on Saturdays he always broke them off at Noon and spent the Afternoon in reading Divinity and preparing himself for the Lords Day He was always constant in his secret Duties and suffered nothing to hinder him from the performing of them Before he expired he spoke with great assurance of his Future happiness and hopes of meeting his Relations in Glory Thus far goes that Account His Sickness was short When hearing of it I went to visit him I was met in an Ante-chamber by his ingenious dear Brother to whom it is no reproach to be second to him and who it is to be hoped will be at least truly so making him though a fair Example yet not a Standard who hath for divers years been most intimately conjunct and conversant with him known his way his Spirit his manner of Life his purity And may be led on and excited thereby wherein he hath observed him to excel others to endeavour not to come short but if it were possible to excel him remembring he is to be the next solace of his Parents hope of his Family and resort of his Country if God shall vouchsafe to continue him in succeeding time From him I had little expectation of finding his Sick Brother in a conversable condition the malignity of his Feaver having before seized his head and very much disordered his intellectuals but going in I was much surprized to find it so far otherwise He presently knew me his understanding that served him for little else faiâ—ed him not in the concernments of Religion and of his Soul There was not an improper or misplac't word tho' the case could not admit of interchanging many that came from him Concerning the substance of the Gospel of Christ as it could be shortly summed up to him he said he had no doubt and his transactions with Christ himself accepting him resigning and entrusting himself absolutely and entirely to him and God in him were so explicite distinct clear as could leave no place of doubt concerning him He profest his concurrence to such requests as were put up to God concerning him and the next Morning slept quietly in the Lord. Nor now will it be unfit to shut up the Discourse with some few suitable Reflections upon this double Subject The Text and This Providence taken together 1. How happy is it when this Power of our Great Redeemer and Lord mention'd in the Text and a preparation with chearful willingness dutifully to comport with it concur and meet together as they have done in this instance Our Lord hath shewn his Power He asserted it in the Text. In this Instance he used it giving an open Testimony that he takes it to belong to him to make such translations from one World to another whensoever he judges it a fit season Nor is solicitous whether men acknowledge his right so to do or no or what Censures they will pass upon what he hath done He doth his own work and leaves men to their own talk or mutterings or wonder or amusement at it as they will So it becomes Sovereign Power to do establish't upon the most unquestionable foundations exercis'd according to the wisest and most righteous Measures He hath used his own right and satisfied himself in the use of it He thought not himself concern'd to advise with any of us about it who as his Counsellor should instruct him Isa. 40.13 Rom. 11. v. 34. He owes so much to himself to act as unaccountable to no one nor liable to any ones controll Here is most rightful resistless Power justly and kindly us'd on the one hand And on the other how placid how calm a resignation Here was no striving no crying no reluctant motion no querulous repining voice Nothing but peaceful filial submission a willingness to obey the Summons given This was an happy accord the willingness of this departing Soul proceeding not from stupidity but trust in him who kept these Keys and such preparedness for removal as the Gospel requir'd O happy Souls that finding the Key is turning and opening the door for them are willing to go forth upon such terms as knowing whom they have believed c. And that neither principalities or powers life or death c. can ever separate them from the Love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord. Life they find hath not separated whereof was the greater danger and Death is so far from making this separation that it shall compleat their Vnion with the blessed God in Christ and lay them infolded in the everlasting Embraces of Divine Love Happy they that can hereupon welcome Death and say Now Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace that before only desired leave to die and have now obtained it that are with certainty of the Issue at the point of becoming compleat Victors over the last Enemy and are ready to enter upon their Triumph and take up their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is swallowed up in Victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Happy Soul here will be a speedy end of all thy griefs and sorrows they will be presently swallow'd up in an absolute plenitude and fulness of Joy There is already an end put to thy tormenting cares and fears for what Object can remain to thee of a rational fear when once upon grounds such as shake not under thee thou art reconcil'd to Death This is the most glorious sort of Victory viz. by reconciliation For so thou hast conquered not the Enemy only but the Enmity it self by which he was so Death is become thy Friend and so no longer to be feared nor is there any thing else from whence thou art to fear hurt For Death was thy last Enemy even this bodily Death The whole Region beyond it is to one in thy case clear and serene when to others is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever There are no terrible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no formidable consequences no reserves of misery no treasures of wrath to be feared by thee To one in thy condition may that without hesitation be apply'd nihil metuit qui optat mori He fears nothing who desires to die What is the product of some mens infidelity is the genuine product of their faith From so contrary Causes may proceed the same Effect The Effect a willingness to die or a bold adventure upon Death is the same but only in respect of the general kind with great differences in the special kind according to the difference and contrariety of the Causes whereof they discernibly tast and savour With Infidels it is a negative dead stupid partial willingness or but a non-aversion and in a lower and much diminished degree Or if some present
of it by chance too but when and as it happens This is worse than Paganish Blindness for besides what from their Poets the vulgar have been made to believe concerning the three fatal Sisters to whom they ascribed no less than Deity concern'd in measuring every ones Life The grave discourses which some of them have writ concerning Providence and its extent to the lesser intermediate concerns of Life much more to that their final great concern of Death will be a standing Testimony against the too-prevailing Christian Scepticism they ought to excuse the Soloecism who make it of this wretched Age But such among us as will allow themselves the liberty to think want not opportunity and means by which they may be assur'd that not an imaginary but real Deity is immediately and constantly concern'd in measuring our Time in this World What an awful thought is this And it leads to a 2 Inference That it is a great thing to die The Son of God the Redeemer of man hath an immediate presidency over this affair He signalizes himself by it who could not suppose he should be magnified by a trifle We slightly say such a one is Dead Consider the matter in it self and 't is great A reasonable Soul hath chang'd States an intelligent Spirit is gone out of our world The life of a Gnat a Fly those little Automata or self moving things how admirable a production is it It becomes no man to despise what no man can imitate We praise the Pencil that well describes the external figure of such an Animalculum such a little Creature but the internal vital self moving power and the motion itself what Art can express But an humane life how important a thing is it T was one of Plato's thanksgivings that God had made him a man How careful a guard hath God set over every mans life fencing it by the severest Law If any man shed mans blood by man shall his blood be shed and how weighty is the annexed reason For in the image of God he made man This then highly greatens this matter He therefore reserves it wholly to himself as one of his peculiarities to dispose of such a life I am he that kills and makes alive We find it One of his high titles The God of the Spirits of all flesh He had what was much greater to glory in that he was The Father of spirits indefinitely spoken When he hath all the heavenly Regions the spacious Hades Peopled with such Inhabitants whose dwelling is not with flesh and for vast multitudes of them that never was that yet looking down into this little world of ours this minute spot of his creation and observing that here were Spirits dwelling in flesh he should please to be sâ—ylâ—d also the God of those Spirits signifies this to be with him too an appropriate glory a glory which he will not communicate farther then he communicates Godhead And that he held it a divine right to measure the time unto each of them of their abode in flesh determine when they shall dislodge This cannot be thought on-aright without a becoming most profound reverence of him on this account How sharp a rebuke is given to that haughty Prince The God in whose hands thy breath is hast thou not glorified That would prepare the way and we should be easily led on were we once come to think with reverence to think also with pleasure of this case that our life and every breath we draw is under such a Divine Superintendency The H. Psalmist speaks of it with high complacency as the matter of his Song that he had a God presiding over his life So he tells us he would have each 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composed not more of Night and Day than of Prayer and Praise directed to God under this notion as the God of his life Psal. 42.8 And he speaks it not grudgingly but as the ground of his trust and boast Psal. 31.14 15. I trusted in thee O Lord I â—aid thou art my God my times are in thy hand That this Key is in the hand of the Great Emmanuel God with us will be thought on with frequency when it is thought on with delight 3. Our Life on Earth is under the constant strict observation of our Lord Christ. He waits when to turn the Key and shut it up Thro' the whole of that time which by deferring he measures out to us we are under his Eye as in a state of probation He takes continual notice how we acquit our selves For his turning the Key at last is a judicial act therefore supposes diligent observation and proceeds upon it He that hath this Key is also said in the next Chapter verse 18. to have Eyes like a flame of fire with these he observes what he hath against one or another ver 20. And with most indulgent patience gives a space of Repentance ver 21. and notes it down if any then repent not as we there also find Did secure Sinners consider this how he beholds them with a flame in his Eye and the Key in his hand would they dare still to trifle If they did apprehend how he in this posture stands over them in all their vain dalliances idle impertinencies bold adventures insolent attempts against his Laws and Goverâ—ment presumptuous affronts of his high Authority Yea or but in their drowsie slumbrings their lingering delays their neglects of offered Grace Did they consider what notice he takes how they demean themselves under every Sermon they hear in every Prayer wherein they are to joyn with others or which perhaps for customs sake they put up alone by themselves How theiâ— hearts are mov'd or unmov'd by every repeâ—ted Call that is given them to turn to God get their Peace made by application of their Redeemer's reconciling Blood In what Agonies would they be what pangs of trembling would they feel within themselves lest the Key should turn before their great work be done 4. Whatsoever ill designs by this observation he discovers 't is easie to him to prevent One turn of this Key of Death besides the many other ways that are obvious to him disappoints them all and in that day all their thoughts perish 'T is not therefore from inadvertency indifferency or impotency but deep counsel that they are permitted to be driven on so far He that sitteth in the Heavens laughs and he knows their day is coming He can turn this Key when he will 5. His Power as to every ones Death cannot be avoided or withstood The act of this Key is definitive and ends the business No man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in Death Eccles. 8.8 'T is in vain to struggle when the Key is turn'd the Power of the Keys where it is supremely lodg'd is absolutely decisive and their Effect permanent and irrevocable That Soul therefore for whose Exit the Key is turned must thereupon then
nullifie the great Hades pull down the spacious Fabrick of Heaven or undermine the profound Abyss of Hell by a profane scoff They will in time discern the difference between the evanid passion of a sudden fright that takes its rise from imagination and the fixed dread which is founded in the Reason of things As one may between a fright in a dream and the dread of a condemned Criminal with whom sleeping and waking the real state of his case is still the same Nor are the things themselves remote or unconnected God's right to punish a reasonable Creature that hath liv'd in contempt of him and his own reasonable apprehension hereof or his Conscience both of the fact and desert They answer as face to face as the stamp on the Seal and the impression on the Wax They would sain make their Reason a protection against their fear but â—hâ—t cannot serve both ways The Reason of the thing lies against them already and there cannot be an eternal War between the Faculty and the Object One way or other the latter will over-power the former and draw it into consent with it self Either by letting it see there is a just true cause of fear or assisted by Divine Grace prevail for the change of the sinners course Whereupon that troublesome fear and its cause will both upon the best terms cease together And that what hath been proposed to consideration under this Head may be the more effectually considered to this blessed purpose I add that 7. The Discovery of the Invisible World and the disposal of affairs there have a most encourageing Aspect upon this World For both the Discovery and the Disposal are by our Blessed Redeemer in whom Mercy and Might are met in highest perfection How fragrant breathings of Grace how glorious a display of Power are there in what he here says Fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and I am alive for evermore Amen And I have the Keys of Hades and of Death He hath opened the Celestial Hades to our view that it might be also open to our safe entrance and blissful inhabitation He who was Dead but Liveth and had made his victorious triumphant entrance before us and for us He who had overcome him that had the Power of Dâ—ath Conquer'd the Gigantick Monster at the Gate gain'd the Keys and designed herein their deliverance from the fear of Death who were thereby Subject to Bondage Heb. 2.14 15. He who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 'T is he who bids us lift up our Eyes and behold the Heavens opened and himself standing at the right hand of God The horrid infernal Hades he hath discovered too only that we might fear and shun it But yet more distinctly consider why doth he here represent himself under this Character He that liveth and was dead But that he might put us in mind of that most convictive Argument of his Love his submitting to Die for us Greater love hath no Man And that he might at once put us out of doubt concerning his Power that he yet survives and is sprung up alive out of that Death victorious over it How amiable is the representation of such Power in conjunction with such Love The same person having an heart so replenish't with Love an hand so armed with Power neither capable of unkind design or unable to effect the most kind Behold him in this representation who would not now fall at his foot and adore Who would hesitate at resigning to him or be appalled at his disclosure of this unknown World Do but consider him who makes the Discovery and who would not expect from him the utmost efforts of Love and Goodness From him who is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person His Essential Image who is Love From him who came into this wretched World of ours full of Grace and Truth And who could not have come but by the inducement of Compassion to our Miseries From him who knows all things and whose â—ye penetrates into every recess of the vast Hades All his own Empire in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Put who only knows not to deceive Who hath told us in his Fathers House are many Mansions and if it were not so would have told us that Joh. 14.2 From him into whose mouth guile never entred but into whose Lips Grace was poured and is poured out by them so that the Ear that hath heard him hath born him witness and filled with wonder those that heard the Gracicious words which came out of his Mouth Who hath told us all concerning that unseen world that in this our present state it was fit for us to know and enough in telling all that will be his followers that where he is there he will have them be Joh. 17.24 And consider the manifest tendency of the Discovery it self What doth it mean or tend to but to undeceive miserable mortals whom he beholds from his high Throne mock'd with shadows beguiled with most delusive impostures and easily apt to be imposed upon Foolish deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures feeding upon ashes and wearying themselves for very vanity sporting themselves in the dust of this minute spot of Earth wasting their little inch of time wherein they should prepare for translation into the Regions of unseen Glory To these he declares he hath formed a Kingdom for all that cover to mend their states and that his Kingdom is not of this World that for such as will be of this Kingdom he will provide better having other Worlds the many Heavens above all which he is ascended at his dispose Ephes. 4.10 But they must seek this Kingdom and the Righteousness of it in the first place and desist from their care about other things He Counsels and Warns them not to lay up their Treasure on Earth but in Heaven and to let their hearts be there with their treasure And what can withstand his power who having been dead liveth victorious over him that had the power of Death and is alive for evermore possest of an Eternal state of Life And have we not reason to expect the most equal and most benign disposal of things in that unseen World When he also declares I have the Keys Rightful Authority as well as Mighty Power to reward and punish None but who have a very ill mind can fear from him an ill management He first became capable of dying and then yielded himself to die that he might obtain these Keys for gracious purposes He had them before to execute just vengeance as he was originally in the â—orm of God and without robbery equal with God an equal sharer in sustaining the wrong that had been done by Apostate Rebels and an equal sharer in the right of vindicating it But that he might have these Keys to open the Heavenly
Hades to reduc'd Apostates to Penitent Believing Self-devoting Sinners for this it was necessary he â—â—ould put on Man be found here in fashion as a Man take on him the foâ—m of a Seâ—vant become obedient to Death even that servile punishment the Death of the Croâ—s Phil. 2.7 8. For this he is highly exalted into this Power that every Knee might bow to him in hope of Saving Mercy ver 9 10. compared with Isa 45.22 23. He had the Keys without this of the Supernal Hades to shut out all offenders and of the infernal to shut them up for ever But that he might have them to absolve repenting believers and admit them into Heaven and only to shut up in Hell implacable Enemies For this he must Die and live again He was to be slain and hanged on a Tree that he might be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance and Remission of Sin Act. 5.30 31. That to this intent he might be Lord of the Dead and the Living he must both Die and Rise and Live so as to Die no more Rom. 14.9 These Keys for this purpose he was only to have upon these terms He had a right to punish as an offended God but to Pardon and Save as a Mediating Sin expiating God-Man But as he was to do the part of a Mediator he must act equally between the disagreeing Parties He was to deal impartially on both sides To render back entire to the injur'd Ruler of the World his violated Rights and to obtain for us his forfeited favour as entire And undertook therefore when as a Sacrifice he was to be slain to redeem us to God by his Blood Rev. 5.9 To give him back his revolted Creature Holy Pure Subject and Serviceable as by his methods he shall be at last and procure for him Pardon Acceptance and Eternal Blessedness When therefore he was to do for us the part of a Redeemer he was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law not from the Command of it to save us from the Wrath of God not from his Government Had it been otherwise so firm and indissoluble is the connection between our Duty and 〈◊〉 fâ—licity that the Sovereign Ruler had been eternally injured and We not advantaged Were we to have been set free from the preceptive obligation of God's Holy Law than most of all from that most fundamental precept Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart Soul Might and Mind Had this been Redemption Which supposes only what is Evil and Hurtful as that we are to be Redeemed from This were a Strange sort of Self-repugnant Redemption not from Sin and Misery but from our Duty and Felicity This were so to be Redeemed as to be still Lost and every way lost both to God and to our selves for ever Redeemed from loving God! What a monstrous Thought Redeemed from what is the great Active and Fruitive Principle The source of Obedience and Blessedness The Eternal Spring even in the Heavenly State of Adoration and Fruition This had been to legitimate everlasting Enmity and Rebellion against the Blessed God and to Redeem us into an eternal Hell of horrour and misery to our selves This had been to cut off from the Supream Ruler of the World for ever so considerable a â—imb of his most rightful Dominion and to leave us as miserable as everlasting separation from the fountain of life and blessedness could make us When therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law it was that the Promised Spirit might be given to us Gal. 3.13 14. who should write the Law in our Hearts Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 36.27 Fulfil the Righteousness of it in us by causing us to walk after his dictates according to that Law regenerating us begetting us after Gods Image and making us partakers of a Godlike nature So we through the Law becâ—me Dead to the malediction and curse of it that we may Live to God more devoted Lives than ever Gal. 2.19 Thus is Gods lost creature given back to him with the greatest advantage also to it self With this design it is apparent our Lord Redeemed us and by his Redemption acquired these Keys Nor are we to doubt but in the use of them he will dispense exactly according to this just and merciful design And what a perverse distorted Mind is that which can so much as wish it should be otherwise viz. That he should save us to the Eternal wrong of him that made us and so as that we should be nothing the better i. e. that he should save us without saving us And hath this no pleasant comfortable aspect upon a lost World that he who hath these Keys will use them for such purposes i. e. to admit to eternal bliss and save to the uttermost all that will come to God by him not willing to be everlastingly alienated from the life of God because he ever lives to make intercession or to transact and negotiate for them as that word signifies and that in a rightful way and even by the power of these Keys 8. That there must be some important Reason why the other World is to us unseen and so truly bears the Name of Hades This expresses the state of the case as in fact it is tha it is a World lying out of our sight and into which our dim and weak Eye cannot penetrate That other state of things is spoken of therefore as hidden from us by a vail When our Lord Jesus is said to have passed into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 he is also said to have entered into that within the vail Heb. 16.19 20. alluding to that in the Temple of Solomon and before that in Moses's Tabernacle but expresly signifying that the Holy places into which Christ entred not those made with hands which were the Figure of the true but Heaven it self filled with the glorious presence of God where he appears for us Heb. 9.24 is also vailed from us As also the Glory of the other State is said to be a Glory as yet to be revealed Rom. 8.18 And we are told Job 26.9 The great God holdeth back the face of his Throne and above ver 6. 't is represented as a Divine Prerogative that Sheol which is there groundlesly rendred Hell the vast Hades is only naked before him lies entirely open to his view and therein the dark and horrid part of it Destruction by which peculiarly must be meant Hell is to him without a covering not moâ—e hidden from his Eye Which shews this to be the Divine pleasure so God will have it be who could have expos'd all to common view if he had pleased But because he orders all things according to the Counsel of his will Ephes. 1.11 we must conceive some weighty reason did induce hereto that whatsoever lies beyond this present state of things should be concealed from our immediate view and so come uno nomine to be all called Hades And
if the reason of Gods conduct and the course of his dispensation herein had been equally hidden as that State it self is it had been a bold presumption to enquire and prie into it modesty and reverence should have restrained us But when we find it holds a manifest agreement with other parts of his Counsel that are sufficiently revealed and that the excellency of the Divine Wisdom is most conspicuous and principally to be beheld and admired in ordering the apt congruities and correspondencies of things with each other and especially of the ends he proposes to himself with the Methods and Ways he takes to effect them 't were very great oscitancy and an undutiful negligence not to observe them when they stand in view that we may render him his due acknowledgments and honour thereupon 'T is manifest that as God did not create Man at first in that which he designed to be his final State but as a Probationer in a State of Trial in order to a further State So when he Apostatized and fell from God he was graciously pleased to order for him a New Tryal and put him into the hands of his merciful Redeemer who is intrusted with these Keys and with the Power of Life and Death over him to be managed and exercised according to the terms plainly set down and declared in His Gospel Wheresoever he is with sufficient evidence revealed and made known Men immediately come under obligation to believe in him to intrust and commit themselves into the same hands to rely upon the truth of his Word in every thing he reveals as the ground of their submitting to his Authority in every thing he requires What concerns their present practice he hath plainly shewn them so much as it was requisite they should preapprehend of future Retributions Rewards and Punishments he hath revealed also not that they should have the knowledge hereof by immediate inspection but by taking his word That as their first Transgression was founded in Infidelity that they did not believe God but a lying Spiâ—it against him their first step in their Recovery and return to God should be to believe him and take his word about things thâ—y have themselves no immediate sight or knowledge of This point was by no means to be quitted to the first Apostates As if Gods saying to them if you Transgress you shall Die or go into Hades was no sufficient inforcement of the Precept unless he had given them a distinct view of the States of felicity or misery which their Obedience or Disobedience would lead them into This had been to give away the whole cause to the revolted Rebels and rather to conâ—ess errour and oversight in the Divine Government than impute fault to the impugners of it This being the State of the Case How suitable had it been to the design of this Second Trial to be made with Men to withdraw the vail and let every ones own Eyes be their informers of all the Glories of the Heavenly State and hereupon proclaim and preach the Gospel to them that they should all partake herein that would entirely deny themselves come off from their own bottom give themselves up absolutely to the Interest Love Service and Communion of their Redeemer and of God in him To fortifie them against the assaults and dangers of their Earthly Pilgrimage by reversing that Rule The Just shall live by Faith even that Faith which is the Substance of the things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen or by inverting the method that in reference to such things We are to walk by Faith not by Sight and letting it be We are to walk by Sight not by Faith And that lest any should refuse such Compliance with their Great Lord Whole Hades should be no longer so but made naked before them and the covering of Hell and Destruction be taken off and their own Eyes behold the infernal horrors their own Ears hear the shrieks and howlings of accursed Creatures that having rejected their Redeemer are rejected by him We are not here to consider what course would most certainly effect their Salvation but what most became the Wise Holy God to preserve the Dignity of his own Government and save them too otherwise Almighty Power could save all at once As therefore we have cause to acknowledge the kindness and compassion of our Blessed Lord who hath these Keys in giving us for the kind such notices as he hath of the state of the things in Hades So we have equal cause to admire his Wisdom that he giâ—es us not those of another kind that should more powerfully strike sense and amaze us more but instruct us less That continues it to be Hades still a state of things to us unseen as yet As the case would have been on the other supposition the most generous noble part of our Religion had been sullied or lost the Tryal of our Faith which is to be found unto Praise Honour and Glory at the appearinâ— of Jesus Christ even upon this account that they who had not seen him in his mean circumstances on Earth nor did now see him amidst all the Glories of his exalted State yet believing lov'd him and rejoyced in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. This Faith and all the glorious tryals of it with its admirable atchievements and performances whereby the Elders heretofore obtained so good a Report and high renown on Earth and which filled the World with wonder had all vanished into obscurity and Darkness i. e. If they had believed no more or no greater things than every Man besides had the immediate view of by his own Eye-sight And yet the trial had been greater on another Account than the Divine Wisdom in conjunction with Goodness and Compassion thought fit ordinarily to put sincere Christians upon For who could with any tolerable patience have endured longer abode on Earth after they should once have had the glory of the Heavenly state immediately set in view before their Eyes especially considering not so much the Sufferings as the impurities of their present State What for great reason was a special vouchsafement to one Apostle was for as great to be common to all Christians How great is the Wisdom and Mercy of our Blessed Lord in this partial concealment of our future State and that while so much as is sufficient is revealed there is yet an Hades upon it and it may still be said It doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.2 But as these Majestick Life-breathing words of our Great Lord do plainly offer the things that have been mentioned and many more such that might occur to our Thoughts and Meditation so will they be thought on in vain if they be not followed and answered by suitable Dispositions and Actions of Heart and Life Therefore the further use we are to make of this great Subject will be to lay down 2. Divers
correspondent things to be practised and done which must also suppose dispositions and frames of Heart and Spirit agreeable thereto 1. Let us Live expecting a period to be ere long put to our Life on Earth For remember there are Keys put into a great hand for this very purpose that holds them not in vain His Power is of equal extent with the Law he is to proceed by And by that it is appointed for all once to Die Therefore as in the Execution he cannot exceed so he will not come short of this appointment When that once shall be it belongs to him to determine And from the course we may observe him to hold as it is uncertain to all it can be very remote to none How short is the measure of a Span 'T is an absurd vanity â—o promise our selves that which is in the power of another How Wise and Prudent a thing to accommodate our selves composedly to his pleasure in whose power we are And to live as Men continually expecting to die There are bands of Death out of which when they once take hold we cannot free our selves But there are also bands of Life not less troublesome or dangerous 'T is our great concern to be daily by degrees loosening and disentangling our selves from these bands and for preventing the necessity of a violent Rupture To be daily disingaging our Hearts from an ensnaring World and the too close embraces of an over indulged Body Tell them resolutely I must leave them whensoever my great Lord turns the Key for me and I know not how soon that may be It is equally unhappy and foolish to be ingaged in the pursuit of an impossibility or in a War with necessity the former whereof cannot be obtained the latter cannot but overcome We owe so much to our selves and to the ease and quiet of our own Minds to be reconciled at all times to that which may befal us at any time How confounding a thing is surprizal by that which our selves regret and dread How unaccountable and ignominious must it be to pretend to be surprized with what we have so great reason always to expect And whereof we are so oft forewarned Is it no part of Christian watchfulness to wait for such an hour Tho' that waiting all the days of our appointed time mentioned John 14.14 refers to another change than that of Death viz. as the foregoing and following verses shew That of the Resurrection yet it cannot but be equally requisite upon a no less important reason And the requests that the Lord would make us know our end and the measure of our Days that we may know how frail we are Psal. 39.4 And that he would teach us so to number our Days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Psal 90.12 are equally monitory to the same purpose as the most express Precepts As also the many Directions we have to watch and wait for our Lords appearance and coming are as applicable to this purpose For whensoever his Key opens our passage out of this World and These Bodies Hades opens too and he particularly appears to us in as decisive a judgment of our case as his universal appearance and judgment will at last give for all The placid agreement of our Minds and Spirits with Divine determination both as to the thing and time of our departure hence will prevent the trouble and ungratefulness of being surpriz'd and our continual expectation of it will prevent any surprizal at all Let this then be an agreed resolution with us to endeavour being in such a posture as that we may be capable of saying Lord whensoever thou shalt move thy Key and tell me this night or this hour I 'll require thy Soul thou shalt not O Lord prevent mine expectation or ever find me counting upon many years injoyment of any thing this world can entertain me with In further pursuance hereof 2. Be not over-intent on designs for this present World which would suppose you to count upon long abode in it Let them be always laid with a supposition you may this way even by one turn of this Key be prevented of bringing them about and let them be pursued with indifferency so as that disappointment even this way may not be a grievance A thing made up of thought and design as our Mind and Spirit naturally is will be designing one way or other nor ought we to attempt that violence upon our own Natures as to endeavour the stupifying of the intelligent designing Mind which the Author of Nature hath put into us Only let us so lay our designs as that how many soever we form that may be liable to this sort of disappointment we may still have one greater and more important so regularly and surely laid that no turn of this Key shall be in any possibility to frustrate but promote it rather The design for the Kingdom of God to be first sought with his Righteousness Mat. 6.33 or which is puâ—sued by seeking Glory Honour and Immortality to the actual attainment of Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 may if prescribed methods be duly observed have this felicity always attending it to be â—ucessfully pursued while we live and effected when we Die But this is an unaccountable vanity under the Sun that Men too generally form such projects that they are disappointed both when they do not compass them and when they do If they do not they have lost their labour if they do they are not worth it They dream they are Eating and injoying the fruit of their labour but they awake and their Soul is empty And if at length they think of laying wiser and more valuable designs the Key turns and not having fixed their resolution and begun aright they and all their thoughts foolish or more wise perish together Because there is a fit season for every fit undertaking a time and judgment for every purpose or a critical time such as is by Judgment affixt to every such purpose Eccles. 8.6 and because also Men know not their time c. 9.12 therefore their Misery is great upon the Earth and as Birds caught in a snare they are snared in an evil time that falleth suddenly upon them O miserable miserable Mortals So are your immortal Spirits misimployed and lost Their most valuable design for another World is seldom thought on in season their little designs for this World they contrive and pâ—osecute with that confidence as if they thought the World to be theirs and themselves their own and they had no â—ord over them This rude insolence that holy Apostle animadverts upon of such as say To Day or to Morrow we will goe to such a City and continue there a â—ear and Buy and Sell and get Gain whereas they know not what shall be on the morrow And What is their Life a Vapour c. So much of Duty and becoming Behaviour is in the mean time forgotten as to say If the Lord will we shall live
c. This is to bear themselves as absolute Masters of their own Lives How bold an affront to their Soveraign Lord They feel themselves well in Health Strength and Vigour and seem resolved it shall be a Trial of Skill who hath the Power or to whom the Keys belong till it come to the last irrefragable demonstration that he changes their Countenance and sends them away Joh. 14.20 and then they go driven pluckt and torn away from their dwelling-place rooted out of the Land of the living Psal. 2.55 But if any premonitory decays make them doubt the perpetuity of their own abode here they some what ease their minds by the pleasure they take in thinking when they have filled their own Bellies Psal. 17.14 What they shall leave of their substance to their Babes and to them that shall come after And their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their Dwelling places to all Generations and they call their Lands after their own Names and their Posterity approve their sayings think and act as wisely as they Psal 49.11 12. Thus they take upon them and reckon they for their time and theirs after them shall still dwell in their own A wise thought They are the Owners when another keeps the Keys Several other things of like import I shall more lightly touch that may be collected from what hath been already more largely said and leave to be further enlarged upon in your own thoughts and shall dilate more upon some other as they are either more material or less thought on by the most 3. Be not prodigal of your time on Earth which is so little in your Power Because you are not to expect much make the best use you can of your little 'T is so precious a thing that it is to be redeemed 't is therefore too precious to be embezelled and trifled away The connexion of those two precepts Ephes. 5.15 16. of walking circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise and that of Redeeming the time more than intimates that to squander time is a foolish thing Of the several sorts of things that we make our selves their shape and frame shews their use and end Are we to make a less judicious estimate of the Works of God If we therefore contemplate our selves and consider what a sort of Production Man is Can we allow our selves to think God made him a reasonable Creature on purpose to play the Fool Or can we live as if we thought so without reproaching our Maker But whereas he who hath been the Author to us of such a Nature capable of improving a lifes time in this World unto most valuable purposes hath also been the Authoâ— of such a Law requiring us to redâ—em time The reproach will be wholly turned off from him upon our selves and our consequent ruine be upon our own guilty Heads And he will find some among our selves who by the advantage only of the reasonable Nature common to us and them that are instructors to us not to waste our days in vanity and will be witnesses against us if we so foolishly consume what we cannot command Some such have unanswerably reprehended the common folly of those that dread the thought of throwing away their whole Life at once that yet have no regret at throwing it all away by parcels and piece-meal And have told us a wise Man can find nothing of that value for which to barter away his time And we are to consider that as we are reasonable Creatures we are accountable That we are shut up in these Bodies as in Work-houses That when he that keeps the Keys lets us out we are to receive the things done in the Body according to what we have done whether good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10 That it belongs to him that measures our time to Censure it too and the use we have made of it 4. Let him be at once both great and amiable in our Eyes who hath so absolute power over us and so gracious propensions towards us i. e. Who hath these Keys and who acquired them with so merciful intentions even upon such terms as could not but signifie the greatest compassion and good will towards such as we Reconsider what hath been offered as matter of Meditation to both these purposes And now hereupon let us endeavour to have a correspondent sense inwrought into our Hearts and to bear our selves towards him accordingly The power and efficacy of whole Christianity depends upon this and doth very principally consist in it What a faint impotent languishing thing is our Religion how doth it dwindle into spritless dead form without it Either the form of knowledge is nothing else but insipid dead notion and our forms of Worship only fruitless unpleasant formality if we have not a vivid sense in our Hearts both of his glorious greatness and of his excellent loving kindness As much as words can signifie towards the impressing such a sense into our Hearts we have in these words uttered from his own Mouth so that he may say as that memorable type of him once did you may plainly perceive it is my Mouth that speaketh to you I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore And hereto he now sets his solemn ratifying Seal Amen Wherewith he leaves us to pause and collect that thus it was brought about that he could add and I have the Keys of the vast Hades the whole unseen World and of Death And God forbid that now these words should be with us an empty sound or a dead Letter Let us cast in our minds what manner of Salutaâ—ion this should be Doth the Son of God thus vouchsafe to bespeak miserable abjects perishing lost wretches How can we hereupon but bow our Heads and Worship What agitations of affection should we feel within How should all our internal Powers be moved and our whole Souls made as the Chariots of Amminadib What can we now be unwilling of that he would have us be or do And as that whereof we may be assured he is most willing 5. Let us entirely receive him and absolutely resign our selves to him as our Prince and Saviour Who would not covet to be in special Relation to so mighty and so kind a Lord And can you think to be related to him upon other terms And do you not know that upon these you may when in his Gospel he offers himself and demands you What can that mean but that you are to receive him and resign your selves The case is now brought to this state that you must either comply or rebel And what Rebel against him who hath these Keys who is in so high Authority over the whole unseen World Who is the head of all Principality and Power who is gone into the Heavens the glorious upper Hades and is at the right hand of God Angels Authorities Powers being made Subject to him 1
Pet. 3.21 We little know or can conceive as yet the several orders and distinctions of the Celestial Inhabitants and their great and illustrious Princes and Potentates Thrones Dominions c. that all pay him a dutiful and a joyful subjection and obedience But do we not know God hath given him a Name above every Name and that in his Name or at it as it may be read i. e. in acknowledgment of his Sovereign Power every knee must bow of things in Heaven on Earth and under Earth and all confess that he is Lord to the Praise and Glory of God the Father And who art thou perishing wretch that dar'st dispute his Title or that when all the Creation must be subject to him wilt except thy self And when it cost him so dear that his vast power might be subservient to a design of â—race and thou must at last be saved by him or lost for ever What can tempt thee to stand out against such Power and such Grace If thou wert to gratifie thy ambition how glorious a thing is it to be a Christian a Subject a Devoted Homager to so mighty a Prince If to provide against thy necessity and distress what course can be so sure and successful as to fly for refuge to so Compassionate a Saviour And dost thou not know there must be to this purpose an express transaction between him and thee Wonder he will condescend to it To capitulate with Dust and Ashes To Article with his own Creature with whom he may do what he will But his merciful condescension herein is declared and known If there shall be a special Relation settled betwen him and thee he hath told thee in what way it must be i. e. by way of Covenant-transaction and agreement as he puts his People of old in mind his way was with them I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Ezek. 16.8 This I insist upon and press as a thing of the greatest importance imaginable and the least thought of Nor the strange incongruity animadverted on viz. That we have the seals of such a Covenant among us but the Covenant it self slips through our hands Our Baptism soon after we were born with some foederal words then is thought enough as if we were a Nation of always Minors Who ever therefore thou art that hearest these words or readest these Lines know that the Great Lord is express towards thee in his Gospel proposal Wilt thou accept me for thine and resign thy self as mine He now expects and requires thy express Answer Take his Gospel as from the Cross or take it as from the Throne or as from both 't is the same Gospel interwoven of Grace and Authority the richest Grace and the highest Authority at once inviting and requiring thee to commit and submit thy self unto him Take heed lest his Key turn before thou have given thy complying answer importing at once both thy Trust and thy Subjection Give not over pleading with thy self with thy wayward stupid heart till it can say to him Lord I â—ield thou hast overcome Till with tender relentings thou hast thrown thy self at his feet told him Lord I am ashamed I am confounded within my self that thou shouldst Die upon a Cross to obtain thy high Power and that thou art now ready to use it for the saving so vile a miscreant as I That when thou hast so vast an unknown World so numberless myriads of excellent Creatures in thy obedience thou shouldst yet think it worth thy while to look after me and that I should so long have withstood thy kind and gracious overtures and intendments O forgive my wicked aversion I now accept and resign And now this being sincerely done with fulness of consent with deep humility with yearning bowels with unfeigned thankfulness and an inward complacency and gladness of Heart 6. Let your following course in this World be ordered agreeably hereto in continued dependence and subjection As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord so we are to walk in him Col. 2.6 Take him according to the Titles here given him as Christ a Person anointed authorized qualified to be both Jesus a Saviour so we are to walk according to our first reception of him in continual dependence on his Saving Mercy and and to be a Lord or as 't is here exprest with eminency the Lord so we are to walk in continual subjection to his Governing Power Otherwise our receiving him at first under these notions hath nothing in it but mockery and collusion But if his obtaining these Keys upon the terms here exprest as having been dead and now living and having overcome Death as 't is also Rom. 14.9 did signifie his having them for saving purposes as it must since for other purposes he had them sufficiently before and if we reckon'd this a reasonable inducement to receive him and commit and intrust our selves to him as a Saviour that he dy'd and overcame Death for his Grace in yielding to Die had not rendred him a competent object of trust otherwise than in conjunction with his Power in overcoming Death and so gaining into his hands these Keys Then the same reason still remaining how constant an encouragement have we to continue accordingly walking in him all our days How potent an argument should it be to us to live that life which we live in the Flesh by Faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2.20 i. e. inasmuch as having been crucify'd with him which is also there exprest we feel our selves to live nevertheless yet so as that 't is not so much we that live as Christ that liveth in us who could not live in us or be to us a spring of Life if he were not a perpetual spring of Life in himself And consider how darest thou live otherwise in this Flesh in this Earthly House whereof he keeps the Keys and can fetch thee out at his pleasure When he hath warned thee to abide in him that when he shall appear thou mayest have confidence and not be ashamed at his coming 1 Joh. 2.28 He will certainly then appear when he comes to open the Door and dislodge thee from this flesh though there be here a further and final reference to another appearance and coming of his and if he then find thee severed and disjoyned from him thy first closure with him not having been sincere truly unitive and vital how terribly will he look how confoundedly wilt thou look in that hour Neither hast thou less reason to live in continual subjection to him considering that as he dy'd and overcame Death that he might have these Keys so he now hath them and thou art under his governing Power The more thou consider'st his right to Govern the less thou wilt dispute it When he was spoken of as a Child to us born that he might become a Man of sorrows be sorrowful unto the Death and have all
Laws of it what is our prospect To go down here somewhat lower Let us suppose a rational susceptibleness or capacity of Religion to be the difference of Man wherein the Controversie may seem to admit of being compromis'd whether it be Religion alone or Reason alone of which this must be said that it distinguishes Man from the Inferiour Creatures And let it be Reason with this addition an aptness suspicere numen to be imprest with some Religious Sentiment or to conceive of and adore an Original Being The wise and mighty Author and Cause of all things And now how near akin are Religion and Humanity Let us next understand Christianity to be the Religion of fal'n Man designing his Recovery out of a lapsed and lost State i. e. Man having violated the Law of his Creation and offended against the Throne and Government of his Creator the Supream and Vniversal Lord of all It was reckon'd not becoming so great a Majesty tho' it was not intended to abandon the Offenders to an Universal Ruine without Remedy to be reconcil'd otherwise than by a Mediator and a Reconciling Sacrifice For which none being found competent but the Eternal Son of God the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his own Person who was also the First and the Last the Lord God Almighty and partaking with us of flesh blood was capable and undertook to be both Mediator and Sacrifice It seem'd meet to the offended Majesty to vouchsafe Pardon and Eternal Life and the renewing Grace requisite thereto to none of the Offenders but through him and accept from them no Homage but on his Account Requiring wheresoever the Gospel comes not only Repentance towards God but Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as the Summary of the Counsel of God contain'd therein Acts 20.21 27. And that all should honour the Son as he the Father requires to be honoured John 5.23 Whereas now so apt a Course as this was establisht for restoring Man to himself and to God through the Influence of the Blessed Spirit flowing in the Gospel-Dispensation from Christ as the Fountain What doth it portend when amidst the clear Light of the Gospel that affords so bright a Discovery of the Glorious Redeemer and of all his apt Methods for bringing to full effect his mighty Work of Redemption an open War is commenc'd against him and his whole Design by Persons under Seal devoted to him If there were but one single Instance hereof in an Age who would not with trembling expect the Issue But when the Genius of a Christian Nation seems in the rising Generation to be leading to a general Apostacy from Christianity in its Principal and most Substantial Parts and they are only patient of some External Rituals that belong or are made appendent to it so as but to endure them either â—ith Reluctancy or Contempt When the Juvenile Wit and Courage which are thought to belong to a Gentleman entring upon the Stage of the World are imployed in satyrizing upon the Religion into which they have been Baptiz'd in bold Efforts against the Lord that bought them Whither doth this tend Some would seem so modest as in the midst of their profane Oaths and Violations of the Sacred Name of God to beg his Pardon and say God forgive them But so ludicrously as he whom Cato animadverts upon For begging Pardon that he wrote in Greek which he was unacquainted with saying He had rather ask Pardon than be Innocent for what should induce him to do so unnecessary a thing for which Pardon should be necessary Thâ—se Men think Pardons very cheap things But will God be mocked Or doth he not observe 'T is the prevailing Atheistical Spirit we are to dread as that which may provoke Jealousie and to make himself known by the Judgments he shall execute There is great reason to hope God will not finally abandon England But is there not equal reason to fear that before the Day of Mercy come there may be a nearer Day of Wrath coming A Day that shall burn as an Oven and make the Hemisphere about us a fiery Vault In our Recovery from a lapsed State which the Religion profest among us aims at There are two things to be effected The restoring Reason to its Empire over the sensitive Nature that it may govern that and the restoring Religion and Love to God to its Place and Power that he may govern us While the former is not done we remain sunk into the low Level with the Inferior Creatures and till the latter be effected we are ranked with the Apostate Creatures that first fell from God The Sensualty of Brutes and the Enmity of Devils rising and springing up observably among us import the directest Hostility against the Redeemer's Design And them that bid this open Defiance to Him he hath every Moment at his Mercy In the mean time Is this Emmanuel 's Land His Right in us he will not disclaim And because he claims it we may expect him to vindicate himsâ—lâ— His present Patience we are to ascribe to the Wisdom and Greatness of an All-comprehending Mind He counts not an heap of impotent Worms his Match But when the Besom of Destruction comes one stroak of it will sweep away Multitudes Then Contempt will be Answered with Contempt They cannot express higher than to oppose and militate against a Religion introduc'd and brought into the World by so Clear Divine Light Lustre and Glory not by Arguments but by Jeasts O that we could but see their Arguments to dispute those Keys out of his Hands that holds them But do they think to laugh away the Power of the Son of God He also will laugh at their Calamity c. Prov. 1. or expose them to the Laughter of Men wiser than they Psal. 52.5 6. 'T is little wit to despise what they cannot disprove When we find a connection between Death and Judgment how will they contrive to dis-joyn them They will be as little able to disprove the one as withstand the other But a great residue 't is to be hoped our Blessed Redeemer will in due time conquer in the most merciful way inspiring them with Divine Wisdom and Love detecting their Errours mollifying their hardness subduing their enmity making them gladly submit to his easie Yoke and light Burden He is before the World end to have a numerous Seed and we are not to despair of their rising up more abundantly than hitherto among our selves so as no Man shall be therefore asham'd to be thought a serious Christian because 't is an unfashionable or an ungenteel thing Then will honour be acquir'd by living as one that believes a Life to come and expects to live for ever as Devoted ones to the Ruler of both Worlds and Candidates for a blessed Immortality under his Dominion Nor will any Man covet to leave a better Name behind him here or a more honourable Memorial of himself than by having liv'd an holy