bodies shall be transfigured into the likeness of his own Glorious body How according or suitably to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue even all things unto himself God can do what he will and that 's enough And thus I have opened the first Consequence of Christ his Last Coming sc The Resurrection of the Saints as formerly in respect of the 1. Author The Lord Jesus 2. The Precedency of it they that are alive shall not prevent them which are asleep they shall rise first So also now 3. In respect of the manner of it the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with four glorious qualities 1. Incorruptible 2. Glorious 3. Powerful 4. Spiritual By all which it shall be conformed to the Glorious Body of our Lord Jesus It may be of Use 1. For Counsel 2. For Comfort and but a word of either First It may serve by way of Counsel 1. Use Of Counsel and that unto all indefinitly You that would secure unto your selves an interest in the glory which shall be put upon the Saints bodies in the Resurrection labour to experience this beatifical transfiguration first in your Souls on this side of the Grave Labour to get your vile spirits to be made like to his glorious Spirit Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ put Him on by an holy and universal Imitation Labour to be meek as He was meek Holy as He was Holy Pure as He was Pure Merciful as He was Merciful Heavenly as He was Heavenly And Joh. 4.34 Let it be your meat and drink to do the will of him that sent you and to finish his work * A. Christ was the brightness of his Father's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insculpta forma the express Image of his Person So do ye study in your finite capacity to be the brightness of Christ his glory the express Image of his Person Oh labour to get his Image and similitude to be deeply engraven upon your hearts and to scatter the beams of it in your Conversations Philip. 2.15 for the enlightning of a dark world Behold this shall be the evidence and first-fruits of your future conformity to Him in the Resurrection of the just The ground and Reason is because that blessed Transfiguration which shall conform the Saints to Christ their Head and Husband in the Resurrection and from thenceforth to all Eternity hath its beginning here in Regeneration Ephes 4.23 24. or the New Birth wherein they are renewed in the Spirit of their minds Bâ—ta referts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit upon twelve â—nâ—â—nes and do put on habitually the New man which after God is Created in Righteousness and true holiness Jesus Christ is formed in their hearts And upon this very account is the Resurrection styled also the Regeneration Math. 19.28 In the Regeneration ye also shall sit i. e. in the Resurrection ye also shall sit c. And it is therefore called the Regeneration because the Resurrection shall perfect in the Saints what the Regeneration begun sc Conformity to Christ their Head and Husband in Holiness Yea at the Resurrection the Image of Jesus Christ shall be compleated as on their Souls so on their bodies also because that Image was begun upon their Souls on this side the Grave in their New Birth accordingly as they were predestinated to both in the purpose of God Rom 8.29 from all Eternity The Resurrection to Grace here and to Glory hereafter is but one and the same Regeneration Whosoever therefore is a Stranger to this Transformation of Spirit in the Resurrection to Grace shall never partake of that Transfiguration of body in the Resurrection to Glory The bodies of the wicked shall be raked out of their Graves with all their defects and excesses all their mis-shapes and deformities which they carried with them to their Graves in their perfect ugliness which were the shame and curse of the fallen nature an abhorrency to God and Angels c. Yea to the very Devils themselves whom they shall have to be both their Companions and Executioners The Saints of God were the world 's derided persecuted Non-Conformists here but themselves shall be Christs and his Saints Non-Conformists hereafter when their Carcasses shall be cast out for a spectacle of shame and abhorrency unto all flesh for ever Isa 66. ult Christians as you love your Souls and would bear the Image of the Son of God in his Kingdom and glory Study this Soul-Conformity now and make it your business Labour to feel this blessed change wrought in your hearts and let the world behold it in your lives without which all your Confidences concerning that day will prove but so many delusions Rom. 5.5 to aggravate your shame and everlasting dispair Hear oh hear how the Disciple of Love doth argue When He shall appear we shall be like Him Glorious But why 1 Joh. 3.2 cum c. 4.17 Because As He is so are we in this world He disputes from Conformity to Christ in the Gospel-state to Conformity to Him at this Appearance We shall c. because we are c. By such Argumentations Christians Philip. 2.12 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 1 Joh. 4.17 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling that ye may have boldness in the day of Judgment c. Secondly It may serve by way of Comfort Second Use Consolation and for that end it is written by the Comforter Himself in this model for Comfort I say in reference to our sweet Relations that sleep in Jesus over whom not seldom we spend our fruitless Tears take we heed lest sinful also while we compare their once lively sweet amiable Countenances which sparkled so much beauty and delight in our eyes with their pale ghastly Visages in the Grave where they say to Corruption Job 17.14 thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister We look upon them I say not without a kind of trembling and horrour as if their Ghosts appeared to us out of their Graves or that we our selves were buried with them alive in the same Coffin Ah Sirs why stand ye not with the men of Galilee Act. 1.11 gazing up into Heaven but with Peter stooping down and looking into the Sepulcher Behold I bring you glad tydings of great joy The day is coming when that Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and that Mortal shall put on Immortality when that poor dust over which thou now mournest that vile body shall put on its Angelical Robes and shall more surpass it self in its freshest and liveliest colours while yet in the land of the living than that beautiful pile of flesh and blood did exceed it self when it was resolved into rottenness and dust Look not then oh ye Children of God upon your Selves or your Relations as they lye in the Grave but contemplate them as
cheeks with Tears asking solicitously of every one they met Saw ye not him whom my Soul loveth I say To meet him now on the Throne of his glory of whom could they have had but a glimpse in a glass darkly in the Evangelical Ordinances Can. 6.12 their Souls would have made them like the Chariots of Aminadab To see him whom having not seen they loved and in whom though they then saw him not yet believing they rejoyced with joy unspeakable and full of glory I say now to see him and so to see him as to have a full sight of his unveyled face shining more gloriously than ten thousand Suns at Noon-day Once more So to see him as never to lose the sight of him to all Eternity How will this transport their Souls with unspeakable extasies of joy which will cause them to break forth into Triumphant Hymns yea and to call to their now fellow Angels to help them with their Coelestial Hallelujahs Behold such and infinitely more than tongue can express or heart conceive will be the mutual joy triumph between Christ and his Saints at his blessed appearance Go forth in the mean time Use Oh ye Daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown Cant. 3.11 wherewith his Father will Crown him in the day of his Marriage and in the day of the gladness of his heart Gird up the loyns of your minds 1 Pet. 1.13 be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ Ch. 4.13 that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad with exceeding joy Thus I have done with the first thing considerable in this meeting The Persons meeting Christ and the Saints I come to the second The place of meeting and that is In the Air. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air That is the place where Christ stays for his Saints There they meet him and there this great Oecumenical Assize will be held The Judge shall sit upon the Throne and all the Saints shall be placed on bright Clouds as on seats or Scaffolds round about him The Wicked remaining below upon the Earth there to receive their final doom and sentence and from thence to be drag'd away by the Executioners of divine Vengeance Infernal Spirits to the place of Execution the bottomless-Pit yet standing and to the greater aggravation of their horror looking on If it be demanded Qu. Why this Solemn Meeting must be in the Air. Answ It may suffice for answer The Lord Jesus hath made choyce of this place It is the priviledg of earthly Judges in their Circuits to appoint the place where they will keep their Assizes or Sessions wherein if stat pro ratione volunt as their will is a sufficient reason surely it is not less the prerogative of this great Judg of the quick and the dead to appoint the place where he will hold this last and tremendous Judgment And we may well acquiesce in the choyce not only because his will is the soveraign Law of the Creature but as his insinite Wisdome hath judged it the place most convenient for the designe And yet if it be lawful to make our Conjectures where Scripture is silent we may humbly suppose this two-fold Account of it 1. The Capacity of the Place 2. The Conspicuity of the Judgment 1. The Capacity of the Place Vast For the Capacity of the Place and as to us insinite will be the numberless numbers of those that do meet in this universal Assembly Behold the Lord will come with ten thousands of his Saints Jude 14. Yea thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him All the Saints that slept in Jesus from the Creation of man and all the Saints which are found alive upon the Earth at Christs Coming must all appear before the Lord Josus And besides these the Judge cometh with his Royal Satellites his Officers of State Myriads and Legions of Angels All his holy Angels Math. 25.31 There shall not be an Angel as it were left in Heaven as it were Jacob met two Hosts or Camps of Angels of God in his Travel Gen. 32.12 Our Saviour mentions more then 12 Legions which as a commanded party Math. 26 53. would have been in an instant sent out for his rescue if there had been need What an infinit Army of Angels must it needs be then when all the Angels come in Christ's Train An innumerable company of Angels Heb. 12.22 And all these must not appear in confused heaps and multitudes but in their distinct ranks and order and the Saints are to sit in Order in their several degrees round about the Throne Why now the Place had need be of an huge extent and circumference that will suffice to receive and contain such variety of multitudes So that even in this respect no place so fit for this August and solemn Convention as the Air for its vast extensiveness and capacity But Secondly Much more in respect of Conspicuity that so the Judg and Judgment with all the Assessors and Attendants might be more eminently visible from Heaven above to the Earth beneath that the whole process of this general Assize may be heard and seen by all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Heaven and Hell Heaven would be too high the Earth would be too low the smoke of the bottomless pit would obscure this glorious vision The Air where is no interposition of Hills and Mountains and now serened and brightned by the confluence of so many glorious Suns will render this last tremendous Transaction visible and audible to every Creature Behold he cometh with Clouds Clouds which will not obscure him but bright Clouds which filled with the beams of his glory shall render him most visible and conspicuous Math. 24.30 Rev. 1.7 So it is Prophesied Every eye shall see him c. Thus it shall be and this will make for the exceeding Glory and Majesty of the Judg For thus it is even in humane Judicatories upon Earth the Tribunal of the Judg and Bench of Assessors is erected in open Court and lifted up on high in the sight of all the people that all may see and hear the whole judicial procedure of the Law with the posse Comitatus attending in Arms for the greater solemnity and honour of the Judge Upon the same accompt hath our Lord made choyce of the Air to keep his great Arsize in there to erect his Royal Throne and to place seats of Judgment for all the Saints to sit upon round about him all the holy Armies of Angels surrounding them This will make Christ very glorious in the eyes of all the Spectators Hence it is said He shall come in the glory of his Father and his own glory The Father sends the Son about this great Work of the last Judgment with as much pomp and glory as can
shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds every one walking in their uprightness Death is nothing else but a Writ of ease to the poor weary Servants of Christ a total Cessation from all their labour of nature sin and affliction Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours c. While the Souls of the Saints do Rest in Abrahams Bosome their bodies do sweetly sleep in their Beds of dust as in a safe and Consecrated Dormitory Thus Death is but a sleep Secondly And then again as they that sleep in the night do awake in the morning so shall the Saints of God do This heaviness may endure for a night this night of mortality but joy cometh in the morning In the morning of the Resurrection they shall awake again Psal 17.15 it will not be an everlasting night an endless sleep but as sure as we awake in the morning when we have slept comfortably all night so sure shall the Saints then awake and shall stand upon their feet and we shall behold them again with exceeding joy Oh Blessed morning How should we long and wait for that morning more than they that watch for the dawning of the day It is an errour in Philosophy to call Death a total privation of the habit Divinity hath corrected that errour while it hath taught us to call the dissolution of Nature in the Saints at the most but a sleep Mors ista quam adeò perhorrescimus adeò timemus non est exitus sed transitus veni et eterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies Sen. which in the Philosophers own notion is but a partial privation and doth admit of a Regress or returning again to the habit or former state and capacity more beautiful active and vigorous than ever as hereafter shall appear A comfortable notion which were it realized by Believing would be able to silence our complaints and to still all our moan-makings over our departed Christian friends and Relations how sweet and precious soever they have been to us For do we indeed take on so when any of the Family are gon to Bed before us in the Evening Do we indeed cry out woe and alas my Father is fallen asleep my Mother is laid to Rest my dear Yoak-fellow is gone to bed before me my sweet Child the delight of mine eyes the joy of my heart his eyes are closed the Curtains drawn close about him and I cannot awake him Do we I say thus take on and afflict our selves in this case no surely he would be accounted little better than a Mad-man or a Fool that should do so Oh fie then fie for shame why do we so here the case is the same only if the night be a little longer which yet no man can determine before hand the morning will be infinitely more joyous and make us more abundant compensation for our patience and expectation why are we so unlike our selves in one and in the other Surely because we either forget our notions or believe them not we call the absence of our Friends by a wrong name We say my Father is dead my Mother is dead my Isaack is dead my dear Yoak-Fellow is not and these be killing words Dead the Letter killeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death is the most terrible of all terrible things the very name of it strikes a chilness and coldness into our hearts enough to kill us before our time for even worldly sorrow many times causeth death Call we then things as God calls them make we use of the notions which God hath suggested to us say we my Parent is gone to bed my Yoak-Fellow is at Rest my beloved Babe is fallen asleep * So also in Scripture is death tearmed a departure 2 Tim. 4.6 an absence from the body a going from home an uncloathing 2 Cor. 5 4.8 Job 15.11 An entring into peace a going to rest Isa 57.2 and behold the terrour of death will cease If God hath cloathed this horrid thing Death with softer notions for our comfort let not the Consolations of the Almighty be a small thing with us Oh how comfortable lives might we live had we but the right notions of things and Faith to realize them Our Friends are not dead but sleep Comfort one another with this Word The second Consolatory Argument is The hopeful condition of these our sleeping Relations 2d Word of Comfort Blessed be God we are not without hope of their happiness even while they thus sleep There be indeed that dye and neither carry away any hope with them nor leave any hope behind them to thâ—â— surviving Relations but the Righteous hath hope in his 〈◊〉 Prov. 14.23 when our gratious Relations dye we nâ—â—â—â—â—se the word sometimes that we may be understood there is hope They are infinite gainers by their death Sometimes they dye full of hope in their own sense Job 19.25 26 27. I know saith Jâ—b that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worme destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God c. Oh Blessed hopeâ— And thus holy Paul 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Glorious Triumph And thus again we may find him in his own name and in the name of other of his Brethren and Companions in Tribulation and in the Kingdome and patience of Jesus Christ marching out of the field of this world in a Victorious manner with Colours flying and Drums beating and thus insulting over Death as a Conqueror 1 Cor. 15.56.57 Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And thus 2 Pet. 1.11 An abundant entrance is administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Oh the superabundant Consolation of the Heires of promise And if any of the Saints of God at any time their Sun have set under a Cloud so that they are not able to express their own hopes yet they leave behind them sollid Scripture evidences of God's everlasting Electing Love and of their effectual vocation out of the world into the Kingdome and Fellowship of his dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord Evidences of saving vocation Gal. 5.22 23. such as are The Fruits of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance Their Poverty of Spirit Holy Mourning For Their own and Other mens Sins Math. 5.3 Their hungering and thirsting after Righteousness 6. v. 8. Their purity of heart visible in the holiness of their lives Their peaceable and peace-making dispositions 9.10 11
cast forth her dead The dead shall arise by vertue of this dew the warm animating influence of Christs Resurrection Hence it is as I have hinted before that our Lord calls himself the Resurrection and the Life namely to intimate to us that by the same spirit of holiness whereby he raised himself from the dead he will also quicken their mortal bodies This is a second Connexion which inseparably links in the Resurrection of the Saints with the Resurrection of Christ For surely were it not so the Resurrection of Jesus Christ would signifie no more than the Resurrection of Lazarus or any other of the Saints mentioned Math. 27.52 53. Yea the Resurrection of Christ would not be of so great vertue and influence as the dry bones of the Prophet the very touch whereof raised the dead man 2 King 12.21 which was cast into his Grave Thirdly There is between the Resurrection of Christ Third Connexion of Design and the Resurrection of the Saints at the last day a Connexion of Design The Lord Jesus had a design upon the Saints in his rising again from the Dead and what that was he tells us in the last passionate prayer before his passion John 17.24 Father I will that all those whom thou hast given me be with me that where I am they might be also Therefore Christ arose and ascended that he might come again and awake them out of their Graves and take them home to himself into Mansions of Glory So he comforted his Disciples before his departure Joh. 14.3 If I go and prepare a place for you I will come and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also Christ counts not himself full Eph. 1.23 The Head is not compleat without the Members Although I thus sence the words yet I would not be thought to exclude every other meaning as knowing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well quod impletur as quod implet till he hath all his Members with him therefore is the Church called the fullness of him that filleth all things marke it Christ is the fulness of all things and yet the Church is called the fulness of Christ how so Christ is the fulness of the Church as the Head is the fulness of the Members supplying them with Life and Influence and the Church is the fulness of Christ as the Members are the fulness of the Head making of it a compleat and perfect man Christ is the fulness of the Church for internal animation and the Church is the fulness of Christ for external consummation The Church is Christs outward not inward fulness see Jeans on Colos 1.19 page 19. This is then a third inseparable Connexion between Jesus rising again from the Dead and the Saints rising again because without this Christ should loose the very plot and project of his own Resurrection and be defective even in his state of Glory as an Head without his Members This must not be it cannot be And this casts us upon the fourth Connexion Fourth Connexion of Vnion before we are aware of it sc A Connexion of Vnion The Connexion which is between Christ his Resurrection and the Saints Resurrection is that very Connexion which is between him and them namely the Union which is between the Head and Members The wicked rise not by vertue of Christs Resurrection there being no such Vnion between Christ them they are raised by a general power of Christ as a Judge Christ is the Head Eph. 1.22 and the Saints are the Members of his body v. 23. his Mystical body It would not be proper here to discourse largely concerning the nature of this Vnion especially in as much as I shall have occasion to meet with it again in the process of this discourse sufficient to my design it is to shew you how this spiritual Vnion that is between Christ and Believers is one of the * In Nature we see that the Winter Trees which seem to be dead revive again in the Spring because the Body Armes and Graines of the Tree are joyned to the Root where the Sap lies all the Winter and by means of its Conjunction it conveys vegetation to all parts of the Tree Even so our life is hid with Christ in God And in the day of the Resurrection by reason of this mystical Conjunction Divine and quickening Vertue shall stream from Christ to his Elect and cause them to rise again c. Foundations whence the Resurrection of the Saints is necessarily inferr'd upon the Resurrection of Christ himself For if the Head be risen the Members cannot be long behind witness the Word of Christ to his Disciples and in them to all Believers a word more precious than the whole Creation Because I live ye shall live also The Resurrection of the Saints is bound up in the Resurrection of Christ as the effect is bound up in the cause because I live you shall live because Jesus rose again Saints shall rise again Christ is our life and therefore when Christ shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Can the cause be without the effect can the Head live and the Members remain dead Yea can the Saints life live and they themselves continue in a state of death This is an happy contradiction a blessed impossibility Oh write this comfortable word upon your hearts Christians Christ is our life Christ is your Life and the Life of your Christian Relations and as sure as Christ as risen they shall rise and because he lives those Members of his for whom you weep and bleed as dead shall live also with him Surely if the Devil and all the powers of darkness were not able to keep Christ in the Grave neither shall they be able to hold one of his Members there for ever Hence you shall find the holy Apostle disputing from the Resurrection of Christ to the Resurrection of Christians If Christ rose from the Dead 1 Cor. 15.12 how say some that there is no Resurrection of the Dead and back again from the Resurrection of Christians ver 13. to the Resurrection of Christ if there be no Resurrection of the Dead then Christ is not risen Indeed the form of words is Negative but the sense is Affirmative and for the greater assurance it is repeated over and over in the following verses backward and forward as Convertibles grant one and ye grant the other deny one and ye deny the other And the result is this But now is Christ risen from the Dead ver 20. and become the first Fruits of them that sleep Christ is risen Christ rose as the first fruits in which the whole Harvest is considered and risen as our first Fruits as a pledge and part of the whole Harvest for if the first Fruits be holy the Lump is also holy if the first Fruits be laid up safe in Gods Barns the whole Harvest shall in due time be
2.5 The Believer in Christ implieth Communion and fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 When Christ is said to be in the Believer we are to understand it in reference to sanctification When the Believer is said to be in Christ it is in order to justification It is Christ without us 1 Cor. 1.30 Righteousness that justifieth it is Christ within us that sanctifieth Grace in the Apostles phrase is Christ formed in the heart Gal 4.19 These and the like expressions hold forth that transcendent and mysterious Vnion which is between Christ and the Believing Soul whereby they are not only joyned together but in a sober Gospel-sense united oned as it were Christ becomes one with them and they one with Christ This Union with Christ for the clearer and safer understanding of so great and precious a mystery Six or seven properties of this Union I shall endeavour more fully to open in these six or seaven distinguishing properties It is a 1 Spiritual Union It is a 2 Real Union It is a 3 Operative Union It is a 4 Enriching Union It is a 5 Intimous Union It is a 6 Total Union It is a 7 Indissoluble Union The first property It is a Spiritual Vnion First property It is Spiritual When we speak of this Union we must abstract from all that is gross and fleshy there is nothing in it obvious to sense perceptible by the eye or by the ear or by the touch or tast it is not effected by any corporeal contact Christ and the Believer are not tied together by any material bonds and fleshy sinews but their Union is a pure immaterial sublime Vnion altogether Spiritual and that upon a double accompt First partly in as much as by this Union Christ 1 Cor. 6.17 and the Believer are made one Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit not onely one Spiritually but one Spirit not as exclusive to the body it self Ephes 2.29 for we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones but expressing to us the top and perfection of this Union He that is joyned to an Harlot is one flesh in an impure and carnal sense Man and Wife 1 Cor. 6 16. though their conjunction be more honourable yet are but one flesh also in a conjugal sense For two saith he shall be one flesh I but he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit an Union infinitely more honourable than that in Marriage the Believer is joyned to Christ into one and the same Spirit he is animated and acted by one and the same Spirit with Christ though in a different degree and measure for God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Jo. 3.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ as Mediator for in that capacity Believers are United unto him and not merely as second person received the Spirit without measure * Christ was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal 15. ◠〈◊〉 he had a larger effusion of the Spirit poured out upon him than all other Kings and Priests and Prophets Believers have but their stinted measure and proportion and yet notwithstanding the Spirit of God dwelling as truly in them as it did in Christ himself though not essentially they thereby become one Spirit with Christ And then again It is a spiritual Union 2. Partly because the bones and ligaments of this Union are not Carnal but Spiritual Scil. the Spirit whereby Christ Unites himself to the Believer on Christs part The presence of the Spirit maketh this Union by vertue of which God communicates with us as with his Sons and we communicate with God as with our Heavenly Father The exercises of Communion on both sides are managed by the Spirit of Christ Gal. 4.6 And the bond of Faith on the Believers part whereby the Believer is Vnited to Christ as the Cion is engraffed into the Stock and thereby grows up to be one with the Stock So is the Believer implanted into Christ by Faith Ephes 3.17 grows up in him receiveth life and nourishment from him and is preserved in him to life eternal kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. Behold 〈…〉 here is the subordination of these two bonds Faith keeps the Believer and the power of God keeps his Faith ‖ Per organum â—â—lei Spâ—ritus Christi virtuâ—â—â—â— now the Spirit of God is that power Upon this twofold account then is this Union a spiritual Vnion viz. 1. Because an Union of Spirit 2. Because effected by spiritual bonds A second property of this Union It is a real Vnion A second Property Real in a tenfold opposition Entia Rationis and that in a tenfold distinction First In opposition to an imaginary Union it is no metaphysical notion or like those things which Logicians call Intellectual beings or your Mathematical Lines which have their existence only in the understanding and fancy Secondly Nor is it a Relative Vnion only as Father and Child Master and Servant are united such an Union there is between Christ and Believers but that is not all Thirdly Neither is it a legal Vnion only Christ and the Believer are not one only as the Debtor and the Surety are one in Law in a forinsecal sence i.e. in the interpretation and judgment of the Court. In this sence they are one indeed viz. in the judgment of God as a Judge as I have formerly shewed but not only so Fourthly Nor is it an Union only of assent in point of doctrine and judgment though so much it is for saith the Apostle in the name of all Believers We have the mind of Christ 2 Cor. 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Believer so far as he is a Believer is of the same mind judgment and opinion with Jesus Christ in all things And this truly gives them a kind of oneness whence a firm and stedfast continuance in the Faith i.e. in the doctrine of Jesus Christ Fides quae creditur is called an in being in Christ John 15.4.6 and an abiding in Christ 1 John 2.24.28 Scil. a professional or doctrinal Union with Christ This the Saints of God have but neither is this all Fifthly Nor yet is it merely an Union of consent The Believer is not one with Christ only by consent of wills The Arrians whilst they blasphemously deny the Deity of the Son betray a double ignorance and if but ignorance there sin is the less the one in the doctrine or assertion it self the other in the ground which they alledge for it which is Christs own words praying to his Father for Believers John 17.22 that they may be one even as we are one whence they supposing Believers to be one with the Father and the Son only by consent of wills do infer neither are the Father and the Son one in any other sence But say we they err in the very foundation we acknowledg
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
shall bring them together Math. 24.31 The incineration dissipation of their dust shall have a Recollection in the Resurrection not so much as one dust wanting for he that numbers the Stars doth number also the dust and ashes of his Redeemed as not an hair of their heads so not a dust of their resolved flesh shall perish Thus gathered together Christ by his mighty power shall unite dust to dust every dust in its own proper place and form it up into the same numerical body it was when it was dissolved and laid down in the Grave And thus made up into a beautiful Structure more beautiful than ever it was in its first Creation as I shall shew hereafter Christ will put each Soul into its own body again and unite them together into the same sweet conjugal society and fellowship they possessed before their separation this friendly espoused Pair shall now be solemnly Married together before God and Men and Angels never to suffer Divorce any more and they shall become one entire person a totum compositum as they were in the days of their first contract And this excellent person will Christ animate and quicken with the influences of that blessed Union with himself which during all this long interval of their sleeping in the Grave was not dissolved but hidden only and suspended Now shall the Saints know and feel the meaning of that word which Christ spake to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life Martha in the verse immediately before had professed her Faith of a Resurrection I know that my Brother shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day Presently Christ replieth Jo. 11.25 I am the Resurrection and the Life discovering to her the Fountain and Cause of that Resurrection namely that Life and Vertue shall then go forth from himself to animate and quicken all his Members and shall cause them to stand upon their feet again as the Children of the Resurrection Thirdly Soul and body thus Vnited Christ God-man shall bring with him unto the place where the great Assizes of the quick and dead shall be solemnly kept which the 17th v. tells us will be in the Air of which more distinctly when we come to that verse Thither Christ will bring with him all his Elect whose bodies to that moment have slept in him Christ will carry the risen Saints with him to the Judgment when he hath awakened them And that upon a Twosold Accompt First For the greater Honour of that Day For the greater solemnity of that last and tremendous Judgment The Saints shall be brought out of their Graves to attend the Judge for his greater State and Grandeur to strike the greater Terrour into the hearts of Reprobate men and Angels who then shall be brought forth in Chains to the Tribunal of Christ to see and suffer the severity and impartiality of that last Tryal The Glory of a King consists in the multitude of his Nobles and Royal Attendants The Judge of Assize is brought in with the Posse Comitatus the power and gallantry of the Country for the striking of the greater terror and aw into the hearts of offenders Angels and Saints shall be Christ's Life-guard as it were Christi Satellitium or as his Troops and Legions which shall conduct him in State and Triumph to the Judgment Seat Secondly when Christ shall have raised his sleeping Saints out of their beds of dust he shall bring them with him from the Grave to the place of Judgment That they may accompany him and be with him throughout the whole carriage and conduct of the last judicial process to hear and applaud his righteous proceedings This is that which the Apostle calls The Saints judging of the World and judging of Angels yea 1 Cor. 6.2 3. it seems that is not all our Saviour tells his Apostles that in that day Math. 19.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nâ—mpe ut Christi vere propâ—è Judicis Assâ—ssâ—res Bern. in â—oe they shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes c. judging or condemning how certainly not as bare Spectators only but as Assessors to sit with Him on the Bench to justifie and consent to the judgment of Christ the great and Supream Judg giving in their full and free suffrages to the final sentence which he shall pass upon the Reprobate world of Jews and Gentiles of Men and Devils probably in some such language as we hear from the Saints upon the downfall of Antichrist Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty And by that Doctrine they shall be judged also in the general judgment Math. 13.18 Jo. 12.48 Heb. 117. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He condemned the world partly as the building of the Ark was a visible prediction of the Flood partly as it was a witness and conviction of their infidelity just and true are thy waies thou King of Saints for thy judgments are made manifest Here the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel judged the Wicked of the world by their Doctrine and both Ministers and others of Gods faithful Servants judged them by their Holy lives and patient bearing of the Cross as it is said of Noah that by his Faith in believing the warning and obeying the Command of God in preparing the Ark he judged or condemned the unbelieving World The holiness of the Saints is a tacit reproach and conviction upon the Consciences of Wicked men whereby they condemn them before hand yea whereby wicked men become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-condemned But now the Preachers of the Gospel with the rest of the Saints shall Judge the world judicially and probably by an audible Vote to and with the Judgment of Jesus Christ * Rev. 16.5 Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus This honour shall all the Saints have at that Day Thus Christ shall bring the raised Saints with him to the place of Judgment But Fourthly Fourthly God shall bring them with him i. e. that last and solemn Judgment being finished Christ shall carry all his Saints back with him from the place of Judgment the neather Heavens into the upper the supreme Heavens where the Throne of God is and the seat of glorified Angels and Saints All the Saints of God shall follow the Judg in a Triumphant manner into the streets of the New Jerusalem the gates whereof shall be set wide open to receive them An abundant entrance shall be administred unto them into the everlasting Kingdome of the Lord and Saivour Jesus Christ where they shall be welcomed home with lowd Acclamations of joy Heaven will ring again with Triumphant shoutings Thus also God shall bring them with him that sleep in Jesus he will bring them into the Glory of his Father but of this I shall have occasion to speak more largely hereafter This is another Word of Comfort and there is great need
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
they shall be in the morning of the Resurrection Oh what a glorious change shalt than behold How unlike it self shall this poor vile body appear in the Resurrection It was sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in Glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body In a word It was sown a vile body It is now transfigured in the Resurrection into a most eminent Conformity with Christ's Glorious body Be of good Comfort Oh ye mourners of hope here is a perfumed Hankerchief to wipe off all tears from your eyes You that sow in tears shall reap in joy you that carry forth precious Seed weeping shall come again rejoycing and bring your Sheaves with you The Resurrection shall make amends for all I have done with the first Consequent I come now to the second Consequent of Christs Rising Second Consequent Triumphant Ascention of the Saints sc The Saints Triumphant Ascention Verse 17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds c. Here we have a further instance of the Saints Conformity unto Christ in the Resurrection Christ himself when he was risen did Ascend He was carried up into Heaven So shall it be with the Saints when they are raised up out of their beds of dust they shall be caught up into the Clouds they shall Ascend to meet their Lord. And this Ascention according to the Analogy of Scripture we may conceive shall be effected by a Three-fold medium 1. Medium The power of Christ Scil. 1. The Power of Christ 2. The Ministry of the Angels 3. The Spirituality of the Saints own bodies First the Ascention of the Saints in the Clouds shall be effected by the Power of Christ By the same power whereby he raised them out of their Graves will he lift them up unto Himself yea this taking them up is a branch of the Resurrection it is continuata Resurrectio as Divines say that Providence is continuata Creatio a Progressive Creation So I may call this Rapture of the Saints into the Air It is nothing else but a Progressive Resurrection the continuation and perfection of the Resurrection the proper work also of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life It is the second part of the Resurrection without which the first would differ little from the state of the Dead In vain should the Saints be raised out of the dust if being raised Christ should leave them at a distance from Him and the Resurrection of the Saints themselves would look too like the Resurrection of the Wicked a Punishment rather than a Blâ—ss Separation from Christ being half yea the worst half of Hell though even there the damned have a kind of Life Surely the Children of the Refurrection might have too real occasion to weep Absoloms dissembling complaint to his abused Father Why am I come from Geshur if I may not see the Kings face Why are we brought up out of the Grave if we may not enjoy the Lamb's presence But the Amen the faithful and true Witness cannot be worse than his word He spake it at his Departure to his Disciples and he will make it good at his Return I will come again and receive you to my self that Joh. 14.3 where I am there you may be also In order therefore to the accomplishment of this Promise the first work the Lord Jesus will do at his Coming in his Kingdom after he hath awakened his Spouse out of her sleep will be to lift her up unto Himself now sitting upon his triumphant Throne to Judg both the Quick and Dead This is the first Receiving of them unto Himself Christ his first receiving of the Saints to Himself Joh. 12.32 his drawing of them up unto Him according to his own phrase in the days of his flesh And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me All men i. e. All my Redeemed ones which promise although the Spirit expounds it upon his being lifted up upon the Cross verse 33. This he spake signifying what death he should dye Yet we may not without warrant extend it also to his glorious Exaltation in the great Day of his Judging the World this being both the design and reward of his Passion to the intent that whom he drew to Himself by the merit of his Cross he might also actually draw unto Himself by the power of his Resurrection and Ascention I will draw all men unto me or I will attract unto me As the Loadstone draweth the mettal unto it self by its magnetick vertue or as the Sun draweth up the vapours of the Earth by its attractive beams so will the Lord Jesus Christ that Sun of Righteousness when his glory shall arise upon the world with healing under his wings draw all his Saints unto Himself by the soveraign attractive influence of that mysterious Union between Himself and his Members This is the first and great Medium of the Saints Ascension the Power of Christ A second Medium is the Ministry of the Angels Second Medium the Ministry of the Angels Heb. 1. Ult. for which though we have not certainty of demonstration to compel belief yet we want not more than bare probability of argument to invite Assent For if it be in the Commission of the Angels to be Ministring Spirits for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation we have no reason to imagine their Commission should expire until the time when the Saints shall be actually and safely invested into their long-expected Inheritance And therefore if they were the Saints Life-guard in the state of their defilement and infirmity to bear them up in their hands lest at any time they should dash their foot against a stone How much more ready and active now in the Saints Virgin-state of Purity and Perfection will the Angels be to be their Convoy to conduct them in their Ascention going now to meet the Lamb Sure we are the Lord Jesus though he be the Resurrection and the Life yet is pleased to make much use of the Ministry of the Angels about the Resurrection of the Godly They shall sound the first Trump at the sounding whereof the Dead do rise They gather the Elect together from the four Corners of the Earth and sever the Wicked from them the Tares and all things that offend and them which work Iniquity are by them bound up in bundles and cast into the fire All this is the Angels Office not because our Lord could not with equal facility do it Himself Why should we think the service of the Angels should cease until the whole Scene of the Resurrection be finished Yea to determine our dubious thoughts we hear the Lord of the Harvest giving charge to his Reapers which are none but Angels not only to reap the Wheat but to carry-in
on the contrary as to true real Saints God owneth what themselves dare not own but though they have forgotten God is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love which they have shewed towards his Name Math. 2◠7 in ministring to the Saints but all shall be remembred even from the Alabaster-box of costly Spikenard to the Cup of cold water given in the name of a Disciple and proclaimed in the Audience of that general Assembly Math 25 40. For as much as you have done it to one of these little ones ye have done it unto me yea those very acts of Charity which have been done so secretly that the left hand did not know what the right hand did Math. 6.3 shall be now published upon the house-top the great house of Heaven and Earth they were not so closely done but they shall as openly be rewarded the book of God's remembrance shall be brought forth and opened and publickly read that all the good which any of the Saints of God ever did may be mentioned to their everlasting praise and that with a double circumstance of signal honour First A twofold advantage of the Recital made of the Saints Graces That in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives there is not the least mention made of sin they had sure enough the remainders of their original corruption surviving their conversion defiling molesting their most holy Services which were as so many scourges in their sides and Thorns in their eyes uncessantly tempting them and exposing them to temptation forcing from them sad laments and out-cryes Rom. 7.24 O Wretch that I am who shall deliver me They had and not rarely their actual Surprises and Seductions their Lapses and Relapses which brought them upon their knees with holy Job's Confession Job 7.20 I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou Preserver of men but none of these things come up into remembrance against them in that day As here below God saw no Iniquity in Jacob nor perversness in Israel to impute it to them so in their appearance before the Judge God remembreth no iniquity against the Saints to charge it upon them or to reproach them with it In the petty Sessions which Christ held with some of his Saints and Churches here on Earth amongst their Commendations there were some Exceptions and some faultinesses were charged upon them an Howbeit 2 Chron. 22.33 a Nevertheless Ch. 33.17 as abatements of their excellencies Nevertheless I have a few things against thee Rev. 2. So in the Process against the Church of Ephesus verse 4. Nevertheless a But against Pergamos verse 14. Against Thyatira v. 20. a Notwithstanding c. But now in the judicial Process of this last and Vniversal Assizes there is not found in all those voluminous Records which shall be opened so much as one unsavoury But to blemish the fair Characters of the Saints as if even before they got into Heaven they had obtained that priviledg to be just men made perfect This is very wonderful Had Reprobate men and Angels had the drawing up of the Report of the Saints lives Heb. 12.23 See the reason of it page 134. sub fine what a black Bill of Inditement would they have preferred against them to be sure all the evil which they ever did in their whole lives with all their blackest aggravations should have been raked up and produced against them Yea if the Saints themselves had been trusted with giving in the story of their own lives they would not have dealt much more kindly by themselves than the Seed of the Serpent would have done to be sure if there were any thing worse than other they would not have concealed it vilifying the good and aggravating the bad as somtimes they were wont to do in their desertions even beyond truth and justice as if Satan had hired them to bely themselves I but now the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth He is far from dealing so with them but as if he himself had never known any evil by them he brings in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and so it is proclaimed in that High Court of Justice This is no small Encouragement for the poor self-accusing Saints of God! Use Rev. 12.10 Although the accuser of the Brethren and his seed do not cease to accuse them before God day and night yea and doth often taking advantage of their natural distempers even to force them to accuse themselves not much more Righteously then He himself doth yet will not the Righteous Judg accuse them But is it not Prophesied of the day of Judgment Object Eccles 12.14 that God shall bring every work into judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil How then is there no mention made of their sins That Scripture is to be understood Respective Sol. sc with a just respect to the two great parties which are to be judged good and bad godly and ungodly that is to say All the good of the good shall be brought into the judgment of mercy and all the evil of the wicked into the judgment of Condemnation the godliness of the godly that it may be gratiously rewarded and the wickedness of the wicked that it may be righteously punished Here Caution I say is encouragement for the Saints howbeit not to sin such a vile Conclusion would ill become such Premisses and were sufficient evidence to un-Saint any person that should deliberately make such Inferences as being a Logick taught in the Devils School not in Christ's and exploded by all real Saints with the greatest abhorrency Ab sit God forbid Rom. 6.1 Comfort then here is for the Saints but such as will make them more Saints 1 Jo. 3.3 Every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure But Secondly Secondly The Crown of praise is put on the Saints Head Another Circumstance of honour in Christ's acknowledgment of the Graces in and Duties performed by his Saints is that although their Graces were nothing else but so many drops of Christ his own fulness Grace for Grace and their duties so many operations of his own Spirit in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.16 nothing their 's but the very act of Believing and the act of Repentance and the act of Love to Christ and the act of Prayer sic in caeteris yet Christ is pleased to ascribe all the Praise and all the Glory both of their Graces and Duties unto the Saints assuming nothing to himself to whom the whol was wholly due as if not only the act it self but the principle also from whence they acted had been their own This is truly wonderful here is the bredth and length depth and height of the Love of Christ Eph. 3.18 19. which passeth knowledg Christ then will indeed be glorified in his Saints and admired in
no more for ever yea the Lord Jesus nailed all their sins to his Cross Colos 2.14 Rom. 4.15 and buried them all in his Grave yea and crossed the debt-book with the red lines of his own blood If now he should call them to remembrance to charge the Saints with their sins he should undo what he had done he should cross the great design of his Cross Rom. 4.25 upon the matter deny himself to be risen again from the dead and disown his own hand and seal Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that sin the least sin the least circumstance of sin should be so much as once mentioned by the Judg in the process of that judicial tryal unless it be in a way of Absolution and so sin shall be mentioned indeed The Saints Absolved of Sin in the day of Iudgment in what sence 1 In their own Conscience but in order to the magnifying of their Pardon and Absolution Their sins may then be said to be blotted out in a two-fold respect First Because the Saints shall then be fully and finally Absolved in their own Consciences It is true there be some of the Saints even in this life to whose Consciences the Spirit of God doth evidence and seal up Remission of sin who are not only safe but sure and possess not only the blessedness of a pardoned estate but the comfort and assurance of that blessedness nevertheless 1. Not all the Saints 2. Nor any at all times 3. Nor alwaies in the same degree as they have their lucida intervalla so they have also and more frequently their dark times their Eclipses as well as their Transfigurations and no wonder since the Sun of Righteousness himself suffered an Eclipse upon the Cross so dreadful as forced the great Master of Astrology in Egypt to cry out Either the God of Nature suffers Aut Dâ—us naturae patitur aut mit di machina dâ—ssolvituâ— or the whol frame of nature is dissolved and caused the Lord Jesus Himself to the just astonishment of Heaven and Earth to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Is it any wonder then if many of the poor Saints of God with Paul and his Ship-wrack't Company see neither Sun-light nor Star-light for many days together and no small tempest doth often lye upon them Act. 27.20 so that all hope of being saved is taken away yea not a few precious deserted Hemans are there Psal 38.15 who from their youth up are afflicted and ready to dye and while they suffer the terrors of God are even distracted yea and that which is more tremendous their Sun as to any observation which Standers by could make though very rarely hath set in a Cloud I but now at this blessed day the Judg of the Quick and the Dead shall Absolve the Saints of God not only at the Tribunal of his own Justice but at the Tribunal of their Conscience He will proclame that Name in their Bosoms which he Proclamed before Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin c. And He will speak so audibly that every Saint shall hear the voyce and so particularly that every one shall know he speaketh to him and shall all eccho back again with joy and joynt acclamation Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 pardoning Iniquity c Nor shall any reflexion either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more Though the Saints cannot plead Not-guilty in regard of fact yet they shall be acquit by the Sentence of Christ Not that they never sinned but that they are before the Judg as if they had never sinned Not in His Account only but even in their own Consciences and that will fully and finally resolve the Question which all the Ministers in the world while they lived on Earth could never resolve with all the Absolutions which ever they applied to their doubting Souls though it were even Clave non errante from the testimony of the Word This Proclamation shall do it and leave no room for doubting or misgiving thoughts for ever Secondly 2ly The Saints absolved in open Court The Saints are then said to receive their full and final Absolution because then their Absolution shall be Proclaimed in open Court the Judg in Person shall pronounce their Absolution in the Audience of God and all the Elect Angels and of the whole world of Men and Devils what Christ in the days of his flesh said to one poor trembling Penitent he will now say to all Sons and Daughters be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you This will be good Cheer indeed These be the times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord when the sins of the Saints shall be blotted out Acts 13.19 blotted they were before out of God's book but now they shall be blotted out in the sight of all the world so that now indeed Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect since Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self must be witnesses to the Crossing of the book and to the Cancelling of the Bond wherein they stood obliged to Divine Justice Oh what inexpressible inconceivable refreshment will this be to the Saints of God even the perfecting of all their former refreshments The sense of their pardon pronounced by the Spirit to some of their Consciences within was wont to be exceeding sweet yea any Scriptural hopes of purdoning mercy though apprehended by a weak and trembling hand of Faith were a reviving to their drooping Spirits What must needs then the highest plerophory ratified by the most solemn Proclamation of the great Judg before the upper and neather world as well as to Conscience be but life from the dead Surely it will be even Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Nor shall any reflection either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more nor shall Willow-boughs mix with the Palms of the Saints Triumph in that blessed Jubile but everlasting joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and sighing shall flee away The Second Branch of the Saints Justification is that the Judg will pronounce them perfectly Righteous This may seem superfluous as supposed to be included in the sentence of Absolution Not to be a Sinner seemeth to imply a Saint To be pardoned all sin and all the degrees of sin and all kinds of sin omissive as well as commissive all defects of perfection all want of conformity to as well as transgression of the Law of God this seemeth to be perfection Answ It doth seem so and truly it doth but seem so for Pardon relates to what is past only Rom. 3.25 Remission of sins that are past it is but privativum quid a freedom from Guilt and a freedom from Punishment it doth not suppose any real and positive Righteousness which may set a man rectus in
the glorified estate Rev. 7.14 21.4 God shall wipe all tears from their eyes Secondly We answer that there shall be such a perfect conformity of will between God and the Saints that there will be no dissent in the least It shall not be then as it is now to the no little imbittering of their present estate first by sin and then by grief for sin but what pleaseth God shall abundantly please them This the Saints pray for here but there shall they be fully possessed of it here it is their duty but there it shall be their reward the Saints in glory would have nothing otherwise than God would have it so that now to the full and perpetual silencing of this Objection I answer That the glory of God shall so perfectly swallow up all private personal considerations that I am confident it is no breach of charity to say that the believing Husband shall rejoyce in the damnation of the unbelieving Wife the holy Parent in the damnation of the stubborn and ungodly Child Et sic in caet Gods Will is the Law and his Glory the triumph of the Heavenly Inhabitants Oh let Parents and Ministers and Governours and Tutors and Yoke-fellows Brethren Friends c. be but as good now as Dives was in hell I mean let them be but in as good carnest here as he was there that their Relations may never come into that place of torment and if they do wilfully cast themselves headlong into that irrecoverable Gulf it will be no grief of heart to them when they come to Heaven But even as God himself they being then swallowed up in God they will even laugh at their calamity and mock when they see their condemnation This shall suffice to have spoken of the second Vision in Glory A third Vision which the Saints shall have in Heaven is that of the elect Angels Gregor do Valent. in Thom. Aquin gives many reasons of that multitude of Angels asserted by Tho. Aquin. and ads Certum est in hac multitudins Angelorum nt mero differentium jus esse Hierarchlas quarum quaelibet contineat tres ordines ita in universum esse novem ordines Angelorum neâ—pe Seraphin Cherubin Thronos in primo Dominationâ—s Virtutes Potestates in secunda Principatus Archangelos Angelos in tertio Gregor tom 1. pa. 10â—6 1027. Certum est saith he de fide in his ipsis ordinibus alios Angelos esse afficio dignitate superiores alios inferiores The Platonists assert as many Angels as there are Species or sensible Creatures Aristotle makes as many Angels as Orbs. R. Moses affirms all the powers and operations of superiour and inferiour things to he so many Angels Tho. Aquinas confidently asserts the number of the Angels incomparably to eâ—ceed the number of material Substances Maniminus Arrianus saith there are ninety nine times more than the number of men in the world they shall see those glorious ministring Spirits those flames of fire the Angels of God by what names or titles soever they are dignified or distinguished in their Hierarchical orders if there be any which because it is a dispute of greater fancy than Scripture evidence and hath filled the world with more empty speculation than substantial knowledge I shall wholly wave it Heaven will be the place only where we shall exactly know their nature number order distictions if any and not so only but have sweet and heavenly converse and communion with them About the way and manner of the Saints knowing and conversing with the Angels is a query of some difference amongst the Learned Some are of opinion that the Angels shall assume aerial bodies to entertain the eyes of the Saints withall and to bring them into a nearer capacity of conversing with them Some è contra conceive that the bodily eyes of the glorified Saints shall be spiritualized and angelified that they shall be able to see the very essence of the Angels as not being so remote from materiality as the Divine Essence Others tell us of a vehiculum Caro Angelificata Text. dâ— Resur or a visible glory as the rayes about the Sun wherein the Angels do move and whereby they are discerned and distinguished from one another But all these are but so many uncertain Comments of mens brains As for that Opinion which makes them knowable only by their operations The Sadduces vigour and activity it is too narrow for so they are known unto us even in this life The immediate and continual converse which the Saints shall have with them in Heaven doth necessarily infer an higher way and manner of knowing them The seeing of them by the glorified eye of the understanding is the clearest and surest way we can pitch upon on this side the place of their constant Residency So they know one another and so they know the Saints and so for the Saints to see and know them is not inconsistent with the analogy of Scripture and Reason In what way and manner this mutual converse and communion betwixt the Saints and Angels in glory shall be managed is not determinable by us poor mortals until this mortal shall put on immortality how they communicate their minds and thoughts one to another is yet dark to us Concerning the Angels converse amongst themselves the Schools speak very rationally when they say it is by the opening of their wills one to another when ever they would communicate their minds and notions and meanings one to another it is done when they would be understood by one another they are understood And the same way they converse with one another it is most probable they converse with the Saints and the Saints with them the Saints may more rationally be conceived to communicate their thoughts to the Angels by opening their minds than by opening their mouths partly because the Angels have no corporeal organs to receive what the Saints express by their corporeal instruments of speech and partly because the superiour part of the Saints their glorified souls being of so spiritual and cognate a nature to the Angels that way of communication which is most agreeable to divine Spirits we may well conceive to be common to those heavenly Inhabitants Whatever the way or manner be this we may be sure of sc that the communion and converse with the Angels in Heaven will be no small augmentation of their happiness and of their joy if we consider their Angelical perfections especially those two of Knowledge and Zeal therefore called in Scripture flaming fire flames for brighiness of illumination and fire for the ardency of their love and zeal Oh what rare notions and experiences will the Angels be able to communicate to the Saints in Heaven having ministred about the Throne of God from the foundation of the world and been sent forth continually to manage the great affairs of the world but especially of the Churches The Apostle tells us they are beholden to the *
without holiness there is no vision for without holiness no man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And holiness doth dispose the Soul for this blessed Vision three wayes First By removing the distance between God and the Creature Secondly By assimilating the Soul to God Thirdly By causing mutual delight and complacency between them First Holiness disposeth the Soul for the seeing of God by taking away that distance which is between God and the Soul Sin is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Gulf In this respect sin is Hell which separates between God and the Creature and surely sin sets a vaster distance between the holy God and a sinner than there is between Heaven and Hell yea than there is between God and the Devil that is between God as a Creator and the Devil as he is a creature Until this distance be removed there is no possible access for the Soul to God this partition wall is broken down when holiness is set up and according to the degree of purity is the degree of vision as the Soul passeth from one degree of holiness to another so it passeth from one state and degree of vision to another 2 Cor 3. We all beholding as in a glass c. The purer the glass the brighter the vision Secondly Holiness disposeth for the vision of God by approximation and assimilating the Soul to God Holiness is the very Image of God the divine nature not in a fanatick sense not the divine being Indeed holiness in God is the divine essence but holiness in the Creature is but a gracious quality whereby the Creature resembleth God 1 Pet. 1.15 and is made pure as he is pure holy as he is holy This advanceth the Soul to a nearer vicinity to God whereby it is put into a passive capacity of seeing God passive I say for the formal visive power of seeing God is from the object more than the subject of it scil so far as God is pleased to beam in his glory into the faculty and enableth it to bear it Lumen confortans Schol. holiness only gives the Soul a sutableness to receive in those divine irradiations Thirdly Holiness causeth mutual delight and complacency between God and the Soul all liking is founded in likeness conformity is the fountain of complacency so that until holiness be formed in the Soul neither can God delight in the Soul nor the Soul in God verily without this mutual complacency the vision of God would be penal to the Creature rather than beatifical not much better than that vision which the damned themselves may be conceived to have of God in hell whose vision of God makes full one half of hell at least Oh quam miserum est Deum videre perire they see God and despair this is the Worm that never dyeth they only see what they have lost Christians as ye love Gods face look to your boliness God loveth holiness more than he loveth the Creature saith Arminius and I say so too if we understand it of the holiness that dwelleth in God for that is his essential holiness Exod. 15 11 God himself so loving holiness he loveth himself Gods holiness is his glory glorious in holiness he accounts it the most radiant Jewel in his Crown Royal the very varnish and beauty of all his glorious Attributes for the love he beareth to which he loveth to see the very image and likeness of it in the Creature but he loved the Creature so well in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he did elect the person unto the qualification though not for the qualification God chose the elect Eph. 1.4 not because he foresaw they would be holy but that they might be holy holiness was not the cause but the end of their election Oh love that dear Souls which God loves so much and loveth to see in his Saints who are therefore called Saints from their holiness There is nothing can make you so beautiful in Gods eye as holiness because in your holiness he seeth the reflection of his own beauty Ezek. 16.14 Taliter pigmentatae Dei habebitis Amorem Tert. Thou wast comely through the comeliness which I put upon thee God cannot chuse but love his own likeness where ever he seeth it oh love the Lord all ye his Saints and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Psal 30.4 Let your hearts leap within you as oft as you think what an holy God you have who if he can but see true holiness in your faces will admit you to see that holiness which is in his face for ever Love holiness I say but be sure it be such an holiness as God loves there is an holiness in the world which is but a thing like holiness but is not so moral righteousness an harmless innocence a sober retiredness from sensual excesses a pretty ingenuity a readiness to do offices of love a negative Religion concerning which you may better tell what it is not than what it is yea there is a thing called holiness in the world that hath not so much as the appearance or shaddow of holiness freedom from grossest impieties and that but partial too not to swear at the highest rate to be soberly drunk and privately unclean Apud vos optimi censentur quos comparatio pessimorum sic facit Arnob. not to be overmuch wicked c. in a word as Arnobius speaks of the Gentiles not to be so bad as the worst is a kind of being good even this Sirs will pass in the world for holiness And lastly there is a superstitious holiness which to the Evangelical holiness is no better than what the Ivy is to the Oak and hath eaten out the very heart of it a Brat which as * Gurnats Christians Compleat Armour p. 2. one saith the Devil hath put to nurse to the Romish Church which hath taken a great deal of pains to bring it up for him and it hath brought in no small revenue as to her self of worldly riches and treasure so to Him of Souls for such holiness is the very road to Hell the followers of Antichrist fill up the greatest part of it But hear our Lord plainly telling you Except your righteousness exceed the best of these ye cannot enter c. Oh Christians get you a copy of grace out of the Scripture-Records those Court-Rolls of Heaven which may be seen and allowed by God and Angels and Saints if ever you desire to see Gods face Holiness of a peculiar strain Titus 2.14 Perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Holiness to the Lord not an holiness that may approve it self to men only that is easily done but unto God Vnblameable holiness in Gods fight Colos 1.22 His holiness Heb. 12.10 That is An holiness which hath God for its pattern 1 Pet. 1.15 16. An holiness which hath God for its motive 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Be ye holy as God
all things to be known the knowing whereof may any way make us happy in Heaven we shall know as much of all the mysteries of Grace and Nature as we would know Etiam curiositas satiabitur Anselm John 14.20 Curiosity it self shall be satisfied we shall know whatsoever it is we desire to know with this our Lord satisfieth his Disciples concerning those two great mysterious unions the essential union union between the Father and the Son that I am in my Father and the mystical union that is between him and all believers you in me and I in you q. d. although now ye are ignorant of these high transcendent mysteries yet let this stay and comfort your hearts when I shall come again in glory to take you unto my self that where I am there you may be also then these shall be no mysteries unto you but so many evidential Revelations At that day ye shall know then and not till then And so it may abundantly satisfie the insatiable desires of inquisitous spirits into the deep mysteries both of Creation and Redemption That when Christ shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory and then shall the veil be taken away and they shall see God and all things in Gods face which their souls desire to see the soul shall be filled and inebriated with variety of all desirable knowledge that may any way tend to its perfection This may satisfie save that it may set their souls a longing for that day and cause them to cry out with the Bride Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly The third Priviledge contained in Cohabitation is Fruition A third Priviledge implyed in the Saints being with the Lord 3. Priviledge Fruition is Fruition Vision in Glory is accompanied with fruition and this is that which makes it truly beatifical whatever glorified Saints see they do enjoy else this Vision would not differ much from Report nor that state of glory from an Heaven in a well-drawn Launskip The very Reprobate it seemeth have a prospect of Heaven Luke 13.28 but to their torment they themselves being thrust out Now Fruition consists of a ten-fold Ingredient or Property Viz. 1. Propriety 2. Possession 3. Intimacy 4. Suitableness 5. Satiety or fulness 6. Freshness 7. Present 8. Fixedness 9. Reflection 10. Complacency The first Ingredient into Fruition is Propriety 1. Ingredient Propriety Whatsoever the Saints see in Heaven is their own God saith to Abraham Gen. 13.14 now in the heavenly Canaan what he once said to him of the earthly Lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art Northward Southward Eastward and Westward for all the land which thou seest 〈◊〉 thee do I give it whatever is within that vast circumference of Heaven it is Abraham's and all his spiritual seeds for ever Now David may tune his Michtam a key higher and instead of Gilead is mine Psal 60.7 8 and Manasseh is mine Ephraim and Judah c. he may now sing God is mine and Christ is mine and the Spirit is mine all the elect Angels are mine and all the whole Congregation of the first-born mine all the glory of Heaven is mine And so may the best of the Saints in heaven triumph all is mine and what pleasures or riches or honours or glory or joyes are in the presence of God they are all mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.13 They did sing so while yet in the valley of tears or they might have sung so Faith gave them a title their Jus adrem a right to Heaven but the blessed vision giveth them now real interest Jus in re right in Heaven and they need not now fear to call it theirs they might have said my God my Christ and my Comforter here below but one thing was to be done first sound Scripture evidence was to be cleared out and sealed up to their souls but some or other defect therein did not seldom check their confidence and damp their joy for a time But now in glory Propriety is beyond all dispute their evidences were seen and allowed at their first admission into Heaven and now mine mine is their song and triumph to all eternity and God is not ashamed to be called their God truly he was not ashamed to be called so even when they had but too much cause to be ashamed of themselves and gave God too much cause to be ashamed of them But now God is so far from being ashamed of owning them that he rejoyceth in them and glorieth over them This people I have formed for my self Isai 43.21 they shall shew forth my praise And again Fear not for I have redeemed thee verse 1 I have called thee by thy name thou art mine Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee The Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren to own them for Subjects Friends Rev. 15.3 chap. 14.1 Coheirs with himself in glory his Bride And they claim their Propriety in him as such The King of Saints chap. 1.6 verse 5 9 with their Fathers name written in their foreheads they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth chap. 21.9 Mat. 18.10 owning themselves as his beloved his redeemed Kings and Priests unto God and his Father yea as the Lambs Wife They have a propriety in all the elect Angels of God they be still their Angels as ready to do them brotherly offices as ever and take more complacency in their company and in them than ever by how much more purified and Angelified they are then when they lay among the pots of the earth now made like themselves fellow Angels as it were as well as fellow Saints They have propriety in one another although they may know some of the Saints under the notion of natural relations yet do these all cease there as now being retired into the first and chief root and Spring-head of divine Relation Children of one heavenly Father in whose House they are all together embracing and courting one another in purest communion and communications of love each Saint not more himself than his fellow Saints In a word the place where the Saints are met together never to part it is their own not a strange Country where they see one another as Strangers and Pilgrims do sometimes visit and comfort one another Heaven is not a borrowed Palace where they are admitted by curtesie to celebrate a Festival for a few dayes or years but the Saints in Heaven are at home now 2 Cor. 5.2 in their own house and Kingdom Their own 1. By Inheritance Col. 1.13 An Inheritance prepared for them from before the world had any foundation but what it had in Gods Decree Matth. 25.24 2. By purchase Therefore is Heaven called the Purchased possession Ephes 1.14 Their dear Lord and Bridegroom purchased them and their Inheritance together with his own blood 1
an abortion if man should out-live his heavenly Paradise as he did the earthly though his lease should be made for never so many lives this would but aggravate the vanity of his creation and we must needs approve of Solomon's choice Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living Eccles 4.2 3. yea better is he than both they which hath not yet been Surely such an improvidence is totally inconsistent with that immense understanding whose most just tile is The only wise God This then is the first account of this ever here in my Text Gods wisdom Another Attribute upon which this beatifical Truth standeth is 2. Attribute The Truth of God The veracity and truth of God the future estate both of the reprobate and of the elect is every where in Scripture held out to us with a note of eternity That of the reprobate Eternal judgment Heb. 6. everlasting sire Mat. 18.8 and 25.41 Eternal fire Jude 7. unquenchable fire Matth. 3.12 Luke 3.17 fire that is not to be quenched ver 44. fire that never shall be quenched ver 43. after never so many years and ages of continuance it is still wrath to come everlasting darkness Jude 6. It seems though there be fire enough in hell there is no light in that fire even those flames are darkness and that darkness everlasting fire for heat but not for light whatever is afflictive within hell nothing that's refreshive that 's dreadful The worm that shall never dye Everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.9 And as that of the reprobate is so This of the elect is exprest under the like notions not a moment short of eternity the Father of Glory who best knew what he had begotten baptizeth it with that name Eternal glory 2 Tim. 2.10 1 Pet. 5.10 Everlasting life fourteen times so called in the new Testament and once in the old Dan. 12.2 Eternal life thirty times so called by the Evangelists and Apostles Everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 Enduring substance Heb. 10.34 An incorruptible Crown 1 Cor. 9.25 Pleasures for evermore Psal 16. ult A Kingdom that * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not fluctuating or floating up and down as all sublunary Kingdome and glory cannot be moved Heb. 12.18 An eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Heaven is a weight of glory both the Hebrew and Chaldee words signifie both weight and glory Heaven is made all of massy glory glory that would be too heavy even for the shoulders of glorified Saints were not underneath them the everlasting arms But as God puts forth omnipotence to cause the damned to subsist under their otherwise intollerable pains for the glory of divine justice so in Heaven he is pleased to exert the arm of his almighty power to sustain the Saints under their unconceiveable weight of glory for the more illustrious manifestation of his everlasting love But this is not all as there is a weight of glory to make heaven as big as the Saints can joyfully bear so that weight must also be eternal that so the glory may not be too short for them but every way commensurate to all the dimensions of their souls This this is the witness and testimony which God himself hath given to the Saints inheritance in light and to shew the infallibility of this testimony the Apostle gives that glorious character of God Titus 1.2 God that cannot lye and that in the very same Scripture wherein he makes this glorious promise Eternal life which God that cannot lye hath promised before the world began Observe it as if the Apostle by the Spirit did foresee what atheisme might object or weakness of faith might call in question viz. the eternity of heaven How can that be Oh yes saith the Apostle it must needs be so God who cannot lye hath called it eternal life cannot he saith not will not but cannot lye whereas it might be objected why the least Child in the world can lye I but saith the Apostle God cannot lye Hoc solum omnipotens om nipotenter non potest Aug. it is against his essence It is omnipotence in God that he cannot lye as Augustine speaks if he could lye he were not almighty whoever calls the eternity of the Saints rest in question at the same time calls in question Gods omnipotence as well as his truth his being as well as his bounty If heaven were but a moment shorter than the measure which the Scripture giveth us the Apostle had ascribed to God a mistaken title God that cannot lye upon such a testimony as this from the mouth of God how securely may the Saints lye down in their beds of dust in confidence of enjoying an eternal rest after the Resurrection A third Attribute which mightily contributes assurance to the faith of heavens eternity A third Attriâ—ute is Immutability is Gods Immutability The unchangeableness of his counsel and purpose will set the ever of the Saints vision and fruition of God beyond all dispute and hesitation It was the very design and purpose of God upon the Saints in their regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost which he shed upon them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace they should be made heirs of eternal life Did God manifest his eternal purpose to the world of eternal life and make such solemn provision for the carrying on that purpose upon the heirs of promise by interesting the third Person in the glorious Trinity the Holy Ghost in it and after all this can Heaven become but a peradventure and the Saints everlasting communion with God prove a Scepticisin or ungrounded opinion only Nay Tit. 3.8 saith the Apostle in the very next verse This is a faithful saying i. e. a man may venture his soul upon it and these things I will that thou affirm constantly i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assert as a matter of greatest assurance of which there is no doubt scil this grand principle The eternity of the Saints blessedness that we should be made heirs of eternal life and that to this end that believers may be careful to maintain good works leave Christians at an uncertainty of an everlasting reward and farewell good works men will act arbitrarily where they work doubtfully Nay but tell them The foundation of the Lord stands sure his counsels and purposes are unchangeable with him is no variableness Jam. 1.17 neither shadow of turning fix their faith upon this bottom that Gods purpose of eternal life is as immutable as God himself this will set them on work to purpose in the use of all such means as tend to so glorious an end Did God from eternity purpose salvation to the elect to eternity A soul set beyond all suspition of the accomplishment of this blessed promise will be careful to maintain good works so the Apostle follows it home 1 Cor. 15. ult Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the
work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord faithful is he that hath called you who also will do it Heaven will make amends for all Fourthly 4th Ground Gods morcy Such a supposed cessation of Heavens glory is totally inconsistent with the mercy and goodness of God that man of God holy David begins his Psalm of thanksgiving in this lower Quire of Saints with this strain Oh give thanks unto the Lord Psal 136.1 for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And having begun in that strain he can sing no other tune all the Psalm over it is as it were the burden of the Song For his mercy endureth for ever And shall we imagine he is now turning his Hallelujahs to a lower key in that celestial Quire to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb No Quicquid in Deo Deut. Rom. 9.23 mercy in God is not a moral or mortal vertue but an essential Attribute God himself eternal Mercy in God hath been from eternity and shall be to eternity it can no more out live its objects the vessels of merey prepared unto glory than it can cease to be mercy God is the Father of mercies and mercy can never go childless God must exercise the infiniteness of his mercy extensive to all eternity as well as intensive above all dimensions Fifthly 5. Attribute Omnipotence The omnipotence of God doth gratifie his mercy in this design for while mercy poureth in this strong liquor of the Lords joy immeasurably into the vessels of glory omnipotence doth support and strengthen those vessels that they split not with their own fulness it were not else imaginable how created vessels should hold uncreated glory and if the vessâ—l should run out or fail the I quor would be lost Sixthly 6. Attribute Eternity God is eternal and therefore Heaven must be eternal also In Heaven there are no second causes which are obnoxious to contingency or alteration all causes there are resolved into the first being and soveraign cause where they remain fixt and immutable as that immense Being himself and because he liveth eternally they shall so live also The eternity of Gods being layeth the foundation of the eternity of the Saints glory * Rev. 21.23 The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it the Sun that shineth there by day the Moon by night are no part of the first Creation which is to †Mat. 5.18 pass away but the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof there shall not be so much as a post of the old fabrick in this new building to infirm or endanger it God alone is the Roof and Foundation of Heaven the very Center and Circumference is God all the Arches and Pillars of Heaven are made of the Tree of life in which no worm can breed which may corrode or consume the Saints mansions no moth is there to fret and eat out the long white robes where with the Saints are adorned nor Thâ—ef to break into the Palace of the great King to steal away their crown from them There is malice enough indeed in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of the bottomless pit and all his cursed Goal-birds to act such hellish villanies not upon the Saints only but upon God himself even to pull him out of his Throne if they could but thanks be to God they are made fast enough in the lowest Dungeon where they are stak'd down by a perpetual Decree and reserved in â—bains of darkness for ever so that the Saints need not fear that Antichristian brood shall ever break loose to cast in one Granado or Fire-ball into the walls of the new Jerusalem or to break open the gates thereof to disturb their peace In a word the Manna of those upper heavens which is the Angelical food the Saints live on is not subject to breed worms which may corrupt their constitution behold the worm is only in the neather place of darkness and yet neither can that eat out any part of the subject on which it feedeth Oh how sweet would that worm be to the Reprobates if but once in a thousand years it might eat out but a piece of them till they were utterly consumed but wo and alas the worm knows only how to augment but not how to shorten the torments of the damned but as it is a never dying worm it self so is the miserable subject also upon which it feedeth there is fire in hell but it is such only as doth nourish its fuel not diminish it Whence should this be But because the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isai 30. ult And if the justice of God gives eternity both to the torment of hell and the tormented also to sustain it how much easier and sweeter is it to conceive the shine of Gods face is both the eternity of the blessed in glory and of their bliss aso It is true indeed of the neather heavens it is said they shall perish yea all of them shall wax old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed but hath he any where said so of the upper heavens too the seat of the blessed souls the mansion house of the great King Surely no Yea to use those words in an accommodated sense at least saith God Isa 66.22 The new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me However even in contemplating the consummation of these neather heavens the Psalmist hath a savoury But which will save all harmless But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail Behold God is the heaven of his Saints what can put a period to this heaven A seventh Attribute is Love 7. Attribute the Love of God Which way should the glory of the Saints come to be extinguished or so much as eclipsed If such a thing could be it must arise from a cessation of divine love which cannot be supposed Will God grow weary of their company Behold he made them when he brought them into that state of glory as perfect as he would have them be I had well nigh said as perfect as he could make them that they might be a meet Bride for his first-born his only begotten Son and now behold he that hated putting away in the fantastical Jew unless it were in case of adultery will he give the Lambs Wife a Bill of divorce and put her out of doors in whom since her first reception there was never sound the least distoyalty no not in thought but remaineth without spot or wrinkle or any such thing as immaculate as the elect Angels or must they also fare no better than the Angels that kept not their first estate Must all be cast out for ever and heaven stand now as an house to be let without a Tenant
of a rich and honourable match and when hands come to be joyned then to be rejected this is enough to distract Thirdly The less hope of recovery the fadder and more killing is the disappointment to be cast in a Suit of Law for an Inheritance which is uncapable of a second trial is enough to put a man besides himself Behold oh precious souls disappointment at the day of Judgment falls under the terror of this threefold aggravation and that in the most dreadful notion that tongue can express or heart conceive 1. Here disappointment is in a matter of no less value than a Crown a Kingdom A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 Life Rev. 2.10 Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom of God Luke 13.28 29. Heaven Matth. 5.3 Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1.11 Oh how dreadful will that disappointment be especially with that addition Everlasting kingdom 2. This will be the disappointment of highest confidences and presumption None are so confident of beaven as those who have nothing to shew for their right to it most Christians promiscuously so caled think themselves as sure of heaven as if they were there already and oh when these shall come and knock at the door with their bold Lord Lord Mat. 7.21 22 23. cum Luke 13.16 27. open to us crying loud and pleading hard what they have done how they have preach'd and pray'd and received Sacraments and possibly converted others expecting now to have the door opened and ready to set foot over the threshold of heaven and shall then be thrust back with that terrible blast I never knew you depart from me Oh what shame and confusion will this disappointment fill their faces and consciences with for ever Surely this will be the very emphasis of damnation to have been within a step of salvation and yet miss 3. And all this without the least hope of speeding or speaking to Christ any more for ever about the matter of salvation Now therefore fear and tremble and pray that this may not be the portion of your cup from the hand of the Lord. Another Consideration may be This will make you Motive 5. fruitful in the work of Grace Christians that make their calling and election sure will and cannot but be fruitful in good works for by these you must maintain your assurance as being the fruits and evidences of your salvation A third improvement of this point Vse 3 Is this the glory and happiness of the future estate in heaven Let it then excite in us an holy ambition to be often looking into this glory to anticipate it by our frequent contemplations the sweeter the vision the more taking it should be with men of ascending and ambitious spirits Can earth-worms take such complacential contentment from beholding a bag of gold or a field of corn or a sumptuous fabrick and please themselves in a peculiar manner with the reflexion of their interest Psal 108.8 this is mine that appertains to me as David sings Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of my head And shall not Saints turn their song to an higher key and be joyful in glory singing upon their beds God is mine and Christ is mine and the Holy Ghost is mine Angels are mine and Saints are mine all the glory of Heaven is mine this for ever with the Lord is mine I knew a rich Mammonist near the place where I was born In Kent that would once a day take all his bage of silver and gold out of his trunks and laying them in several heaps for he was exceeding rich upon a large table would go to the utmost end of the room and there having glutted his eyes with so delightful an object for a good while would all on a sudden take his run to the table and with stretched out arms gathering all into one vast heap as a man overcome and distracted with joy cry out All is mine Quere all is mine Why may not the Children of the Kingdom rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and collecting those treasures of glory into several heaps and embracing them with the arms of faith Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos cry out in an holy extasie All is mine all is mine Shall the adult heir of a fair Lordship or principality be often enquiring into his patrimony search into his writings and even grow great with the thoughts and contemplations of what he is born to And shall not the Heirs of the Inheritance of the Saints in light much rather delight themselves with the fore contemplation of their incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them Object Yes so we would if we were sure it were ours Sol. And is that the cause of your apathy and flatness of spirits to these heavenly fruitions Truly this very uncertainty should even startle and affright us into an earnest contention to make heaven sure so infinite a weight of glory and we not ascertained of our interest upon some good Scripture-evidence is enough to make us to forget to eat our meat enough to break our sleep and to keep our eyes waking all the night long and to make us take little comfort in the present comforts we possess Quest You will surely ask then Evidences of Heaven What are the Evidences Answ 1. Why Evidence 1. truly this one thing would amount to an evidence and not the least evidence viz. Active endeavour to assure our selves of a share in this Inheritance of the Saints this would argue an high appretiation of this estate in the practical judgment as most incomparably and absolutely eligible this is the very language of an heaven-born-soul What have I to count upon but my treasure which is in heaven What business have I on earth comparable to this to ensure my portion in heaven for this cause I was born and for this end I came into the world the whole earth in comparison of heaven is but a dunghill Cabul 1 Kings 9.13 as Hiram called the Cities which Solomon gave him dirty or displeasing This will argue a child-like spirit Children mind their inheritance absent Children long to be at home at their Fathers house they are often there in their thoughts and wishes so the Saints We groan within our selves desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Secondly Evidence â— Especially if the holiness of heaven do kindle those desires in us more than the happiness when a poor foul can truly say I should not account it an heaven were it not that it is a land of holiness a land flowing with milk and honey of pure and immaculate joyes that there the beauty of holiness shines forth with unconceivable lustre and glory and there saith the soul I shall be in some degree
it with all thy might Labour hard here 's eternal rest after thy labours Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours Thou hast but a moment to work in but an eternity to rest in be industrious now and anon thou shalt be glorious Enter now into thy Lords Vineyard and soon thou shalt enter into thy Lords Joy Take pains here there remains a rest an eternal rest not an eternity of being only but an eternity of well-being Ever be with the Lord. Ply the Oar of duty Christians a blessed Haven is at hand you look for more than others what do you do more than others Never did servants expect such a recompence of reward The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult Oh let the fear of missing this glory urge you to the greater diligence let it stir you up to the most severe and intensive acts of holiness and obedience Phil. 2.12 Work out your expected salvation with fear and trembling he that runs for a great prize fears he should fall short Let us fear Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to fall short you cannot merit it by your diligence but your may forfeit it by your sloth Oh work and work out your salvation Hope calleth up a Saint to duty he is said therefore to be saved by hope Christ in the soul and hope of glory Rom. 8. 1 John 3.8 cannot be an idle and sluggish principle He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure There are no bounds to his holy endeavours after conformity to Christ his hope to live with Christ in heaven puts him upon utmost essayes to live the life of Christ here on this side heaven Momentany enjoyments are strong inducements to worldlings to greatest pains and labours and will not the everlasting fruition of God make you stedfast unmoveable and alwayes abounding in the Lords work 1 Cor. 9.52 They run saith Paul for a corruptible crown but we for an incorruptible Oh how should we run They rise early to build an house that in one hour may be consumed to ashes what pains should we take to get an interest in that house which is eternal with God in the heavens They toil and moil and sweat to heap up riches for an unknown possessor and shall not we labour for that better portion that cannot be taken from us Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful and active in the house of him that appointed him Chap. 11.26 and this did in a great measure excite him he had respect to the recompence of reward and shall we fear to over-do our work who have a clearer prospect of heaven than Moses had His face was vailed we see with open face There 's no inducement to take pains comparable to this ever with the Lord 2 Cor. 3.13 18. Ever in the Presence-chamber of the greatest Monarch in the world may ever upon the Throne giving laws to Kingdoms ever increasing treasures of gold and silver and precious stones ever bathing in the full streams of sublunary pleasures is no wayes comparable to one moments enjoyment of the presence of the Lord in heaven Let that mans money perish with him said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus who esteemeth all the gold in the world worth one dayes society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit c. I have often thought with my self that if heaven were capable of grief those very rivers of pleasures would swell with the tears of glorified souls to think that they have served God no more served him no better did no more for that God who hath prepared such an heaven full of glory for such an unprofitable servant as I have been Oh how coldly did I pray for this inestimable blessedness How unaffectedly did I hear the report of this great salvation And what little pains did I take for this exceeding and eternal weight of glory which exceeds all hyperboly While slightest expressions are too big for my diligence What! all this joy and so little pains to obtain it All this glory and so little zeal for the glory of God! So great an harvest and so little seed sown So great a reward and so little service Surely there would be a day of humiliation kept in heaven and it might well take up half eternity to bewail the Saints remissness in the work of the Lord were heaven capable of it or did not the reflection of glorified souls upon the former iniquities of their holy things issue only unto the admiration of the riches of that grace which hath brought them to glory But though heaven will not admit of grief thy present estate will mourn therefore that thou hast been so dead and so dull in the service of God who hath set before thee no less a reward than the enjoying of himself to all eternity and let the sense thereof quicken thy dead heart to work after another rate for the little remnant of mortality yet behind Say not yet there is two much sand left in the glass for God and eternity say rather Oh that were it not to keep me so much the longer from my Fathers presence oh that every hour yet behind were a day every day a month every month a year every year a life it were all too little for that hope which is laid up for me in heaven Oh had I an hundred pair of hands they were too little to imploy in my heavenly Fathers work an hundred pair of feet they would not carry me fast enough in the way of his Commandments an hundred pair of eyes were not enough to behold God in every Creature round about me Col. 1.13 a thousand tongues were not sufficient to trumpet forth his praises who hath made me meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Oh Eph. 5.16 what shall I do If I cannot love God more serve him better bring him more glory than hitherto I have done I am undone I am undone Oh redeem Christians the eternal Jubile is at hand the trumpet is ready to sound and the glorious eternal liberty of the Saints and Servants of God ready to be proclaimed up and be doing now as ye would be found when Christ shall come with his mighty Angels and his reward with him that you may hear the blessed Euge Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. Vse 4 In the fourth place This may serve as a preservative to the people of God to keep them from fainting and falling away in time of sufferings and persecution for righteousness sake after a moments sufferings they shall have eternity of rest they shall ever be with the Lord and thenceforth there shall be no more sufferings nor sorrow all tears shall be wiped from their eyes and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads once hous'd in
Not sufficient to capacitate the Saints for glory 2.139 Accusation the Saints shall not be accused by Christ 2.131 Adam most probably saved 3.78 Affections the Saints shall be like God in their affections 3.80 They may be moderately exercised 3.144 Air the place where Christ will stay to meet his Saints and why 1. Because of the capacity of the place 2.125 2. Because of the conspicuity of the judgment 2.126 Angels instruments of the Saints ascension divers wayes 2.106 They separate the sheep from the goats ministerially 2.114 They shall present the elect before Christ in the air 2.127 They shall drag the wicked to the Tribunal to receive their sentence 2.164 The reprobate Angels shall be judged for their first Apostacy and for all their malice against the Saints ever since 2.164 How Saints shall hereafter converse with them 3.15 How they converse among themselves 3.16 How they will be interpreters of God to the Saints in Heaven 3.18 Communion with them in heaven will be a great encrease of our happiness 3.16 They will communicate excellent notions to the Saints in heaven 3.17 Antinomians notion about Christ his being in us 1.29 Apology the sinner shall not make any Apology for himself at the great Assize 2.172 Apostles how they shall judge the twelve tribes 1.49 Appeal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 An appeal from Moses to Christ 2.169 Arrians in denying the deity of Christ discover a double ignorance 1.25 Ascension of the Saints one consequent of Christ his Resurrection It will be effected 1. By the power of Christ 2.104 2. By the ministry of the Angels 2.106 3. By the spirituality of the Saints own bodies 2.107 It is a continued resurrection 2.104 How the Saints ascension holds due proportion with their Lord 2.108 The Saints shall meet together before their ascension 2.112 Assessor the Saints shall be assessors with Christ at the judgment 2.164 Assurance some Saints have it but not all 2.136 Motives to it 3.111 It hath been obtained 3.112 A work never unseasonable and most seasonable in times of danger 3.114 It will make Christians fruitful 3.117 To endeavour after it an evidence of heaven 3.119 It brings divers priviledges 3.114 Whether every one that hath a right to heaven hath an assurance of it Neg. 3.121 What are the mediums to attain assurance 3.123 A twofold Office of the Spirit in attaining assurance 3.123 It is much hindred by our unkindness to Christ 3.128 Atheists and divers other sorts of sinners will be convinced at the day of judgment 2.165 Attributes of God a foundation of the Saints eternity 3.87 B Believers how said to be in Christ and Christ how said to be in believers 1.22 They are Kings Prophets Priests 1.31 They are the sons of God 1.31 They are united to the whole divine nature in the Diety and to each Person of the Trinity 1.35 Blessedness the blessedness of the Saints in heaven is everlasting 3.84 The reasons of it 1. Christs merit 3.85 2. The Saints immortal souls 3.86 3. The Saints graces eternal Ib. 4. The attributes of God 3.87 1. His wisdom ibid. 2. His veracity and truth 3.88 3. His immutability 3.91 4. His mercy 3.92 5. His omnipotency ibid. 6. His eternity ibid. 7. His love 3.96 8. His justice 3 92 Blood the blood of Christ is the fountain of merit but the spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy 1.122 Body the body shall be incorruptible 2.89 It shall be glorious 2.90 1. By vertue of a Principle within 2.90 2. By vertue of an external irradiation ibid. It will depend wholly on the soul at the resurrection 2.95 It is a vile body 2.97 The bodies of the saints shall be like unto God 3.82 Book the book of Gods remembrance and the book of conscience will agree exactly together 2 267 C Children of believers when they dye are not to be looked upon as a lost generation 1.8 Christ accounts not himself full without his members 1.17 His resurrection why called his youth 1.16 He rose as a publick head on which account 1. The saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2. They are assured they shall arise 1.15 He arose by his own strength 1.12 He is risen as our first fruits 1.19 How he is said to be in a believer and a believer said to be in Christ 1.22 How he is the hope of salvation 1.43 His own words more authentick than tradition or revelation 2.63 Whether he shall sit on a visible throne 2.70 He will appear in the same humane nature he assumed of the Virgin and why 2.71 He will appear personally for three reasons 2.70 His first and second coming compared 2.71 His being Judge great terror to the wicked 2.73 Great comfort to the godly 2.75 Two reasons of the certainty of his coming 1. Reason saith he may come 2.78 2. Faith saith he must come ibid. Witness 1. His purchase ibid. 2. His promise 2.79 3. Sacrament of the Supper ibid. 4. His Resurrection ibid. The manner of his coming it will be by a threefold summons 1 A shout 2.80 2 A voice of Archangel 2.81 3 The Trump of God ibid. His coming to give the Law and his coming to judgment compared 2.82 Separation from him the worst part of hell 2.105 His blood the fountain of merit but his spirit the fountain of efficacy 1.122 The benefit of his subjecting of himself to the Law redoundeth not unto himself but to the saints 2.145 He solemnly espoused the saints to himself 2.162 He had a twofold right to the Kingdom of glory 1 Natural 3.19 2 Constitutive ib. A superlative love to him an evidence of heaven 3.120 Christians must reject no doctrine warranted by the word 2.67 Church it is Christs outward not inward fulness 1.17 Comfort for them that are unjustly excluded 2.117 Closet closet duties shall be remembred at the last day 2.128 Cohabitation with Christ containeth four priviledges 1 Presence 3.2 2 Vision ibid. 3 Fruition 3.50 4 Confomity 3.77 Commendation Saints shall be praised and commended at the last day for their graces though wrought in them c. 2.132 Comfort we should administer comfort to mourning friends 3.150 All comfort is in God 3.153 Ministers must see that the comforts they administer be Gods comforts 3.154 Much pride in refusing comfort 3.157 It is as great an indignity to God to slight his comforts as to scorn his counsels 3.156 No comfort belongs to wicked men when they die 3.158 We should labour for comfort in our own death and leave matter of comfort to our surviving friends 3.160 Words of prayer to be joyned with words of comfort 3.165 Compassion compassions of God are great and therefore so are his consolations 3.148 Confidence many confident of heaven that have least right to it 3.117 Conformity of the saints to Christ in the resurrection hath its beginning in regeneration 2.101 Study soul-conformity to Christ 2.102 It is the fountain of complacency 3.42 Conscience the book
of conscience and the book of Gods remembrance will agree exactly together 2.172 Whispers of conscience to be hearkened unto 2.172 Conversion in conversion how sins past present and to come are pardoned and how not 2.134 Righteousness imputed to the saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 Converse knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Covenant a comparison between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace 3.81 Creature we should sit loose from it 3.113 Cross the merit of Christ's cross is for justification and the power of his cross for mortification 2.156 Cup the cup that Christ drank was bitter but it was sweetned with three ingredients 1 But a cup not a sea 2.151 2 His Fathers cup not the Devils ibid. 3 A gift not a curse ibid. D Dead how to behold dead friends 2.103 Relations that die only fallen asleep 1.2 Death our Relations not alone in it 1.9 Our wages 1.10 Every person subject to it 2.65 At the hour of death the Saints are fully pardoned 2 134 Not terrible to a child of God 3.140 Death of some persons dreadful to themselves and to standers by 3.160 It is but a sleep 1.2 Resembled to it in two respects 1.3 Not a total privation of the habit 1.4 The godly infinite gainers by it 1.6 Degree different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 Delusion how are the whispers of God distinguished from the delusions of Satan 3.129 Denyal there will be no denying of sin at the great day 2.167 Desertion Saints under desertion often bely themselves 2.131 Devised the world have counterfeit cordials 3.154 Disappointment a most afflicting evil and admits of three aggravations 3.115 Divine essence we shall not have an intuitive vision of it 3.27 How far we shall have a vision of it 3.30 Do this and live not a commandment only but a covenant 2.144 Draw all men to me how to be understood 2.105 Duties all the Saints duties performed publick or private shall be owned at the last day 2.128 Duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 E Earth the place where the wicked will receive their sentence 2.124 It cannot be made sure 3.112 Election and purchase both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 Holiness not the cause of election but the end of it 3.43 Elect the future estate of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Endeavour after assurance an evidence heaven 3.119 Enjoyments worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Eternity a description of it 3.84 97 Souls not eternal a parte ante and why 3.86 The future estate both of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.88 Eternity of God is an assurance of heaven being eternal 3.92 Evidences of heaven 3.119 A good evidence to be sollicitous about evidences 3.123 Exaltation Christ his exaltation and abasement compared together 3.21 Examination we should examine our selves and suffer others to examine us 3.162 Excuse no excuse for sin at the great day 2.167 172 Eye Gods essence cannot be seen by the bodily eye though glorified but by the eye of the understanding 3.23 F Faith the great saving office of it is to unite the soul to Jesus Christ 1.43 It is an hand to apply the righteousness of the first covenant as fulfilled by our Surety 2.146 Many do believe and yet do not believe that they do believe 3.71 Fear there is never a fear in a Christian but there is a fear not in the Scripture as an Antidote 3.147 Fidelity the faithfulness of the Saints will be owned at the last day 2.128 Fruition whatever the Saints see they enjoy in heaven 3.58 It consists of a tenfold Ingredient 1 Propriety 3.58 2 Possession 3.61 3 Intimacy 3.63 4 Fulness 3.65 5 Suitableness 3.67 6 Fixedness 3.70 7 Reflection 3.71 8 Freshness 3.73 9 Present 3.75 10 Complacency ibid. G Glory different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 The glory of God will swallow up all private and personal considerations 3.14 God he can do what he will 2.100 His essence cannot be seen by the glorified corporeal eye but by the eye of the understanding 3.26 Godly Christ his being Judge great comfort to them 2.75 Good the good of the Saints will be mentioned not their evil at the great day 2.130 None of the good that ever the wicked did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Gospel and Law reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 Tryal by the Gospel will be the most severe of any 2.166 Grace in the Saints is under a covenant 1.39 A comparison between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works 3.81 Graves the wicked raked out of them in their ugliness 2.102 They are beds wherein the bodies of the Saints are laid to rest 1.4 Guilty to be not guilty and to be righteous are two different capacities 2.139 H Happiness looking more after holiness than happiness is an evidence of heaven 3.120 Heaven it belongs to the Saints 1 By inheritance 3.60 2 By purchase ibid. In heaven none have the less for what others do enjoy but every one an whole God 3.65 It is a place of unmixed joy 3.69 It may be made sure 3.111 To look after an interest in heaven is an argument of wisdom 3.115 Evidences of it 3.119 Heavenly mindedness the evidence of 〈◊〉 heavenly blessedness 2.112 Hell separation from Christ the worst part of it 2.105 It is a place of unmixed sorrow 3.69 Holy Ghost why so called 2.122 Holiness by the Spirit of holiness Rom. 1.4 what meant 1.12 It doth best capacitate the soul for the Vision of God 3.39 41 In the Saints it is the divine nature not the divine being 3.42 God loveth it more than the creature how it is true and how in Arminius his sense not true 3.42 It is not the cause but the end of election 3.43 What holiness that must be that can capacitate us to see Gods face 3.44 Looking more after holiness than happiness an evidence of heaven 3.120 Humane nature of Christ the highest beatifical object in heaven next to the divine Essence 3.18 The glorifying of Christ's humane nature is the reward of his passion 3.19 Hypocrite no hypocrite in heaven 3.8 I Image that the Image of God suffered a miscarriage was not of improvidence but of ordination 3.80 Imitation it is the duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 Immutability the immutability of God giveth assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.91 Imputation of righteousness is the positive part of justisication 2.133 Imputed righteousness is the same materially that the Law requireth 2.149 Indictment the sinners indictment and plea 2.147 Innocence is no security against oppression and cruelty 1.51 Intercessor there is no Intercessor at the great assize 2.171 Interest to look after an interest in heaven an argument of wisdom 3.115 Justice of God an assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.95 Judge Christ must be the Judge of great terror to
will agree exactly 2.167 Reproach Reproaches for Christ better than all the applause of the world 3.83 Reprobate the future estate of the reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Resurrection three things interest a believer in the triumph of Christ's resurrection 1 Power 1.12 2 Office 1.13 3 Right 1. ibid. Christ arose by his own strength 1.12 As a publick head 1.13 On which account 1 The Saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2 They are assured they shall arise 1.15 Resurrection of Christ why called his youth 1.16 An inseparable connexion between the resurrection of Christ and of the Saints 1 Of merit 1.15 2 Of power and influence 1.16 3 Of design 1.17 4 Of union ibid. Christ is risen as our first fruits 1.19 Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our faith 1.20 How Christ shall bring the Saints with him at the resurrection 1 Their souls from heaven 1.47 2 Their bodies from the grave and how 1.47 3 Body and soul he shall take up into the clouds and why 1.48 49 4 He shall carry them back with him into heaven 1.50 It shall put believers that are dead into as good a capacity as those that are alive 2.64 Saints that shall then be found alive will be no otherwise capable of it than under the notion of the dead 2.65 The manner of it 2.86 The admirable properties of it 1 Incorruptible 2.89 2 Glorious 2.90 3 Powerful 2.93 4 Spiritual 2.94 Saints shall rise with the same bodies they lye down with 2.87 The body will depend wholly upon the soul 2.95 Our bodies at the resurrection shall he moved by an extrinsic power but shall move themselves by an intrinsic principle 2.107 Why called the Regeneration 2.101 Three consequents of the resurrection 1 The resurrection of the Saints that are dead 2.86 2 The Saints triumphant ascension 2.104 3 The Saints joyful meeting 1 One with another 2.112 2 All with Christ where 1 The persons meeting 2.120 2 The place where 2.124 3 The ends of their meeting 2.126 Christ will welcome the Saints at the resurrection under a threefold relation 1 As the Fathers election 2.121 2 As the purchase of his blood ibid. 3 As the depositum of the Holy Ghost 2.122 Reward is an encouragement to good works e contra 3.91 Riches have wings 3.105 Righteous to be righteous and not guilty are two different capacities 2.139 Righteousness a positive righteousness is required to the justification of a sinner as well as absolution from guilt and punishment which appears on the account 1 Of the justice of God 2.141 2. Of the perfection of the Law 2.143 3 Of the necessity of the sinner 2.154 4 Of the excellency of the Redeemen 2.157 It looks forward pardon backward 2.142 Righteousness imputed to the Saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 The mediatory righteousness of Christ comes to be a believers as the first Adam 's disobedience came to be his posterities viz. by imputation 2.146 Imputed righteousness the same materially which the Law requireth 2.149 T Sacrament attend often upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 3.132 Saints the dignity of them 1.41 They that are alive at Christ his coming shall have no advantage above those that are dead 2.58 They that are dead shall be first remembred at the resurrection 2.60 Those that are alive will be no otherwise capable of the resurrection than under the notion of the dead 2.65 They shall be solemnly espoused to Christ 2.162 They shall be assessors with him at the judgment 2.164 Scripture inference is Scripture 2.67 It concerns us to search the Scriptures 3.163 In reading Scripture make a collection of the Promises 3.163 Secret whatever kindness was shewed to God in secret shall be openly rewarded 2.130 Self-denyal exercise it 3.130 Separation a perfect separation from the society of sinners at the last day 2.117 Sin why sometimes punished here sometimes not 2.78 The Saints sins not remembred at the last day 2.130 And why 2.134 This is no encouragement to sin 2.131 It is fully pardoned at death 2.134 They will appear as they are at the day of judgment 2.168 A vain thing to call any sin small 2.168 The smallest is dangerous 3.128 It sets us at a great distance from heaven 3.41 An universal hatred of it an evidence of heaven 3.120 It is the Devils image 3.120 Sinner the condition of a sinner doth necessarily require an imputed righteousness 1 To settle solid peace in the conscience 2.154 2 To secure his appearance in the day of judgment 2.157 Sinners are mixed with Saints here contra 2.116 They will dread the society of the godly at the last day as much as formerly they hated it 2.117 They were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Sleep Death but a sleep 1.2 Death resembled to sleep in two respects 1.3 Socinians deceived in saying we shall not have real but aerial bodies at the resurrection 2.96 Sorrow there is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not 3.144 Souls all of one size 2.94 Not everlasting a parte ante and why 3.86 Spirit the Spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy but the blood of Christ the fountain of merit 2.122 Spirit of God hath a twofold office about attaining assurance 3.123 Be tender of it 3.127 None but friends can properly be said to grieve the Spirit 3.128 Sufferings of the Saints will be owned at the resurrection 2.129 T Tears of the Saints are bottled 2.128 Terror it will be horrible terror to the wicked to see the Saints sit in judgment with Christ 2.164 Time no farther time will be granted at the great Assize 2.171 Transgression Sinners were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Translate no translating of sin upon others at the great day 2.168 Tribunal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 Trinity the external works of it are undivided 1.46 The order of their work 1.46 Trumpet one end of the Feast of Trumpets might be to put them in mind of the last day 2.114 Last Trump will not be only audible but articulate 2.115 V Vision six things shall be the object of the Saints Vision 1 The seat of blessed souls 3.3 2 The glorified Saints 3.4 3 The elect Angels 3.15 4 The glorified body of Christ 3.26 5 God in the divine Essence 3.18 6 All things in God 3.42 Of glorified Saints will be wonderful glorious 3.4 We shall not have an intuitive Vision of the divine Essence 3.27 How far we shall have a Vision of the divine Essence 3.30 Of God in Scriture is twofold 1 In Grace 3.40 2 In Glory ibid. How these agree and how they differ 3.46 Unbelief the spring of all our misery 1.21 Understanding the glorified understanding shall have a sixfold perfection 1 Spirituality 3.36 2 Clarity 3.37 3 Capacity 3.38 4. Sanctity ibid. 5 Strength 3.39 6 Fixedness ibid. Our understandings will be like unto God in heaven 3.78 Union
between Christ and believers how expressed in scriture 1.22 Opened in 7. distinguishing properties 1 Spiritual 1.23 2 Real 1.25 3 Operative 1.29 4 Enriching 1.30 5 Intimous 1.33 6 Total 1.35 7 Indissoluble ib. It is of Gods 1 Praeordination 1.36 2 Efficiency ibid. 3 Support ibid. No in and out in it 1.37 Death dissolveth it noâ—â— ibid. Unkindnesses to Christ great hinderances of assurance 3.128 W Waiting It is good for us to wait for God 3 133 Wicked great terror to such that Christ shall be Judge 2.73 They shall be dragged by Angels before the Tribunal to receive their sentence 2.164 No good that ever they did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Wicked men how to be suffered 2.117 All they do is abomination 2.170 Will our wills will be like unto God in heaven 3.79 Witnesses their enemies confounded at their ascension 2.102 Word of Christ more authentick than tradition or revelation 2.63 The only foundation for our faith 2.66 Works a comparison between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace 3.81 Works reward encouragement to good works 3.91 World compared to a stage 3.70 World and the Devil have counterfeit Cordials 3.154 Worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Worldly felicities quickly grow old 3.74 Y Young the joyes of heaven alwayes young 3.74 Youth the Saints shall rise in youth and perfect strength and beauty 3.73 ERRATA Part I. II. PAge 49 marg for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 52 line 52 f. the r. these f. the r. you p. 53 l. 11 f. 〈◊〉 r. own l. 9 f. tranessentied r. transossentiated p. 56 l. 15 â— third r. three p. 62. l. 6. f. others r. some p. 70 l. 27 f. twofold r. threefold p. 77 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 82 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 125 l. 21 dele as it were p. 126 l. 19 f. or r. of p. 143 l. 9 add more p. 144 l. 3 f. eternal life and happiness r. on holy life here l. 6 add hereafter p. 146 l. 15 f. but r. and l. 31 f. obedience r. disobedience p. 161 l. 11 dele â—â— Part III. Page 5 line 4 dele is p. 6 l. 28. for hath r. as p. 8 l. 5 add himself p. 9 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11 l. 27 f. form r. formed p. 18 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 21 l. 18 f. infirnâ—tes r. infernales p. 34 marg dele heat p. 39 marg f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 46 marg f. praeteritur r. judicis l. 17 add God after but p. 48. from thence correct the pages till 65. p. 51 l. 1 for â—manate r. emanare p. 53 l. 11 f. glasses r. visions p. 57 l. 25 add our l. 28 f. they r. roe p. 59 l. 4 f. best r. lest p. 61 l. 16 f. ascended r. ascend p. 62 l. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65 l. 15 dele of p. 66 l. 20 f. happiness r. fulness p. 69 l. 1 f. guest r. gust p. 84 l. 26 f. finites r. finite p. 89 marg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95 l. 33 f. ninthly r. fifthly p. 98 l. 15 f. sum r. same p. 102 l. 6 f. in r. on l. 21 f. be r. take p. 103 l. 19 f. opulentous r. opulent p. 104 l. 3 f. Crowns r. counters l. 15 add see p. 105 l. 22 add grow p. 107 l. 13 f. sheaves of Saffron r. fruits of righteousness b. 108 l. 11 add the p. 112 marg f. domini r. domine p. 115 l. 17 f. care r. core p. 118 marg dele quere p. 130 l. 1 f. that r. thâ—e p. 143 l. 17 f. thee r. the p. 153 l. 9 f. emanate r. â—manare p. 155 l. 20 f. fortune r. fortitude p. 157 l. 8 f. by r. my p. 158 l. 10 f. and r. man l. 12. f. trial r. sorrere p. 160 l. 2 f. comforters r. comfort l. 7 those evidences r. that evidence These Books with several others are Printed for and are to be sold by Dorman Newman at the Chirurgions-Arms in Little-Britain near the Hospital-gate Folio A Description of the four parts of the World taken from the Works of Monsieur Sanson Geographer to the French King and other eminent Travellerâ— and Authors To which is added the Commodities Coins Weights and Measures of the chief places of traffick in the world Illustrated with variety of useful and delightful Maps and Figures By Richard Blome Gent. Memoires of the Lives Actions Sufferings and Deaths of those excellent Personages that suffered for Allegiance to their Soveraign in our late intestine Wars from the year 1637. to 1666. with the Life and Martyrdom of King Charles the first By David Lloyd The Exact Polititian or Compleat Statesman briefly and methodically resolved into such principles whereby Gentlemen may be qualified for the management of any publick trust and thereby rendred useful for the Common-welfare By Leonard Willan Esquire The Jesuits Morals collected by a Dr. of the Colledg of Sorbon in Paris Written in French and exactly translated into English A Relation in form of a Journal of the Voyage and Residence of King Charles the Second in Holland The History of the Cardinals of the Roman Church from the times of their first creation to the election of the present Pope Clem. 9. with a full account of his Conclave A History of Ireland By Edmund Spencer Esquire Quarto The Christian-mans Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business wherein the Christian is directed to perform it in all religious duties natural actions particular vocations family directions and in his own recreations in all relations in all conditions in his dealings with all men in the choice of his company both of evil and good in solitude on a week day from morning to night in visiting the sick on a dying bed By George Swinnock Mr. Caryl's Exposition on the Book of Job Gospel Remission or a Treatise shewing that true blessedness consists in the pardon of sin By Jerem. Burroughs An Exposition on the Song of Solomon By James Durham late Minister in Glascow The Real Christian or a Treatise of Effectual Calling wherein the work of God in drawing the soul to Christ being opened according to the holy Scriptures some things required by our late Divines as necessary to a right preparation for Christ and true closing with Christ which have caused and do still cause much trouble to some serious Christians and are with due respects to those worthy men brought to the ballance of the Sanctuary there weighed and accordingly judged To which is added a few words concerning Socinianisme By Giles Firmin sometime Minister at Shalford in Essex The vertue and value of Baptism By Zach. Crofton The Quakers Spiritual Court proclaimed being an exact narrative of a new High Court of Justice at the Peel in St. John street also sundry errors and corruptions among the Quakers which were never till now made known to the world By Nathaniel Smith who was conversant among them fourteen years A Discourse upon Prodigious Abstinence occasioned by the twelve months fasting of Martha Taylor the famed Darbyshire Damosel proving that without any miracle the texture of humane bodies may be so altered that life may be long continued without the supplies of meat and drink By John Reynolds Octavoes and Twelves Vindicta Bietatis or a Vindication of Godliness from the imputation of folly and fancy with several Directions for the attaining and maintaining of a godly life By R. Allen. Heaven on Earth or the best Friend in the worst times To which is added a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Tho. Mosely Apothecary By James Garreway Justification only upon a satisfaction By Rob. Firgirson The Christians great Interest or the trial of a saving Interest in Christ with the way how to attain to it By Will. Guthry late Minister in Scotland The vertue vigour and efficacy of the Promises displayed in their strength and glory By Tho. Henderson The History of Moderation or the Life Death and Resurrection of Moderation together with her Nativity Country Pedigree Kindred Character Friends and also her Enemies A Guide to the true Religion or a Discourse directing to make a wise choice of that Religion men venture their salvation upon By J. Clapham An Exposition on the Hebrews By David Dickson Rebukes for Sin by Gods burning anger by the burning of London by the burning of the World and by the burning the wicked in hell fire To which is added a discourse of Heart-fixedness By Tho. Doolittle Four select Sermons upon several Texts of Scripture wherein the will-worship and idolatry of the Church of Rome is laid open and confuted By Will. Fenner The Life of Doctor James Vsher late Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland Spare Minutes or resolved Meditations or premeditated Resolutions By Arthur Warwick A most comfortable and Christian Dialogue between the Lord and the Soul By Will. Cowper Bishop of Galloway The Cannons and Constitutions of the Quakers agreed upon at their general Assembly at their new Theatre in Gracechurch-street A Synopsis of Quakerism or a Collection of the fundamental errors of the Quakers By Tho. Danson Blood for Blood being a true Narrative of that late horrid Muther committed by Mary Cook upon her Child By Nath. Partridge With a Sermon on the same occasion By J. Sharp
be put upon him for the recompencing of the ignominy and abasement of his first coming in the flesh I come now to the ends of this Meeting And the ends why the Saints ascend to meet Christ in the Air we may conceive to be such as these 1. Their publick Reception and owning by Christ 2. Their full and perfect Justification 3. The Consummation of their unptial Contract 4. Their Consession or Sitting together with Christ in the Judgment 5. Their compleat and sinal Benediction or blessed Sentence 6. Their solemn and triumphant Attondance on the Judg going to take possession of the Kingdom These or the like ends of the Saints meeting with the Lord in the Air are not obscurely hinted to us in Scripture The first is Their publick reception and owning by Christ come now to judge the world The Elect Angels having gathered together the Elect Saints according to the Commission upon which they were sent forth Go ye and gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and having carried them up into the Air where the Judge stayeth for them for he will do nothing until they come I say their Angels shall now present them before Him in the rich and glorious attire of their now perfected Resurrection wherein their once vile bodies are now made like to Christ his glorious body With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought into the King's presence and the first publick Act which the King shall do is solemnly to receive them Come ye blessed of my Father and embraceing them in his armes and kissing them as it were as Joseph once did his Brethren in the open view of Heaven and Earth he will solemnly own them and acknowledg them and that First in their Persons and Relation unto himself A Prerogative long-before promised Mal. 3.17 Christ will own the Saints 1. In their persons They shall be mine when I make up my Jewels That is the very work which Christ is now come about to make up his Jewels to lay them up in their Heavenly Cabinet And the first word he will speak is These are mine he appropriates them for his own they be mine my Jewels my Gems my * Sâ—gullah precious Treasure As the Saints have not been ashamed of Christ before men so neither will Christ now be ashamed of them before his Father Luk 9 Heb. 1.11 2 In their Relations and all his mighty Angels he will not be ashamed to call them Brethren yea he will appropriate them as his Children a Seed given him of his Father as the great reward of is Passion saying These be the Children which God hath given me Ver. 13. my Sons and my Daughters who have served me thus he owns them in their Relations Secondly 3. In their Duâ—ies and attendance He will own and acknowledg all the holy duties publick and private which they have done in obedience to his Commands their hearing praying fasting and afflicting their Souls for their own sins and for other mens sins their fearing of God and laying to heart the reproaches of Religion and Blasphemies cast upon his Name their mutual holy conferences Mal. 3.16 one with another c. All these were written in a book of Remembrance of old and laid up before him that they might never be forgotten and now the Book shall be brought forth and read in the Audience of the world for their greater honour even the very secret duties which they have performed in their Closets when no eye saw them but God's even they shall be proclaimed in the Audience of this Universal Assembly at the last day Mat 6.6 Thy Father which saw in secret will now reward thee openly not a prayer but it was filed up not a sigh Psal 56.8 nor groan but it is booked not a tear but is botled not an holy ejaculation but was upon Record and shall be now publickly produced and acknowledged I know your Works and your Labour and your Charity and your Service Rev. 2.19 and your last Works to be more then the first c. Thirdly 4. In their fidelity and perseverance Rev. 2 13. Jesus Christ at that day will own the fidelity of his Saints their constancy and perseverance in their holy Profession and confess them before all the world I know your Works and where you have dwelt even where Satan's seat was and you have held fast my Name Chap. 2.10 and have not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. were my faithful Martyrs who were slain among you where Satan dwelleth behold to you who have been faithful to the death do I now give a Crown of Life To you who have overcome do I grant to sit with me in my Throne Chap. 3.21 as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 5 In their sufferings Fourthly He will own and acknowledg the Saints in their sufferings for his sake All the reproaches hard speeches * Lâ—quntur lapides incivilities abuses scandals persecutions which ever they sustained in their names persons lively-hoods and lives upon Christ's and the Gospels account he will acknowledg and bespeak them in some such language as this Isa 66.7 Your Brethren which hated you that cast you out for my names sake said * So mocking God and deriding the Godly for their confidence in God Luk. 22.28 29 30. 6. In all the Offices of love done to him or his Let the Lord be glorified but now I appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Or as he once encouraged his Disciples in the days of his flesh You are they which have continued with me in my temptations and behold I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome c. Fifthly and lastly The Lord Jesus will own all the Services and Offices of Love done to Himself or to any of his Members Cloathing Feeding Visiting them when Sick coming to them when in Prison He will acknowledge all before Heaven and Earth yea what they themselves have forgotten never thought-worthy of their own notice much less of Christ's notice Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c Observe by the way the difference between Saints and Shadows Hypocrites can boast of what they never truly did they can own what God will disown We have fasted say they nay saith God In the day of your fast ye find pleasure ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness c. We have say they afflicted our Soul no such thing saith God Ye have bowed down the head like a bul-rush for a day ye have spread Sack-cloath and Ashes under you Is this a Fast will you call this Soul-afflicting if you will I will not I but now