familiar and gracious revelation of his presence and of his holy will by some glorious visible and created representation which in comparison of Gods not revealing himself so fully unto others is called face to face Exod. 33.11 Num. 12.7 8. The Lord spoke unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his friend 4. The irresistible power of God throwing down every impediment in the way of his eternal purpose and counsel Isa 64.3 The mountains flowed down at thy presence or face 5. The sense of Gods favour when he comes unto a soul with healing under his wings like the Sun with his beams reviving a withered herb Psal 13.1 How long wilt thou hide thy face from me Isa 54.8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee God is said to hide his face when he restrains the sense and comfort of his love in time of great trouble and sheweth not in the face of providence any sign of his love Because pitty in the heart is oft-times seen in the face and countenance 6. The face of God signifieth that essential infinite increated and invisible glory of God Exod. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live 1 Cor. 13.12 Then shall we see face to face and in this sense it is taken in this place As to the second what is understood by beholding his face What it is to behold the face of God I answer there is a beholding of God in his works when in the creatures we behold footsteps of the power and wisdom of God as the skill of an excellent Artificer is seen in the works of his hands Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are cleerly seen 2. There is a beholding of God in a created and visible representation Thus Moses is said to have seen God Exod. 33. and Isai 6. it was not properly a beholding of God but something created by God from the which visible representation the beholders did perceive with their understanding something of the greatness and Majestie of God 3. There is a beholding of God by the eye of faith when we know and perceive him to be our God reconciled to us in Iesus Christ in whom as the only Mediator we behold Gods face and good will towards lost man 2 Cor. 4.6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 4. There is an immediate beholding and knowing the essentiall glory of God Mat. 18.10 Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven So in this place to behold the face of God is to know immediately and to enjoy him fully as a man beholding a face immediately and perfectly when it is set before his eyes at noon-day The compleat and full happiness of the Saints in heaven Doct. standeth in the seeing and fruition of God Compleat happiness stands in the seeing of God Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the poor in heart for they shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is Our natural life consists in a union of soul and body our spiritual life in a union of our souls with Christ by faith and eternal life in an immediate union with God and communion of glory Our growth in the spiritual life of Grace here must go before our coming to the stature of the fulness of Christ in that eternal life of glory Eph. 4.12 13. For clearing the doctrine we would know wherein stands the matter and object of our happiness 2. What is the manner of our participation and fruition of that object As to the object and matter of our eternal happiness What is the matter or object of our happiness the spirit of God in holy Scriptures expresseth it in terms borrowed from things of highest esteem in this world that by such expressions he may condescend to our capacity that we may learn things invisible by things visible and that our desires may be stirred up by things earthly toward things heavenly 1. It is called â— Light It is called Light Psal 36.9 With thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light It will not be a dazelling and confounding light as was the brightness of Moses his face at his coming down from the Mount the people could not behold him it will not be an astonishing light as that in the Mount at our Lords transfiguration the Disciples fell to the ground their weak eyes could not behold those glimpses of glory that shined through the vail of flesh but the light in our heaven of happiness will be a strengthning and comforting light it will strengthen and confirm the eyes of our understanding to behold it Then shall we be enabled as the young Eagles to behold the Sun of Righteousness in his brightness and glory it was said by the Lord to Moses none can see my face and live Exod. 33.20 that glorious sight which Daniel saw took strength from him Dan. 10.8 The object being without him drew out all his spirits to behold and admire it and so weakned him but in heaven our God whom we shall see and know will be within us to strengthen us then shall we live because we see his face It will be also a comforting light like the light of the morning to the wearied watchman who longed after it in the night time 2 It is called a Kingdom Luc. 12.32 2. A Kingdom Fear not little flock for it is your fathers will to give unto you a Kingdom It is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken or moved Heb. 12.28 there will be no commotions or divisions as in these inferiour sublunary Kingdomes in that Kingdom will be everlasting peace Rev. 22.11 without are dogs to wit contentious and seditious men who like dogs barking at the superiour lights do despise dignities and dominions which God hath appointed to be as the greater lights for ruling this inferiour world such men living and dying in their seditious disposition and courses will not come within the border of that Kingdom It is a Kingdom of incorruptible glory Suppose a man were Monarch of all the world in great splendor and prosperity yet all his glory and contentment is but a flying shadow in comparison of that solid substantial and eternal glory of the least of Saints in the Kingdom of heaven as the creature is infinitely inferiour to the Creator so is created glory to the increated which the child of God beholdeth in that Kingdom of glory Isa 40 15. Behold the Nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust in the ballance how doth the glory of earthly Kings and their Kingdoms pass away like the glory of a King in a stage-play but the glory of the Kingdom of heaven is fixed and permanent as the Kingdom is immortal so
original corruption and preach unto him humiliation and repentance as weariness so sickness in the body is a fruit of sin It is a commotion and collision of those humors in the body which God restrained from breaking out one upon another so long as man by sin transgressed not the bounds set to him by God but when man passed his bounds then the humors of the body passed their bounds and like an impetuous flood after the bulwark is removed over-runs the whole body Sin made way to this inundation which in the estate of integrity was barred up in the body by the over-ruling providence of God who shutteth up and openeth the barrs even of the great ocean at his own pleasure Thirdly from sin is that tormenting fear of death 3 Tormenting fear of death which keepeth the heart of miserable man in straitness and bondage Heb. 2.15 Through the fear of death all their life time are subject to bondage In which words a sinner is compared to a Malefactor condemned shut up in prison and under a continual fear of the execution of the sentence It is the Apostles allusion also Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath shut up all under sin that is it hath convinced all men of guiltiness and of obligation to eternal death Iob 18.14 Death is called the King of terrors Heathens called it the most fearful of all fearful things Caligula the fourth Roman Emperour hid himself under a bed when he heard the noise of thunder guiltiness in the conscience is the worm that breeds this gnawing and tormenting fear of death Cains guiltiness made him fear every one that met him would kill him This fear of death until it be qualified and tempered by Faith in the Merit of the death of our Lord doth exceedingly torment and disquiet the heart of man in the midst of all his pleasures even a glancing thought of death maketh his heart sorrowful Amidst all his plenty he is like unto Damocles who had not a heart to taste the dainties on Dionysius his table for fear of the drawn sword hanging over his head by an hair in like manner the fear of death in his adversity doth wonderfully disquiet him he taketh a very small cross though it were but a sore head to be a beginning of his endless woes to be a drop of that cloud of fierce wrath that is to be poured out upon him in vials at his death and judgement and to be a Messenger sent of God to arrest him Fourthly 4. Pain in dying Pain in dying is also a bitter fruit of sin This bitterness and Antipathy betwixt the living man and death is a part of the wages of original sin It is true some wicked men may have little or no pain at their death Psal 73.4 There are no bands in their death But all that calmeness is but a shore Sun-shine before a storm the fearful tempest of Gods wrath abideth them their day comes on apace wherein their worm dyeth not and their fire will not be quenched The rich Glutton no doubt at his death had store of all Lenitives that could give him any ease whereas Lazarus had none But that rich man afterward felt the pain to the uttermost he got not a drop of cold water to refresh him The death of some wicked men is like those Fishes going down with much facility through Jordan till they once fall into the dead Sea and there they die so the wicked man is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Fifthly 5. Separation of the soul and body In the first death is implyed the dissolution it self when the soul and body by their union making up one person are separated the one from the other This actual separation is also a punishment of sin Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death It is true Enoch and Elias were born in sin but had not this separation of soul and body yet it is certain when they were translated in the body to heaven they were separate from the society of men living on the earth they were changed from a state of corruption which was a separation not of the soul from the body but of all corruption from the body and of the remainders of sin dwelling in both Moreover God who is above all his penal Laws and Statutes might according to his good pleasure give an Indulgence and Immunity to his servants from that penal Ordinance of death as he did grant unto David an Indulgence to eat of the Shew-bread notwithstanding there was a positive Statute to the contrary The sixt and last evil of misery implyed in death threatned against man before his fall and deserved by his fall 6. The cuâ—â—â— of death is the curse of death when it serve has a darke dreadful passage into the second dâ—aâ—h and outer darkness This by the fall was deserved by all and herein stands the curse of death that not only it separateth the soul and the body but as Gods officer it openeth the prison door to the end the soul the prime malefactor may be first drawn forth and put under the execution of wrath and therefore the body which did second the soul in obeying the lusts of the flesh is put to the suffering of eternal wrath at the day of resurrection Death to the rich Glutton was a dark trance carrying him into hell As hell it self and the bottomless pit are the wages of sin deserved by all so is also the curse of death in being a passage unto hell due unto all sinners for as the Malefactor deserveth the execution of the sentence of death so in like manner to be carried in such a way that leads to the place of execution This Doctrine serveth for our humiliation Vse 1 seeing sin is the cause procuring death with all the alterations going before Sin is matter of humiliation in all bodily distempers the pain accompanying and the destructions following it It is our duty when ever any change seiseth on the body to humble our spirits before God and to acknowledge the sins of our souls Remember the distemper of the soul brought on all the distempers and indispositions upon the body There may be many new and strange diseases in this sinful age whereof it is hard for the most skilful Physitian to finde out and shew the true natural cause but it is most easie to find out the true spiritual cause both of our new and old diseases which is the corruption of our inward man as in the last and worst of times new and strange sins do abound foretold 2 Tim. 3. which our Ancestors and many honest Pagans having nothing but natures light would have abhorred and said as Hazael Am I a dead Dog to do such things so no wonder there be new diseases inflicted justly by God as new punishments of new and uncouth transgressions Therefore at what time soever thou findest any alteration in thy
endeavour to glorify God in the body Vse 3 Sound comfort to the Godly let the meditation on these glorious qualities of the body in the day of resurrection comfort thy heart under all the pains and troubles in the body Thy vile body will be changed now thy body is decaying and dying daily thou art troubled in underpropping thy ruinous house of clay and do what thou canst one time it will fall down but there is thy comfort it will be raised in incorruption This was the ground of the Apostles comfort against the decay and dissolution of the body 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens there we will get a Mansion John 14.2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions then our condition will not be subject to alterations like men dwelling in a Tabernacle and removing from place to place but it will be fixed and permanent without any change it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abiding of glory and joy 2. Though now possibly there be some deformity in thy body yet in that day thy body shall be compleat and comely though at thy death thy body were full of fores and ulcers yet if thou dye in the Lord thy body shall be raised in honor and comely beauty in that day Lazarus will have no sores as the body will be fully purged in that day from all contagion of sin so will it be freed from all deformity which was only a Symptom of indwelling corruption 3. Whereas thy body is now weak and frail a little thing doth soon distemper thy Spirit and little labour makes thy body weary This is thy comfort that in the day of resurrection thy body will be raised in strength though now thou canst not go up a little hill without some weariness in the body yet in that day thou shalt go up in the body to the third heaven and shalt not be weary 4. Now thou art much troubled about the natural operations and imployments of the body for food and rayment and other things pertaining to this decaying life but in that day thou wilt have appetite after nothing but God himself and all thy appetite will be fully satisfied by a perpetual delight in thy God infinite all-sufficient unchangeable and eternal in glory goodness and bounty towards thee Thou who art vexed disquieted in this life with the relicks of inordinate concupiscence remaining in the body thou hast cause to be humbled in the sight of God for that body of death yet there is thy comfort thou shalt be freed in that day from all such molestation in the body and thou shalt be like unto the spotless Angels without all inclination to delight in any thing but in the knowledge and love of God◠In that day great will be thy joy at the meeting of the soul and the body Though at parting here by death there was much pain and trouble like the parting of Iacob and Benjamin yet their meeting will be with great joy like the meeting of Iacob and Ioseph the soul will bring down good news from heaven to the body like the report of the faithful spies Numb 14. to encourage the body to go with it unto the heavens where they shal rejoyce together for ever in the presence of God then shall their joy be encreased at their meeting with Christ and perpetuated in their abode with Christ in the third heaven and following with praise and triumph the Lamb where-ever he goeth To him with the Father and holy Spirit be all praise honour and glory now and ever Amen Of Eternal Life by and with CHRIST PSAL. 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness AS the glorious resurrection of the body is a refreshing stream from the fulness of Christ so is also eternal life Eternal life is in and from Christ which is the full and compleat happiness of soul and body in one person This is purchased by the Merit of the righteousness and obedience of Iesus Christ Rom. 5.20 21. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord by Faith in Iesus Christ we get a right and claim unto eternal life Ioh. 6.47 he that believeth on me hath everlasting life by him we shall be put in possession of eternal life Math. 2◠34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you After that the bodies of them that have done good are raised up and inlivened with the souls then shall the Saints go with the Lord unto the third heaven and there in soul and body enjoy eternal life The great blessing of eternal life is laid before us by the Psalmist The sense of the words in these words I know some Interpreters understand the words to be meant of the lively sense of Gods favour bestowed upon his children after they have been for a time under a night of trouble It is most true light is sown even in darkness for the upright in heart though the Lord hide his face in a little wrath for a moment yet with everlasting kindness will he have mercy Isa 54.8 But I conceive as many sound Interpreters do the Prophet speaketh of that confidence and hope the children of God have of rest happiness and satisfaction after this life when their bodies that sleep in the grave shall be awaked to the resurrection of life Because he opposeth the hope of after happiness as a strong prop to sustain the children of God in all their troubles and wants in this life against the temptations from the prosperity of wicked men in this present world to whom God giveth a large portion of things worldly The Prophet comforteth himself and all the Godly with the hope of that full and enduring portion in the other life some read the latter part of the verse thus I shall be satisfied when thy Image or likeness is awaked and the original will bear it as if the meaning were thus when I who was once created to thy Image shall rise again I shall be satisfied but I encline rather to the ordinary reading I shall be satisfied with thy Image when I awake by Image is understood the face of God which in the former part of this verse is called a beholding of Gods face in the immediate seeing whereof will stand our eternal happiness when we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 In the words we have The parts of the Text. 1. The time of his compleat and consummate happiness when I awake 2. The matter of his happiness and the manner of enjoying it the matter and object Gods face or likeness the manner
him a little before the time of publick execution of the sentence whereas a man reconciled and absolved is well content with any morsell So a wicked impenitent person at his death hath no contentment with all his worldly advantages But if thou be reconciled to God thy contentment in thy prosperity is multiplied for then thou lookest upon the good things of this world as pledges of better things and this super-addition to them of a new relation multiplies thy contentment and at death thy contentment is encreased as that of a Pilgrim at the border of his own Countrey and Seafaring man at the entrance of the harbour 2. Receive Christ to dwell in thy heart by faith and then nothing can come amisse that comes with Christ we make strangers welcome to our house who come along with a dear Friend No affliction is so strange but it will be made welcome with Christ Not only are beleevers content with it but glory in it As couragious Souldiers to be employed in hard service So did the Apostles when they were ignominiously beaten Act. 6.41 Paul and Silas did sing in the dungeon Act. 16.14 it was Pauls gloriation Gal. 6.17 that he bare in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus he esteemed them marks of favour and honour put upon him by his Lord he gloried in them as a valiant Souldier in the cicatrice of his wounds Our Lord brings with him peace to the soul where he dwels Peace with God Rom. 5.1 and peace to the conscience which is the Eccho and resound of our peace made in heaven with God This peace is the health of the soul and as a man in bodily health can well comport with course diet for a time whereas a sickly man frets and cankers at better entertainment So a man that hath peace with God and with his own conscience can comport with the bread of adversity and water of affliction But the man that hath not this peace hath a fretting of spirit in the midst of his plenty while there is laughter in his mouth there is much sorrow in his heart 3. Labour to be holy in all manner of conversation for holinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 The precious promises of God are the common places out of which faith draweth several arguments of contentment for all our several wants bodily or spiritual Out of the bounty of providence the godly man gets supply for his outward condition and out of the Fulnesse of Christ he receives for his inward man grace for grace Lastly Moderate thy desires after things worldly Impatient desires to have breed much discontentment for disappointment and immoderate desires still to enjoy what we once have breeds us much discontentment at our losses Rachels impotent desires of posterity bred her so much discontent with the want of children Therefore the Apostle exhorts Heb. 13.5 Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have Covetousnesse is like Hagar there is no peace in the house to Sarah till she be cast out so there is no quietnesse nor contentment to our spirits until covetousnesse be mortified Moderate therefore your desires after the things of this world and the greater shall be your contentment both in your abundance and in your wants Covet the best things even the Kingdom of God and his righteousnesse and things worldly shall be added to you Ye cannot exceed here in your desires after things heavenly but your enjoyment in heaven will exceed all your desires for it cannot enter into the heart to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him To this God Father Sonne and holy Ghost be all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen Now followeth the fourth and last particular to be considered in the words to wit The fourth particular the sole and only author of all his ability and strength for doing and suffering the good will of God I can do all things saith he through Christ which strengtheneth me Before I raise the Doctrine the words would be cleared 1. What is meant by this strength 2. Next Wherefore it is called the strength of Christ And 3. How it is said he can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth him First By strength is not meant that infinite power 1. What is meant by strength wherein Christ is equal with the Father that mighty power by which in a soveraign and authoritative way he wrought miracles Luk. 9.73 They were all amazed at the mighty power of God by which he subdued all things and will raise the dead Phi. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things This strength is essential to the Sonne of God and incommunicable to the creatures the mighty one of Israel puts forth this strength toward the defence and protection of his own children in time of danger but puts it not in them as a strong man will use his strength for the defence of them that are weak but puts not his strength within them But by strength is here meant an ability created and infused into the heart of a beleever whereby he is enabled in such perfection as is accepted of God in Christ for doing and suffering the will of God It is a strength from Christ in them as the Original imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a strength in the innerman but from his Spirit Eph. 3.16 strengthened with might by his Spirit Secondly 2. Why it is called the strength of Christ It is called the strength of Christ 1. Because Christ hath procured this strength to us by his merit and intercession Joh. 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever Our Lords departing out of the world by the death of the Crosse was the cause procuring to us the comfort and strength of of the Spirit Joh. 16.17 If I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you 2. Because Christ is the efficient cause and worker of this strength in us 1 Tim. 1.12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me it is the same word which is used here 2 Tim. 2.1 Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus or by Christ Jesus as the Preposition is frequently used as Mat. 5.34 it is rendred by the Heaven Matth. 23.20 21 22. where it is five times so used Rom. 12.21 Overcome evil by good so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Christ who by the efficiency of his Spirit applieth to us the strength of grace procured by the merit of his death Thirdly 3. How a man by the strength of Christ is able to do all things As to the third thing to
meant by good work how then is it said God will perform it until the day of Christ Answ I answer to the first by good work is meant a communion with Christ in the graces of his spirit wrought in us by the Spirit and word of promise Of this good work the Apostle speaketh in this Chapter vers 5. their fellowship in the Gospel To the second I answer What is meant by performing it the word rendered perform signifieth the bringing to an end a work already begun as a house already founded is perfected when the topstone is put on Heb. 8.5 So the performing of the good work is the bringing of the work of Sanctification unto the term of perfect sanctity and purity in a gradual and absolute conformity to the will of God in the estate of glory To the endeavours whereof we are exhorted 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore such promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthyness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God It is true the work of Sanctification in respect of our soul is perfected at the hour of death because no unclean thing can enter into Heaven No infirmity no spot comes there we must be perfectly cured of that hereditary leprosie of sin before we can come within the camp of that triumphant Israel corruption cannot inherit the incorruption of glory But the whole suppositum and person consisting of soul and body is not perfected until that glorious day of Jesus Christ Though the souls of the godly immediately after their parting out of the body be perfectly sanctified and admitted to behold the fathers face in glory yet the body being laid in the dust is not restored from that state of corruption nor perfected until the day of Christs second coming which is called the day of restoring all things Acts 3.21 at which time the good work of Sanctification begun here in soul and body will be absolutely perfected in both A renewed man Doct. in whom God hath begun the good work of Sanctification Renewed persons cannot fall totally from grace cannot fall totally from the state of grace but persevere therein to the end of his life for the Apostle is confident that God who hath once begun the good work in them will perform it until the day of Christ before I confirm this doctrine two questions would be answered 1. What is understood by persevering in grace What is understood by persevering in grace 2. How perseverance being a thing to come is said to be certain Answ I answer to the first the word grace is taken ordinarily for Gods free favour for that giving grace from which as the fountain doth flow through the merit of our mediatour all spiritual blessings It is so taken Eph. 2.8 by grace are ye saved Rom. 3.24 being justified freelie by his grace It is also taken for the grace that is given which doth flow from the fountain of free grace and love Ioh. 1.16 Of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace Such graces are faith hope Love and other saving Graces of the Spirit There is a perseverance actual in the exercise and actings of holy duties Act. 2.42 They continued stedfastly in the Doctrine of the Apostles And there is to speak so an effectual perseverance in respect of a settled inclination and disposition to holy duties though there may be some remitting in or intermitting of the acts and exercise thereof such is our perseverance in prayer Eph. 6.18 Col. 4.2 Praying alwaies as a Musical instrument well tuned by the hand of the skilful Musitian though it be not alwayes plaid on and giving out a sound yet it is sâ—ill well tuned So this inward disposition and frame of Spirit unto holy duties remains fixed in the children of God even in their failings in their coming short and imperfections about holy duties Rom. 7.19 The good I would do I do not though he did not act and exercise the commanded duty yet at the same time he persevered in an holy disposition and inclination of will to the duty To the other question I answer How perseverance in grace is said to be certain A thing to come is said to be certain two wayes 1. In respect of Gods Decree and this is the certainty of Immutability because Gods Decree counsel and purpose is unchangeable Heb. 6.17 Thus it was certain that our Lord should be delivered unto death because it was so determined in the eternal counsel of God Act. 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God 2. A thing to come is said to be certain in respect of Gods fore-knowing and revealing that such a thing shall be This is the certainty of infallability because Gods knowledge is infallible Thus it was certain that Judas should betray our Lord because our God in his permissive Decree foreseeing it would be revealed the same in his Word the perseverance of renewed men is certain in both respects first in respect of Gods Decree Rom. 8.30 Joh. 6.39 Next in respect also of Gods revealed Will concerning their perseverance Ioh. 10.28 I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand Iohn 6.39 This is the Fathers will that of all which he hath given me I should loose nothing The Doctrine of a renewed man his perseverance in Grace and the certainty thereof is proved from Scripture Proofs of the perseverance of the Saints first he is continued in the loving kindness of the Lord and so perseveres in an estate of free Grace and favour with God for whom he loveth once with that love of complacency as his children in Christ he loveth them to the end Ioh. 13.1 It is true he is displeased with them when they offend as a loving Father with his children and chastisech them yet will he not consume and destroy as a Judge in his wrath Psal 89.31 32. Psal 99.8 Ierem. 46.28 Next the renewed man perseveres also in the Grace given and received the stock of Grace infused is never totally lost Faith Hope and Love remain in the habit and root though in an hour of temptation the act and fruit thereof may intermit and fail Iohn 3.36 He that believeth in me hath everlasting life It is not said he shall have but in respect of the infallible consequence of eternal life to Faith in Christ Eternal life certain It is said in the present tense he hath eternal life Eternal life is certain in the Promise because God is Faithful who hath promised eternal life to every one that believeth in Iesus Christ It is certain in the earnest because Faith is an earnest of the Spirit and the Faithful Lord who giveth the earnest of Grace in this life will certainly give the summe of Glory in the other for Grace is the earnest and first fruit of Glory Iohn 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I
that betwixt the husband and the wife Eph. 5.23 the Believer is espoused to Jesus Christ by Faith we give our consent to him when we say with heart and mouth as the Spouse Cant. 2.16 My beloved is mine and I am his It is the duty of the husband to use his utmost endeavours for protecting his wife from perishing David took no rest until he had rescued his wives out of the hands of his and their enemies 1 Sam. 30. But our Lord and husband Iesus Christ surpasseth all men both in affection and power for the protecting of his Spouse Therefore one espoused into him cannot fall away finally for the relation is perpetual he is a Lord and husband for ever of his Spouse To wit the Church of Believers Obj. Obj. Although this or that person once espoused to Christ may fall away finally yet Christ hath a Spouse still to wit other Believers who persevere Answ Answ The Spouse of Christ is made up of so many individual persons and if those one after another may perish then were it possible that the whole might perish for the whole subsists and is preserved in the particulars and so it were possible that the Lord Jesus Christ might be a King without Subjects a Shepheard without a flock a Head without a body and a Husband without a Spouse Obj. Obj. It is true so long as a soul remains espoused to Christ it cannot perish but when men divorce themselves from Christ by unducifulness and impudent lewdness in sinning they are no more his Spouse Answ Answ 1 1. A soul once espoused to him is never divorced from him It is true in that great day there will be a separation of hypocrites who gave their names but not their hearts to him Then will the Lord say to them depart from me It will not be a divorce but a nulling of their counterfeit communion with Christ Then will he declare there was never a consummate marriage betwixt him and them No union nor communion in the Spirit Then will our Lord disclaim them before man and Angel saying I never knew you Math. 7.23 he never knew them so that he approved them for his own people But a soul receiving Christ by Faith and once united to him will never be separate from him Rom. 8.35 Whosh all separate us from the love of Christ c. 2. Our Lord and Husband keepeth the heart of his Spouse in a dutiful affection to himself If a husband were able to restrain the affection of his wife from strange lovers he doubtless would and should do it that in so doing he might prevent all cause of divorce but our Lord hath promised in the Covenant of Grace to over-aw our hearts by his fear that we turn not away in our hearts from him after strange lovers Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 3. It is true the sins and gross failings of regenerate men do for a time interrupt a communion in the sense and comfort of our Lords love and of their own peace and joy Then their Lord and husband frowns upon them withdraws the light and comfort of his countenance as an husband greatly displeased with his wife doth estrange himself for a time from her So the Lord hides his face for a time from them yet their sins do not turn off his heart from them Psal 89.32 33. I will visit their transgression with the rod nevertheless my loving kindness will I not take utterly from him yea he invites them to repent and notwithstanding their soul miscariages he promiseth to receive them Ier. 3.1 Thou hast plaid the harlot with many lovers yet return to me again saith the Lord. The fourth Reason is taken from the efficacy of Christs Prayer and the gracious acceptance it had alwayes with God Reas 4 The efficacy of Christs Prayer in the behalf of Believers Those for whom our Lord did pray that they might persevere to the end such do certainly persevere because the Father heareth him alwayes Iohn 11.42 But our Lord prayed for perseverance to Believers Iohn 17.15 I pray that thou shouldest keep them from the evil of the world For this he prayed not only in the behalf of the Apostles but also for all who should believe in his Name Ioh. 17.20 The fifth Reason is taken from that inviolable conjunction of the links in that golden chain of salvation Reason 5 The links of the chain of salvation inviolable Rom. 8.30 Whom he called he justified and whom he justified them he also glorified from hence we have this reason Those whom God will glorifie in heaven do certainly persevere to the end such as are once justified will be glorified for the Apostle to declare the certainty hereof expresseth it in the time past saying he hath gloriâ—ed as the like expression of a thing certain is found 1 Ioh. 3.14 We have passed from death to life because we love the brethren The sixth Reason is grounded on the Believers victory over the world he that overcometh the world Reas 6 falleth not away from the state of Grace because he could not fall away except he were overcome by temptations in the world But a regenerate man overcometh the world Rom. 8.37 1 Ioh. 5.4 It is a ridiculous exception to say the regenerate man is not overcome of the world so long as he is a Believer for that were asmuch as to say whosoever is born of God is not overcome of the world so long as he is not overcome which were a Tautologie If a Believer could become an Unbeliever by the prevalent temptations of Sathan from the world then should he be overcome of the world contrary to that assertion of the Apostle 1 Ioh. 5.4 This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith It is true Tertullian as Tertullian saith the renewed man is subject to many infalls of temptations from the world and to daily out-fall from indwelling corruption yet in the end the Believer in the strength of our Lords Grace doth prevail Rom. 8.37 In all these things we are more then Conquerours through him that loved us The seventh and last Reason is taken from that inseparable connexion betwixt adoption Reas 7 Adoption and the inheritance inseperable and the heavenly inheritance Those who are designed heirs of eternal life do persevere in Grace to the end But so it is that regenerate men being adopted Sons to God are designed heirs of eternal life Rom. 8.17 Gal. 4.17 If a Son then an heir of God through Christ Obj. Obj. It is true say some so long as they remain Sons they have a right to the inheritance but they may fall from the estate of Adoption and so be disinherited Answ 1. That one who is once a Son may afterward fall from the estate of Adoption Answ 1 is expresly contrary to that of our Lord Ioh. 8.35 The Son abideth in the house for ever But if he
he saw Vzza smitten this made him change his note we can look cheerful in a day of prosperity rejoycing in our Lords presence but in our adversity we question the Lords presence and say with Gideon Iudg. 6.13 If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us we can at a time when God reveals himself to us in some special testimony of his love with Peter in the Mount exult at a glance of his glory but at the time of our Lords suffering in his Mystical body our hearts become drousie and careless as Peters was in the Garden 3. In respect of the degree and measure of Faith at one time the renewed children of God will be like a Ship with all her sailes full they will have a plerophorie of Faith at another time like a Ship in a great storm with a peice of cross sail their Faith is but little and weak under some great tryal ye see it in David Psal 27.10 When my Father and my Mother did forsake me then the Lord did take me up and Psal 46.2 We will not fear though the earth be removed there was great Faith but ye see a slacking of his Faith Psal 31.22 I said in my hast I am cut off from before thine eyes and 1 Sam. 27.1 David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul notwithstanding he had from God a special Promise to be King of Israel 4. In respect of their continuance in duties at one time the children of God will continue in some bensal of Spirit with delight in their secret devotion at another time they have not well begun but they become weary their untimous and impertinent thoughts puls them away to some other business It is thus also in their hearing reading and meditation on the good word of God at one time they will continue in hearing with much reverence and attention though the Minister be a man of weak gifts at another time though the Minister were like Paul they fall drousie like Eutychus and if God did not prevent with mercy they would fall from this drousiness into a deadness of Spirit but our God rich in mercy and long suffering waits upon his children and recovers them from these fits and faintings unto their former soule health As to the second What 〈◊〉 is that causeth the abatements in Grace consider what maketh this change in the children of God and procureth the abatement and decay of the degrees and strength of Grace in them 1. A careless neglect of the means of salvation or an overly and superficial performance of holy duties if such be thy care no wonder thy strength of Grace decay as children who altogether abstain from meat or make but a fashion of eating do decay in the vigour and strength of their body The Apostle will have us as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 in which words he insinuates this also that want of desire to the Word is a main impediment to our growth in Sanctification and a cause of the decay and consumption of the inner man 2. Spiritual pride and vain confidence in our own strength for the imploying and improving of any Grace or Gift received of God brings with it a decay of the vigor of Grace as the swelling bigness of the Spleen makes the other noble parts of the body to decay so the swelling pride of our Spirit makes the Graces of the innerman to abate of their strength Pride goeth before a fall It is ever followed in the children of God with a fall either into some cross or into some sin to humble them Ezekias was lifted up in the pride of his heart and therefore was wrath threatned against him and all Judah 2 Chron 32.25 Peter in the pride and presumption of his own strength boasted though all the world should be offended yet should not he be offended in Christ whereupon followed a great abatement of the strength of Grace when he denyed the Lord of Life 3. Sloathfulness in not improving the stock of Grace or Gifts God hath bestowed upon thee brings on a decay Strong bodies through laziness and want of exercise become weak and feeble It is no wonder the Merchant becomes poor who improves not his little stock to some advantage and it is no wonder a Christian decay in the measure of grace if he improve not his talent to the glory of his Lord to the good example of his neighbor and to his own comfort in laying up a sure foundation against the time to come that he may lay hold on eternal life 4. When our eye and heart is too much fixed on visible and sensible objects of sorrow or fear then our graces begin to abate somewhat of their former vigour great and long troubles oft-times weaken our Faith when Peter looked too much to the wind that was against him and not to the Lord who called him to come on the waters his Faith began to fail and his body that before was elevated by a believing soul did now begin to sink weak Faith made a heavy body As to the third how to prevent this decay of Grace it is evident by knowing and shunning the evils that procure it Means to prevent decay in grace Therefore 1. make conscience to use the means whereby grace is begun preserved and encreased in the soul as faith comes by hearing the word of God so is it thereby encreased The more thou knowest and seest of God in his Word thou wilt be the more conformed to him in holyness by knowing him in the Gospel we are transformed into his image 2 Cor. 3.18 by frequent hearing reading meditation and prayer we become heavenly and spiritual as Moses coming down from the Mount did shine in his countenance so this communion with God in his Ordinances will make our hearts to burn with love to God and our faces to shine in all manner of holy conversation before the world The conscionable and careful using the means of our spiritual food and life will prevent the decay of the inner man 2. Walk humbly in the remembrance of thy former sins in the sense of thy present infirmities in a jealousie of thy best endeavours and in a solicitous fear of manifold temptations men recovered out of a dangerous disease shun every morsel that may distemper them or may procure a recidivation so the humble man shuns every thing that may bring a change on his inward condition Remembrance of former sins and of mercy in pardoning of them doth much strengthen his graces It increaseth his zeal against sin and augments his love to God and his holy commandments 3. Improve thy grace and gift to thy Lords advantage To him that hath shall be given he that improved his five talents and the other that improved his two received much more from their Lord then they got at first Math. 25. God encreased knowledge
the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augmentum Aquinas as if the Law were the encrease and augmentation of sin because by hearing the Law the desire of a man unrenewed is the more increased after sin Luther Luthers similitude is very apposite to this purpose as fire saith he in burnt lime-stone appeareth not until ye cast water on it and then immediately it smoaketh so the fire of concupiscence which should be quenched by the Law is from mans own latent corruption provoked by the Law There is no fault in the Law but in mans distempered will and appetite As when a sick patient longs after meat forbidden by the Physitian there is no fault in the Physitian but in the distempered appetite of the patient The other part of mans misery through sin How sin is a sting is the misery of death the sting of death is sin As by the sting of a venomous Serpent cometh an inflamation of the blood together with a great torment and pain in the body so by sin which is the sting of that old Serpent cometh pain and horror in the conscience and consumption in the body with dissolution and death at last And as the sting is the only weapon of a Serpent without which he can do no harm so sin only specially impenitency and unbelief are the strength and weapon of death which make it both fearful and hurtful to the children of men Sin which is the sting of the old Serpent Sin brings death when it came into the world and was tastened in our nature by a virtual consent in our first parents it brought death along with it Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death By death the wages of sin we understand both all the alterations in the body preceding our death and also all the pains and evils that accompany death Thus then by death we understand those particular evils of misery 1. A subjection to the necessity of dying 2. Alterations and sickness in the body disposing it for death 3. Fear of death 4. Pain in death 5. The separation of soul and body 6. The curse of death First man by sinning became subject to a necessity of dying By death is understood 1. The necessity of dying Assoon as he sinned he became mortal No sooner sin entred into his soul but mortality and corruption immediately entred into his body then the parcels of dust that were bound together by the bond of innocency were shaken loose and as a glass of sand turned up the body became mortal and the life of man subject to a continual flux and decay for after he had sinned and not till then it was said by the Lord of life unto him Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 It may be truly said of Adams body that in the state of innocency it was both Mortal and Immortal in respect of a capacity indifferent to dye or live and also it may be said to have been neither mortal nor immortal in respect it was created free from a necessary subjection to dying or an absolute appointment of God to live for ever It was the gross error of Pelagius a patron of corrupt nature and an enemy to free grace Pelagius confuted To affirm that Infants were not born in sin but that they had it only by imitation when he was pressed by force of argument taken from the death of Infants as a bitter fruit of original corruption in them his answer was that man would have dyed though he had never sinned because said he man had a mortal body composed of contrary elementary qualities which warring one against another would have made alteration in the body and in the end brought it to corruption and dissolution But for confutation of this error we should consider First as God created Adam with power of free will to stand or fall so he created him with a capacity to dye or not dye according to the right use or abuse of his free will Next as God did not create Adam with an inclination though he was of a mutable condition to sin for as an inclination to sin being the first step of turning from God is sinful and the most holy God is not the Author of sin so a subjection to the necessity of dying was not before man subjected himself willingly to sin for our most just God though by an act of soveraign power and dominion over his own creature as the Potter over his vessel he might annihilate the same yet would he not punish his innocent creature before it had sinned and was found guilty and lyable to punishment This was Abrahams argument for sparing the innocent in Sodom if there were any Shall not said he the Iudge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 As for the contrary Elementary qualities of heat and cold moystness and dryness created in the body I answer if man had persisted in his integrity keeping an harmony with God and his will then God would have kept these qualities in a right temper and just symmetry amongst themselves without destroying one another As by an over-ruling providence he preserved the Lyon and the Lamb the Woolf and the Kid together in one Ark of Noah without the destruction of the Lamb and Kid as he restrained the Lyon from destroying the living Ass or the dead body of the Prophet 1 King 13. As he restrained the fire Dan. 3. in the exercise of it that it did not so much as singe a hair of their heads though at the same time he did not destroy the fire in the heat and nature of it So the Lord would have preserved those elementary qualities in their nature and first act though in their second act and exercise he would have restrained them from destroying one another if man had stood in integrity And will not the Lord preserve our glorified bodies in heaven in a condition of an immutable immortality and incorruption though they will be raised as is very probable with the same Elementary qualities wherewith they were created in the state of integrity 2. Weakness and sickness Secondly as sin brought on man a necessary subjection to death and dissolution so it brought alterations upon the body by weakness and sickness Thus David acknowledged in the time he was under some distemper in body Psal 38.3 there is no rest in my bones because of my sin weakness and sickness of the body is a consequent of sin if man had continued in the state of innocency his labour exercise in the body should have been to him as a recreation with delight and continued strength in his Spirit whereas it is since the fall with toyl in the body and faintness in the Spirit Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Mans fainting and weariness of Spirit in the labour of his calling do convince him guilty of
constitution bodily humble thy self in the sight of God acknowledge thy indwelling corruption thy original and actual sins for our sinful corruption is the peccant and malignant humor from which proceed all the distempers and out-breakings in the body It was Davids practise in the time of bodily sickness to be humbled for his sins and his greatest desire was to be healed of them Psal 39.8 Deliver me from all my transgressions and if all men should make this humbling use of bodily indisposition how much more such men in whom sins have not only been a meritorious cause of their sickness and weakness but some particular sins have been an active and efficient cause of their great distemper of body as some persons weakned through incontinency or intemperance do pine away in the punishment of their own iniquities how should such be humbed before God when they may read in great letters imprinted on their bodies their particular sins If any such belong to God they will pine away with grief of heart for their sins they never turn their bodies in the bed of sickness but their sins return to their memory and they cry with Ezechias I am oppressed 2. Seek earnestly the health of thy soul Lord undertake for me 2. After thou hast in time of sickness humbled thy self before God in acknowledging thy sins seek first and most earnestly thy souls health So did David in a time of sickness Psal 41.4 Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee Our first and chief care should be to have that which is most precious healed first Men are more careful to heal Apostems in the noble parts then scratches in the skin to heal a wound in the face then one in the back No man is so sensless and soul-less as to deny that the soul is more noble and precious then the body and therefore soul-health is most to be sought after and to be preserved 3. 3. Use lawful means to recover the body Having acknowledged thy sins and sought first soul-health and Remission of sins thereafter in the name of God use all lawful means for recovery of thy bodily health To this effect thou mayest and shouldest use the help of the Physitian his calling is the good Ordinance of God but beware thou put thy trust in the lawful means for as small means through Gods blessing giving vertue to them will do much good so without it all consultations operations and applications of the most probable means cannot profit thee in thy sickness Therefore in using lawful means though never so weak be earnest with God by prayer for a blessing Beware on any terms to use unlawful means as Ahaziah did 2 King 1. He consulted with the Divel for recovering his health 〈◊〉 such means will not cure thee or if they do they may possibly cure thy body but withal they give a deadly wound to thy soul for it is certain the Divel doth more evil this way by healing then by inflicting diseases Those who are called by the ignorant multitude good witches do far more evil then those who are called evil because the first do wound the souls of those whose bodies they cure by their consulting and wicked compliance with such unlawful means and as the soul is far better then the body so the destruction of the soul is worâ—e then that of the body It serveth for instruction to teach us patience under sickness and bodily indispositions be patient O man Vse 2 Learn and exercise patience in sickness the Lord doth thee no wrong thy way and thy doings have procured those things unto thee Ier. 4.18 Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lament 3.39 It is a mercy thou art yet a living man and hast any time allowed to thee for thy repentance at such a time say thou with the Church Micah 7.9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him It is true the dear children of God in time of sore and long continuing sickness will have some paroxysms and fits of impatience Patient Iob cursed the day of his birth Iob 3.1 Ionah was very impatient at the time he had pain in his head and faintness in his heart Ionah 4 8 9. good Ezechias had his own fit also Isa 38.13 as a Lyon he will break all my bones But such fits abide not with them They recollect themselves they mourn and chatter for their impatience they pray for patience resolve in the strength of the Lord to submit to his holy will for the measure of their sickness both in the degree and endurance of it Iob saith after the fit is gone though he should kill me yet will I trust in him Iob 13.15 and Ezechias prayeth to God and resolveth on patience and submission for time coming Isa 38.14.15 What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it Our heavenly Father spareth us in our fits of impatience and beareth with us as a tender-hearted Father beareth with his cankered childe in time of sickness he considereth wisely his sick child speaketh frowardly from a distemper in his body and not from any disaffection in his heart Our wise Lord careth not for the flashes and flatterings of hypocrites and wicked men when his heavy hand is upon them Psal 78.38 They did flatter him with their mouth then it may be God will get many fair words and large promises Neither is he provoked to wrath by the sudden fits and unadvised out-breaking infirmities of his own dear children in time of heavy diseases Psal 103.13 Like as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him The Spirit of God sets before us the patience of Iob Iam. 5.11 Ye have heard of the patience of Job but there is not one word of his impatience Our gracious God remembers and rewards for his Sons sake the purpose of their will and the affection of their heart but he forgiveth and forgetteth their infirmities imperfections The child of God recovered out of his sickness calls to mind his own impatience the riches of Gods bounty in bearing with him and pardoning him this makes him to walk the more humbly with his God all his life time this wonderfully engageth his heart towards God As Patients recovered of a dangerous disease should be very thankful to the Physitian who did diligently and kindly attend them notwithstanding their untowardness in the time so the children of God that have been waited on in time of sickness with much patience and loving kindness of their heavenly Father when they look back to their recovery both from bodily sickness and soul distempers Vse 3 they will cry out with David Be moderate in the use of worldly things Psal 116.12.13 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. It serveth for
ways that thou maist be found in thy Lords ways walking in his holy commandments blessed is the man whom his Master when he cometh sindeth so doing as thou watchest over thy own heart and ways so watch and long after the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and this longing for death out of a love to be with him is a sure evidence of a soul well prepared for death 2 Tim. 4.8 The Lord will give a Crown of righteousness not to me only but to them also who love his appearing To him with the Father and holy Ghost be all praise Amen Having spoken of the sting of death we proceed to speak the cure and of our deliverance from it Of the cure of death The Author of our deliverance and victory is the Lord Iesus Christ the Captain of our salvation The Apostle compareth death to a conquering and prevailing enemy which by its sting and weapon woundeth many with a mortal and incurable wound because such men as live to sin and die in their guiltiness go down by the first death to the second into that bottomless pit out of which there is no redemption Jesus Christ our Lord by the merit of his death alone hath overcome death Doct. Christ only hath overcome death for all that believe in him and of a bitter enemy hath made death a comfortable friend to all who believe in him for by him alone we get victory over death That we may understand this point the better we should consider in what respect Christ hath delivered us from death he hath not delivered us from our obligation and subjection to the necessity of dying for we see believers dye as well as unbelievers Neither hath he delivered us from being subject to sicknesses and alterations going before death David complains the pains of hell got hold upon him Psal 116.3 that is extream pains in his body and anxiety in his spirit Neither hath our Lord delivered from pain at the hour of death nor from the separation of soul and body by death But our Lord hath overcome death in these respects 1. In respect of 1. The sting of death In respect of the sting of death he hath taken away our sins and as an enemy is overcome when his deadly weapon is taken out of his hand so our Lord overcame death by taking away sin on his cross for sin is the sting of death Hos 13.14 O Death I will be thy plagues This the Apostle cites 1 Cor. 15.54 The Captain of our salvation upon the cross as in an open and pitched battel did spoyl principalities and powers Col. 2.15 One of these powers armed against us was death he took away our sins on the cross and so spoyled death of his weapon as a valiant Conquerour takes away the weapons from a subdued enemy 2. 2. The fear of death Jesus Christ our Lord hath freed us from the fear of death Heb. 2.15 he was partaker of flesh and blood he took upon him our nature that he might deliver them who through the fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Our Lord by taking away our sins the sting and weapon of death doth deliver us from the fear of death for that which maketh an enemy fearful is his deadly weapon It is true sometimes men may fear even a naked enemy but they have no cause seeing he cannot harm them so some of Gods dear children at a time may exceed in the fear of death but they have no such cause of fear neither would they be so afraid 3. The curse of death if they were strong in the faith of Jesus Christ who hath disarmed death 3. Our Lord hath delivered us from the curse of death that to us the first death is not a dreadful passage to the second Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Rev. 14.13 Blessed are they that die in the Lord that henceforth they may rest from their labours As for weakness sickness pain and alterations in the body though our Lord hath not delivered us from them yet by the merit of his death and the grace of his Spirit he sanctifieth them to us and in a gracious providence turneth them to a good and spiritual use Our Lords death is like to that salt that purged and sweetned the naughty waters of Jericho 2 Kings 2.21 and like the meal cast into the pot wherein was the bitter herb 2 Kings 4.41 The death of our Lord hath taken wrath and the curse from out of all our afflictions and maketh them useful and profitable unto us Our Lord in a gracious dispensation turneth the bodily sickness of his own children into a spiritual medicine for purging an humorous and distempered soul for bringing down the tympany and swelling pride of the heart such as glory and boast in the beauty or strength of the body do see in time of sickness the weakness and vileness of the body and so being humbled learn to glory onely in the Lord and in the beauty of his grace in the inward man A sanctified sickness purgeth out of the heart covetousness the hearts Dropsie thirsting for more of this present world when the sick man seeth the emptiness of things worldly which cannot give him any ease in the time of his greatest need A sanctified sickness purgeth out unruly lusts which are as a burning feaver to the soul sickness takes down the body and grace sanctifying it turns it into a temple to the holy Ghost The wise Master-builder useth sickness as a sharp edged tool for polishing the body for the inhabitation of the Spirit that it may be a temple prepared In like manner our wise and merciful Lord though he deliver not his own children from death yet he maketh their death to be of singular good use to them It is a putting off of corruption that they may be clothed upon with incorruption The death of wicked men dying in their guiltiness is like unto a thiefs putting off his cloaths to the end he may be scourged but the death of the godly is like unto a childs putting off the old garment that he may put on the new that is incorruptible and will not fade but ever have a beautiful lustre It is for this their soul doth groan and long 2 Cor. 5.2 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven 4. The dominon of death As for deaths dominion and power over our bodies in the grave our Lord did take it also away by the merit of his death and declared his victory over and our deliverance from it by raising his own body and by loosing the bonds of death when our Lord awoke from death and stretched out the strength of his Godhead like Sampson he broke asunder those bonds as cords of flax Our deliverance from the grave will
Vse 1 Be thankful for victory over death Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ How should we bless our God for sending his wel-beloved son into the world to deliver us from all our enemies and from this awful enemy death that assaileth us in our lowest condition The damosels of Jerusalem praised David who had slain his ten thousands how then is Davids Lord and ours to be praised who hath overcome innumerable thousands at death in the behalf of his elect and redeemed ones As Sampson killed many at his death so the Captain of our salvation in his lowest condition subdued our enemies in their greatest strength for the weakness of God is stronger then men 1 Cor. 1.25 Then was our Lord strongest in the might of his power when he appeared weakest in his outward condition by his cross he triumphed by the shame he endured he overcame that perpetual shame and confusion we had deserved by his pains he saved us from eternal pains and by his death he was the death and plague of our death how then should we love this Lord who hath delivered our souls from the sting and curse of death our eyes from perpetual tears and our feet from falling into that bottomless gulph out of which there is no returning Amongst the Heathen in whose hearts were engraven by the finger of nature some dim lines of the law of gratitude If any man in time of battel had rescued and saved a Roman Citizen he was adorned with a new oaken crown or garland and highly praised how then should we for whom and before whom Christ was and is crucified praise him who rescueth us from the power of death and prevents us with mercy that we are not sent from death into hell The people of Israel did sing the high praises of the Lord for dividing the red sea for bringing them through it and for his mighty power and mercy in bringing them through Jordan to their promised rest how then should we praise our Lord who in his infinite power unsearchable wisdom and rich mercy hath made a way for us through the deep of his sufferings into that heavenly rest as at the Priests entering the river Jordan Iosh 4. it divided and gave way to the people of God to pass over so our great high Priest by going down to death hath made a way for us through it unto eternal life therefore from a deep sense of that which our Lord hath done already for us and in hope of that happiness before us hid with Christ in God Let us bear a part in that new song Rev. 5.13 Blessing glory honor and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever It serveth for admonition Vse 2 Submit to the disposals of God in sickness death seeing our Lord Jesus Christ by his death sanctifieth our death and all our bodily indispositions by making them work for our good and this also is a part of his victory it is our duty in weakness and sickness to submit unto the wise gracious dispensation of God for doing whereof I propose these ensuing motives 1. Motives 1. Because in the sickness of the children of God his wisdom is made manifest ordering the sickness of their bodies for the healing of their souls Rom 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love him their sickness is Gods medicine and hath an operation on their souls for their good what ever be the end of it if the child of God recover his sickness bringeth forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Heb. 12.11 that is to say a near and closer conformity to the will of God the supreme Law of all righteousness which righteousness and endeavour of conformity to the will of God bringeth forth peace of conscience as a sweet and pleasant fruit But if the sickness be unto death it bringeth forth the incorruptible fruits of eternal life Therefore in time of sickness submit wholly to his most wise and holy will Our Lord said to Peter Joh. 13. What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know so in the time of thy sickness wherein the Lord purgeth thy soul thou knowest not what thy Lord is doing but afterward thou shalt know Though the manner of his operation be a great mysterie and secret yet the work brought forth in thy soul and conversation shall be manifest Though sickness be like a medicine sharp and bitter in the operation yet it proveth very profitable in the souls health that followeth upon it shall we take bitter potions upon the word of a man a skilful Physitian for the healing of our bodies and shall we not accept sickness as a Medicine out of the hands of our wise God and loving Father for healing our souls he is faithful and hath promised that our afflictions though grievous for the present shall bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Heb. 12.11 If we endure trials we shall receive the Crown of life Iam. 1.12 Some in Gods preventing mercy have been drawn to God by their sickness as that Palsie-man Mar. 2. and that haemorish woman The great Physitian at one time healed both their souls and their bodies according to that of Isa 48.10 I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction he refines his own children as Gold maketh them vessels of honour and setteth his Image and superscription upon them in the legible characters of true holiness and righteousness 2. Because he maketh his loving kindness and indulgency manifest to his own children in time of their sickness do they not under long and lingering diseases now and then feel some sparks of his love warming and cherishing their hearts and his sensible strength in the inward man upholding them under the burthen of a sick body These glances of his countenance and favour are as cordials to keep their hearts from fainting Thus did the Lord visit his servant David Psa 31.7 Thou hast considered my trouble thou hast visited my soul in adversities and Paul 2 Cor. 1.4 He comforteth us in all our tribulation 3. Submit to his will in sickness and consider with thy self the Lords preventing mercy in preserving thee at such a time from many sins whereinto thou mightest have fallen if thou hadst enioyed health and liberty to go up and down a world full of snares Therefore if thou be yong and under weakness and a daily decay of bodily strength adore the deep wisdom and rich love of thy Lord who keepeth thee in durance as a prisoner of hope A father that keepeth within doors his distempered and distracted child without liberty to go abroad doth it not as an act of rigor and unkindness but out of much wisdom and love fearing he should abuse his liberty and throw himself away into dangers so thy heavenly father by sickness puts a restraint upon thee not out of hatred but out of much love It is
As in thy mourning thou makest conscience of natural affection to thy dear friend so at the same time make conscience also of thy supernatural affection and submission to the will of thy heavenly Father this consideration will regulate thy sorrow 2. Consider It is best for thy dear Christian friend to be with Christ and thou hast great cause to bless God that thou knowest where he is he is now at his rest from all his labours Rev. 14.13 A loving wife parting from her husband on the shore when he is going to another Country though her heart be sad at parting yet doth she rejoyce to hear of his safe and happy arrival at his wished Port bless God and rejoyce in this thou knowest from the good Word of God thy friend is come safe to his Port where the salvation of God will be a perpetual Bulwark against all troubles and storms 3. Consider The Lord our God keepeth the very dust and rude materials of their bodies Rizpah watched over the bodies of the Sons of Saul and guarded them against the ravenous fouls of the ayr 2 Sam. 21. And shall not the Lord who is love it self preserve the bodies of his own dear children against that day the Lord had a care of the Prophets dead body 1 King 13.24 when a ruinous house is taken down by the owner he carefully layeth aside the stones and timber and keepeth them till afterward out of them he raiseth it up in a new frame So the Lord doth keep the materials of the body until he raise it up in a new frame of beauty 4. Consider as the body of thy deceased friend is carefully kept so will it be powerfully raised and we shall all meet together in that assembly of the first born Peter James and Iohn met with Moses and Elias at the transfiguration of our Lord which was a prelude of his second coming in visible glory so in that day thou shalt see and know thy dear friends but all in Christ That superlative relation of being glorified fellow Members of his Mystical body will swallow up all relations according to the flesh As a woman marrying one that is her neer kinsman though she know such a relation yet her love to him as her husband surpasseth far her former respects she carried to him only as her kinsman The second point considerable 2 Point The universality is the universality of the resurrection All that are in the Graves The word rendred graves signifieth monuments or remembrances because graves are memorials of the dead and should be of good use for the living to be Monitors and remembrancers of their mortalitie by Graves we understand not only the lower places of the earth wherein the bodies have been interred for the bodies of many will be raised that were never buried but by graves we understand the receptacles of the dead such as the Ayr Water and Earth they must and will render up their dead Revel 20.13 As for the bodies of those who will be living upon the earth at our Lords second coming though their bodies will not be in graves and therefore cannot be said properly to be raised out of their graves yet they will be changed from an estate of corruption unto incorruption There will be a raising and elevating of the condition of their body from mortality unto immortality This change will be in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 as some falling asleep do sleep for a long time whereas others no sooner have their eyes shut but incontinent they awake so the change of such as are living at our Lords coming will be in a very short and insensible time As Adam in an instant after he had sinned became mortal so all who are sound living at Christs second coming in an instant will become immortal and incorruptible in the body There will be an universal resurrection of all the dead Doctrine 2 Cor. 5.10 There shall be an universal resurrection of the dead We must all appear before the Iudgement seat of Christ Therefore all must be raised that all may appear Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God as in a seed-plot though the seeds be mixed there together in one place yet the Sun in Spring time maketh several herbs to rise from thence distinct one from another in stalk flower and fruits So though many dead bodies be sown in one common burial place as a seminary of the resurrection yet the Lord will raise from thence the several bodies every one distinct from another in number and individual qualities No new Creation The same individual bodies that died will be raised for it is said All in the graves at that time there will not be any Creation of a new body 1. Because it is called a resurrection and a resurrection is the rising of the same thing that had fallen 2. Death is called a sleep and burial places are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleeping places Such are raised which sometime slept but bodies created anew on that day cannot be said to have slept 3. The Sea is said to render up the dead Revel 20.13 but if the bodies were anew created there would be no rendering of the old 4. It is spoken in an Emphatick and Demonstrative manner 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruptible this mortal and therefore it must be the same body that sometime was subject to death and corruption Obj. Objection Will the ungodly be raised by vertue of Christs resurrection Answ No Answer because believers that are Members of his Mystical body are only said to rise with him Eph 2.6 and they are called the Children of the resurrection Luc. 20.36 but he will raise the wicked by force as their Judge by vertue of that â—enâ—ence Gen. 2.17 what day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou sh lt certainly dye and that the sentence of the second death may be executed on them they must be raised So that their resurrection is a curse and not a blessing to them But the Godly will be raised by Christ as their head drawing all his Members unto himself by a full redemption from all their enemies that he may be compleat in his body and they may be compleat in their head in whom and with whom both the soul and the body is fully glorified This Doctrine serveth for a seasonable wakening and warning unto secure sinners Vse 1 An awakening to secure sinners who dishonor God here in the condition of their mortality by many vile sins committed in and by the body Remember thou wilt be raised in the self same body and brought before him who is Judge of quick and dead It will be with thee that livest and dyest in thy impenitency as it was with the Baker in the prison Gen. 40. he was much disquieted in the morning with the remembrance of his sad dream in the night time his trouble was great in the night time greater in the morning when by
daily experience the body is sown in dishonour a little before death the face becomes pale earthlike and the body of one dying doth smell of the earth like wine neer run out smelling of the dreg after the soul and breath is gone the body corrupteth and beginneth to stink like an empty earthen house without fire in it at such a time the body is loathsome even to the nearest friends Sarah had a fair and comely body yet after her death Abraham desired a place to bury her out of his sight But in the day of resurrection the bodies of the godly will be raised in honour in great comeliness and splendor though they be sown in dishonour and thrust into the dust yet like the root of a Lilly shut up under the ground in time of Winter they shall spring up again and be cloathed with beauty by the power of God who cloaths the Lilly 3. In respect of constitution and healthfull disposition the body is now sown in weakness saith the Apostle but will be raised in power Our constitution of body in this life at the best is weak though all bodies be not alike weak a fit of the burning Ague or of the Stone will lay the strongest man on his back and though the bodies of sonne be strong for bodily imployments yet through frequent labour and exercise they languish and become weary Sampson though of matchless strength yet did waste his spirits in the labour of the fight and became weary and thirsty the strongest bow will slug thorow too much bending and shooting and the strongest body will become weary with too much exercise on a death bed the strongest man is not able to hold the drink to his own head or to turn himself in his bed But in the day of resurrection the body will be raised in a strong constitution then will there be no weariness in the body nor faintness in the spirits This weakness of body now is one of the Symptoms of original corruption but death as a Catholicon will purge out that bitter peccant humour which maketh our bodies weak and after that purgation our bodies will be preserved and raised to a strong and confirmed health for ever in the heavens where the body will be kept from all corruption from within or alteration from without 4. In respect of exercise and operation it is sown a natural body saith the Apostle but it is raised a spiritual body not of a spiritual substance but with spiritual qualities for if it were raised an Aerial body as some erroneously have asserted then should not the same body which died be raised for it is sown an earthly body but it is called a spiritual body in respect of the exercise and use of the body after the resurrection it is here on earth a natural body having necessity of natural means and helps for preserving the species by procreation and for conserving the person by nutrition but after the resurrection the body will be abstract and retired from all such natural operations and employments the glorified Saints will be like angels neither giving nor taking in marriage Mat. 22.30 The number of the elect and triumphant Church wil be then compleat and their whole delights will be in an immediate communion with God which will drown both the remembrance and the desire of all creature-delights neither will the body then have need or use of meat and drink because the body will be of a fixed and durable constitution without any possibility of alteration or decay They will be filled with God and this will fully satisfie and delight both the soul and the body they will not hunger nor thirst because they will be ever full of the bread of life and of the water of life It will be a spiritual body in respect of Agility for Spirits are Agile The Angel Gabriel in a very short time came from the heaven to the earth Dan. 9. And the Angel Act. 8. carried Philips body in a very short time from one place to another so shall our spirits carry our bodies in a very short time through a large space and intervall Augustine Augustine in his book of the City of God lib. 22. ch 30. saith That certainly whereever the Spirit and soul would be straight wayes the body will follow the desire of the heart and be in that place Neither will the soul desire any thing which is unbeseeming for it self or the body as the helm turneth the Ship in a very short time wheresoever the Steersman will so our bodies will turn instantly at every motion of our Spirits our body will be caught up by our Spirits into the third heaven in a short time as Philips body was caught up and carried from one place to another Act. 8.39 where the same word is used which ye have 1 Thes 4.17 As for those members of our bodies which served to natural uses and employments in the time of our sojourning here they will remain in the body for ornament and integrity as the brests in women come to old age though they do not serve them for giving suck as sometime they did yet are they for the ornament of their bodies Augustine in the place above cited saith well Augustine all those members and bowels of the incorruptible body which in the time of mortality served for divers uses now they will serve for matter of praise to God This Doctrine serveth for admonition Vse 1 seeing there are different ends of the resurrections Be careful in this life to do well some will be raised to life and glory others to damnation Let it be thy desire and endeavour to be of their number in this life who do well because glory is appointed for such how earnest should we be to know that our resurrection will be unto life If many prisoners were shut up in one common prison and it were told to them all that some of them should be taken forth unto liberty and honour and others unto shame and pain in such a case how earnest would each of those prisoners be to enquire if himself were one of those appointed for liberty and honour It is certain death as a Jaylor will shut up all mankinde in the common prison of the grave and corruption how solicitous then should we be to know if we be appointed of God unto life and glory in this text our Lord giveth unto us a sure evidence of a glorious resurrection unto life to wit if thou hast done good in the body They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life It is true good works have no place or interest in the work of our salvation by way of merit Christ our Mediator only hath Merited it by the work of his righteousness by him alone we have boldness to enter into the holiest Heb. 10.19 Neither have good Works any efficacy on our salvation It is the free gift of God Rom. 6.23 Yet it is
most true that good Works are necessary by way of concomitancy in him who is to be saved for without holiness none shall see the face of God Heb. 12.14 Although thou canst not be justified in this life by thy good Works yet in the day of resurrection thou shalt be judged according to thy Works Math. 25. 2 Cor. 5.10 Therefore as in the day of resurrection thou wouldest differ from evil doers who will be raised unto damnation see thou differ from them in thy living and dying Godly differ from the wicken in living 1. The wicked man in his life-time employeth his desires endeavours and time to serve his own lusts but the care of a Godly man and sound believer will be to serve his Lord Rom. 13.14 Put on the Lord Iesus and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof 2. The wicked man walketh in the broad way that leadeth to destruction he taketh unto himself ease and pleasure in sin as one having room in a broad way he doth not afflict or grieve his own heart at any time by refusing the unlawful desires of it But thou who wouldst rise to life must walk in the strait way that leadeth unto life thou must straiten and hem up thy desires and afflict thy unrenewed part and flesh by refusing and rejecting unruly desires and if at any time thy heart look back unto sin thou must afflict thy Spirit with Godly sorrow for any step thou hast made toward the broad way The Godly man and sound believer differeth also from the wicked in his dying Godly differ from the wicked in dying The wicked man at his death layeth not hold on Christ and dyeth unwillingly but thou that wouldst rise unto life thou must with old Simeon an old expectant of glory embrace Christ and hug him and the Promise of life made in him in the arms of thy faith as a dying man holdeth fast his gripe so shalt thou keep thy gripe of Christ in the day of resurrection thou shalt be found in him The Godly man dieth willingly commending his Spirit unto God as a faithful Creator he goeth unto death as his bed out of the which he will rise in that morning of eternity with refreshment but the ungodly and impenitent go to death unwillingly as unto a prison out of which they know they will be carried unto Judgement This is the heavenly posture of a Godly man on his death-bed he resteth by Faith on the only merit and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as a sick man doth upon a soft Mat underneath him he hath the lively hope of a glorious rest to his soul after its parting from the body and of a glorious resurrection of the body as a Pillow to hold up his head and heart that in all his pain he fainteth not and he hath good Works as a coverlet to adorn him in the sight of all that behold him The Believer at his death resteth not on them they are his coverlet but not his mat he is adorned and covered with them before the world who seeth them in him and should both glorifie God in his rich and free love for his graces bestowed on him and should labour to imitate him in his good life and happy death If thus thou differ from wicked men in thy life and death and be not an evil doer as they are in the purpose of their heart and course of their life The Lord who by his grace maketh thee to differ from them in this life shall in eternal mercy make thee to differ from them in thy resurrection for thy resurrection shall be unto eternal life if thou live to Christ thou shalt dye in Christ and in that day thou shalt be found in him and go with him to the third heaven and remain in glory for ever with him It serveth for a ground of terrour and awakening to the ungodly Vse 2 Terror to ungodly men who rush into sin as the horse into the Battle go on in their sins like the Ox unto the slaughter and will not know the evil of their wayes till the deadly dart of Gods wrath strike through their souls Remember O foolish man if thou live and dye in thy sins and as Zophar speaketh Iob 20.11 If thy bones be full of the sins of thy youth and they lie down with thee in the dust thou shalt rise unto damnation what thou wouldest not believe in this thy day thou shalt be forced from sense of pain to believe in that day of the Lord and then shall the faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ say as Paul did to his fellow-Passengers in the Ship Act. 27.21 If ye had hearkened unto me ye should not have gained this harm and loss The remembrance of neglected opportunities will encrease the fretting torment of their souls It may be thou hast pain and sickness in thy body with great agony at thy death but consider all that is but as a flea-bite in comparison of that worm that dyeth not and the fire which cannot be quenched Thou mayest be assured unless thou repent while thou art in the body thy pained and deformed body shall be raised up in greater pain and deformity An ugly and hideous spectacle will thy face and body be so that if it were possible in that day thou wouldest flye from thy self Then soul and body at their reunion and uniting will in a manner curse one another and live or rather languish together as it were in mutual imprecations for ever This will be a part of their hell like two Mastiffs chained together and tearing one another the soul will curse the body and all the Members of it for ministering temptations by the eyes and ears and for being too ready to bring forth and act sin conceived in the heart then soul and body that sinned together shall be tormented together as they were bound together in sin so also in punishment therefore let the sad forethought of pain in the body in that day calm thy impetuous affections Remember as thou sowest in the body so shalt thou reap in the body Gal. 6.8 thou shalt receive according to that thou hast done in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 The serious forethought of this will be an awful means to suppress thy tumultuary affections The Town-clerk Act. 19.40 composed the tumult with one word we are in danger said he to be called in question for this dayes uproar so consider thou art in danger to be called in question in that day of resurrection for the insurrection and rebellion of thy heart against thy Lord in this thy day The Royal preacher soundeth forth this sad but profitable Note into the ears of young men who are dit-times violent like Jehu in their sinful courses Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth c. but know thou that for all those things God will bring thee unto Judgement This Doctrine serveth for a solid ground of comfort to the Godly who
of enjoying I will behold thy face 3. His perfect disposition and condition in the state of happiness I shall behold in righteousness having my heart perfectly conformed to the will of God the perfect and adequate rule of righteousness 4. The measure of his happiness I shall be satisfied my happiness will be full in the measure without want of any thing that can make me happy all my desires shall be satisfied and my happiness in respect of duration shall be eternal without a shadow or fear of a change The time when his compleat happiness will begin is The time of full happiness at the day of resurrection when I awake This is no wayes to to be understood of the awaking of the soul as if the soul during the sequestration of it from the body were as in a sleep without all sense either of pain or joy until the day of resurrection This is contrary to the holy Scriptures that tell us the spirit returns to him that gave it Eccles 12.7 The soul of the rich man was tormented and the soul of Lazarus comforted Luk. 16. Our Lord said to the convert Thief This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise and therefore his soul went straight to heaven Rev. 14 13. Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord from hence forth that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them This place as it overturns that invention of purgatory for it is said from henceforth that is after their death they rest from their labours and so go not to that labour in the fire of purgatory So it discovereth and confuteth that dotage of some in the former and present times concerning the sleeping of the soul Neither can the place be understood only of a meer privation of trouble or pain such as dead bodies may have but it is a rest from labour with comfort reflecting to the soul from point of pain 1. It is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comforting rest as the same word is used by our Lord Math. 11.28 2. The place speaks of this rest as a special benefit bestowed on them that dye in the Lord and therefore it is not as some have thought a rest from all pain or joy which they affirmed to be common for a time both to the souls of good and evil men 3. And withall it is said their Works follow them to tell us no sooner the evening of this their life is ended but immediately they get their reward of glory in beholding the face of their Father which is in heaven But this manner of speech is used to express the death and rising of the body for in the Scripture phrase the death of the body is compared unto a sleep Ioh 11.11 Our friend Lazarus is asleep saith our Lord but I go to awake him of Iairus daughter our Lord said the maid sleepeth Math. 9.24 1 Thes 4.15 We which are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep The death of the body is fitly compared to a sleep Death fitly compared to a sleep for those reasons following 1. In time of sleep the senses are bound up there is no exercise of them so after death the body cannot act nor exercise any natural operation 2. As some go sooner to bed for sleep and others later so some dye in their younger others in an older age 3. As in sleeping some lye longer in bed others but a short time so the bodies of the Patriarchs are a longer time in their graves then the bodies of those who dye in the later times 4. As after sleeping there is an awaking so after death there will be a raising of the body 5. As some after sleep are refreshed and rise up cheerful others awake sick and heavy so in that morning of eternity the day of resurrection the Godly at their awaking from death will be refreshed and made glad with the sight of Gods face but the wicked will be awaked and rise with an heavy and doleful heart at the sight of Gods angry countenance then shall they curse the day of their birth and wish they had perished with the beast what Iob said once in a fit wishing for his dissolution they shall say in an eternal impatience longing for an Annihilation but shall not obtain it Iob 3.20 Wherefore is light given unto him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures Our compleat happiness is delayed until the time our bodies be awaked and raised out of the grave Doctrine Compleat happiness shall be after our resurrection for it is said here I shall be satisfied when I awake Our satisfaction will not be till then The children are first awaked and raised up in the morning before they be set down at Table so our bodies must be first raised before we can be set down at their common Table and Communion of glory with Abraham Isaac and Iacob for our happiness cannot be consummate until the person be glorified both in soul and body that our compleat happiness is delayed till that time is evident from Scripture Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life 1. Cor. 15.54 When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption then death is swallowed up in victory so that the compleat happiness both in soul and body will not be until we get victory over death and the grave by the resurrection of the body Thus the Lord delayeth it in his wisdom for these reasons 1. To shew his truth and faithfulness Reasons 1 by inflicting death according to the Word of threatning Gen. 3.19 Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return And therefore to fulfil the Word of truth there must be a dissolution and returning of the body unto dust before there can be a resurrection 2. To confirm our faith of the resurrection when we hear the bodies of the Patriarchs do rest yet in their graves and are not raised up we are assured God will raise them and our selves with them If God had raised their bodies already Many would have doubted of any other resurrection yea when we see at any time the graves opened of those who dyed in the Lord their very bones and dust preach unto us and this a pious Necromancie the Doctrine of the resurrection that the bodies shall awake and rise unto life 3. The Lord delayeth it to shew his great power in quickening and raising the bodies that have been dead long ago for all things are alike possible to our God of infinite power he can raise them who are dead thousands of years since with no less facility then those who are lately dead with the same omnipotent facility he raised Lazarus stinking in the Grave and Jairus daughter but a few hours after her death his infinite power admits not a more and a less Gates of Brass and
be inlarged and in some measure made capable of the fruition of an infinite God As the eye of the body until it be somewaies strengthned cannot look stedfastly on a bright and beautiful colour at a neer distance so the finite understanding of man cannot behold that infinite beauty and Majestie of God unless it be supported by the hand of God Zacheus being of a low stature went up to the Sycomore-tree and from it got a sight of Christ though at that time there was no midds of a glass betwixt his eyes and Christ yet he had a midds mean under his feet the Sycomore-tree elevating supporting him for the beholding of Christ So in that blessed vision in heaven there will be no midds intervening betwixt our understandings and God for representing God to us yet there will be a mean and midds for corroborating the understanding to perceive and the heart to enjoy and delight in that vision 3. That vision will be perfect 1 Cor. 13.12 3. Perfect then shall we know as we are known But our God knoweth us perfectly to him all his works are known All our members are written in his book Psal 139.16 he knoweth all his works more perfectly and distinctly then any man knoweth what he himself writes down daily in his Diary here we know saith the Apostle as in a riddle Our knowledge of many mysteries is but general and confused as men hearing a riddle do understand the Gramatical sense of the words but little or nothing of the Mystical or moral sense So there be many Divine Mysteries whereof we have but a general and confused knowledge in comparison of that we shall have in heaven As of the blessed Trinity distinct in persons and yet one in Essence the unspeakable manner of the generation of the Son the unspeakable manner of the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son the unspeakable manner of the Union of the Divine and humane nature and their subsisting in one person as also other mysteries we know but in part we believe the matter because it is revealed But of the manner and great depths of those mysteries we are ignorant with a pious ignorance when God sets bounds we must not touch the Mount These depths of knowledge are reserved for us until the day we shall be promoted to that highest Class with Angels and glorified Saints and shall be made capable of God himself who will be all in all to us and in us there will he teach us immediately by himself as we see in vulgar Schools the Master himself and not the under Doctors do teach these of the highest Class here we know by the ministry of our senses Our common sense is the ordinary passage through which light and the species or samples of things are carried into the understanding from the outward senses But this light is very like light transmitted into a dark Dungeon through narrow bores but in heaven the soul and understanding will be filled with light from within because filled with God who is light As if a man were within the body of the Sun he would be full of light Then the soul will be united immediately to God It will be said unto the faithful servant enter into thy Masters joy light and joy will not so much enter into us as we shall enter into it by being unseparable and immediately joyned with God Then shall we know him as we are known of him Now we have but weak and shallow apprehensions of him by our trembling hand of an infirm Faith but then shall we get our arms full of God the understanding and will shall be filled with the knowledge love of God and in comparison of the weak and little gripe we have here in our wayfaring we shall be comprehendors in our Country above Though to speak simply and absolutely none can comprehend God who is infinite and incomprehensible to any creature 4. 4. Eternal This vision is permanent and eternal that glimpse of represented Majestie and Glory which Moses saw Exod. 33. was but transient and that which Peter saw in the Mount did soon disappear and a cloud followed after though the children of God get some comfortable sense of Gods favour at any time in this life yet it abideth not Our Condition here is subject to a vicissitude and change At one time we have some sense of his favour and great joy Psal 4.7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their corn and wine increased at another time God hideth his face and then there is great sorrow of heart Psal 28.1 If thou be silent unto me I become like them that go down to the Pit But in heaven our sight of God will be permanent God wholly God alone and God for ever will be in our eye and heart Revel 22.5 There shall be no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Not only will our happiness stand in the vision and knowledge of God in our understandings Our wills shall be filled with love and delight in God but also our wills shall be filled with love and delight in God Then will our love toward God be pure without mixture perfect without defect and permanent without change or fear of change 1. Our love will be pure without mixture 1. Pure here our affections are drained forth like rivulets and run toward our lustful delights and comforts in the creatures but in heaven our affections will be all gathered together as waters in the fountain and be poured forth on God 2. Our love of God in heaven will be perfect 2. Perfect Our love here for the most part doth rise from some sign or effect of Gods love towards us in it there is much reflecting on our selves But in heaven we will love God for himself wholly here our love is weak in the degree and measure but in heaven we will love God perfectly with all our soul heart and strength as forces scattered here and there are strong when they are united into one body so our affections strugling here on divers objects will be then united together and in their full strength set on God 3. Our love will be permanent even in the full strength of it 3. Permanent here our love though sometimes it be bended set on God yet in an instant it sluggs and remits of the bent but in heaven our love to God will be ever intended and kept in the full height here fear like an heavy weight draweth down our hearts and weakens our love but in heaven perfect love will cast out fear 1 Cor. 13 then will we be delivered from all fear either of the change of our sense of the love of God to us or of our love toward God we will be confirmed in the assurance of his love toward us
then will he return and double his temptations as he did to that man Math. 12. he returned with seven worse but watch thou and pray that thou be not led into temptation though now thou be molested with one temptation after another yet resist them being stefast in the Faith and be comforted in the hope of thy eternal rest and immunity from all temptations in thy Country that is above in it there will be no tempter Then shall Sathan be fastened to damnation by the indissoluble chains of darkness in heaven there will not be remaining in us any inordinate concupiscence to be tempted Then our will and affections will adhere so close unto to God the supreme Good that it will be impossible to draw the heart from God No ayr of temptation can intervene The Angels who stood not in the truth though they had neither a tempter from without nor inordinate concupiscence from within they being created pure and holy yet were they created of a condition mutable but the Saints in heaven will be confirmed and established as pillars in a condition immutable Revel 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God Adam in the estate of innocency had posse non peccare a power not to sin but in heaven there will be a non posse peccare an impossibility to sin 3. Here is comfort for them who groan under the burthen of indwelling corruption rejoyce in this the day of refreshment is coming Let thy indwelling corruption be the matter of thy daily grief and humiliation before God Let it be to thee as Hagar and her brood was to Sarah and as the daughters of Heth to Rebekah Let it be the occasion of thy daily wrastling and subjecting the flesh by works of mortification Let it be as pricks and goads in thy sides to push thee toward the throne of Grace with Paul 2 Cor. 12. that the strength of Gods Grace may be perfected in thy weakness In such a wrastling condition rejoyce in hope and be of good comfort though now the flesh lusteth against the Spirit yet at death thy warfare will be accomplished And after thy resurrection there will be nothing in the whole person but Spirit and grace here in an hour of temptation thou prayest for strength in heaven thou shalt praise God for thy victory over sin Sathan and the world 4. Here is matter of comfort against all thy calamities publike or private in the midst of all thy troubles rejoyce in the hope of that glory Rom. 5.3 We glory in tribulation 2 Cor. 4.17 Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Rom. 8.18 I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us That Kingdom in heaven cannot be shaken that treasure of unsearchable and durable riches cannot be robbed nor wasted There all tears will be wiped from thine eyes all enemies will be subjected to Christ and also unto all the members of his Mystical body they will be made his footstool and the footstool in below all the parts of the body in that day of perpetual separation of the wicked from the godly it will be seen as it is said of Pharaoh and his hoast that persecuted the Israelites Exod. 14.13 The Egyptians which ye have seen to day ye shall see thē again no more for ever To God who giveth us victory over all our enemies and crowneth us with everlasting mercy the father son and holy Ghost be all praise honour and glory for now and ever c. Amen I having spoken of the time when our compleat happiness will begin 3. Point the perfect disposition of glorified Saints and of the matter and manner of our happiness at our awaking in the day of resurrection from the sleep of the death we shall behold the face of God Now we proceed to speak of the the perfect disposition of the glorified Saints and of the measure of their happiness The third point considerable in the words is the perfect disposition of Saints glorified in soul and body I shall behold saith he in righteousness at my awaking and rising out of the grave I shall be perfectly righteous in my soul and body and being wholly pure shall behold thy face and so be satisfied in this life the personal righteousness of the Saints is not perfect in many things we fail all Righteousness is a conformity to the will of God the only and supream rule of right and wrong in the estate of innocency man had a righteousness pure without mixture of imperfection but not exempted from mutability in the estate of renovation the renewed man hath personal inherent righteousness firm and sure with an immunity from a total and finall decay 1 Ioh. 3.9 but it is not perfect and pure though our renovation be perfect in parts both in soul and body yet not in degrees In heaven our personal righteousness will be pure perfect in degrees and unchangable then will the Saints follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth there will be no declining from him and his commandments The Saints in heaven will be perfectly and wholly righteous in their souls and bodies then will there be a perfect conformity in all things Doct. The Saints in heaven will be perfectly righteous in souls and bodies and for ever to the acceptable will of God Eph. 5.25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word and that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle in the course of our regeneration he clean 〈◊〉 but the perfection of holiness and beauty will be in that day when the marriage between the Lamb and his Spouse shall be consummate here the Church of Christ is like an house in building but there the topstone and crown of Glory will be put on here it is as a young child growing in his dimensions but in heaven we will be at our term of consistence even our perfect measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 here there is much imperfection in the righteousness of the children of God there be many infirmities and faults that others may and themselves should censure and condemn but in heaven we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faultless Iude Ep. 24. To him that is able to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Saviour be glory and Majesty The Church triumphant will be then as a beautiful bride adorned and prepared for her Husband Rev. 21.2 here on earth is the time of her purification but at the day of resurrection she will be presented perfectly pure in that Temple not made with hands and praise him for ever for his mercy and grace bestowed on her
troubles and molestations outward Rev. 14.13 they rest from all their labours 2 Thes 17. it is a righteous thing to recompence to you who are troubled rest with us when the 〈…〉 Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels Then shall we have full rest from all our spiritual enemies 1 Cor. 15.26 the last enemy death shall be destroyed when our bodies shall be raised and cloathed with immortality then shall we rest from all our afflictions These are Gods medicines to purge our humorous souls and to prevent the out-breaking of corruption but in heaven our souls and bodies will be confirmed in an heavenly temper of health and happiness and there will not be need of such a medicine afflictions are the bitter fruits growing from inbred and rooted corruption then will corruption be pulled up by the root and our nature will be perfectly healed 2. 2. Inward temptations We shall have rest from inward temptations and suggestions then the sparkles of inordinate concupiscence smoaking even in the regenerated will be fully quenched with that pure river of the water of life clear as cristal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1 then shall we get rest from indwelling corruption that like the troubled Sea casts up the dirt and myre of impure suggestions Then all our raging and unruly affections will be fixed on God and quieted with admiring adorning and delighting in God 3. 3. The molestations of wicked men Then shall we get rest from the daily molestations of wicked men who vex the godly as the soul of righteous Lot was vexed with the iniquities of Sodom as David was vexed with the malicious calumnies of his evil neighbours Psa 118.12 they compassed me about like Bees but this was his and will be our comfort in that day they will be all quenched as the fire of thornes The fire they raised against the godly will be quenched but the fire of Gods wrath kindled here against themselves and poured forth in that day upon the seditious and contentious will never be quenched here the wicked are like the Sons of Zerviah a daily vexation and are too strong for us like the Iebusites pricks in our eyes and thorns in our sides Here the strong do push at the weak and foul the waters with their feet they spoyl us of our worldly comforts Eze. 34.21 here we are in greatest danger from feigned friends that betray with a kiss as there is more danger to ships from rocks unseen then from those that are seen But in that day of resurrection which is the inaugurall of our consummate glory there will be a separation of the goats from the sheep for ever Esay 11.9 in the mount Zion that is above there will be none to hurt Rev. 21.15 without shall be dogs and whosoever loveth or maketh lyes here in this world simple and well meaning people are deceived and destroyed by state lyars who under a pretext of grievance for misgovernment and zeal for reformation draw away the people from duty to lawful Superiours as Absolom by false aspersions stole away the hearts of the people 2 Sam. 15.3 6. here also flatterers by their lyes spread a net before the seet of the Rulers and under pretext of zeal for the sacred Authority do alienate the hearts and provoke the hands of Rulers to be stretched out against the faithful such a lyar was Amaziach against Amos Amos 7. and Doeg against the Priests but in heaven there will be no such scandals to grieve the godly Math. 13.41 The Son of man shall send his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend 4. 4. From the differences that here fall out amongst themselves Not only will there be peace and rest from the iniquities and malice of the wicked but also from all differences that through ignorance in Iudgement or weakness in affection do fall out here amongst the Godly and interrupt the comfort of mutual communion Paul and Barnabas had their own Paroxism Act. 15.39 Chrysostom and Epiphanius in a fit of bitter passion at their parting one from another had their mutual imprecations but in heaven there will be no debates no contention no difference in judgement then will we know mind love and speak all one thing all doubts will be resolved by seeing the face of God then will our harmony with God be perfect and one with another both in Judgement and affection Our rest in heaven as it will be full and absolute from every thing that can disquiet us In heaven there will be perpetual rest so it will be perpetual and rest for ever The soul in this present world though it may at a time be free from trouble yet if it be under fear of new troubles this very fear doth interrupt the rest and quiet of the mind in the time of our calm the fear of a new storm doth much disquiet us the man sick of a feavour tertian is troubled even in his good day with the sad apprehension of his evil day ensuing But here is our comfort that establisheth our hearts amidst all the winds and waves of temptations here we shall have a calm in heaven and good dayes for ever Our peace and rest there will be without all fear of a change Revel 21.4 There shall be no more death nor sorrow nor pain Not only will the Saints in heaven have that privative blessing of peace and rest from all trouble for ever In heaven there will be joy and delight for ever but also they will have the positive blessing of joy and delight for ever though eternal peace and rest be a great blessing passing all understanding yet it is the far least part of our happiness But our greatest satisfsction is in that joy and delight which will proceed from the beholding of Gods face not only shall we have a privative rest from trouble but a positive rest and delight in God which will satisfie and quiet all our affections This joy will be full in the measure Psal 16.17 This joy wiâ—â— be 1. Full. In thy presence is fullness of joy in this life our joy is mixt with sorrow like the prick under the rose Iacob had joy when his sons returned home from Egypt with the sacks full of corn but much sorrow when he perceived the silver in the sacks mouth David had much joy in bringing up the Ark of God but at the same time great sorrow for the breach made upon Vzzah This is the Lords great wisdom to temper and moderate our joy As men of a weak constitution must have their wine qualified with water for fear of distemper so must we in this life such is our weakness have our joy mixed with sorrow least we turn giddy and insolent here our joy is mixed with fear Psal 2. Rejoyce in trembling the woman departed from the Sepulcher of our Lord with fear and great joy Math.
28.8 in our regenerate estate though we have joy from Christ that is formed in us yet the impression of the terrours of God before the time of our new birth remain in us as in a commotion of the Sea by a great tempest after the stormy wind hath ceased yet the impression of the storm remains and makes an Agitation The tender mother recovering her young child from danger of a fall hath joy from the recovery but with much fear with the impression of the danger so after we are recovered here from our dangerous falls by the rich and tender mercies of our God sometime prevening us sometime restoring us though we rejoyce in his mercy and in our own recovery out of the snares of Sathan yet in the midst of our joy the remembrance of former guiltiness and danger do humble our our hearts with much sorrow and some trepidation of heart As our joy here is mixed with fear so with sorrow also The sound believer doth look up to Christ crucified and doth rejoyce in his incomparable love that such a person should have dyed such a death for such as were enemies to God by sinful inclinations and wicked works They look down also upon their own sins that have wonnded and crucified the Lord of Glory and this breaketh the heart as a widdow should mourn who by her froward and lewd behaviour hath burst the heart of a kind and loving husband The sound Believers look to their small beginnings of Grace and they rejoyce in the Work of Gods hands but when they compare it with that original and primitive righteousness they mourn bitterly as the Elders of Israel did at the rebuilding of the Temple Ezra 3.12 Those who had seen the first house weeped But in heaven our joy will be full without mixture of sorrow Ioh. 16.20 Your sorrow saith our Lord shall be turned into joy Then will there be no sorrow for a present trouble nor present fear of future troubles Then their eye will deeply affect their heart The sight and knowledge of God the supreme and infinite good will ravish and take up all their heart with joy and delight Peter in the Mount Math. 17. was so affected with that glorious sight that he forgot both the delights and troubles that were below It is good to be here said he How much more will all worldly troubles and delights be forgot at that soul-satisfying sight in heaven which is as far above that of Peter in the Mount as the third heaven is above that Mount and as the increated is above the created glory Obj. But will not the Saints in heaven remember the evils on earth from which they were delivered and if so be they remember them will it be with any sorrow or fear Answ The knowledge and remembrance of miseries which the Saints in Heaven have is with our anguish No doubt they will remember great deliverances Revel 5.9 Thou wast slain and thou hast redeemed us say the four and twenty Elders yea the Saints in heaven have some knowledge of the great misery of the damned Not only from the remembrance of the Word of God foretelling it but also from their own great happiness as knowing one contrary by another they know well the misery of such men is extream who are deprived of the great happiness themselves do enjoy But all their knowledge of the misery of the damned and the remembrance of troubles in this life will be without all anguish or sense of pain Augustine of the City of God lib. 22. ch 30. compareth the knowledge that the Saints in heaven have of the misery of the damned unto that knowledge Physitians have of painful diseases from their reading but not from sense and experience of the pain in their own person The Saints in heaven will remember the troubles of this life as Souldiers after the victory remember the fight and as passengers safely arrived remember a dangerous voiage This remembrance will encrease their joy and praise to God The knowledge of the misery of the damned though of their dearest friends and acquaintance on earth will be matter of praising Gods Justice declared on them and of his eternal mercy manifested on themselves the glory of Gods Justice will so affect them that they neither can nor will be sorry for the misery of any person This joy of the Saints in heaven will be full in the measure of it for if the measure of our joy here from faith into the gracious promises and from some sense of love be above expression what will be the joy in that facial vision If such be the joy of faith in hearing of our Lord and husband by his sacred letter and secret tokens of love what will be our joy in seeing him and dwelling with him for ever if the passengers at Sea have such joy in seeing the desired Land a far of through the prospect of faith what will be the measure of their joy when they come within that part of eternal salvation where they shal have perpetual tranquillity and perfect delight in the fruition of God in whom as the center do meet all the lines of created comforts and delights that have been drawn forth at any time to any part of the circumference of this world yea much more then eye hath seen ear heard or heart can conceive As our joy in heaven will be intensively full in the degrees and measure so will it be extensively full to the whole person both to the soul and to the body Ioseph at his inlargement out of prison got a new garment a ring and honourable preferment so in the day of the inlargement of our bodies out of the grave there will be given to the Saints a long and large white robe of innocency both to soul and body Then heavenly comliness and brightness shall as a ring adorn the body and the whole person in soul and body will be preferred to sit at the right hand of God in glory the soul being but a part of the person and whole suppos it hath a natural desire and longeth for the re-union of the body therefore in the day of resurrection when the body will be reunited the desire of the soul will be fully satisfied That joy of soul and body at meeting will be mutual like the joy of two dear friends meeting together after some separation for a time then will the soul be affected with joy from the body when it looketh out by the eye and beholdeth the glorious body of Christ the glorified bodies of the Saints and the brightness of that body wherein it self lodged the soul will have great joy in perceiving this glorious change in the body like a noble guest sometime straitned and molested in a nastie house doth afterward much rejoyce in a clean large and quiet habitation As the soul will have accession of joy from the reinvestiture of the body So the body over and besides its own proper outward glory
good tidings from heaven and of joy to thee then all thy evil dayes will be over wherein thou hadst thy trembling fits and feavers of conscience but that will be thy good day without succession of an evil day then shalt thou have perpetual peace in thy soul and confirmed health in thy body for if thou be espoused here to Iesus Christ in holiness and righteousness thou shalt not be afraid at his glorious coming the glory of thy Lord and Husband will reflect upon thee and his spouse shall rejoyce at his coming The wise Virgins rejoyced at the voice and coming of the bridegroom in that day thou shalt rejoyce as Iacob did in hearing and seeing his Ioseph in the day of his great honor power in Egypt Our Lord with his white cloud at his coming will scatter and abolish all thy clouds of afflictions Though now it may be thou hast much weakness in the body yet in that day thy Lord will come with power to give unto thee a strong body It may be for a season thou sufferest much disgrace and trouble in the body for keeping a good conscience in an evil time yet be of good comfort thy righteous Lord will come in great glory and shall give unto thee a new name even glory and honour that none can take from thee Therefore in the sense of thy true conjugal affection unto him wrought in thy heart by his spirit and in the lively hope of the full manifestation of his love in that joyful day when there will be a perpetual cohabitation in glory let thy soul be looking and longing for his second appearing and as thou hearest him saying Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me So let thy soul as an eccho answer with the spouse Even so Lord Iesus come 4. Point The fourth point considerable in the words Point 4 is the different ends of this universal resurrection They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation both the godly and the wicked will come forth from their graves but as they differed in their life and death so shall they differ in the end of their resurrection The godly will come forth as the Butler out of Prison Gen. 40. to stand and live for ever in the favour of God but the ungodly as the Baker to be made spectacles of the Iustice and wrath of God for ever It is true the bodies of the wicked will be raised immortal and incorruptible to the end they may be everlasting subjects of everlasting pain as the body of a Malefactor is held up at a Pillory when he is scourged that by the extention of his body he may be rendred the more capable of the scourge and pains The resurrection of the bodies of Believers who live to the Lord and die in the Lord will be unto an happy condition Doct. Believers shall arise to happiness and freedom from all trouble pain and all the consequents of sin for the Resurrection of Life is opposed unto the Resurrection of Damnation as the ungodly in their bodies will be fastned like condemned slaves to eternal torments they will be ever dying and pining a way in torments but never dead so the godly will live in the body a life of happiness being absolved and freed from all pain and enjoying all satisfaction in the presence of an al-sufficient God Phil. 3.21 he will change our vile bodies and he will make them like unto his own glorious body Our bodies in this life are but weak and frail a little thing will distemper them even one nights unrest Our bodies in this vale of misery are but vilis saccus servorum The greatest amongst the children of men carry about with them such excrements as should be Monitors of frailty and documents of humility and that which maketh our bodies most vile is this that they are cages of unclean birds of many unruly lusts though they reign not in the godly yet they dwell in them as Hagar with Sarah and do molest them But at the resurrection there will be a change of our Bodies Our Lord will make them like unto his glorious body and it is said Mat. 17. at his transfiguration which was a prelude of the glorifying of his body his face did shine as the Sun As the Tabernacle under the Law was made according to the pattern shewn in the Mount so our earthly Tabernacles will be renewed according to that pattern shewn in the Mount where our Lord was transsigured great will be the brightness of their bodies in that day of resurrection there will be a most glorious sight when the bodies of the Saints will rise up together as so many Suns above the horizon of the grave and time that will be a lightsome and a glorious day This surpassing glory of their bodies is described more particularly 1 Cor. 15.42 in divers respects 1. Wherein the glory of the body consists In respect of endurance it is sown in corruption but raised in incorruption Our life here is in a continual flux as one part of running water thrusteth forward the other parts so some parts of our body decay daily the radical moystness is wasted by the natural hear and must be repaired by meat drink sleep and other helps as so many props to support our weak and ruinous Tabernacle of clay as a lamp that consumes the oyl must have a new supply But at the resurrection our bodies will be incorruptible their condition will be fixed without any decay in part or in whole Then the vital and animal spirits of the body will be as pure Wine without any mixture of dreg There will be no superfluous or excrementitious humor in the body it will be as the gold purified seven times in the furnace all dross and corruption will be fully purged out and the body will be made an everlasting vessel of honour There will be no alteration in the body nor declining to old age but the glorified Saints shall be like the Cedars in Lebanon Psal 9.14 they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing 2. In respect of the stature and beauty of the body it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory there will be great glory in the bodies of the godly excellent comeliness in stature and a beautifull and equal proportion of all the members The Saints who had any deformity or defect of members in this life shall have none then Act. 3.19 It is called the day of restoring all things what ever their body wanteth now for comeliness shall then be restored and supplyed Our Lord restored Malchus his ear and by the same power he will restore the defect of any member as there will be comeliness in a just symmetry and proportion of the members so a surpassing comeliness in the colour and brightness of the body do we not see in our
will have an accessory joy reflecting from the soul as light within a glass is transparent so the inward glory of the soul will be legible in the large Characters of an ever cheerful countenance in the body As the joy of the glorified Saints will be in full measure and extent 2. Permanent so it will be permanent and perpetual Ps 16.11 At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Joh. 16.22 Your joy said our Lord to his Disciples no man taketh from you Though a sound believer hath matter of joy in his God even amidst his greatest troubles yet many times there are here sad interruptions of his joy in respect of the exercise of it in this vail of tears our condition is mixed at one time a shour of tears and prayers at another time a Sun-shine of joy and praises at one time we are ravished as it were to the third heavens with the sense of Gods love at another time we are cast down into the depth of sorrows when the Messenger of Sathan even some violent tentation doth buffet us at one time we are full both of matter and affection to praise our God that we may say with Elihu Iob. 32.18 The Spirit within constraineth me I am full of matter at another time our heart and spirit is like a bottle in the smoak all our former joy is spent and dryed up Psa 102. Our joy here is like the husband-mans joy in harvest he must be put again to the troubles and the pains of seed time so after our joy here we are put again to sow in tears Iacob had much joy at the return of his sons with corn from Egypt but it endured not for soon after he had great sorrow the corn was spent and he must part with his beloved Benjamin but in heaven our joy will be everlasting a full joy without mixture of sorrow a continual harvest a joy ever in perfection as the fruits are in time of harvest we shall never sow again in tears a perpetual joy but without wearying or loathing because there will be infinite and recent variety of sweetness in God to delight and rejoyce our hearts for ever Object But will there not be degrees of glory in heaven It is probable there will be degrees of glory in heaven 1. and if there be degrees how will all be satisfied can he that hath less be as well satisfied as he that gets a greater measure of glory Answ 1. It is most probable there will be degrees of glory in heaven Dan. 12.3 some shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and others as the stars for ever and ever 1 Cor. 15.41 there is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars so also is the resurrection of the dead There are also divers degrees of torments in hell according to the divers degrees of sin and guiltiness in this life so according to the divers degrees of grace in this life it is probable there will be divers degrees of glory in heaven The servant who knoweth his Masters will and doth it not will be beaten with more stripes then he that is ignorant of it though he do it not Luke 12.47 It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgement then for those Cities which did contemn and reject the offer of the Gospel Mat. 10.15 2. Though there will be degrees of glory in heaven Yet all the Saints will be fully satisfied yet all the Saints will be fully satisfied with that one essential and substantial glory communicate to all in the vision and fruition of the one infinite and al-sufficient God As vessels of divers measures are all filled in the same Ocean though all of them be not of equal capacity The greater degree of glory communicate to some will not be for the excellency and differences of their graces here but according to the divers degrees of grace freely bestowed on them in this life by the spirit of Jesus As they were merited onely by him who is the sole procurer of our grace and glory so in heaven the degrees of glory are a crowning not of our merits but of his own gifts for the giving of a former gift doth oblige the receiver to thankfulness but not the giver to bestow another gift so grace given freely of God obligeth us to thankfulness but doth not oblige God to give unto us glory more or less Because grace and glory in all their degrees are of his free love Rom. 5.17 for if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ This doctrine affords a ground of sharp reproof against all profane and earthly-minded men Vse 1 They are fools who for perishing pleasures part with everlasting joyes who with profane Esau do sell their part of this full refreshment and satisfaction for the deceitful and perishing pleasures of sin To such in our time I say as Isaiah did to those in his time Isa 55.2 wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfies not Therefore to the end thy heart may be rectified I offer these considerations 1. Consider that worldly pleasures are 1. unsatisfactory Consider in time the pleasures of this present world cannot satisfie thy vast appetite Riches do not satisfie the covetous man he desireth more what he yet wanteth then he delighteth in what he hath already The Heathen Moralist spake truth to this purpose when he said the covetous man wanteth as much what he hath as what he hath not as he possesseth not what he wanteth so he hath no heart to make use of what he possesseth honour doth not satisfie the ambitious man what he hath of it already is but a step to raise up his vain spirit to the desire of more and where are vehement desires of more preferment there cannot be satisfaction Neither do sensual pleasures satisfie the incontinent or intemperate man his sinful desires are not satiated thereby the more he sinneth his corruption is the more set on fire of Hell more sin is but more fewel to the fire of concupiscence Therefore as Isaiah exhorts in the same place hearken diligently unto the word of the Lord and eat that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness obey that exhortation of the Apostle Col. 3.2 set your affections on things above and not on things on earth covet the best things be thou truly generous and heavenly-minded set thy heart on these durable riches on that immortal crown of glory and on these pleasures that fade not away those pleasures in the vision and fruition of God will satisfie thy soul for ever they will fill up the measure of all thy desires thou wilt have more set before thee in an infinite God then thy finite