all that believe 2 Thes 1.10 Oh how will such an Acknowledgment as this made by the Judg himself fill the Elect Angels with Admiration and the Reprobate with Envy that not the least guilt should be charged upon them by whom they themselves knew so much having been so many eye-witnesses as I may say the one to their grief as Tutors the other to their joy as Tempters Yea how will it fill the Saints themselves with amazement while they are secretly accusing themselves with Josephs Brethren we are utterly guilty concerning our Brother our Lord and elder Brother I say to hear the Lord himself not charging them with the least unkindness yea representing them before God men and Angels even as it were as immaculate as the Angels themselves who kept their first Estate yea in all this putting the Crown upon their head Rev. 4 10. which they cast down at his feet saying Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory Behold such honour have all the Saints And oh Use of Consâ—lation How will this infinitely compensate all the reproaches and scandals which a generation of malignant Cainites did cast upon the Saints of God while they sojourned with them in Mesech had their habitation in the Tents of Kedar speaking all manner of evil against them 〈◊〉 malam Verbum Gr. lying falsely for Christ's sake How will it cut them to the very heart to hear the Judg himself speak so honourably of those very persons whom they reviled with so much pride and contempt Mich. 7.10 shame shall now cover them which said Where is the Lord your God Their eyes shall behold them and now they shall be troden down as the mire in the streets Math. 5.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them rejoyce and skip for joy Oh let the Saints even here rejoyce and be exceeding glad because for their repreach they shall have praise and for their shame they shall have double sc renown and glory and for their confusion they shall rejoyce and triumph in the approbation of their Judg and Redeemer c. yet behold all this is but the beginning of their Triumph I come now to a second end of the Saints meeting with Christ in the Air Second end The Saints publick justification consisting and that is their Full and final Justification And this consists of two parts 1. Their publick Absolution 2. The Judg's Pronouncing of them to be Righteous First Their publick Absolution Pardon of Sin is the privative part of Justification Imputation of Righteousness is the positive part Pardon or Remission is the Sinner's Justification sc from sin both from the guilt of sin and from the sentence or punishment due to sin By him sc by Christ all that believe are justified from all things Acts. 13 39. from which they cannot be justified by the Law of Moses This now must be one branch of the solemn justification of the Saints at their meeting with the Lord Jesus in the Air as a Judg he shall fully and finally in open Court Absolve the Saints from all their sins both guilt and punishment from which there was no Absolution ever to be expected by the Covenant of works This truly was done before initially at their first Conversion then were their sins truly and perfectly pardoned though not as some too presumptuously affirm all past present and to come Rom. 3.25 for sin to be pardoned before committed is somwhat an uncouth doctrine yet all 1. As to sins already past 2. All as to the state of Remission Jus ad rem though not jus in re an aptitudiâ—al right though not an actual 1 Jo. 1.9 Ch. 2.1 Rom. 8.16 they had a perfect right to the pardon of all their sins past present and to come though not an equal investiture Pardon was theirs and Absolution theirs though it was to be applied to them from time to time upon new acts of Repentance in them and new acts of Intercession in the Mediator and so likewise by new acts of Application by the Spirit thus the Saints were truly pardoned at the first moment of their Regeneration or new Birth And Secondly Fully and perfectly their sins were forgiven at the moment of their dissolution at death I say not only their right and state of Absolution was perfected but all their sins were so fully and finally forgiven them that at the moment of their Souls going out from the body there was not one sin Omissive or Commissive nor any Aggravation or least Circumstance left standing in the book of God's Remembrance And this is the true Reason 1 Jo. 1.7 The reason why the Judg makes no mention of the Saints sins why there is not as I told you even now the least mention made of sin in their tryal at Christ's Tribunal because they were all pardoned fully and finally at the hour of their death all scores were then crossed so that now when the books are opened and perused there is not a sin to be found but all blotted out and all Reckonings made even in the blood of Christ There was a punishment indeed due to sin but that was forgiven or taken off Psal 32.1 Ashre nesuâ— pâ—shing nesui from nasa Hebr. elevaâ—e Num 23.24 Châ—sui from Chasah â—gâ—re Lo Jaâ—ha shâ—b Iehovah is gnavon as the word signifieth blessednesses to the man whose transgression is forgiven i.e. the punishment of whose transgression is taken off There was a stain or pollution in sin but that is covered covered so close that it cannot be seen no not by God's all-seeing eye he hath not seen iniquity in Jacob c. Likewise there was a guilt in sin but that is not imputed and that 's the meaning of the former passage he hath not seen iniquity in Jacob i. e. not seen so as to impute it I say there was sin enough and enough for which God might have sentenced all the Jacobs in the world to Condemnation and have cast all the Israels that ever were into the bottomless pit but it is gone it is forgiven pardon makes such a clear riddance of sin that it is as if it had never been Isa 1 18. the scarlet Sinner is as white as snow snow newly fallen from the skie which was never fullied the Crimson Sinner is as wool wool which never received the least tincture in the dye-fat Here is I say Ier. 50.20 the reason why when the iniquity of Israel is sought for there is none and the sins of Judah and they are not to be found Ier. 31.34 for I will pardon them c. Yea not forgiven only but forgotten and should they now be remembred The Judg had long since cast their sins behind his back and he will not now surely set them before his face Ier. 38.17 he had cast them into the depths of the Seas bottomless depths of everlasting Oblivion that they might be buoyed up
marg for Acts 13.19 read 3 19 page 145 marg for Matt. 5.27 read 5 17 page 155 marg for Psa 30 3. read 130 3. PART 3. page 2 marg for Luke 21 46 read 21 36 marg for Rev. 3 2 r. 14 4 page 8 line 16 for Mat. 24.21 read 24 51 page 29 marg for Matt. 8 10 read 18 10 page 30 marg for Joh. read 1 Joh. page 31 marg for Gen. 13 24 30. read 32 24 30 page 34 marg for Psal 48 2 read 84 2 page 38. marg for 1 King 4 25 read 4 29 page 46 marg for Maâ— read Matth. page â—â— marg for Mark 12 32 read 13 32 page 60 line 31 for Matr. 25 24 r ad 25 34 page 62 marg for Matt 18 1. read 8 11. page 79 marg for Rom. read Revel page 81 marg for Eph. 5 1. read 4 24 page 110 marg for 2 Thes 1 9. read 2 Cor. 4 4. page 125 marg for 2 Cor. read 1 Cor page 132 line 13. for Cant 6 12 read 7 12 page 135 marg for 1 Cor 9 52. read 9.25 page 150. marg for 1 Pet. 1 18. read 1.8 page 153. line 1â— for Psal 94.10 read 94.19 p. 164. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first Epistle Dedicatory p. â— l. 6. for weak r. mean In the second Epistle Dedicatory are these 3 pages mistaken in the Title vâ—z p. 7 p. 10 p. 11. for The Epistle to the Reader read The Epistle Dedicatory And in the same Epistle page 9. l. 9. for their excess read this excess page 10. line 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MOVNT PISGAH OR WORDS of COMFORT OVER THE Death of our Gratious Relations 1 Thes 4.18 Wherefore Comfort one another with these Words THese words what words are these Scripture words in their general Nature more particularly the Words of Comfort conteyned in this Context from v. 13. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren c. down to my Text. For therein doth the Apostle by the dictate of the Holy Ghost lay down a model or platforme of Consolatory Arguments as so many soveraign Antidotes against immoderate sorrow for our pretious Relations which are departed And with these words the Apostle would have Christians be able to comfort themselves and one another Comfort one another with these words For the handling of the Text I will do these two things 1. I will shew you what these words are and open the sense and meaning of them as they lye in the order and method of the Context 2. I will improve them for 1. Comfort 2. Counsel For the first of these The words of Comfort laid down by the Apostle in this model 10 Words of Comfort may be reduced unto 10 Heads some of them very comprehensive and all of them like mother of Pearl dissolved exceeding Cordial and Restorative The first word of Comfort is this The first word of Comfort namely That our pretious Relations over whose departure we stand mourning and weeping are but fallen asleep I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep We may say of departed Saints as our Saviour said concerning the Damsel Math. 9.24 They are not dead but sleep the same phrase he also used to his Disciples concerning Lazarus John 11.11 our Friend Lazarus sleepeth A notion which the Disciples at first understood not because their understandings were not yet inlightened they dreamed of a natural sleep saith the Text of taking Rest in sleep And yet as men in their sleep do somtimes dream true so did they in this dream of theirs speak truer than they were aware of they said Lord if he sleeps he shall do well it is true indeed the Saints of God do but sleep when they lye down in the Grave that which we call death in such is not death indeed It is but the Image of Death the shadow and metaphor of death deaths younger Brother a meer sleep and no more The Holy Ghost who best knoweth what things be hath phrased it so and that not so little as twenty times in Scripture to shew that it was not a sudden expression incautelously dropt from the Pen of any one of the Secretaries of Holy Writ but the true proper and genuine notion of death suggested to them by the infallible dictate of the Spirit of God they do but sleep and if they sleep they shall do well their sleep shall be sweet unto them as sweet as once the Prophets was Jer. 31.26 I shall not follow the Analogy that is between Death and Sleep in the latitude of it sufficient to our purpose it will be to take notice of two main properties of Death which do carry in them a lively resemblance of sleep The first is Isâ— Ligath suâ—â—â— That sleep is nothing else but the binding up of the senses for a little time a locking up of the Doores and shutting of the Windows of the body for a season that so nature may take the sweeter Rest and Repose being freed from all disturbance and distractions Sleep is but a meer Paerenthesis to the Labours and Travels of this present life Secondly Sleep is but a partial privation a privation of the Act only not of the Habit of Reason They that sleep in the Night do awake again in the Morning then there is a regress or return of the habit to its Act again The Soul returneth to the discharge of all her Offices again In the internal faculties to the act of Judging and discourse in the Intellect to recalling things for the present and recording things for future use in the memory It returns to its Empire and command in the will to its judicature in the Conscience Excusing Accusing Condemning Et sic in caeteris So likewise the soul returns again to the execution of all her functions in the external senses to seeing in the eye to hearing in the ear to tasting in the pallate as also to working in the hands to walking in the feet and so in the rest In a word the whole man is Redivivus restored again to its self as it were by a new * Providentia est continuata Creatio Creation that which lay as senseless and useless tantum non dead all the night is raised again more vive and fresh and active in the morning than it lay down at night Such a thing as this for all the world is that which we commonly call Death but with this considerable advantage that in the interim of Death the soul acts more vigorously than before as being released from the weights and intanglements of the body First It is but a longer and closer binding up of the senses Nature's long vacation The Grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to Rest with its Curtains drawn close about it that it may not be disturbed in its repose so the Holy Ghost pleaseth to phrase it Isa 57.2 He
12. Ch. 5.8 Their patient bearing of the Cross Their keeping of the word of God in the precepts of it and keeping close to it in the Truth of it Their superlative Love to Christ Math. 10.37 Their Cordial Love to the Saints 1 Jo. 3.14 Their Contempt of the World 1 Jo. 2.15 Their Love of Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 In a word Their conformity to Christ their Head Rom. 8.29 These and the like Divine Vertues although not seldome more visible to a judicious stander by than to themselves and not to be weighed but with some graines of allowance in the ballance of the Sanctuary these I say may administer abundant matter of hope and rejoycing to surviving Friends that those Relations which are fallen asleep were a people whom God hath set apart for himself pretious in his sight honourable and beloved of him a people formed for himself to shew forth his praise Col s 1.13 and made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Yea even in them whose Sun goes down in the morning of their Youth A teachable Spirit Math. 13.16 Isa 28.9 71 Psal 5. Jo. 16.8 1 John 2.13 John 17.3 Pious Inclinations Sense of a lost Estate by Nature A Competent knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in his Offices A real sense of the need and use of Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Tim. 3.15 Ps 119.13 An early acquaintance with the Scriptures A good understanding of the Word Preached not without some savour of it Respects to Gods Sabbaths And in a word 1 Kings 14.13 Any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel These early Impressions I say where ever they are found though according to different ages and capacities more or less legible in them are so many hopeful Indiciums that God hath been at work upon their hearts betimes and that he doth not untimely take them away in judgment but are polished Jewels which he hath of special grace laid up and secured from the violence and prophanation of a reprobate world Nay once more Those very Babes and Sucklings whom God is pleased to remove from us very early snatched from their Mothers Breasts yea possibly who pass swiftly from the Womb of their Natural Mother unto the belly of the Earth their Original Mother even these I say they being A Covenant seed Appendices of their believing Parents Children of promise Act. 2.39 Consecrated unto God by their Baptisme or by the Tears and Prayers of their holy Parents in the want of it having a right to the mercies 1 Cor. 7.14 Rom. 9.11 Mar. 10.4 Luk. 1.44 Gal. 1.15 Renatiante quam nati Aug. priviledges of the Covenant as well as to Baptisme Among whom is dispersed God the Father's Election God the Son's purchase God the Holy Ghost's Influence and Operation Even these are not to be looked upon as a lost Generation but may in the warrantable judgment of Scripture Charity be hopefully reputed for an Holy Seed Gods adopted Children owned by Christ and in him heires co-heires of the Kingdome of Heaven by special prerogative advanced to their Inheritance as it were before their time Upon this Foundation stands our hope concerning our Godly Relations which are fallen asleep of what age or state soever we are not to mourn for them even as others which have no hope Let them mourn excessively who know not the Scriptures nor the power of God in raising the Dead who bury their Relations and their hopes together in one Grave but you that upon these Scripture evidences have good hope through grace concerning your deceased Friends that while you are mourning on Earth they are rejoycing in Heaven that whiles you are Cloathed with black they are Cloathed in white even in the long white Robes of Christs Righteousness while you are rooling your selves in the Dunghil they are sitting with Christ upon his Throne Do not I beseech you profane your Scriptural hope with an unscriptural mourning give not the world occasion to judge either your selves to live without Faith or your Relations to dye without hope but let your Christian moderation be known to all men that it may be a visible Testimony to all the world of God's grace in them and of your hopes of their glory with God Therefore comfort one another with this word also A third word of comfort followeth and that is A third word of Comfort Our gratious Relations are not alone in their Death The Captain of their Salvation did march before them through those black Regions of Death and the Grave Jesus died this is implied in the following words If we believe that Jesus died This is a third consolatory Argument and it carryeth in it strong consolation Our sweet Relations in dying run no other hazard than Abraham Isaac and Jacob did no other hazard than all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles did in their generations they all died and were resolved into their first dust Yea what shall I say They run no other hazard than the Lord of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles did Jesus died this is wonderful indeed the Lord of Life died The eternal Son of God was laid in the Grave If our Children die we know we begot them mortal The Son of God had no principle of mortality in him * i.e. No sin in him to deserve it nor disease to cause it and yet he died Be our Children never so precious to us they cannot be so pretious to us God forbid they should as the Lord Jesus was to His Father who testifies concerning him from Heaven with a loud voyce This is my well-beloved Son Math. 3.17 in whom my Soul is well pleased And yet God gave up this well beloved of his Soul to the death Jesus died And we indeed justly Death is but our wages wages as truly earned as ever was a penny by the poor hireling for his days labour both we and our Off-spring have forfeited our lives over and over again by continual reiterated Treasons against the supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth yea the best blood which runs in our veins is Traytors blood by succession from our first Rebellious Parents for which God might justly have executed the sentence at first imposed even as soon as ever we draw our first breath Thou shalt dye the death Gen. 3. But He what evil had he done He was holy harmless undefiled Heb. 7.26 Isa 53.61.71 Heb. Ho hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him separate from sinners He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth He fulfilled all Righteousness and yet Jesus dyed And why so Surely he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed we all like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity
more By vertue of this Union with Christ the Believer is likewise united to the whole divine nature and essence in the Deity though not essentially and he is likewise united to each person in the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as to the Son John 17.21 Behold that thus it is done to the man whom God will honour Thanks be to God for this unspeakable Grace This is the sixth Property The Seaventh and last Property This Union is an indissoluble Vnion Seventh property Indissoluble This Union between Christ and the Believer is not capable of any separation They are so one that all the violence of the world or all the powers of darkness can never be able to make them two again Hence the Apostle's Triumph Challenge Rom. 8.35 who shall separate us from the love of Christ If the question did not imply a strong negation ver 38 39. the Apostle himself doth give us a negation in words at length neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us c. A long Catalogue consisting of a large induction of various particulars but in all these 't is observable he only instanceth in the creature nor any other creature he leaveth out God and why because God himself is the Author of this Union 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus It is of God and that Upon a three-fold Account 1. It is of God's Preordination This Union of Christ and his Saints was the design of God's everlasting Electing Love Ephes 14. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World As the Vnion so the very purpose of it was founded in * Tanquam in capite though not tanquam in causâ not as the cause of Election but as the cause of the good of Election for it is not said for him but in him Vid. Twiss vindic grattae lib. 1. part 2. Digres Prim. Secund. Tert. Christ He hath chosen us in him 2. It is of God the Fathers efficiency the Father tyeth this Marriage knot between his Son and his Spouse for we are his Workmanship Created in Christ Jesus c. The new Creation it is God's work and it is founded on Christ or in Christ created in Christ Jesus c. 3. It is of Gods support As in the first Creation when God had finished the world he took not his hand off but upholds it still by the word of his power Heb. 1.3 So in this second and new Creation when he hath wrought it he takes not off his hand if he should it would quickly collapse into its first nothing How comes it then to pass it doth not why saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.5 you are kept by the power of God through Faith to Salvation Faith keeps the Believer in this Union but the power of God keeps Faith Why now if after all this God should at any time suspend the influence of this power or by any malice or fraud of men or Devils suffer this Union to miscarry he should fail and cross his own project he should desert his own design this cannot be Here is the Foundation then upon which the Apostle erecteth this Triumph God who only can dissolve this Union will not the Creature which only would dissolve this Union cannot so it stands on a surer bottom then Heaven and Earth our life is hid with Christ in God The Believer is in Christ as Christ is in God hence the unseparableness of this Union John 10.28 29. There is no more pulling the Believer out of the bosome of Christ then there is of Christ out of the bosome of his Father And therefore once more upon this account it is that our Lord compareth this blessed Vnion to that substantial Vnion between the Father and the Son that they may be one as we are one namely to express as the reality and inwardness so also the indeficiency of this spiritual Vnion as thou Father art in me and I in thee As i.e. as fixedly as inseparably as immutably This is the transcendent excellency of this Union above all others it is Eternal Indeed it had a beginning but it shall never have an end All other Unions may suffer a dissolution a Whirl-wind may throw the house off from its foundation Job 1.18 19. as we see in the case of Job's Children a Bill of Divorce may dissolve the Union betwixt Man and Wife in case of the violation of the Marriage Bed Math. 5.31 32. An Axe may dissolve the Union between the Head and Members Death dissolves the Union between the Soul and body c. I but nothing can dissolve the Union between Christ and the Believers nothing shall be able to separate us c. My Text gives us a further instance of this the Saints sleep in Jesus The Union ceaseth not no not in the Grave The Saints sleep in Jesus Observe the progress of it it began in their Regeneration then they received their first Implantation into Christ Rom. 6.3 4 5. whence the Apostle makes Regeneration and being in Christ synonimous Rom. 6.3 4. Next they are said to live in Christ and Christ in them Gal. 2.20 Then to shew there is no in and out * In to day and out to morrow in this Union as some fondly dream we read of their abiding in Christ not only by way of precept which might possibly imply duty only as John 15.4 5. but by way of promise also as 1 John 2.27 Ye shall abide in me which certainly doth express assurance and establishment for ever Rom. 4.16 Therefore they are said in the next place to dye in Christ Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord so verse 16. after the Text makes mention of the dead in Christ so that that which dissolves all other Unions dissolves not this death it self when the Union between body and Soul is dissolved the Union between Christ and Believers dissolveth not Yea see one strain higher yet not only in death but even after death The Soul sleeps not Heb. 12.23 this Vnion holds the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus that part of the Saints which is capable of sleep is not capable of separation from Christ while their more noble part is united to Christ in Heaven amongst the Spirits of just men made perfect Christ is United to their Inferiours and more ignoble part in the Grave their very dust they sleep in Jesus Thus I have opened unto you the blessed and admirable Union which is between Christ and his Saints and it 's most excellent and transcendent properties scil as it is 1. Spiritual 2. Real 3. Operative 4. Enriching 5. Intimous 6. Total 7. Indissoluble Opened did I say Alas it is impossible This Union is a mystery a great mystery Ephes 5.32 next to that Union betwixt the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by a reprobate world even as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things the scraping of their Shooes or the common Town-Dung-cart into which every one cast's their soil and draught I say though the Saints of God are thus base and contemptible in the opinion of the ignorant World yet they have another rate and value set upon them in Heaven Heb. 11.6 Heb. 2.11 Cant. 4.8.11 Rev. 21.9 God is not ashamed to be called their God nor Christ ashamed to call them Brethren Yea he dignifies them with the stile of his Spouse the Bride the Lambs Wife and all this upon the account of that admirable and inconceivable Vnion which is between Christ and them that spiritual real operative inriching total intimous and indissoluble Vnion by vertue whereof 1 Cor. 6.17.15.19 they are in Christ and Christ in them as to their more divine part their Soul 's one spirit with the Lord and even as to their terrene and corruptive part their Bodies Members of Christ and Temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in yea saith my Text their very dust is United to Christ They sleep in Jesus Such Honour have all his Saints How should the sense of it engage them to Honour Christ Third Use who hath put so great honour upon them yea to honour themselves whom Christ hath so highly honoured to stand upon their advancement and not to prophane themselves by any thing that is common or unclean or upon the least account unsutable to their glorious Union with Jesus Christ but to possess their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour 1 Thes 4.4 as under an holy awe of that tremendous Sentence If any man defile the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3.17 him will God destroy Surely the thought of so near and intimate an Union with the Son of God should make sin become an impossibility Upon all the Adulterous solicitations of the Flesh World or Satan to make holy Joseph's quick reply How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against my Vnion with Jesus Christ Fourthly Fourth Use And oh that such as have for many years together Exhortation to such as are yet out of Christ sitten under the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ and to this day are altogether strangers to this blessed Union with Christ would now with all seriousness and holy contention apply themselves to know it and to know it experimentally that they would with holy Paul account all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.8 9 even this that they may be found in him to know him with interest to know him in this mysterious and beatifical Vnion Christ in them and they in Christ This only is the saving knowledg of Jesus Christ to be able to make out our Conjunction with him upon Scripture-evidence Alas this is the undoing Mistake of thousands that are called Christians they know somewhat of the History of Christ they have some notions of a Christ in their heads but this is the precipice upon which they ruine themselves They think to be saved by a Christ without them they hang upon the outside of the Ark they live upon bare notions The Son of God took our nature upon him died for sins rose again James 1.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is gon up into Heaven and sits at God's right hand and therefore conclude they shall be saved Oh but what a paralogism and fallacy do they put upon their own Souls They put more into the Conclusion then there is in the Premisses while they leave out this great and indispensible medium of Vnion and Conjunction with Jesus Christ without which a Christ and no Christ is all one Men and Women generally take Faith to be nothing else but a loose conjectural application of Christ and his Merits to themselves not considering that the great saving Office of Faith is To unite the Soul to Jesus Christ Eph. 3.17 It is true there is no Condemnation but it is only to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom 8.1 Christ is the hope of Salvation it is true I but it is not simply Christ in the Womb of the Virgin not simply Christ on the Cross not Christ in the Grave no not alone Christ on the Throne but saith the Apostle Christ in you the hope of Glory Colos 1.27 It were an easie thing to be saved if a Christ without us were all and I know no reason why reprobate men and Devils might not get to Heaven on such terms No but as there is no other name under Heaven Acts 4.12 given amongst men whereby we must be saved but the Name of Jesus Christ i. e. his merit and influence So there is no other medium whereby that merit and influence can be effectually applied to the Soul but only this spiritual real operative enriching intimous total and inseparable Union with Jesus Christ Christ must be in us by his Spirit and we must be in Christ by Faith or else our persons and our hope as to the present state are both reprobate 2 Cor. 13.15 Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All is yours if you be Christ's as Christ is God's Appear before God's Tribunal in the great day Math. 7.21 22 23. Luk. 13.26.27 without this Vnion and plead what you will your answer will be I never knew you depart from me c. Believe this Oh all you carnal Christ-less Christians and tremble and swim no longer down the stream of Security lest it empty you forth into the Lake of Perdition but work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling and give all diligence to make this conjunction with Christ sure to your own Souls Colos 3.3 4. that when He shall appear you may also appear with him in Glory Remember All your true and solid comfort and rejoycing in life in death and at the day of Judgment is all bound up in your Vnion with Jesus Christ Christ in you the hope of Glory Fifthly and Lastly Fourth and last Use Consolation The Doctrine of this glorious Union with Christ is not more for the honour of the living than for the comfort of the dying Saints and of their surviving mourners And for their sakes it is here specially calculated by the Holy Ghost behold this Vnion is not dissolved by death it self though it dissolve the Union between Body and Soul it cannot dissolv◠the Vnion which is between Christ and his Members Hence you find even death it self filling up the Apostle's Triumph What can separate neither life nor death c. Not life for Christ by vertue of this Union is their life Not death for as terrible as it is let death do its worst it cannot dissolve this blessed Vnion Neither life nor death can separate c. Why do ye tremble at the
invariety or same-ness of body in the Resurrection to the same sense with the Apostle to every Seed his own body To this Obj. if it be Objected that in the 37. verse of that Chapter under the metaphor of Seed he tells the incredulous Fool that cannot believe this Article of Faith the Resurrection Thou sowest not that body which shall be Not that body which shall be It seems then the body shall be another thing from that which is now sown Ans Answ Yea and indeed so it shall be in respect of quality though not of kind There is diversity in one and the self same body as it is in the Metaphorical so it shall be with the natural the Grain's sown mean and bare but it springeth up after another manner beautiful and green yet the same Grain Meliorata substantia non numero multiplicata Tert. the body likewise is the same when it riseth as it was sowen for Substance Parts Members and Organs but not the same for beauty and excellent Properties The Infant shall rise a man of perfect Age the Lame shall rise Sound the Blind shall rise Seeing the Deaf shall Hearing the Dunth shall be able to Speak the Resurrection shall take away all Defects and Excesses of Nature the Deformities of the Saints shall not be raised together with their bodies yea Deformities shall be turned into Comelinesses and Beauties and yet all these Alterations do no more change or destroy the Individuality of Person than Youth doth make the Person numerically different from what it was in Infancy or Old Age from what it was in Youth or as it was in the Persons of all sorts which Christ healed in the day of his Flesh they were the same Individuals after Cure as they were before Cure makes not another Individual man of a Cripple nor Health of the Sick so shall it be in the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints for of them only I speak not at all of the wicked shall be the same for substance and matter but wonderfully changed for Form and supernatural Endowments and Qualities Second description in particular Which brings me to the particular description of the Resurrection sc in respect of admirable and transcendent Properties of which our Apostle hath instanced Four sc Four Properties of the risen bodies of Saints 1. Incorruption Propeâ—ies of the body in the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2. Glory 3. Power 4. Spirituality All these in opposition to the contrary Infirmities and Deformities of the state of Mortality Contraria â—uxta se pâ—sita â—â—â—g's â—lucescunt That so by Comparison the well-nigh infinite disproportion of both Estates may appear and the Super-excellencies which the Resurrection puts upon the Body may shine forth more conspicuously First it is sown in Corruption it is raised in Incorruption 1. Property Incorruptible It is sowen in Corruption Behold the body is Corruptible whiles it liveth a Nursery of such Seeds and Principles as will inevitably destroy it self a Spittal of all manner of Diseases but when it is dead it is Corruption it self Infirmity resolved into Rottenness and Deformity the fondest Relation who while living layed it in the Bosom cannot now endure it in the sight Give me a Burying place said Abraham of his beloved Sarah that I may Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23 4. It is now the picture of all ghastly Loathsomness But Oh how unlike it self shall it be in the Resurrection It is raised in Incorruption When Christ hath fetcht the body out of the Grave and set it upon its feet again there shall not be the least smell or savour of Mortality upon it as there was no smell of the fire upon the Raiment of the three Children when they came out of the fiery Furnace Dan. 3.27 All the Principles of Corruption and Mortality shall be put off and lest together with the Grave-Cloaths in the Sepulcher The body as some think shall give forth a sweet fragrant smell like the Flowers of Paradise it shall be an Angelified body Flesh Immortalized subject to no more Corruption than the Soul it self There shall be no more Death nor fear of Death nor possibility of Death for ever Secondly It is sown in dishonour As soon as the Soul is enlarged from its Imprisonment the body is presently stript naked of all its Robes and honourable Attire and wrapt up in a poor shroud of no other use than to hide Deformity and as a mean contemptible thing it is buried under ground Yea somtimes denied so much honour it is exposed naked above ground in the sight of the Sun without any other Funeral than what it may have in the bowels of the Fouls of the Heavens Psal 79.1 or the Ravenous Beasts of the Earth But be the Burial never so Ignoble the Resurrection of it shall be Glorious Second Property Gloricuâ— It is raised in Glory We may truly say Solomon in all his Glory was not arayed like one of these Children of the Resurrection there shall be a glory put upon the Body which shall out-shine the Sun in its brightest refulgency And that upon a double account 1. By vertue of a Principle within 2. The body shall be glorious in the Resurrection 1. By vertue of an Inward Principle By means of a Glorious Irradiation without 1. By vertue of an Internal Principle The Soul which is the Candle of the Lord is here for a time put into a dark Lanthorn of the Body But then the glorified Soul being now returned by the power of Christ into its antient habitation and become a Vessel replenished with Immortal and unmixed light will transmit such beams of glory into the refined body that it shall shine like an Angel of Light the body of the poorest Lazar that ever lay on the Dunghill shall be cloathed with such ravishing rayes of Beauty as will transcend the most absolute Beauty that ever mortal eye beheld 2 By vertue of External Irradiation from Christ 2 Thes 2.10 Heb 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly By vertue of an External Irradiation It is said of Jesus Christ at that day He shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe As Jesus Christ was the Brightness of his Fathers Glory it is spoken of him not as he was the second person in Trinity God blessed for ever but as he was Verbum Incarnatum The Word Incarnate all the beams of Divine Majesty and Glory did shine forth in him with such a refulgent brightness that thorow his Flesh the Godhead was as it were made visible we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth So shall the Saints at his Coming in their proportion be the brightness of Christ his glory the beams of that glory which shall shine forth from the glorified Person of their Redeemer shall reflect such a glittering Splendor upon
the Angel Oh then when the whole Assembly of Saints shall be all such how will they fill one another with unspeakable joy How might this vision as it were be an heaven alone If Paul exprest so much satisfaction to be filled with his precious Converts company at Rome what satisfaction will it be when the Romans shall be filled with Paul's company and all other the Saints of God they and he now made perfect in glory Finally It will be no small security to the mutual love and complacency of the Saints that in Heaven they shall be set beyond all possibility of being mistaken in one anothers condition Here below how easily and how often are we deceived Behold a Judas amongst the Disciples whom none of them could discover but only their Lord that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil John 6.70 Oh dreadful a Judas follower of Christ and yet a devil a Disciple and yet a devil a Preacher and yet a devil fast and pray and yet a devil do miracles and yet a devil cast out devils and yet a Devil yea once more Judas who for some time carried it so fair that when their Lord prophesied of one of their company that should be guilty of so horrid a treason as to betray his Lord they every man began to suspect rather than Judus and cried Lord is it I Is it I Lord c Oh dreadful mistake And such mistakes when discovered oh what a shame what condolency what grief what perplexity of spirit do they occasion amongst Gods upright ones But now are the Saints in Heaven delivered from all danger and fear of such charitable errors There shall be no Hypocrite in Heaven upon whom the Saints can lose their love Hypocrites shall be all lock'd up in one infernal dungeon together that they may never deceive any more Matth. 24.21 What an access of joy will this be to the Communion of Saints in glory Quest Whether or no in this blessed Vision the Saints shall see one another with a distinguishing sight i. e. see them so as to know them under such relations and respects as once they stood in one to another in this imperfect state Whether Abraham shall know Isaak as once his son and Isaak know Abraham as sometime his father Whether the Husband shall know his Wife and the Wife her Husband as once such that have drawn together in the same conjugal yoke Whether Kinred shall know their gracious Kinred and friend his friend Whether the godly Minister shall know his gracious People that were of his particular flock and the flock know him as once standing in that ministerial relation to them Et sic in caet This I say is a Question which seems neither difficult nor fruitless to be resolved Probability without doubt falls upon the Affirmative and that whether we consult Reason or Scripture Reason saith It is very likely we shall know them Reason whether by the secret impressions of former converse one with another or by revelation as some conceive is disputed some think that we shall remember what relation we have had one to another by circumstances and emergent occasions by comparing notes as it were but that discursive syllogistical way of coming into the knowledge one of another seems to be too mean and slow for the heavenly state and the reason is because the senses of the body and the faculties of the soul shall be elevated and refined to a kind of Angelical perfection for we shall be like the Angels Luke 20.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What although many Ages and Generations have passed over the Saints in their state of separation of the soul from the body and one from another wherein all the species and figures of sensible objects may seem to be totally obliterated or abolished Why may not those vestigia those impressions of sensible things which are granted to remain in the understanding be thought sufficient to reduce the species of those sensible objects themselves whereby the Saints did once converse each with other into the memory again by the sole help of that supernatural vigor and activity which the state of Glory superinduceth upon the faculties of the soul and corporeal senses Behold here in this dark region what quick and admirable recoveries of things past There shall no knowledg be wanting which now we have but only that which implieth imperfection And what imperfection can this imply To know one another as well in the glorified estate as we did in the state of mortality and better The good of this blessed state consisteth in the knowledg one of another communion one with another and mutual content in that knowledge and communion Baxtor do the senses of the body and faculties of the soul make sometimes The eye can distinguish its wonted object after many years separation the memory can presently recall the face and voice and gestures of an intimate friend after sleep which is deaths image yea after twenty years absence or more At the Resurrection the soul I make no question will know its own body at the first sight proportionably in the state of glory must the mutual knowledge and remembrance of old relations be more quick vive and if I may so say intuitive according to the admirable and glorious capacity which they shall then be invested with make but a just allowance for the vast disproportion between the regenerate state on earth and the glorified state in heaven and you may rationally conclude the affirmative And if we consult Scripture Scripture it votes no less for the Affirmative than Reason doth Did Adam know Eve in innocency Mat. 17.4 Did Peter and James and John know Moses and Elias at our Lords transfiguration whom they had never seen Tertul. contra Marcion No not so much as in a picture as Tetullian observes the Jews being great enemies to the use of pictures And shall not the Saints know one another at the first view whom they knew and mutually conversed with while they were here on earth Surely the knowledge of the beatifical vision shall excel not only the knowledge of Peter and John 1 Cor. 13.12 but even the knowledge of Adam in innocency as far as the state of glory excels the state of grace Did Peter and John know Elias on the Mount whom they had not seen and shall not Peter know John and John Peter whom they had mutually seen Again the Scripture tells us that Dives in hell knew Abraham and Lazarus in heaven Luke 16.23 shall the reprobate have better eyes in hell than the elect of God have in Heaven Shall Dives know Lazarus and shall not Lazarus know Paul and Peter c And yet again the Scripture tells us the poor Saints on earth shall know their rich benefactors when they come to heaven how else can they receive them in what sense soever into everlasting habitations shall
have sought for or so much as to have thought of Such a wish in the standing Angels Oh that God would give his own essential eternaly begotten Son to take the humane nature upon him and therein to recover lost man would have been a presumption without doubt which no less than the first ambition of the Apostate Angels probably conceived only in thought might have justly merited their ejection also out of Heaven Oh for the second Person in the glorious Trinity to take upon him the nature of man and that too when it was at the worst when it was fallen and stript of all its original beauty and excellency was more than for all the Angels of light to have been degraded if I may so say into so many Chimney-sweepers or Kennel-rakers or to have been condemn'd to have been made hewers of wood and drawers of wtaer for the service of the reprobate world had it been to have stood for ever This this is the great stupendious mystery which may fill the understanding of men and Angels with wonder and delight to all eternity * Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh the Son of God incarnate Justly then may it swallow up our thoughts with horror and astonishment to descend step by step to the bottom of the Lord Christ his mediatory humiliation and abasement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex omni Scipsum ad nihilum redegit exhausit Tertul. lib. 5. adversus Maâ—cion v. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he debased or vilified himself to find him emptying of himself as it were to the last drop of his glory meekly submitting himself to all the affronts and insolencies of a reprobate world all the temptations and harassing of infernal Spirits and at length to death it self even the death of the cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the cross that death which was proper only to accursed slaves and therein drinking up the bitterest cup that ever was put into the hand of a sinner the cup of his Fathers wrath the venom whereof filled his soul with unconceivable anguish and made him cry out to the astonishment of Heaven and Earth My God my God why bast thou forsaken me In a word if you would come to the bottom of our Lords abasement you must dig to the very bottom of hell it self if there be a bottom there for though Christ did not suffer poenas inferni he did suffer poenas infirnales hellish pains though not the pains of hell Why now then if you would make any discovery of that glory wherewith the humane nature of our blessed Lord is invested at the right hand of God you must skrew up your thoughts to a glory every way adequate and commensurate to his inanition and abasement for less than that not only the love but the justice of his Father could not proportion to him It were good sometimes in our thoughts to compare the abasement of Christ and his exaltation together to set them as it were in columes one over against another He was born in a Stable but now he reigns in his Royal Palace then he had a Manger for his Cradle but now he sets in a Chair of state then Oxen and Asses were his Companions now thousands of Saints and ten thousand thousands of Angels minister round about his Throne then in contempt they called him the Carpenters Son now he obtains by inheritance a more excellent name than the Angels for to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Then he was led away into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil now it is proclaimed before him let all the Angels of God worship him then he had not a place to lay his head on now he is exalted to be the heir of all things in his state of humiliation he endured the contradiction of sinners in his state of exaltation he is adored and admired of Saints and Angels then he had no form or comeliness when we saw him there was no beauty that we should desire him now the beauty of his countenance shall send forth such glorious beams that shall dazle the eyes of all the celestial Inhabitants round about him once he was the shame of the world now the glory of heaven the delight of his Father the joy of all the Saints and Angels once he was the obiect of the Reprobates scorn and the Devils malice now they shall be the objects of his most righteous vengeance he shall speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure Crucifiges will then be turn'd into Hallelujahs he that was called the Deceiver shall now be adored as the Amen of the Father the faithful and true witness a man of sorrows then but now the mirror of glory Prince of peace then accounted a servant of servants now he shall be called the Lord of Lords King of Kings then they put upon him a mock-robe a fools-coat but now he shall be cloathed with a royal garment down to the foot girt about the paps with a golden girdle the feeble reed shall now be turned into a massie Scepter of gold his Cross of wood into a Throne of glory and the Crown of Thorns into a Crown of Stars In the day of his abasement he was the foot-ball of his enemies kickt up and down the world by every prophane fool but now in the day of his exaltation his enemies shall be made his footstool yea Thrones and principalities being made subject unto him Surely the very prints of his hands and feet and the holes that were bored in his sides shall be so many signal marks and trophies of victory and Thomas 〈◊〉 set now above all doubting may sing in triumph My Lord and my God And lastly the Lord Jesus himself instead of his desertion the lowest step of all his abasement shall solace himself for ever in the vision and fruition of his Father and of the blessed Spirit and instead of my God my God why hast thou forsaken me shall be that triumph I and my Father are one thou Father in me and I in thee These be some crevices through which we may have a glimpse of the glory of our Lords once crucified body the full discovery of it you will never be able to make until you come eye to eye to see and enjoy it in the Kingdom of Heaven witness a second Consideration A second consideration evidencing what a glorious beatifying object the glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus will be in Heaven is 2. Consider The personal and hypostatical union which the humane nature hath with the divine nature of the Son of God Col. 2.9 the sulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Christ bodily i. e. in his body the fulness of the divine essence dwells in the humane nature and is as it were transparent through his flesh and this makes it to be the most beatifying vision next to the vision of God
heaven and they are safe for ever Persecutors to be sure will not follow them thither but they shall be looked up in hell for ever bound in chains of everlasting darkness for their fury against the people of God suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Ever with the Lord here 's a short fight but an eternal triumph a short race but an immarcessable crown of glory a short storm but an eternal harbour who would not almost be covetous and ambitious of suffering upon such gainful terms One day with the Lord will more than pay for all the Saints sufferings how much more this ever with the Lord There is no proportion between a Christian his Cross and his Crown Rom. 8.18 if the Apostle have brought us in a true account I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Compare a Mole-hill with a Mountain a Glow-worm with a Sun beam a drop with the Ocean and more disproportionable are a Saints sufferings unto his glory here he lets drop a few tears there he swims in a river of pleasures for evermore To convince us of the odds the Apostle puts both into scales and the scales into the hand even of Reason it self see saith he how infinitely the reward praeponderates the sufferings 2 Cor. 4.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Affliction light Glory heavy a weight of glory yea an exceeding weight yea a far more exceeding weight hyperbole upon hyperbole Affliction but for a moment Glory eternity let sense and reason give sentence what equality or proportion an heavy burden may be born a moment how much easilier a light one especially if ye add this consideration that after that little little moment past burden shall never be laid upon the back any more for ever We are apt to think that our sufferings are not only heavy but intollerable the only unparallel'd affliction in the world never sorrow like our sorrow but they will appear as they are poor and inconsiderable when we come to heaven then our Mountains will appear Mole-hills How will a prison look then when for a few dayes confinement we shall have the glorious liberty of the Sons of God in the highest heavens dayes without end How will then the reproach of Christ appear to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt when for a little shame and ignominy thou shalt shine as the Sun in the Firmament for ever How will thy former poverty for Christ look then 1 Pet. 1.5 when thou shalt be possessed of the inheritance of the Saints in light Incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for thee Nay if thou shalt loose thy life for Christ it shall seem but a poor stake when thou shalt be crowned with all the beatitudes of life eternal Oh labour for such thoughts of sufferings now as thou wilt have then and this will carry thee through fire and water for Christs sake and with the Daughter of Sion cause thee to shake thy head at them Though sufferings offend thee now and are very grievous to the fleshy part yet it will be no grief of heart to thee then when thou comest to put on thy Robe and thy Crown and to sit down with Christ on his Throne If there could be grief in heaven about sufferings it would grieve a Saint that he had suffered no more for Christ or suffered with no more patience courage and holy insulting over the persecutors 40. Martyrs in Basil now led by his sufferings into so much glory Pore not then upon thy sufferings but look up to the Crown that is prepared to be set upon thy head after thy sufferings behold Martyrdom it self shall be but as Elijah's Chariot to carry thee up to heaven in triumph If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him if we wear his Crown of thorns we shall wear his Crown of glory if we dye with him we shall also rise with him and reign with him for ever Think much of the Kingdom to expel base fears in sufferings This is the glorious recompence which Christ sets before his Church Luke 12.32 to encourage her in the midst of her persecutions Fear not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom If a Kingdom yea the Kingdom of Heaven be able to make you amends for your sufferings you shall not be losers by them well you may be losers for Christ but to be sure you shall not be losers by Christ Our Lord Christ himself did set the joy of this Kingdom before himself in his temptations and sufferings Heb. 12.2 and the Apostle therein set Christ as an example before us Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy which was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame c. Surely the joy of our Lord may well make the servant willing to endure and able to despise the greatest sufferings to laugh at reproaches and to sing in prisons to be like the Leviathan Job 41.27 He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood the arrows cannot make him flee sling-stones are turned with him into stubble darts are counted as stubble he laughs at the shaking of the spear c. Heaven in our eye will make us thus heroick in our persecutions Rom. 5.3 We glory not only in God but we glory in tribulation Hold out then faith and patience but one stile more said Doctor Taylor when he went to the Stake and I am at my Fathers house Oh this word at my Fathers house at home Ever with the Lord this made the holy man to leap over the stile as if he had been a young man going to be married to his Bride Ever with the Lord Vse 5 It may serve as a soveraign cordial against the fear of death man having an immortal soul naturally desireth and breatheth after eternity but man in his corrupt estate being ignorant and mindless of a blessed eternity with God is not willing to dye to leave the shore of this life and to venture upon the unknown immense Ocean of eternity therefore the ungodly mans soul is said to be taken from him Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee Sinners do not willingly part with their souls they are torn out of their bodies by violent hands none but a Paul who is ballasted with the hope of everlasting cohabitation with the Lord can desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose from the shore to hoise up sail and make for the heavenly Canaan And well may he that hath made a rich though stormy voyage to the Indies set sail for his own native Country where he may sit down in peace and enrich himself with the gain of his adventure Come hither then oh you trembling souls who through the fear of death have all your lives time been subject to
bondage come hither I say and set your feet upon the neck of this King of terrors and fear not to make that triumphant challenge of the Apostle Oh death 1 Cor. 15.55 where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Death is swallowed up in victory and being conquered serves to that high and honourable end scil to be the Saints Vsher of State to bring them into the presence of the King of glory to behold his face and to hear his wisdom from thenceforth for ever to be with the Lord Death serves the Saints now for no use but to kill mortality and to extinguish corruption This corruptible must put on incorruption ver 33. and this mortal must put on immortality i. e. We shall ever be with the Lord a in perfect incorruptible state of glory and this must be effected by means of death Oh what were ten thousand deaths ushering in the Soul into so much glory The glimmering presence of God with a believer here below may conquer the fear of death Psal 23.3 Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me How much more may the hope of a full fruition of God in glory deliver the Saints from the bondage of fear Ever with the Lord This puts Lillies and Roses into the ghastly face of Death and makes the King of terrors to out-shine Solomon in all his glory Ever with the Lord this makes death not only tolerable but amiable desirable For we know 2 Cor. 5.1 that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and for this we groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house ver 2. which is from heaven For in this we groan i. e. in this tabernacle for this is earthly earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven the reason is because that house is eternal in the heaven A Saint looks out of the windows of this earthly Tabernacle and cryeth out as the Mother of Sisera Why stay the wheels of his Chariot thus long When shall I be carried to those eternal Mansions where I shall ever be with my Lord and Bridegroom Is any thing sweeter than life Yes death to a believer That of Solomon holds best in this case the day of death is better than the day of birth It is transcendently so to a Child of God who is conveighed by death into his Fathers presence where he shall dwell for ever The passage is dark Psal 16.1 but it shall be quick and speedy Thou wilt shew me the path of life the path of life lieth through the grave but Christ hath gone it already and will take the believer by the hand and lead him through it into the Presence-chamber of the King of glory where he shall hear the Bridegrooms voice and his joy shall be fulfilled then tremble thou not believer at the approach of death but go forth and meet him with this friendly salutation Come in thou blessed of the Lord Art thou come to fetch me to my Father Welcome death thou art my best friend next to Jesus Christ Death is only my passage into a blessed eternity Death is Joseph's Chariot not to carry the Saints down into Egypt but up into Canaan and how quickly doth he carry a believer thither It is but winking and he is at home as soon as the eye of the body is closed here the eye of the soul is open there O blessed vision to behold at once all the glories of eternity Say then with Jacob Jesus my Lord and Redeemer is yet alive and seated on the Throne at the right hand of the Majesty on high there proclaiming in the cars of all his trembling followers Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keys of hell and death Fear not O thou believer to say with Jacob I will go and see him not before I dye but I will dye that I may go and see him Death is but the flames that must singe asunder the cords of thy mortality the hand that shall open the Cage that thy soul may get loose and take her flight for the Mountain of Spices the glorious immortality and liberty of the Sons of God Be of good chear Believers thou shalt dye but once and then ever be with the Lord with whom is the fountain of life life bubbling up unto all eternity The damned are alwayes dying repeating death every moment their flames only serve them to read over the black lines of death which have neither Full-point or Comma But death enters not into the borders of the heavenly Canaan they say there is no Spider in Ireland it is certain there is no putrid matter in heaven to breed the vermin of mortality in heaven only death cannot live when thou dyest thou shalt rise again and dye no more but death shall dye and shall rise no more thy grave shall be the eternal grave of death It is appointed for all men once to dye and for believers to dye but once Do but clear up thine interest in the death of Christ and thou mayest bid farewell to the fear of death for ever for the worst thing that death can do to thee is thee best thing that can be done for thee even to guide thy poor straying soul home to thy Fathers house and so shalt thou ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words Lastly It may teach us how to prize Christ Vse 6 that triumphant Grace a Grace that hath eternity stampt upon it it out-lives Faith for faith gives way to vision and it doth out-last hope for hope is swallowed up in fruition what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Whether there be prophesies they shall fail whether there be tongues they shall cease whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away but charity never fails but as long as God lives it lives for God is love and they that love dwell in God and God in them I have finished I cannot say perfected the main work intended seil the opening of the ten words or Arguments of Comfort here laid down in this model or platform by the Holy Ghost as so many soveraign Cordials to revive disconsolate and fainting Christians over the death of their hopeful Relations with the several improvements which each word by it self may afford unto us But before I do Manum de tabula tollere dismiss this discourse I do observe divers useful Corollaries and Instructions lye couched in the general improvement of these words Comforting one another which will serve as so many branches of information which without guilt I cannot omit and they are ten 1. Several branches of Information arising from this general exhortation Comfort one another 1. Branch of Information Sorrow
will agree exactly 2.167 Reproach Reproaches for Christ better than all the applause of the world 3.83 Reprobate the future estate of the reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Resurrection three things interest a believer in the triumph of Christ's resurrection 1 Power 1.12 2 Office 1.13 3 Right 1. ibid. Christ arose by his own strength 1.12 As a publick head 1.13 On which account 1 The Saints are said to be risen already 1.14 2 They are assured they shall arise 1.15 Resurrection of Christ why called his youth 1.16 An inseparable connexion between the resurrection of Christ and of the Saints 1 Of merit 1.15 2 Of power and influence 1.16 3 Of design 1.17 4 Of union ibid. Christ is risen as our first fruits 1.19 Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our faith 1.20 How Christ shall bring the Saints with him at the resurrection 1 Their souls from heaven 1.47 2 Their bodies from the grave and how 1.47 3 Body and soul he shall take up into the clouds and why 1.48 49 4 He shall carry them back with him into heaven 1.50 It shall put believers that are dead into as good a capacity as those that are alive 2.64 Saints that shall then be found alive will be no otherwise capable of it than under the notion of the dead 2.65 The manner of it 2.86 The admirable properties of it 1 Incorruptible 2.89 2 Glorious 2.90 3 Powerful 2.93 4 Spiritual 2.94 Saints shall rise with the same bodies they lye down with 2.87 The body will depend wholly upon the soul 2.95 Our bodies at the resurrection shall he moved by an extrinsic power but shall move themselves by an intrinsic principle 2.107 Why called the Regeneration 2.101 Three consequents of the resurrection 1 The resurrection of the Saints that are dead 2.86 2 The Saints triumphant ascension 2.104 3 The Saints joyful meeting 1 One with another 2.112 2 All with Christ where 1 The persons meeting 2.120 2 The place where 2.124 3 The ends of their meeting 2.126 Christ will welcome the Saints at the resurrection under a threefold relation 1 As the Fathers election 2.121 2 As the purchase of his blood ibid. 3 As the depositum of the Holy Ghost 2.122 Reward is an encouragement to good works e contra 3.91 Riches have wings 3.105 Righteous to be righteous and not guilty are two different capacities 2.139 Righteousness a positive righteousness is required to the justification of a sinner as well as absolution from guilt and punishment which appears on the account 1 Of the justice of God 2.141 2. Of the perfection of the Law 2.143 3 Of the necessity of the sinner 2.154 4 Of the excellency of the Redeemen 2.157 It looks forward pardon backward 2.142 Righteousness imputed to the Saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 The mediatory righteousness of Christ comes to be a believers as the first Adam 's disobedience came to be his posterities viz. by imputation 2.146 Imputed righteousness the same materially which the Law requireth 2.149 T Sacrament attend often upon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 3.132 Saints the dignity of them 1.41 They that are alive at Christ his coming shall have no advantage above those that are dead 2.58 They that are dead shall be first remembred at the resurrection 2.60 Those that are alive will be no otherwise capable of the resurrection than under the notion of the dead 2.65 They shall be solemnly espoused to Christ 2.162 They shall be assessors with him at the judgment 2.164 Scripture inference is Scripture 2.67 It concerns us to search the Scriptures 3.163 In reading Scripture make a collection of the Promises 3.163 Secret whatever kindness was shewed to God in secret shall be openly rewarded 2.130 Self-denyal exercise it 3.130 Separation a perfect separation from the society of sinners at the last day 2.117 Sin why sometimes punished here sometimes not 2.78 The Saints sins not remembred at the last day 2.130 And why 2.134 This is no encouragement to sin 2.131 It is fully pardoned at death 2.134 They will appear as they are at the day of judgment 2.168 A vain thing to call any sin small 2.168 The smallest is dangerous 3.128 It sets us at a great distance from heaven 3.41 An universal hatred of it an evidence of heaven 3.120 It is the Devils image 3.120 Sinner the condition of a sinner doth necessarily require an imputed righteousness 1 To settle solid peace in the conscience 2.154 2 To secure his appearance in the day of judgment 2.157 Sinners are mixed with Saints here contra 2.116 They will dread the society of the godly at the last day as much as formerly they hated it 2.117 They were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Sleep Death but a sleep 1.2 Death resembled to sleep in two respects 1.3 Socinians deceived in saying we shall not have real but aerial bodies at the resurrection 2.96 Sorrow there is a sorrow for departed friends which God condemns not 3.144 Souls all of one size 2.94 Not everlasting a parte ante and why 3.86 Spirit the Spirit of Christ the fountain of efficacy but the blood of Christ the fountain of merit 2.122 Spirit of God hath a twofold office about attaining assurance 3.123 Be tender of it 3.127 None but friends can properly be said to grieve the Spirit 3.128 Sufferings of the Saints will be owned at the resurrection 2.129 T Tears of the Saints are bottled 2.128 Terror it will be horrible terror to the wicked to see the Saints sit in judgment with Christ 2.164 Time no farther time will be granted at the great Assize 2.171 Transgression Sinners were first in transgression but God first in reconciliation 2.169 Translate no translating of sin upon others at the great day 2.168 Tribunal there will be no appeal from the great Tribunal 2.169 Trinity the external works of it are undivided 1.46 The order of their work 1.46 Trumpet one end of the Feast of Trumpets might be to put them in mind of the last day 2.114 Last Trump will not be only audible but articulate 2.115 V Vision six things shall be the object of the Saints Vision 1 The seat of blessed souls 3.3 2 The glorified Saints 3.4 3 The elect Angels 3.15 4 The glorified body of Christ 3.26 5 God in the divine Essence 3.18 6 All things in God 3.42 Of glorified Saints will be wonderful glorious 3.4 We shall not have an intuitive Vision of the divine Essence 3.27 How far we shall have a Vision of the divine Essence 3.30 Of God in Scriture is twofold 1 In Grace 3.40 2 In Glory ibid. How these agree and how they differ 3.46 Unbelief the spring of all our misery 1.21 Understanding the glorified understanding shall have a sixfold perfection 1 Spirituality 3.36 2 Clarity 3.37 3 Capacity 3.38 4. Sanctity ibid. 5 Strength 3.39 6 Fixedness ibid. Our understandings will be like unto God in heaven 3.78 Union
MOVNT PISGAH OR A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN BEING An Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians from the 13 th verse to the end of the Chapter Divided into Three Parts By THO. CASE Somtimes Student in Christ-Church Oxon and Minister of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Naz. Orat. LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Dorman Newman at the Chirurgions Arms in Little-Brittain near the Lame-Hospital 1670. TO THE Honourable and his much Honoured Son-in-Law Sr. ROBERT BOOTH Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas in Ireland Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Sir THese Meditations presented to you were first intended for a diversion to your and my sorrrow Conceived by the death of that Excellent Child your First-born your Benjamin but his Precious Mother's Ben-oni for she brought him forth not with the hazard only but with the loss of her own Life his Birth was her Death from which very moment of time You were pleased to concredit his Education to his tender Grand-Mother your Pious Mother and my Self a Depositum than which there could nothing have been more Sacred to us in the world I am sure we were as tender of it as of our own Lives yea verily our Lives were bound up in the Child's Life â—er 31.20 He was indeed Natus deliciarum a Delectable Child in whom Nature and Grace seemed to be at a strife which should excel in her workmanship and as he grew in age so he grew in sweetness of disposition and in all Natural and Moral Endowments of which his Age was capable yea he out-grew his Age and was alwayes before-hand with his Education Imbibing instruction faster then we durst rationally infuse it for fear of hurting the tender Vessel So that he seemed to be a Man before his Childhood was expired As many Loved him as knew him and were in dispute with themselves whether such Maturity did Prophesie an Eximious Life or an Immature Death I must confess whether my infirmity or no I know not I was often offended at the mention of the latter as too boldly intrenching upon God's Prerogative But such it seems was the Divine Decree so it proved His work was done betimes and ours about him afore we thought of it and while we said of him in our hearts as once Lamech said of his Son Noah Gen. 5.29 This Child shall Comfort us he shall live with us God said Nay he shall leave you and shall live with me for before he was Eleaven years old God snatch't him out of our Tuition and removed him into an Higher Form where he should learn no more by the sight of the eye and hearing of the ear which are subject to mistake but by clear and perfect Vision where he knows more than we could teach him yea able to teach us what we are not capable to understand while we see but in a glass darkly he is seeing Face to Face Oh could I but write what he is able to dictate concerning the Facial Vision which I am now with fear and trembling but peeping into what a rare Exposition should I publish to the world upon the present Context before us such as Eye never Read nor Ear ever Heard nor can ever enter into the heart of man until we enter into that Light where he is where his intellectual Eye is married to the Sun of Righteousness and his naked will is swimming and bathing it self in Rivers of pleasures for ever This may be indeed what these papers wished to be and that is all a perfumed Handkerchief to wipe off tears from your eyes and fill your Soul with joy Your loss is his infinite gain It was a satisfaction good enough for an Ethnic who when one brought him the tidings of his Eldest Son's death was able to reply Scio me genuisse mortalem Your Comfort may express it self in a higher straine Scio me genuisse Immortalem for though Nature did not make him Immortal by his Generation Grace hath made him Immortal by his Regeneration So that all that you and I have to do is but to breathe after that Perfection of which through Grace I am humbly confident he is already possest Let us so run that we may obtain As for my self so many deaths have been rushing in upon me deep calling unto deep as have not only retarded the birth of these Conceptions but threatned their burial in the same Womb which Conceived them which is the just cause they have stuck so long in the Birth But since it hath pleased the Living God to let me live to see the travail of my Soul though miserably mangled in the Birth by unskilful hands Such as they are Dear Son I dedicate them to your Name to be as an Absolom's-Pillar until God may raise up a Living-Monument in the room of that which he hath removed And because this may be too weak and obscure let me provoke you Sir to erect to your self a Monument that may be worthy of you Let your own Life be a Name to you when you are dead a Name better than of Sons and Daughters by filling that Honourable Station wherein God hath fixed you and all your other Relations with such Fruitfulness Wisdome and Fidelity that all that know you may rise up and call you blessed yea that your Name may be as a sweet Perfume to Posterity Live your own Life and your Son 's too As for me I cannot long Survive having so often received in my selfe the Sentence of Death 2 Cor. 1.9 Psal 90.10 I have lived already one full Age of man and am nowin the third year of my LABOVR AND SORROW and it is little I can do for God I must Decrease but may you Increase yet pray for me that I may live much in a little time and that my self and your Aged Mother may like those Trees of God Psal 92.14 15. bring forth more fruit in old age then in the beginning to shew that the Lord is upright c. Farewell Honoured Son and God All-Mighty make you amends for the loane which you have lent to God if not in the Stream yet in the Fountain He Bless you and make you a Blessing So prayeth Your Faithful and most Affectionate Father-in-Law THOMAS CASE To my Worthy Son-in-Law WILLIAM HAWES Dr. in Physick AND To M ris ELIZABETH HAWES his Vertuous Consort Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Son and Daughter IT is not certainly without some special design of Providence that these Meditations which were conceived upon the death of your hopeful Nephew the only Son of your Elder Brother Sir Robert Booth now in Ireland should not by reason of those distempers which have ever since pursued me uncessantly as you to your trouble know be able to come to the Birth until this time when our sorrows are doubled in the death of your precious Child Martin Hawes your First-born Possibly as we may rationally
conjecture that we should not too soon forget the Affliction and the Misery the Wormwood and the Gall but that our Souls having them continually in remembrance might be humbled in us Lam. 3.19 20. Possibly that the Children being every way alike both in Person and in Disposition one and the same Plaister might give ease and cure to the wound and one and the same Monument perpetuate their Memorial unto Posterity Truly they were a pair of lovely Babes Babes in Age though men in knowledg and understanding of whom we may in their Capacity sing as David once in his Funeral Elegies of Saul and Jonathan They were pleasant in their lives in their death they were not divided Their lives indeed were short so it seemed good to the Divine Wisdome after He had shewed two such excellent pieces in the Light for a while timely to lay them up amongst his Jewels lest they should receive hurt or stain from a present evil world But although their lives were short yet verily they were precious such as allowing them this Abatement that they were Children neither Parents nor Standers-by could rationally have wished they had been otherwise then they were And though there were some distance of years yet there was the greatest parity of Persons observed between them that though they were but the Brother 's and Sister 's Sons you could not had they been together have distinguished them from natural Brethren or Tynnes rather of the same Birth For Elegancy of Person Loveliness of Countenance Solidness of Judgment Acuteness of Wit Tenaciousness of Memory Sweetness of Disposition Vniversal Innocence and Modesty in behaviour Obedience to Parents Next or Remote Submission to Governours Observance to Superiours Love to Equals Condescention to Inferiours and candor to all And that which deservedly is of higher value with God Reverend Attention to his Word Read or Preached together with some suitable ability to give a methodical repetition of both Studious in learning Catechisms of which they were able to give such a rational account as if they had been Candidates for the Vniversity as many both of the Nobility and others in the Parish of Giles 's in the Fields can at this day witness Love to the best things and a due respect to the best men with a more then a Childish dislike of and adversness to what they understood to be evil c. These Desirablenesses according to yea and above the rate of Children rendered them so like one another as if one Soul had animated two bodies or one and the same Conception had been formed up into two Patterns though reserved to be seen successively to the end as it were that the Elder might out-live himself in the Younger Aut Utrumque putabis esse verum aut Utrumque putabis esse pictum You would have deemed them to be either the same Person or two Pictures one the Original the other a Copy Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat He that had seen one might have known them both And as they were alike in their Lives so in their Death they were not divided or if a little in time not at all in the manner and Circumstances They both Lived with us but died with you they lived with the Divine but died with the Physitian to shew that neither Religion doth kill nor Physick can keep alive Nevertheless though they died with you they came not to dye any further than the hidden Decree of the Divine will had before determined They died alive as it were Death gave them so little warning Neither Parents or Children understood wherefore they came until within a very few days Death shewed his Commission and as soon Executed it They died both of them in the absence of their Trustees who though one step higher in the Parental line were not I am sure half a step lower in Parental affection which the Divine eye Saw and pittied and therefore out of Compassion hiding from us what he was about to do As he snatched us from the Elder by sending us abroad So He snatched the Younger from us by sending him Home to his Fathers House So pittying our Infirmity who otherwise possibly might not have parted with them so willingly nor have born their loss so patiently The loss of two such choyce Patterns of Divine workmanship could not but have been an heart-breaking object to us as it was to you but that their constant absence from you was a preparative whereby the terrour of death was somthing abated their very absence so long before was a little death That which sweetneth it to us all is that God hath not left us to mourn as men without hope that in the Context before us The Children are not dead but sleep they sleep in Jesus If any Stander-by shall judg possibly that my affection hath transported my Charity into their excess my Apology is this that I had rather be guilty of an Excess in Charity than a Defect in thankfulness I know we cannot expect such rational accounts of Grace in Children as may be found in Adult Saints but that that doxologie out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings thou hast ordeined strength Psal 8.2 doth not exclude Children though not confine the meaning of the words so narrow is the judgment of the old St. Ignatius who from those Scripture instances of Samuel Josiah and others denieth not but that the Spirit of God working in young ones doth many times give out early discoveries of the Grace of the Covenant when Elder Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Magn. do only carry their Gray-haires as a badg of their Ingratitude to God As for your dear Children God hath not left himself without fuâ—ther witness in their death of an interest in them Those heavenly whispers which the tender Aunt laying her ear to the pale lips of her dying Nephew as he lay upon his back with eyes fixed Heaven-ward when he wanted strength to make his heart audible God Christ Grace c. And her own dear Childs delight in that little Book A Guide to Heaven a book little in bulk but great in Excellency which as it caused him to make it his Vade Mecum while he lived his Golden Cup out of which he drank his Mornings draught every morning in his Bed So it caused him to take it with him as his Viaticum to Heaven when he came to dye For it was found with him when dead These I say are overplusses of Divine Grace and witnesses of Divine Love to those dying Babes from their Heavenly Father Wherefore Dear Children let not the Consolations of God seem small unto you but improve them for your own Comfort and quickning in the holy Education of the surviving Treasures of your Blood that if they live you may have comfort in their Lives or if they dye you may have hope in their Deaths Be steadfast and immoveable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for as