Brethren be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against all the Wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not with Flesh and Blood c. 2. We observe hence The growth increase and Final Victory of True Grace Against Hope he believed in Hope Math. 13.32 The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Grain and to Leaven that leaveneth the whole Lump Grace is of a spreading nature it swells it self into the whole man and makes the Soul rise as high as Heaven Grace lies not in the Heart as a Stone in the Earth but puts it self forth in vigorous Actings To this refers that exhortation 2 Pet. 3.17 Fall not from your Stedfastness but grow in Grace c. The first appearance of it on the Soul may be but as the Wings of the Morning spreading themselves upon the Mountains yet it is still rising higher and higher upon it Chasing away all filthy Mists and Vapours of Sin till it arrive to its Meridian height such is the strength and force of Divinity in it Though at first when it enters on the Soul it may seem to be sowen in weakness yet it still raiseâ—h it self in Power As Christ was in his Bodily appearance still increasing in Wiâ—dom and Knowledg and Favour with God and Man till he was perfected with Glory so is he also in his Gracious Appearance in his Saints who shall go from strength to strength till they appear before God in Sion The Reasons hereof are taken 1. From the Principle or Fountain whence Grace Floweth And that is Christ and his Spirit of Infinite Value and irresistable Efficacy so that unless Christ be overcome Grace cannot be overcome Grace being a Creature is in its own nature perishing for ours is no better Coin than Adams but in Christs Keeping it can never perish The Saints Graces of themselves like Glass may break but being held in the Hand of Christ they can never be broken 1 Pet. 1.5 We are kept by the Power of God through Faish unto Salvation The small Mustard-Seed shall not be killed the little Spark of Fire shall not be quenched there is an overflowing Power to draw them forth and perfect them Where-ever the frame of Grace is begun it shall be brought forth to a compleatness and Christs Kingdom in that Soul shall be victorious over all opposition of Corruption 2. From the Nature of the Opposers of Grace They are finite and mortally Wounded Our Lord led Captivity Captive Heb. 2.14 And through Death hath Destroyed him who hath the Power of Death So that upon serious Consideration I may say to all the Faithful as Elisha sometime spake 2 Kings 6.16 Fear not for they that are with you are more than they with them Though inward Corruption and outward Enemies be Numerous and strong yet they shall not Finally prosper Where Christ promotes his Kingdom it is so established that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Assaulted it may be but Conquered it can never be As it is said of the old Romans they lost some Battels but never lost a war Christians may have some Foils but they shall be finally Victorious Vse 1. In the Application hereof I shall endeavour a little further to Discover the Nature of this Grace of Hope c. 1. By way of Information the Enquiry will be First What it is Answ It is a Divine Vertue Infused by the Spirit into the Understandings and Wills of Actual Members of the Militant Church whereby they certainly and patiently wait for those good things God hath promised Rom. 8.24,25 We are saved by Hope but Hope that is seen is no Hope for what a man sees why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then we do with Patience wait for it In which Description we have exprest or Implyed four things 1. The Principal Author The Spirit of God 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his Abundant mercy hath Begotten us again unto a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead 2. The Subject inclusive partly the Understanding partly the Will the one Informed the other perswaded to expect 3. The Object about which it is Imployed either Formal which is God alone his Power Truth and Help to obtain the promised Good or Material and that is Glory considered three wayes viz. First of the Soul which is Grace and is the Object of Hope either in the Preparatives whilst the Lord is Disposing the Subject for Grace Or in Regard of a Fuller Measure of Degrees thereof it not being with the Trees of Righteousness as it was with the Trees of Paradise made perfect at once Secondly of the Body and so all the good things that a member of the Church Militant is capable of are a Secondary Object of Hope Thirdly the Glory of both which is perfect Beatitude in the Heavenly Kingdom as the end whereunto all other means lead the Elect. 4. The Conditions of this Material Object which Aquinas describes to be Good Hope looks at some good so it differs from Fear whichlooks at Evil. Future Good so that the Saints in Heaven have no need nor use of it their Expectation is drowned in Fruition Difficult Hope looks on and considers upon one side Pearls which yet are in the shell and on the other side Roses which yet it may enjoy with some Labour Such was Abrahams Hope that he should be the Father of such a Posterity being as it were Dead that he should enjoy a Land flowing with Milk and Honey yet he was to suffer Famine and wait for it forty years And Lastly Possible So there is no Hope in the Damned It is in those on this side the Grave quickned by the Living Spirit of God Though the things they hope for are hard to come by yet they are possible and this is like Cork to the Net keeps the heart from sinking into Dispair it being the Balm of all Grief the Coffin of Fear and Cradle of Patience Secondly What are opposites of this Grace Answ Two 1. Presumption the Unbeliever hopes without ground and will be invincibly followed by an ill success of his pretensions The Rayes of Abrahams Hope were grounded on a good Title but men of another Stamp act otherwise their Hope is an Imposture a Golden Dream Like a dying mans Will that hath neither Seal nor Witness to it Therein he bequeaths such and such Lands and Legacies to one and to another but the Will being thus left naked it signifies little Such is the hope of a wicked man it promiseth him great matters that all in the Covenant of Grace is his Christ and Heaven but alas all is a meer Delusion a Presumption of his own Heart 2. Despair not Legal which was in Abraham and others But Evangelical notwithstanding all ground of Hope So Abraham did
and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15.32 Of those I mean who drown their Souls in their Bodies and would have no time to live longer than they have to sin and when there is an end of sinning wish there would be an end of living And well it would be for them if living like Beasts they might be annihilated like Beasts Thus men do err not knowing the power of God That God who out of nothing Created all things can certainly reduce many things into one When the Body is gone into a thousand substances he can easily make an abstraction and bring that Body together again as a Chymist out of several Metals mingled together can abstract one from the other the Silver from the Gold and the Alchimy from the Silver and reduce every Metal to its own kind Thus should we much more believe of God that he is able to extract and reinvest every Soul with its own Body though they are mingled and confounded with many other Substances The Persecutors of the Primitive Christians burnt their Bodies into Ashes and cast them into the River and all ad tollendam spem Resurrectionis but all in vain for even they also shall arise to a better Resurrection for at the Shrill Voice of the last Trumpet the greatest Jaylors shall surrrender up all their Prisoners all the scatter'd Dust of Adams Seed shall ride upon Windy Wings till it meet together in a collected Body All the Creatures in the world that have made their Meat of mans flesh shall finde that they have eaten Morsels too hard for the digestion of their weak Stomach Isa 26.19 The earth shall cast forth her Dead as a woman doth an untimely Birth the Grave shall be in travel with the Dead and shall be delivered of them Secondly Such as make this work too easie saying they can quicken themselves against all sense and common reason It is to maintain a proposition ridiculous to all humane understanding Can any thing make it self neither can any reasonable Creature raise it self to an higher rank of being than it is A Stone cannot make it self a Tree to have growth and life nor can a Tree make it self a Beast to have sense nor a Beast make it self a man to have Reason nor a Rational man make himself a Saint Or else ascribe it to the Ordinary course of Nature depriving the Lord of his Royal Prerogative Vse 2. Here is matter offered of strong consolation and encouragement to the holy seed of Abraham you believe in him who can quicken the dead For your sakes let me take leave a little to open this Cabinet that you may view the excellency of this powerful God in whom you believe and be sure the prospect will be very pleasing Death and so the Dead may be considered three ways 1. Politice There is a Death of Kingdomes and States as there is a rising and flourishing so there is a decaying and dying they spring flourish and dye the goodliest and stateliest Politick Bodies that ever the earth bore though animated with the searching Spirit of the most profound Policie strengthned with the resolution and valour of the most Unconquer'd sighted with Eagles eyes of largest depths and comprehensions of States and Crowns adorned with never so many prosperities and Triumphs yet like the natural Body of a man they have their revolutions and decays Most apparent in the ruines of the Roman Empire once a glorious Body and the once splendor of the Turkish Monarchie and the Venetian Aristocracy which sprang from the most contemptible beginning with the Spanish State which once appear'd like a Comet threatning destruction anâ— giving Laws to all the Nations round about her The Beams and Rasâ—ors of a State may be so linkâ— together so tenton'd and set into one another as might embolden a bare Politician to determine it an indissoluble Constitution But God undermines all with the Breath of his Mouth And Politicians have observed that the longest liv'd State on Earth suffers great alterations and Periods within the compass of four or five hundred years This decay is 1. In matters Ecclesiastical concerning Religion As the Church prays Psalm 80.18 Quicken us we call upon thee And the power of Christ Shines marvellously in the great Empire of his Church which the Father hath put into his hands to build raise and cement with his Blood illuminate with his Light and nourish with his Body To confirm which the Historian hath observ'd how the Doctrine of the Albigensâ—s was preserved notwithstanding all enemies and he hids all the Privy Counsellours of Nature who can tell where the Swallows lie all the Winter and how at the Spring they have a Resurrection from their seeming deadness Let them sâ—iâ—h he also inform uâ— in what invisible Sanctuary this Doctrine did lurk in spice of â—ll opposition and Persecution and how it reviv'd out of its Ashes at the coming of Luther And withal he observes that in those parts of France where the Albigenses were most cruelly handled now the Protestants the Heirs of most of their Tenents most Flourish 2. In matters Civil touching the Law and matter of Government as the Lord promised Isa 26.19 Thy Dead Body shall live c. Before they complained of very hard labour and that they brought forth nothing but Wind now thy Dead Body shall Live Which some refer to the Babylonâ—sh Captivity wherein they were as Dead Bones in the Grave without any Strength Wisdom or visible hope of being delivered yet though they seemed so very much decayed as if they were quite withered and Consumed with Calamity and Death he promised to raise them again and Cloâ—h them with Beauty and Glory Thus the Lord quickens the Dead If he burn his Phenix out of the very Ashes he will raise another 2. Physice And that is the Death of the Body of which we have spoken already The Eâ—rth shâ—ll cast forth her Dead This is easie to God to whom Miracles are as easie as natural operations A Miracle being nothing else but a new Creation 3. Ethice Which is the Death of the Soul Two fold First Temporary either by the absence of Grace or Divine Discretion when Man is indeed Dead or as a dead thing in his own apprehension the Lord quickneth You who were Dead he quickneth Man is Impotent and weak like a dead Member in the Body he is in himself without Strength And as the Organs can make no sound unless Breath be caused to enter into them so neither can a dead Soul make any Harmony till God breathe into it by his Blessed Spirit Secondly Eternal when the person is actually cut off from all hope and irrecoverably shut up in the eternal Abyss So the Lord doth not he will not quicken Luke 16.26 There is a great Gulf a Diamond Wall between Hell and Paradice so that they who pass from earth to Hell cannot return c. Tali privatione non Datur Progressus That Gulf being
the Dead by the Glory of the Father and that the Father raised him It is easily answered This was not by way of supplement to make up any defect of power in Christ but only by way of consent to Christs own Power and Action that so men might Honour the Son and the Father John 5.19,26 Or else by the Glory of the Father we may understand that Glorious Power which the Father gave unto the Son in the Flesh to have life from himself because that holy Spirit which immediatly quickned him was both his and the Fathers and so the Action was common to both Thus like the Pâ—…enix he goeth out of the Sâ—pulcher in the day of his Triumphs al lighted and environ'd with Flames of Triumphant Glory 3. Assuring others by his lights and sâ—…en or that they shall rise again 1. Cor. 6.14 He is called the first Fruits of them that Sleep The Triumphant Resurrection of our Lord is the Root and Hope of ours with this he sweetens the acerbities of our present life and replenisheth Hearts with the Antipast of their Immortality for he arose not barely in a Personal but Publick Capacity and though it were a Damnable Heresy of Hymeneus to say That the Resurrection was past already Yet it is a truth to say that it is begun He first and we at his coming 1 Cor. 15.25 By what is past in the head we are assured of what is expected in his Members for his Resurrection is a Pledge and Earnest of theirs He having paid our Debt Death cannot detain us in Prison for it Yea it is a beginning of ours as before is noted he being raised who is the Head the Body must also follow If the Elder Brother be sprung out of the Dust the Younger Brethren shall not stay there The Vine-Plant being in Heaven there the Branches must receive their Eternal Flourish Object 1. Is it not said 1. Cor. 15.2 By man came the Resurrection of the Dead A. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a man as is God also from whose Will this large Soul of Nature had its motion and who therein commandeth so universally as he seems to hold the Heaven and Elements under here to be instruments of his Wonders it is he that lighted Stars at his Birth and Eclipsed the Ancient Sun at his Death and walked on the waters as on a Pavement of Marble It is he that causeth the Earth to cast out her Dead Object 2. Have not men done it Answer 1. Stories of Men Raised by Men are either Lies and Illusions as the Pythonist of Endor raised the Devil in Samuels Shape and the Church of Rome maintain many Idle Stories of Dead men Raised to Walk and Live after Death Otherwayes Dead Men neither walk nor appear in Body or Soul after Death Or if there are any such They are extraordinary Permissions for Secret Ends only known to him that Permits them 2. The Prophets and Apostles have done it but in the Quality of Ministers So Elisha raised the Shunamites Son 2. Kings 4.34 And Peter raised Dorcas Acts 9.40 But not by their own Power It only belongs to Christ to do this work with an Original Power which hath its Fountain in his Bosom with an Absolute Command which receives no Modification in all Nature with a Simple Will which needs no other Instrument It was by Divine Influence and Assistance in those Prophets and Apostles to confirm their Doctrine and to draw the Church sooner to believe 3. It is the Divine Nature that is the Fountain of Life he gives takes restores to whom when and how he pleaseth As it is with the Sea for water and the Sun for light in the former all the waters are gathered together into an Ocean where they grow into swelling heaps and are the source of all the Streams that refresh the Earth and in the latter that great Luminarie is the Vessel wherein the Lord hath gathered all light which before was sattered in the Heavens but is now united in that bright Lamp which running like a fiery Chariot might rule the day and illustrate the earth making it fruitful Thus it is with the Deity for life John 6.63 The Spirit quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you are Spirit and Life And by this power he quickneth the Dead So that it 's clear the work is his who is Lord of nature and holds the Keys of life and death in his own hands His light only can dispel the darkness and his voice only can break the silence of the Grave The second Doctrine comes now to hand viz. Doct. 2. That this Divine Priviledge should be to us a ground of Faith Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient walk before me c. Walk before me who am all-sufficient self-sufficient Original Universal Good the Pillar of Abrahams Faith And the Apostle speaks by way of wonder that any should not believe it Acts. 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you That God should raise the Dead Therefore it is that the Sacred Scripture doth frequently mind us of his power to help our incredulitie Numb 23.19 God is not as man that he should lie nor the Son of man that he should repent hath he said it and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good And again Is there any thing too hard for God So Math. 19.27 With God all things are possible A main prop to an humble Suppliant That seeing his own vileness and the Divine Excellencies which are warming and enlightning cryeth out Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean as it is recorded Math. 8. â— 2. This is the Rock on which the weak Anchor of a Christians Faith may firmly fix You know Sampsons Riddle Out of the Eater cometh forth Sweet The reason why Christians should consider the power of God out of this strong comes forth sweetness In the application hereof may be found Vse 1. Matter of Correction and that of two sorts First of such that make it too hard denying the Resurrection in opinion As Pearls are dissolved in Vinegar so is Truth in hearts made bitter with Corruption Thus we find many wicked and irregular Spirits who having renounced the blessings of the other life against the voice of nature in the order of the World wherein we have the New Birth of Stars days Seasons Plants and Birds who make a perpetual Image of the Resurrection in the World nay against the touch of God and impressions of verity on the very Gentiles who have professed the happiness of the Soul in the other life and the Resurrection even on their Tombs to deny the Resurrection So the Saduces of old Acts 23.8 Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 18. which you may easily perceive is not only to crack the eye of a reasonable judgment but also to pull out the eye of Faith all pure and caelestial as it is Or in practice Let us eat
fixed by the immutable and immoveable Decree of God Q. How doth the Lord quicken the Dead Answ 1. By ordering all that falls out in the World for the good of his People Ezek. 37.12,13 Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my People I will open your Graves and cause you to come ouâ— of your Graves and bring you into the Land of Israel and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your Graves O my Peoplâ— and brâ—ught you up out of your Graves When things were brought to a dead Lâ—fâ— â—hen he puts to his hand his Strength is mâ—de known and when the danger is most felt then his helping Arm is most welcome When the Daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was dead then Ch i st appeared most advantagiousl Mark 5. That was the word he waitâ—d for and longed to hear As Alâ—xander the Great solaced himself with the greatness of his Peril in Indiâ— Tand m par Animo meo periculum video So fareth it with our absolute Monarch of the World it is Joy to his heart to protract his time till he see the height and maturity of danger that so he may get the more honour While things are but dying there is hope in nature and in respect of us but when they are quite dead there is hope if we look up to God and believe him who quickneth the Dead We need not meddle with the great Current of his Counsels his Power in the object of our Faith He can make light in the midst of duskie Nights and Havens in the most forlorn Shipwrack and if we were with him in the Shadow of Death what should we fear in the Arms of Life 2. By infusing Grace and working Life The Method or order he observes is First to kill by the Law and then to quicken by the Gospel First he Wounds and then Heals He useth Rodâ— but such as are dipt in Balm And so the Lord quickens daily and often woâ—ks a Miracle and this in bestowing Powâ—r upon his Son â—o quicken and thosâ—â—re by degrees drawn by Christ to himâ—…lf and united to him bâ— Life Commuâ—… d to them As thâ— Sâ—… resâ—… in the heart retâ—…ns 〈…〉 â—…lf and sends foâ—th 〈◊〉 into â—…y united part â—e woâ—n â—…iâ—h and the whole there iâ—â—ontin i y John 5.25 Verily I say unto you The Hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God they shall hear and Live John 14. and 19. Because I live ye shall live also 3. By returning every Body his own Spirit Ezek. 37.5 I will cause Breath to enter into you and ye shall live The same Body that dies shall rise again According to the hope of blessed Souls who after the Vision of God do yet hope for the Resurrection of their Bodies to which they most ardently wish to be reunited As they who are represented under the Altar Revel 6. and at the Tribunal of Justice ask vengeance of their Blood are instantly Cloathed with White Garments in Token of that bright Flesh which is to be joyned to their Immortal Spirits However some have conceived that the Soul shall be cloathed with a new Body which if it should be granted what would the Resurrection be but a new Creaton This Doctrine of the Resurrection is such that it is too deep for Reason to wade you must let Faith swim It is infinitely above Reason to imagine and we have scarce Faith enough to believe it Have an Eye to Christ rest on the Almighty Power And so let me add in the next place 3. An Use of Instruction and that in two things First Never to dispair 1. Not of the State should that be as low as Israel Ezek. 37.11,12 Son of Man those Bones are the House of Israel behold they say our strength is dryed and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts Therefore Prophecy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my people I will open your Graves and cause you to come up out of your Graves and bring you into the Land of Israel Though things seem to Humane Apprehension helpless and hopeless look up to the Supream Power who can beyond all our thoughts make those who dwell in the Dust to awake and Sing This Doctrine speaks good news in that respect There is Balm in Gilead and a Physician to heal and this Physician yet dwelleth in our Hemisphere with Healing under his Wings Despair not though it be brought so low as the Disciples John 21.5 who had no Meat This Lord can turn Stones into Bread Let us all pray Lord increase our Faith 2. Despair not of others who are dead and have a long time lain in the Grave of Sin Only speak to and for them as Ezek. 37.9 Come from the four Winds O Breath and breathe upon these Slain that they may Live You that have Sick Dying yea Dead Relations Children Servants Neighbours Let your Bowels yearn over them Lift up a Prayer for them the Prayer of Faith may Heal the Sick and Save a Dead Soul No better Physick to be given at a Dead Lift in the most desperate Case than Prayer All you that have felt the Disease of Sin and the Powerful Mercy of Christ learn to pity others and hope for their Healing and Quickning He can turn noisom Dunghils into Mines of Gold Brands of Hell into Lightsom Stars in his Firmament 3. Despair not of your selves though you have no Spiritual Life but are all over like a Dead Carkass yet wait at the gate of this great Physician there may be a Time of Love come Ezek. 16.6,8 He works at all hours You may Reap if you Faint not Deus vester est Deus Vivificus Secondly be Instructed to prepare dayly for the generall Resurrection for the coming of the great day of God wherein he may give you new Bodies Immortal Agile Incoruptible Priviledged with Favours and Gilded with the Bright Splendours of the Body of Christ Jesus You are hasting towards that Eternal Estate every day Forsake Forsake the Love of these sleight Cottages those poor Ant-hills which Enthral so many Spirits devested of those Divine Seeds which bud under Generous and Heavenly Breasts 1. Use the means and look through them to Christ still saying I have a Dead Heart O Lord some quickning Grace Christ is not of more Power then Sympathy You hath he quickned who were Dead 2. Be thankful for Spiritual Life in Possession or Expectation In this God hath done more for you than if he had made you Princes of the Earth In this he hath done more for you than if he had made you Angels O be thankful God in Quickning you hath done more for you than if he had given you the World Let your Hearts and Mouths be filled with Praises It is a Mercy calls for your highest Praises in the Days of Eternity THe Second Branch of the Text which Illustrates the Omnipotent