insinuating Orators before the Tribunals of their Enemies and there forced to answer for themselves Besides that they being to convert both Iews and Gentiles between whom there was an inveterate aversion and to unite them together into one communion it could not be otherwise expected but that great dissentions should arise among their own Converts as accordingly it hapned which if not managed with infinite prudence must needs give a great disturbance to them and interrupt the course and hinder the success of their Ministry And in such difficult circumstances it was almost impossible for them not to miscarry without being conducted by an infallible prudence and circumspection under all which exigencies the Holy Ghost served the primitive Church in the same capacity as the Vrim and Thummim did the ancient Iews i. e. as an Oracle to advise them in all cases of difficulty and direct them in the management of all their great and weighty affairs Thus in that difficult case which of the Apostles should be sent forth to the Gentiles the Holy Ghost either by a Bath Col i. e. Voice from Heaven or an immediate inspiration thus directs them Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 13.2 and when they went forth among the Gentiles the Holy Ghost advises them where they should preach and where not Acts 16.6 and so also in the choice of their Bishops they had always the Direction of the Holy Ghost so in Acts 20.28 it is said that it was the Holy Ghost that set them over the Flock and S. Paul tells Timothy that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Episcopal Office wherewith he was invested was given him by Prophecy i. e. by the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost and S. Clemens who was a Disciple of the Apostles tells us that in those times they ordained Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discerning by the Spirit who should be ordained and again that they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having a perfect fore-knowledge who they should chuse And thus also for composing the differences which arose between their Iewish and Gentile Converts they had the immediate advice of the Holy Ghost who directed them to that wise expedient Acts 15.28 by which the peace of the Church was secured for the present and afterwards maintained in despite of all the attempts of seditious Incendiaries to break and divide it And thus having recourse upon all occasions to this infallible Guide they were never at a loss either what to say or how to behave themselves the Holy Ghost making good to them what our Saviour had promised them When they bring you before Magistrates take no thought what ye shall answer for the Holy Ghost shall teach you at the same hour what ye ought to say Luke 12.11 12. These are the extraordinary things which the Holy Ghost acted for and under Christ in order to the planting and propagating his Gospel through the World and which he continued to act so long as it was necessary for that end For as for the first the Gift of Tongues it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Gospel had been preached to and some Converts made in the several Nations the First-fruits of whom were always ordained to the work of the Ministry and when once the several Nations had Natives of their own to preach the Gospel to them in their own Languages there was no farther necessity of this miraculous Gift of Tongues And then as for the second the Gift of Revelation it seems to have been continued no longer than till the whole New Testament was revealed and the several parts of it were collected into one Volume and distributed to the several Churches after which there was no farther necessity of any new revelation But as for the third the Gift of Miracles it seems to have been continued much longer than either of the former as indeed there was longer occasion for it especially for that of ejecting evil Spirits who for many Ages had been the Gods of the World and detecting their frauds and impostures that so by beholding the manifold Triumphs of Christ's power over them the Heathen might be at length convinced of the falseness of their own Religion and of the truth of Christ's and accordingly this gift as I shall shew hereafter was continued in the Church for above two hundred years together till it had wrought its designed effect i. e. had sufficiently detected the fraud and malice of those Idol Gods to the conviction of all that were convincible and then it was withdrawn as being no farther necessary And then as for the last viz. the Gift of Counsel and Direction it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Government of the Church was every where established and its Affairs reduced into a stated course and method by which sufficient provision being made against those emergent difficulties with which the state of Christianity was perplexed this Gift also ceased together with the reason and necessity of it Thus by these extraordinary Gifts and Operations the Holy Ghost continued to sollicite the cause of Christ and his Religion in the World till by their invincible evidence he had baffled the malice and prejudice of a deluded World and captivated Mankind into the belief and obedience of the Gospel and this being effected he discontinued those Extraordinaries and now proceeds to solicite the same cause in a more ordinary and standing way and method viz. by co-operating with mens minds and wills in a more humane and regular manner by joyning in with their Reason and thereby influencing their Wills and Affections which brings me to the 2. Second sort of the Holy Ghost's operations viz. that which he ordinarily doth and always hath done and will always continue to do For upon the cessation of these his miraculous operations the Holy Ghost did not wholly withdraw himself from mankind but he still continues Mediating with us under Christ in order to the reconciling our Wills and Affections to God and subduing that inveterate Malice and Enmity against him which our degenerate nature hath contracted For it is by this blessed Spirit that Christ hath promised to be with us to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 and Christ himself hath assured us that upon his Ascension into Heaven he would pray his Father and he should give us another Comforter meaning this Holy Ghost that he might abide with us for ever John 14.16 and accordingly the Holy Ghost is vitally united to the Church of Christ even as Souls are united to their bodies For as there is one body i. e. Church so there is one Spirit i. e. one Holy Ghost which animates that body Eph. 4.4 and hence the Unity of the Church is in the foregoing verse called the Vnity of the Spirit because as the soul by diffusing it self through all the parts of the body unites them together and keeps them from flying abroad and dispersing into
atomes so the Holy Spirit by diffusing himself throughout this mystical body joyns and unites all its parts together and makes it one separate and individual Corporation So that when by Baptism we are once incorporated into this body we are intitled to and do at least de jure participate of the vital influence of the Holy Ghost who is the Soul of it and accordingly as Baptism joyns us to that body of which this divine Spirit is the Soul so it also conveys that divine Spirit to us So that as in natural bodies those Ligaments which unite and tie the parts to one another do also convey life and spirit to them all so also in this mystical body those federal rights of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are as it were its Nerves and Arteries that joyn and confederate its members to one another are also the conveyances of that spiritual life from the Holy Ghost which moves and actuates them all And hence the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost the being born of water and of the Holy Ghost are put together as concurrent things and in Acts 2.38 Baptism is affirmed to be necessary to our receiving the Holy Ghost and if by Baptism we receive the Holy Ghost that is a right and title to his Grace and Influence then must the Holy Ghost be still supposed vitally united to the Church whereof we are made members by our Baptism and like an Omnipresent Soul to be diffused all through it and to move and actuate every part of it by his heavenly Grace and Influence It is true he doth not move and actuate us by meer force and irresistible power so as to necessitate us or to determine our natural liberty one way or t'other nor doth he ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way as he did in the first Ministration of the Gospel when he frequently transformed men in an instant from Beasts and Devils into Saints and as it were at one act turned the whole Tide of their natures into a quite contrary Current For so Origen against Celsus very often triumphs in these sudden and miraculous Conversions wrought by the Christian Religion so lib. 1. p. 21. should any man saith he release men's Souls from all sorts of wickedness from Lust and Unrighteousness and Contempt of God and this but in a hundred instances surely no man would imagine that he could ever have inspired so many men with reasons strong enough to conquer so many Vices without a divine assistance but if you enquire into the lives of those that have imbraced Christianity you will find that whereas before they lived in all impurities and lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. from that very time wherein they received the Word how much more equal and temperate serious and constant are they grown So again li. 2. p. 78. in answer to Celsus who calls Christianity a pestilent Doctrine neither Jew saith he nor any one else can ever make it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that a pestilent Doctrine should so wonderfully convert the most profligate persons that embraced it to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason and all manner of Vertue Such were the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in those days as to transport men in an instant from an inveterate habit of wickedness to a habit of Piety and Vertue For so Lactantius de fals sup lib. 3. c. 26. what a mighty influence the divine Precepts have upon mens Souls daily experience shews for saith he Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus maledicus effraenatus paucissimis Dei Verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam da cupidum avarum tenacem jam tibi eum liberalem dabo pecuniam suam plenis manibus largientem da timidum doloris ac mortis jam cruces ignes Taurum contemnet da libidinosum Adulterum Ganeonem jam sobrium castum continentem videbis da crudelem sanguinis appetentem jam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur da injustum insipientem peccatorem continuò aequus prudens innocens erit i. e. Give me a man who is wrathful reproachful ungovernable and with a few words of God I will render him as placid as a Lamb give me a covetous a niggardly and tenacious man I will return him to thee liberal and distributing his money with a bountiful hand give me one that is timorous of grief and death he shall despise all manner of torment give me one that is lustful adulterous and a Buffoon you shall presently see him sober chaste and continent give me one that is cruel and thirsty of bloud his fury shall be immediately converted into pity and clemency give me one that is unjust foolish and criminal and he shall be presently rendred just prudent and innocent which wondrous Changes were so very frequent in the Primitive times that the Heathen as St. Austin hath observed were very much amazed at them and therefore attributed them to the power of Magick thinking it impossible they should ever be effected without the assistance of some very powerful Spirit But since Christianity hath been spread through the World and prevailed so far as to be the Religion of Nations the divine Spirit doth not ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way nor produce in them such sudden Changes and instantaneous Conversions but proceeds more gradually and more suitably to the Methods of Humane Nature by joyning in with our understandings and leading us on by reason and persuasion from Acts to Dispositions and from Dispositions to Habits of Piety So that whatsoever Grace he now affords us it ordinarily works on us in the same way and after the same manner as if all were performed by the strength of our own reason so that in the Renovation of our natures we cannot certainly distinguish what is done by the Spirit from what is done by our natural Reason and Conscience co-operating with him only this we do most certainly know that in this blessed work the Spirit is the main and principal Agent that without him we can do nothing and that he is the Author and Finisher of our faith who worketh in us to will and to do according to his own pleasure but yet that he doth not work upon us as a Mechanick upon dead materials but as upon living and free Agents that can and must cooperate with him that he acts not on us by any necessary causality but in such a way as is fairly consistent with the natural liberty of our Wills and doth not renew us whether we will or no but takes our free consent and endeavour along with him and that having done all on his part that is necessary to perswade us he expects that we should consider what he saith and upon that consent to his gracious Motions and express this consent in a constant course of holy and vertuous endeavour and
first Commencement of this Covenant Christ was Mediator of it and so hath continued all along under that particular Renewal of it which God made to the People of Israel For the Scripture expresly affirms that he is the Mediator and Surety of this New and better Covenant that is that it is he who as our Advocate with God obtains for us the Blessings of this Covenant and who as our King under God dispenses thâ—m to us and if he be thus the Mediator of this Covenant now he must have always been so even from the Fall upon which it commenced to his Ascension into Heaven otherwise the New Covenant upon which he now Mediates must have been four thousand years without a Mediator which considering the whole state and condition of it can by no means be allowed For besides that the Fall of man was the reason why God withdrew himself from all immediate converse with him and that therefore it is reasonably to be presumed that whatsoever converse he had with him afterwards it was through a Mediator there is nothing more evident from Scripture than that this very Covenant which is the standing Medium of God's converse and intercourse with men was granted to us by God in consideration of Christ's Death and Sacrifice Since therefore it was granted long before Christ died even from the Fall of Adam it must be granted upon Christ's obliging and engaging himself to the Father to die for us in the fulness of time which engagement of his was virtually and in effect an offering up himself a Sacrifice for us God being as much secured of it upon his engagement as if he had actually performed it Upon which account he is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 because upon his obliging himself to die for us which was immediately after the Fall the Event became as certain and infallible as if in that very moment he had breathed out his Soul upon the Cross. And accordingly God proceeded on it as on a sure and certain Fund and in consideration of it granted the new Covenant to the World. Hence the Apostle tells us that it was by means of his death that there was redemption for the transgressions that were under the first Covenant Heb. 9.15 Since therefore it was in consideration of Christ's future Sacrifice that God first granted this Covenant to men it necessarily follows that upon the same consideration he at the same time appointed Christ to be the Mediator of it because as I shewed before he is Mediator in the right and vertue of his Sacrifice by which he obtained it and therefore since his Sacrifice had the same vertue in it when it was future as it hath now when it is past he had the same right to be Mediator of it then as he hath now In short Christ's Sacrifice was as certain in God's account and therefore as prevalent with him before as after it was offered and therefore since his Mediatorship of the New Covenant is wholly owing to the prevalence of his Sacrifice there was the same reason why God should admit him to be Mediator of it before it was offered as after and accordingly long before he offered up his Sacrifice he is called the Angel or Minister of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 And St. Paul expresly tells us that four hundred and thirty years before the Law of Moses this Covenant was confirmed of God to Abraham in Christ Gal. 3.17 and if it was then confirmed in Christ it is certain that then Christ was the Mediator of it Fourthly Christ's being always Mediator of this Covenant necessarily implies his having been always King under God of all that ever were admitted into it and particularly of the People of Israel because his Kingly Office is so necessary and essential a part of his Mediatorship that he cannot be properly a Mediator without it For to mediate as he doth between God and men is to act Authoritatively for and in the behalf of both parties so that if he act only for one he cannot be truly said to be a Mediator between both but in his acting Authoritatively for God consists his Royalty or Kingly Office as you may see p. 7 8. and if his Mediatorial Office necessarily includes a Kingly power to be sure that power must extend to all that ever were admitted into the Covenant upon which he Mediates For how can any man be admitted into that Covenant of which he is the authorized Mediator without being subject to all the Authority which his Mediatorship necessarily implies Hence therefore it follows that Christ hath been always King of the Church of God or confederate Society of the true Worshippers of him in all Ages of the world For thus in the Old world St. Peter tells us 1 Pet. 3.19 that by that very Spirit whereby Christ rose from the dead he went and preached to the spirits in prison i. e. by Noah who by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit was a Preacher or Herald of Righteousness Christ preached to the Spirits or Souls of men whilst they were yet shut up in and united to their bodies long before that general separation of their Souls from their Bodies which was made by the Floud vid. Dr. Ham. in Loc. at this time I say whilst they were yet alive Christ preached to them to warn them of that general destruction which was pursuing them and would ere long overtake them unless they speedily repented which shews that long before the Floud Christ acted as a King in issuing out by his Heralds his Royal Proclamations to men to declare his Will and Pleasure to them and warn them of the fatal consequence of their disobedience to it Soon after the Floud mankind almost universally Apostatized from God to Idolatry so that the Church or Society of the true Worshippers of him was quickly reduced into a very narrow compass so that four hundred years after it seems very probable thâ—t Melchisedeck was the only King in the world who was not an Idolater And now God seeing his Church almost totally extinguished by this general defection of mankind from his Covenant to recover and repair it he calls Abraham out of his Idolatry and Idolatrous Country and with him and his Posterity renews the New Covenant which the rest of mankind had renounced and deserted and to secure them from ever revolting from it he seals and ratifies it with them by a sign in their flesh viz. that of Circumcision which he gave them as a mark to distinguish and preserve them distinct from the Idolatrous Nations round about them And when afterwards the Posterity of Abraham was multiplied in Aegypt into a numerous Nation and this Rite of Circumcision being by Ishmael and Esau derived to their Posterity and so made common to other Nations with Israel God to renew this distinction gives them the Ceremonial Law upon their coming out of Aegypt one great design of which even as
is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repents Luke 15.10 we cannot but suppose that so far as their own ability and the Laws of the invisible World will permit them they do promote and further our repentance since in so doing they contribute to their own joy and in a word since the Scripture assures us that the Angels are present in our holy Assemblies which that passage of S. Paul seems necessarily to imply 1 Cor. 11.10 For this cause ought the woman to have power over her head i. e. to be veiled in the sacred Assemblies because of the Angels or out of a decent respect and reverence to those blessed Spirits who are supposed to be present there since I say they are present in our Religious Assemblies we cannot reasonably suppose them to be present merely as Idle Auditors and Spectators who have nothing else to do but only to observe and gaze upon our holy solemnities and therefore must conclude that their great business there is to assist us in the performance of them to remove our indispositions and recollect our wandrings to fix our attention excite our affections and inflame our devotions for besides as they are the Ministers of the divine Providence they have many opportunities of presenting good objects to us and removing temptations from us of disciplining our natures with prosperities and afflictions and of so ordering and varying our outward Circumstances as to render our duty more facile and easie to us besides which I say as they are Spirits they have a very near and familiar access to our souls not that they can make any immediate impressions on our Vnderstanding or Will which are a sphere of light to which no created spirit can approach it being under the immediate Oeconomy of the Father of Spirits but yet being Spirits there is no doubt but they may and oftentimes do insinuate themselves into our fancies and mingle with the spirits and humours of our bodies and by that means never want opportunity both to suggest good thoughts to us and raise holy affections in us For that they can work upon our fancies is apparent else there could be neither Angelical nor Diabolical dreams and if they can so act upon our fancies as to excite new images and representations in them they may by this means communicate new thoughts to our understandiâ—g which naturally Prints off from the fancy those Ideas and Images which it there finds set and composed And as they can work upon our fancies so there is no doubt but they can influence our spirits and humours else they have not the power so much â—s to cure or inflict a disease and by thus working â—pon our spirits they can moderate as they please the violence of our passions which are nothing but the flowings and reflowings of our spirits to and fro from our hearts and by influencing our humours they can compose us when they please into such a sedate and serious temper as is most apt to receive religious impressions and to be influenced by the Heavenly motions of the Holy Ghost These things I doubt not the blessed Angels can and frequently do though we perceive it not and though by the Laws of the world of Spirits they may probably be restrained from doing their utmost for us that so we may still act with an uncontrouled freedom and be left under a necessity of a constant and diligent endeavour yet this we may be sure of that as the evil Angels are always busie to pervert and seduce us from our duty so the good are no less active to reduce us to and assist us in it VI. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their conducting the separated Spirits of his faithful Subjects to the Mansions of Glory It was an ancient Tradition among the Jews that the Souls of the Faithful were conducted by Angels into Paradise of which the Chaldee Paraphrase makes mention on Cant. 4.12 and this Tradition of theirs is confirmed by our Saviour Luke 16.22 where he tells us that when Lazarus died he was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom i. e. into that place of refreshment where the Soul of Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful dwells and in all probability that fiery Chariot and Horses wherein Elias was mounted up to Heaven 2 Kings 2.11 was nothing but a Convoy of Angels and accordingly Tertullian de anima c. 52. stiles the Angels Evocatores animarum i. e. the Messengers of God that call forth the lingring souls out of their bodies and shew them the Paraturam diversorii the preparation of those blessed Mansions where they are to abide till the Resurrection And this Office the good Angels do perform to the Souls of the faithful not meerly to congratulate their safe arrival into the world of blessedness though there is no doubt but that they who do so heartily rejoyce in the Conversion of sinners are ready enough to congratulate their Glorification but that which seems to be the great reason of this Ministration of theirs is to guard holy Souls when they leave their bodies through those lower Regions of the Air which are the Seat and Principality of the Apostate Angels who may therefore be very reasonably supposed to be continually lying in wait there like birds of prey to seize upon the Souls of men as soon as they are escaped out of the Cage of their bodies into the open Air and either to sâ—are and terrifie them in their passage to Heaven or to lead them away captive into their dark Prisons of endless horrour and despair and therefore to prevent their affrighting good souls which is all the hurt they can do them as they pass along through their Territories they are no sooner parted from their bodies but they are taken into the custody of some good Angel or Angels who guard them safe through the Enemies quarters and beat off those evil Spirits from them that would fain be infesting and assaulting them and it is not at all improbable but that by this very thing those evil Spirits do distinguish what Souls do belong to them from what do not viz. their being destitute of or attended with this holy Guard of Angels When they behold a separated Spirit under this Heavenly Convoy they fly away from it with infinite rage and envy to see it irrecoverably rescued out of their power to make it miserable but when they perceive one destitute and abandoned of this Angelick guard they immediately seize it as their own and so commit it to their Chains of darkness And as the good Angels do guard good Souls as they pass through the Air against the power and malice of the Prince of the power of the Air so they also conduct and guide them to their Mansions of blessedness For when the departed Soul is wafâ—ed through the Air into those immense tracts of Aether wherein the Sun and all the Heavenly bodies
that unless we do thus concur with him we shall for ever remain and perish in our sin notwithstanding all that grace which he affords us But as for the particular manner of the Holy Ghost's operation on our mind it is not to be expected that we who know so little of the nature and intercourse of Spirits should be able to render a clear and distinct account of it only thus much may be said that our Soul being a thinking Spirit whose very Essence consists in a power or principle of cogitation seems naturally incapable of any other passion from any external Agent but only the impression of Thoughts For how can a Spirit whose very Essence is thinking be any otherwise affected by any thing without it but only by being made to think or by having such thoughts and considerations impressed on it And by the same reason that bodies which are material substances are impressible only by matter Souls which are thinking substances must be impressible only by Thought And hence we find by experience that there is no Object we converse with can any otherwise affect our Mind than by suggesting such thoughts and cogitations to it and that all the pleasure and torment of our minds consists in joyful and tormenting thoughts which are plain Arguments that our mind is a sort of Being which nothing but thought can strike or touch and which hath no sense or feeling of any thing but only of dreadful or hopeful pleasant or painful Cogitations And if this be so then the way of the Holy Spirits working upon our minds supposing that he works sutably to their natures must be by inspiring or impressing them with thoughts For as he is an infinite Spirit he is always and every where present with our Spirits and hath an immediate access to them by vertue of which he can speak to our minds whenever and whatever he pleases and also urge what he speaks with that life and power as to excite our most serious consideration and attention and by this it is that he ordinarily works upon us in order to the reducing us to God viz. by inspiring such good thoughts into our minds as are most apt to move and perswade us to believe and obey the Gospel and by a continued repetition of them urging and pressing them upon us in order to the reducing our vain and roving minds to a fixed and serious attention to them For it is very apparent that our Faith and all our good Resolutions are the immediate effects of deep and serious consideration I considered my ways saith David and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies So that in reducing us to God the great work of the Spirit is to reduce us to a fix'd and steady consideration which being once effected there naturally follows a good resolution unless the Will be invincibly obstinate and to this as naturally succeeds the actual return of the Soul to God. Now to reduce us to this fix'd consideration the Holy Ghost in the first place suggests good thoughts to our minds and then to keep our minds fix'd and intent on them that so our worldly cares or pleasures may not divert us from them he most importunately urges and repeats the same thoughts or seconds them with a train and succession of new ones to the same purpose so that unless we are incorrigibly obstinate against all good motions we cannot avoid admitting them into our most serious consideration and when they are there they cannot fail of raising in us good desires and affections which if we carefully cherish will soon determine in holy purposes and resolutions In all which things you see it is only by impression of thoughts that the Holy Spirit operates on our minds But this will more plainly appear by considering those particular operations on our minds which the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost all which may be ranked under these five Heads 1. Illumination 2. Sanctification 3. Quickening or excitation 4. Comforting or supporting 5. Intercession First Illumination or informing our minds with the light of heavenly truth thus Eph. 1.17 18. the Apostle prays that the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of Christ's calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and 1 Cor. 2.12 we are told that it is by receiving the Spirit of God that we know the things that are freely given us of God. Now this illumination of the Spirit is two-fold first External by that revelation which he hath given us of God's Mind and Will in the holy Scripture and that miraculous evidence by which he sealed and attested it for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 or as it is elsewhere expressed was delivered by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And all those miraculous testimonies we have to the Truth and Divinity of Scripture are as hath been already proved from the Holy Ghost and upon that account are called the demonstration of the Spirit So that all that light we receive from Scripture and all the evidence we have that that light is divine we derive originally from the Holy Spirit But besides this external illumination of the Spirit there is also an internal one which consists in impressing that external light and evidence of Scripture upon our understandings whereby we are enabled more clearly to apprehend and more effectually to believe it For though the divine Spirit doth not at least in the ordinary course of his operation illuminate our minds with any new truths or new evidences of truth but only presents to our minds those old and Primitive truths and evidences which he at first revealed and gave to the World yet there is no doubt but he still continues not only to suggest them both to our minds but to urge and repeat them with that importunity and thereby to imprint them with that clearness and efficacy as that if we do not through a wicked prejudice against them wilfully divert our minds from them to vain or sinful objects we must unavoidably apprehend them far more distinctly and assent to them far more cordially and effectually than otherwise we should or could have done For alas our minds are naturally so vain and stupid so giddy listless and inadvertent especially in spiritual things which are abstract from common sence as that did not the Holy Spirit frequently present importunately urge and thereby fix them on our minds our knowledge of them would be so confused and our belief so wavering and unstable as that they would never have any prevailing influence on our Wills and Affections So that our knowledge and belief of divine things so far forth as they are saving and effectual to our renovation are the fruits and products of this internal
which he very often imprints on us with that life and vigour and repeats and urges with that efficacious Ardour and restless Importunity that unless we are strangely obstinate we cannot find in our hearts to repel or resist them Fourthly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on mens minds is comforting and supporting them or inspiring their minds with such joys and refreshments as are necessary to support them under the difficulties and temptations they are here exposed to For this operation of the Spirit is a standing provision against such Difficulties and Temptations as are too great for an ordinary patience and courage to conâ—est with and is not ordinarily vouchsafed to us but only at such times when we are called to do or suffer something beyond our selves and above our own strength and ability in which cases we are secured of this supporting influence of the Spirit by that Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer ye to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it For thus we read of the Primitive Church that they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 i. e. had the constant supporting influence of the Spirit of God to strengthen and bear up their minds under that mighty work and grievous persecutions they were to undergo and the Apostle makes it his earnest Prayer to God for his Christian Romans that he would fill them with all joy and peace in believing that is in their profession of the Christian Faith and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 And accordingly we find the Ages of Persecution abounding with remarkable instances of this operation of the Holy Ghost For whereas constant Persecutions never failed to exterminate false Religions from the World witness the Heathen Religion and the Christian Heresies the Priscillians Arians and Donatists which whilst they were tolerated or connived at did mightily encrease and multiply but under vigorous persecutions immediately shrunk and in a little time dwindled into nothing the true Christianity on the contrary bore up its head under the heaviest oppressions and triumphed in the midst of flames and was so far from being vanquished by all the barbarous cruelties of its Persecutors that the more they persecuted it the more it conquered and prevailed which doubtless is in a great measure to be attributed to this supporting influence of the Holy Spirit which still accompanied its Confessors and Martyrs For how was it possible that a company of tender Virgins delicate Matrons and aged Bishops could ever have endured those long and dolorous Martyrdoms as many times they did when their Tormentors took their turns from morning to night and plied them with all kinds of cruelties till they were oftentimes forced to give over and confess that they had not heart enough to inflict the Tortures which those poor Sufferers had courage enough to endure How could they have sung in the midst of Flames smiled upon Racks triumphed upon Wheels and Catastaes and there challenged their Executioners as they often did to distend their Limbs to the utmost stretch to tear their flesh with Vngulae to scorch their tender parts with fires and rake their bowels with Spikes and Gaunches How I say could they have endured all these miserable harrasings of their tender flesh with the most witty and exquisite Tortures and this sometimes for sundry days together when for one base and cowardly word they might have been released when they pleased had they not been supported with an invisible hand and refreshed with such strong consolations as not only abated but sometimes quite extinguished their pains And the same comforts though not perhaps in the same degree other good men have frequently experienced sometimes upon their undertaking some great and Heroick Office of Piety or Vertue sometimes in their conflict with some great Temptation sometimes when they have been sorely oppressed with some mighty sorrow or affliction and sometimes in the hour and extremities of Death for it is only upon these or such like extraordinary occasions that the Holy Spirit usually administers these great Consolations to our minds And this he also performs in the same manner as he doth the aforenamed operations viz. by suggesting to and vigorously impressing comfortable thoughts upon our minds for there is no doubt but that as he can impress on us what thought soever he pleases so he can also impress it with what strength and vigour soever he pleases and accordingly as he impresses a comfortable thought on us more or less vigorously it must of necessity be a greater or a less consolation to us if he think fit and our state require it he can imprint a comfortable thought on us with that strength and vehemence as that it shall even ravish us from our sense and so ingross all our attention to it as that we shall be altogether mindless and insensible of any pain or pleasure of the body For thus it is usual for serious Contemplators in their profound Muses to collect and call together all their animal spirits to attend that work so as that many times there are none or not enough at least remaining to supply the Offices of their sense and carry on the inferiour operations of Nature and if we our selves by intense thinking can thus alienate our minds from sense we may easily suppose that the Holy Ghost who hath the command of our minds can when he pleases stamp a joyous thought so vigorously upon them as that it shall instantly transport them into an ecstasie and ravish them from all Corporeal sensation And that thus he hath done is notoriously evident in the above-named Martyrs whose Senses were many times so intranced by the rapturous contemplations their minds were seised with that they lay smiling and sometimes singing under the bloudy hands of their Tormentors without any apparent sense of those long and exquisite cruelties that were practised upon them And though the blessed Spirit seldom applies these strong and powerful Cordials to pious minds but in such great and urgent extremities it being much more for their interest to be kept humble and lowly than to be ravished with continued comforts yet ordinarily he administers a standing peace and satisfaction to them and when ever their necessities call for it he inspires them with such degrees of joy and consolation as their case and condition requires Fifthly and lastly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on Men's minds is Intercession by which he enables us to offer up our Prayers to God with such ardent and devout affections as are in some measure sutable to the matter we pray for For Prayer being the immediate converse of our Souls with God wherein our minds are obliged to withdraw themselves from sense and sensible things and wholly to retire themselves from those Objects to
which they are most endeared and familiarized into the divine and spiritual world there is no one duty whatsoever to the due performance of which our carnal affections are naturally more listless and averse and therefore as herein we have most need of the Holy Spirit 's assistance so herein he more especially operates on our minds exciting in us all those graces and affections which are proper to the several parts of our Prayer such as shame and sorrow in the confession of our sins a sense of our need of mercy and a hope of obtaining it in our supplications for pardon and forgiveness resignation to God's Will and dependance on his truth and goodness in our address for temporal mercies and deliverances hunger and thirst after Righteousness in our Petitions for his grace and assistance and in a word Gratitude and Love and Admiration of God in our praises and thanksgivings for mercy and in these divine affections the life and soul of Prayer consists And accordingly in Gal. 4.6 the Apostle tells us Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father that is by kindling devout and pious affections in your Souls enabling you to cry to God with all earnestness and assurance as to a kind and merciful Father and hence also we are said to pray in or by the Holy Ghost Iude 20. because all the proper graces and affections of Prayer are excited in us by him And this his excitation of the graces of Prayer in us is called his making Intercession for us Rom. 8.26 27. which imports no more than his enabling us to offer up the matter of our Prayers to God in a most devout and affectionate manner or as he there explains himself with sighs and groans that are not to be uttered that is with such earnest and flagrant affections as are too big for words to express And this is properly to intercede for us For as Christ who is our Advocate in Heaven doth offer up our Prayers to the Father and enforce them with his own Intercessions so his Spirit who is our Advocate on Earth begets in us those affections which render our Prayers prevalent and wings them with fervour and ardency the one pleads with God for us in our own hearts by kindling such desires there as render our Prayers acceptable to him and the other pleads with him for us in Heaven by presenting those desires and soliciting their supply and acceptance Now this Intercession of the Holy Spirit is also performed as all the aforegoing operations by suggesting to and imprinting such thoughts upon our minds as are most apt to raise and excite our affections which thoughts he often urges with that vehemence and presses with that reiterated importunity that if we do not wilfully repel them from our minds and refuse them admittance to our hearts and affections they cannot fail to stir up in us all the graces of Prayer and enflame our Souls with a servent devotion and accordingly whenever we harbour these suggestions of the Spirit and by seriously attending to them cherish and encourage them we find by experience they so affect and influence our devotions as that in every Prayer our Souls take wing and like the Angel that appeared to Manoah â—ly up to Heaven in the flames of our Sacrifice And thus I have given a brief account both of what the Holy Spirit hath done and of what he still continues to do towards the promoting and effectuating of Christ's Mediation for God with men And by what hath been said it abundantly appears that he hath done for us and still continues to do all that our case and necessity requires and that there is nothing imaginable wanting on his part towards the reducing and reconciling our minds to God. So that now he may justly say to us what God doth to his Vineyard Isa. 5.4 What could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done Or as the Hebrew expresses it What is to be done more Not but that by his omnipotent power absolutely considered the Holy Spirit can do more for us than he ordinarily doth he can in an instant infuse a new nature into us in despite of all the resistance of our Wills and make such irresistible impressions on our minds as our most inveterate prejudice and enmity against God shall never be able to withstand but then his power always acts by the direction of his wisdom and can do no otherwise that is it can do no more than it can wisely do and it is certain that ordinarily and regularly it cannot wisely so act upon men as to determine their natural liberty to good and evil since by so doing he must not only commit a perpetual violence on the frame of our Beings and thereby reverse the established course of our natures but also destroy the very being of Vertue in us which is no longer Vertue than while it is free and unconstrained But whatsoever he can wisely do or which is all one consistently with the liberty of our nature he hath done and still continues doing So that now to the reduction of our Souls to God there is nothing wanting but our own consent and free co-operation which if we will refuse we may for for desperate obstinacy there is no remedy if we will not comply with the blessed Spirit it is certain he will not save us whether we will or no. So that when inquisition shall be made for the bloud of our Souls the utmost we can charge him with is that he did not drag us to Heaven in spite of our teeth and bind up our hands in the Cords of an irresistible Fate to hinder us from murdering our selves but if we have so little regard of our selves as to spurn at our own happiness it is by no means fit that he should force it upon us and it would be a very mean and unreasonable condescension in him to prostitute his grace to such as scorn and refuse it If therefore after all these things that the Spirit hath done for us we persist and finally perish in our enmity against God he may fairly wash his hands in innocency over us and charge our bloud upon our own heads and how deplorable soever our condition proves in the future state his Iustice will Triumph gloriously in our ruine and our own Consciences together with all the reasonable World will be forced to be his Compurgators and to pronounce him infinitely just and righteous in all his ways SECT II. Concerning the particular Offices of Christ's Mediation FOR the clearer stating what are the particular Offices of the Mediator it will be necessary briefly to enquire into the state and condition of the Parties between whom he Mediates as they stand related to one another For he being to officiate for and between God and Man to be sure his Offices must be such as their respective states and conditions do require For how can
Church of Christ. For under God the Father he is universal Lord and King of the World his Kingly power being upon his Ascension into Heaven extended as was shewn before to the utmost limits of the Vniverse For so he himself tells us by way of Anticipation that God hath given him power over all flesh John 17.2 i. e. over all mankind For his Regal power extends as far as his power of judging which is one of the principal Acts of his Regality and his power of judging is over all mankind for so we are assured that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World by the man Christ Iesus Acts 17.31 and that Christ is ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead Acts 10.42 and not only so but that when he shall sit down upon the throne of his glory all Nations shall be gathered before him Matth. 25.31 32. Since therefore by the right of his Royalty he shall judge all Nations it necessarily follows that all Nations are under his Empire and Dominion and accordingly the Apostle tells us that God hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. So that the Kingdom of Christ in a large sence extends to all Nations in the World even to the Heathens and Infidels that never heard of his name and upon this account he is stiled The blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6.15 and so also Rev. 17 14. But the Church is more peculiarly his Kingdom as consisting of that part of the World which owns and acknowledges his authority makes a visible profession of fealty to him and submission to his Laws and Regulations As for the other parts of the World they are all of right his Subjects by vertue of that Vniversal Regal Authority wherewith the most High God and Father of all things hath invested him but de facto they are Slaves to the Prince of darkness all whose Dominions in this World are nothing but usurpations on the Kingdom of Christ. But the Church is that part of the World that hath thrown off the yoke of this Vsurper and by a solemn Profession surrendered up it self to the Authority of Christ its rightful Lord and Sovereign and hence the Members of the Church are said to be translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Col. 1.13 The Church therefore being more peculiarly Christ's Kingdom as being that part of the World which is actually subjected to him and under his Government I shall with as much brevity as the Argument will admit inquire into the nature and constitution of it In general therefore the Church or Kingdom of Christ may be thus defined It is the one universal society of all Christian People incorporated by the new Covenant in Baptism under Iesus Christ its supreme head and distributed under lawful Governours and Pastors into particular Churches holding Communion with each other in all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Worship and Discipline For our better understanding of which definition it will be necessary to explain the several parts of it First Therefore it is the one universal Society of all Christian People Secondly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant Thirdly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism Fourthly Of all Christian People incorporated under Iesus Christ its supreme Head and Governour Fifthly It is a Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches Sixthly It is distributed into particular Churches under lawful Pastors and Governours Seventhly It is distributed into particular Churches holding Communion with each other Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold with each oâ—hâ—r is First In all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Secondly In all the Essentials of Christian Worship Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Discipline First The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society consisting of all Christian People who as was shewn before were at first comprised in one single Congregation at Ierusalem and then this single Congregation was the whole Church or Kingdom of Christ which by the continual accession of new Converts increased and multiplied by degrees till at length it was spread over the whole Earth So that the Christian Society as it is now enlarged is nothing but that Primitive Church diffused and dilated For it was not diffused into separate and independent Societiâ—s but into similar parts and members of the same Society and therefore as a man is one and the same person when he is full grown as he was when he was an Infant but of a span long because his growth consists not in an addition of other persons to him but only of other parts of the same person so the Church of Christ is the same individual Church now since it is grown to this vast Bulk and Proportion that it was in its infant state when it extended no farther than one single Congâ—egation because it grew not into other divided Churches but only into other distinct parts of the same Church and therefore since its growth consisted only in new accessions of similar parts to the same body it must be as much one Body or Society now as it was at first when it was but one single Congregation For this Congregation was the root out of which the Catholick Church sprang or as our Saviour phrases it the grain of mustard-seed which though a very small seed shot up into a mighty tree in whose far-spread branches the Birds of the Air came and lodged and therefore as the stock and branches grow up from the root in a continued Vnion with it and all together make but one Tree so all the Christian People in the World sprang out of this single Congregation and as they sprang were still incorporated and united to it so as that all together they make but one Church And this is that which in our Creeds is called the holy Catholick or universal Church For so the Apostle tells us that there is but one body or Church as well as one Spirit one Lord one Faith and one Baptism Eph. 4.5 6. and our Saviour tells us Other sheep have I meaning the Gentiles which are not of this fold meaning the Iewish Church and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd John 10.16 For so the Gentiles added to the Christian Iewish Church are said of twain to make one new man Eph. 2.13 and both together are compared to a building fitly framed together growing into an holy Temple in the Lord Ibid. ver 21. And indeed since all
said now I find the Devil has the full possession of thee and that henceforth there remains no more hope of reclaiming thee go therefore and dispatch thy wicked purpose as soon as thou pleasest So that now it seems he was entirely delivered up to the Devil who thereupon immediatly hurries him to the execution of his black design IV. And lastly Another instance of the Ministry of evil Spirits to Christ is their executing his vengeance on incorrigible sinners in the other World. For since as I have shewn before our Saviour makes use of the power and malice of these evil Spirits to correct and chasten men in this life why may we not thence conclude that he makes use of the same to plague and punish them in the life to come especially considering that they bear the same malice to us in the other life that they did in this for they tempt us to sin here for no other end but that they may make us miserable there and therefore to be sure that same malice of theirs which excites them now to contribute all they can to our sin will equally provoke them then to contribute all they can to our misery and render them altogether as active in tormenting us in Hell as they were in tempting us upon Earth and then considering that Spirits can act upon Spirits as well as Bodies upon Bodies and that the more powerful any Spirit is the more vigorously it can act upon other Spirits we may be sure that those evil Spirits being Angels by nature are incomparably more powerful than the souls of men and therefore can act upon them with unspeakable more force and vigour than one Soul can on another for the weaker any Spirit is the more passive it must necessarily be to those Spirits that are stronger and more powerful and therefore by how much weaker wicked Souls are than wicked Angels by so much more passive must they be to their power and consequently be so much more liable to be vexed and tormented by them and since in all probability the disproportion which Nature hath made between the power of Angâ—ls and Souls is far greater than that which sin hath made between the power of one Angel and another we may reasonably conclude that wicked Souls are far more impressible by the power of wicked Angels than wicked Angels are by the power of good Angels and therefore since the good Angels can make such violent impressions upon the wicked ones as they are not able to endure but are still forced to fly before them as oft as they encounter them vid. P. 965. what intolerable impressions can wicked Angels make upon wicked Souls when they are abandoned by God to their malice and fury for though our Souls are no more impressible by corporeal action than the beams of the Sun are by the blows of a Hammer yet that they can feel the force of spiritual action we find by every days experience for so a thought which is a spiritual action if it be very horrible or dismal doth as sensibly pain and aggrieve our Souls as the most exquisite Corporeal torment can our Bodies Now there is no doubt but evil Spirits can suggest preternatural horrors to our minds and repeat and urge them with such Importunity and vehemence as to render them most exquisitely painful and dolorous of the truth of which we have a woful Example in that miserable Wretch Francis Spira who upon that woful breach he made in his Conscience by renouncing his Religion notwithstanding he had received several kind admonitions from Heaven to the contrary was forsaken of God and delivered up alive into the hands of those dire Tormenters of Souls whereupon though he had not the least symptome of bodily melancholy he was immediatly seized with such an inexpressible Agony of mind as amazed his Physicians astonished his Friends and struck terror into all that beheld him for he was so near to the condition of a damned Spirit that he verily believed Hell it self was more tolerable than those invisible lashes that his Soul endured without any intermission and therefore he often wished that he were in Hell and as often attempted to dispatch himself thither in hope to find sanctuary there from those direful thoughts which continually preyed upon his Soul. Now that these Horrors were inflicted on him by Diabolical suggestion is evident both by the impenetrable hardness and obstinacy of his mind against all the motives of Repentance that accompanied them and by the horrible blasphemies they frequently extorted from him And if now in this life they have so much power to torment our minds whenever God thinks it meet to let them loose upon us what will they have hereafter when our wretched Spirits shall be utterly abandoned to their mercy and they shall have a free scope to exert their fury on us and glut their hungry malice with our Torment and vexation And since it is evident they do not want power we may certainly conclude even from that natural malignity that is in the temper of a Devil they do not want Will to plague and torture us in the other World. And this Will and Power of theirs our Saviour makes use of as the Common Executioner of his Vengeance upon incorrigible sinners in the other Life for as soon as ever a wicked Soul departs from its Body it is immediatly consigned into the hands of those Diabolical Furies who like so many hungry Hounds seize it with infinite greediness and fall a tearing and worrying it with horrible suggestions without any pause or intermission and by continually recording its sins to it and reproaching it with the folly of them and putting it in mind of that dismal eternal futurity it must suffer for them do incessantly sting and vex it with swarms of dire reflections and tormenting thoughts which are the only Instruments of Torment that can fasten upon a Soul. And hence in Matt. 18.34 the Devils to whom the wicked Servant was delivered up by his Master for his cruelty toward his fellow Servant are called Tormenters as being the Ministers of our Saviours just Vengeance upon wicked and incorrigible offenders And thus having shewn at large that the good and bad Angels are the Ministers of Christ and wherein their Ministry to him consists I proceed to the III. Third sort of the Ministers of Christs Kingdom viz. The Kings and Governours of the World for though there are many Infidel Kings in the World that know not Christ and that never submitted themselves to his Empire but instead of that do openly defie and persecute his holy Religion yet these of right are subject to him though in fact they are inslaved to the Devil and he hath the disposal of their Crowns and the command of their power and doth actually imploy and use it even as he doth the power of the Devils in the prosecution of the righteous ends of his Government And though too many of those Kings who by
infinite power with the vigorous activity of a glorified Soul II. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and heavenly So ver 44. It is sown saith he a natural body it is raised a spiritual body where those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render a natural body may perhaps be better translated an animal Body i. e. a body suted and adapted to this animal life which the beasts that perish enjoy in common with us a body that is sustained by animal operations and recreated with animal pleasures and which by reason of its gross substance doth continually crave to be supplied with suitable nourishment and treated with gross and carnal pleasures which is the very thing that renders it so great a Cumber to the immortal Spirit that animates it But at the Resurrection it will be improved into a spiritual body not that it will be converted into a spiritual substance for the Apostle's own words do assure us that it will still remain a body but the spirituality of it will consist in this that being wrought into a purer and finer substance it will no longer need or crave these animal nourishments and pleasures but be perectly fitted for and contemper'd to the soul and intirely resigned to its use and service for it will then be refined from all those animal appetites of eating drinking and carnality which do now too often not only render it unserviceable to the soul but also hurtful and injurious so that then it will be in intire subjection to the mind and all its members will be devoted Instruments to the service of Righteousness so that now there will be no longer any Law in its members to wage war against the Law in the mind but the mind will govern and the body obey without any contest or reluctancy and as the body will be wholly obedient to the mind so it will be perfectly adapted to its service for whereas now by reason of its gross consistency it is an unwieldy Luggage to the Soul and doth very much clog and incumber her in her operations it will then be wrought into so fine and tenuious a substance as that instead of a clog it will be a wing to the Soul for its consistence will be subtil as the finest Aether and active as the purest flame it will have nothing that is gross or burdensom in it to retard or weary it in its flights to rebate its vigour or slacken its motion but it will be all life and spirit and wing and like a perpetual motion be carried on with unwearied swiftness by its own internal springs and being freed from all that weight which now renders it so slow and heavy it will be able to move like a thought and to keep pace with the most nimble wishes of the Soul so that what Hierocles saith of his spiritual Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it is such a body as is every way fitted to the intellectual perfections of the Soul will be true of this resurrection body which will be perfectly attempered to a perfect mind and fashioned into a most convenient Organ for it whereby to exert its purest and most spiritual operations III. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from weak and passive into active and powerful Bodies so ver 43. It is sown in weakness it is raised in power that is whereas the body which we sow in the grave is exceeding weak and infirm liable to infinite passions and diseases and can do but little but suffers much it shall be raised with a temperament so pure and just so hail and vigorous that no disease or infirmity shall ever find any place in it or be able to cramp it in its operations For besides that its elementary qualities if any such remain in it shall be turned into such an exquisit temper that they shall never jar or disagree with each other it shall be so spirited and invigorated by the blessed Soul that animates it that nothing shall be able to impair its health or discompose its Harmony So that it shall live for ever without decay move for ever without weariness fast for ever without hunger and wake for ever without either need or desire of refreshment And indeed considering for what purpose our Bodies shall be raised they have need to be very strong and vigorous for they shall be raised on purpose to be the Organs and Instruments of the operations of our glorified Souls which being exceeding active as they are spirits but exceedingly more active as they are glorified spirits will require bodies suitably strong and vigorous such as can support their joys express their activities and keep pace with their raptutous emotions to do which will require a mighty firmness and vigour of temper Since therefore at the Resurrection God will fit and adapt our bodies to the utmost activity of our glorified spirits they must necessarily be supposed to be endued with unspeakable strength and agility upon which account they are called by the ancient Hebrews Eagles wings upon which they suppose our glorified Souls shall be able to fly as fast and as far as they please and this I am apt to think is intimated in that passage of S. Paul 1 Thes. 4.17 And they that are alive and whose bodies are changed in the state of the resurrection shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air the meaning of which is not that they shall be snatched up from the Earth by any external cause of Agent but that their Bodies being changed into pure aetherial flame they shall of their own accords ascend in them as in so many fiery Chariots to the Throne of their Redeemer in the Clouds and from thence when the judgment is concluded shall as nimbly ascend with him through all those spacious Fields of Air and Aether that lie between that and the eternal Paradise of Blessedness For that they shall be caught up by Angels as some imagin I see no reason to think since our Saviour himself assures us that at the Resurrection they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore shall not need their help in this angelified state either to waft them up into the Air or from thence into the Heaven of Heavens and if by their own activity they shall be able to perform so vast a flight as 't is from the earth into the uppermost Region of the Air and from thence into the supreme Region of everlasting glory we may from thence collect what a vast power they will be endued with at their Resurrection But this is most certain that then they shall be perfectly released from all dolorous passion and continue in perfect strength and health and vigour for ever So that whereas now our Bodies are exceeding weak and passive a kind of walking Hospitals of pains infirmities and diseases the time will come when our soul shall be accommodated with a much more
judgment seat whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own his Fathers and his Angels glory who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him Chap. 7. ver 9 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view cloathed in garments as white as snow with the hair of his head like the pure wooll sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame and its Wheels as burning fire with a fiery stream issuing out from before him and a thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whilst the Iudgment is set and the Books are opened And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming from whence I proceed to the IV. And last general I proposed to treat of viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects viz. the Righteous and the Wicked about which it is to be exercised for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats the Good from the Bad and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another Mat. 25.32 33. And he i. e. the Son of Man shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand and the Goats on the left in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous who are to be judged first for so the Scripture assures us that the dead in Christ are to rise first and that after they have undergone their Iudgment they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air there to meet the Lord and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked vid. 1 Thes. 4.15 16 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2 In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied 1. Their Citation or Summons 2. Their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons which as was observed before is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet so by the same sound the Scripture tells us God will assemble the world of men to judgment and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth I see no reason to doubt because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.16 and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World than it was his coming to give Laws to Israel But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power even his holy Spirit by which he raised himself from the dead by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 For if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body and animate it with immortal vigour and activity and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising those who shall then be living and have not tasted death shall by the same Almighty Power be changed transformed and glorified in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ Mat. 13.27 For II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud and placed in the Region of the Air at a convenient distance from the Earth streaming with light from every part and casting forth an unspeakable glory for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory and is described by S Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne Rev. 20.11 out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed Rev. 4.5 which implies that it will be a Cloud it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed And before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial and receive a happy Doom Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World both Militant and Triumphant meet and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10 III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial for so the Apostle assures us We must all appear i. e. we Righteous as well as others before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 which plainly implies that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them and more expresly Rom. 14.12 he tells us that we must every one of us give an account
those dreadful words Go ye cursed into everlasting fire the persons concerned will immediately perceive the dire effects for all on a sudden they will see the Clouds from above and the Earth from beneath casting forth Torrents of fire upon them which in an instant will set all the World in a Blaze about their ears At the sight of which all this wretched World will be turned into a mournful Stage of Horrours in which the miserable actors being seized with inexpressible amazement to see themselves all on a sudden encompassed on every side with flames will raise a hideous Roar and outcry millions of burning men and women shrieking together and their noise shall mingle with the Archangels Trumpet with the Thunders of the dying and groaning Heaven and the crack of the dissolving World that is sinking into eternal ruins In which miserable state of things whither can the poor Creatures fly or where can they hope to find a Sanctuary If they go up to the tops of the Mountains there they are but more openly exposed to the dreadful lightnings of Heaven if they go down into the holes and caverns of the Rocks there they will be swallowed up in the burning furnaces of the Earth if they descend into the deep there they will soon be overtaken with a storm of fire and brimstone and where-ever they go the vengeance of God will still pursue them with its everlasting burnings And thus having no retreat left them no avenue to escape out of this burning World here they must remain for ever surrounded with smoak and fire and darkness and wrap'd in fierce and merciless flames which like a shirt of burning pitch will stick close to and pierce through and through their passive bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And now the Almighty Judg having seen his dread sentence executed will arise from his Throne and from thence return to the Seat of the blessed in a solemn and Glorious Triumph with all his holy myriads of Angels and Saints who as they follow him through the Air and aether will with loud Hosanna's and triumphant acclamations celebrate the praises of their Redeemer Thus shall the Ransomed of the Lord return with him with Songs to the heavenly Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and everlasting praises in their mouths For being arrived into those blissful Regions there in those glorified Bodies which they put on at their Resurrection they shall live for ever in unspeakable pleasures and delights and be entertain'd not only with all that happiness which they enjoyed in the state of their separation when they were only blessed Spirits but also with all the satisfactions and delights that their glorified Bodies can require and enjoy So that now their blessedness shall be consummate and all the capacities of their humane nature compounded of body and soul shall be fulfilled with bliss till they overflow and can contain no more But wherein the happiness of their glorified Bodies shall consist I shall not presume to inquire the Scripture being silent concerning it And what the happiness of their souls shall be hath been shewn at large before Part 1. c. 3 4. So that as to that state of eternal life in which our Saviour shall place his faithful servants in the conclusion of this great Judgment I need say no more of it in this place SECT XI Concerning the conclusion and surrender of the Kingdom of Christ. WHen our Saviour hath finished that last and most glorious act of Royalty viz. Iudging the World and hath finally condemned to everlasting fire the irreclaimable enemies of God and crowned all his faithful subjects with eternal Glory and Beatitude the Apostle tells us He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 For our better understanding of which we are to consider that the Kingdom of Christ is twofold First Essential as he is God Essential and doth subsist in the divine Essence by the supereminent perfections of which he being exalted above all things hath an essential Right of Dominion over all things and this is Co-eternal with himself and is as inseparable to him as his Being this he can no more deliver up than he can his Godhead which without ceasing to be can never cease to be supreme over all things But then in the second place there is his Mediatorial Kingdom which is that of which we have hitherto been treating and this as hath been shewn before was by solemn compact and agreement confâ—r'd upon him by the Father upon condition that he should assume our Nature and therein make expiation for our sins in consideration whereof the Father obliged himself to grant a Covenant of Grace to the sinful World and to constitute him the Mediator of it by which Mediatorial Office he is authorized to rule for God according to the tenour of that gracious Covenant as well as to intercede for us and in ruling for God according to that Covenant he is to crown and reward all such as return to and persevere in their duty with everlasting happiness and to render eternal vengeance to all such as obstinately persist in their rebellion So that when this is done as it will be in the conclusion of the day of Judgment the whole business of his Mediatorial Kingdom is at an end then the Covenant of which he is now Mediator will be completely executed and consequently his Mediation will cease as being of no farther use and having no farther part to act For now God and Man being made completely one the Office of a Mediator ceases of its own accord for a Mediator is not a Mediator of one Gal. 3.20 and therefore the two parties being perfectly united there is no farther use of a Mediator between them Wherefore as our beatifical Vision will supercede the necessity of his prophetick Office to teach and instruct us as our perfection and intire fruition will supercede the necessity of his Priestly Office to offer and intercede for us so the security of our possession of both will supercede the necessity of his Kingly Office to protect and defend us and therefore when our Affairs are once reduced to this happy issue his Kingly Office as well as all other parts of his Mediatorship will for ever cease But since this great Mystery is no where expresly delivered in Scripture but only in that forecited 1 Cor. 15. I shall endeavour to give a brief account of the whole passage which lies in vers 24 25 26 27 28. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall put down all Rule and all Authority and all Power for he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death for he hath put all things under his feet but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
sacrificed body to the Father he did what the High Priest did when he sprinkled the bloud of his Sacrifice i. e. he interceded for us with God and indeed he interceded more prevalently by this significant action than if he had used all the Eloquence of Men and Angels For his wounds are vocal and his bloud speaks yea and not only speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel spoke but also expresses what it speaks far more powerfully and emphatically than it is possible for any verbal Oratory to do So that by the presenting to his Father his wounded and bleeding body which carries with it an inexhaustible fountain of Rhetorique and Persuasion he makes the most moving and pathetical intercession for us the sense of which is this though the full force and Emphasis of it no Language can express O my Father behold this sacrificed body of mine which by thy consent and approbation hath been substituted to bear the punishment which was due to thee from Mankind and through the wounds of which I have chearfully poured out the precious bloud of God as a ransom for the sins of the World for the sake of this bloud therefore be thou so far propitious to those miserable sinners it was shed for as upon condition they shall repent to accept it in exchange for the lives of their Souls which are forfeited to thee to release them from the Obligation they are under to die eternally and upon their final perseverance in well-doing to crown them with eternal life and that this bloud which at thy command I have willingly shed for them may not through their inability to repent and persevere be utterly ineffectual to them O send thy Holy Spirit to assist their weak faculties to excite their endeavours and co-operate with them This is the Language of Christ's sacrificed body in Heaven and these are the better things which his bloud bespeaks for us For his bloud bespeaks those good things for us in Heaven for which he shed it upon Earth i. e. the remission of our sins and our eternal life of which blessings his bloud being the price that God had promised to accept his presenting it to him in Heaven not only speaks for but humbly demands them as carrying with it the unanswerable claim of an accepted Price to a stated Purchace So that this address which Christ makes for us to God in heaven is not performed by him after the manner of a prostrate Supplicant with bended knees up-lifted hands and lowly supplications but in such a manner as comports with the Kingly Majesty he is advanced to and so as at the same time to assert his own right of purchace in the blessings he addresses for and yet to acknowledge God to be the supreme fountain and disposer of them And this the Scripture tells us he performs by appearing in the presence of God for us and presenting his sacrificed body to him as a standing motive to prevail with him to be propitious to us and to crown us with all those graces and favours in consideration of which he laid down his life for us And accordingly he is said to offer himself to God for us in heaven Heb. 9.25 and to offer his one Sacrifice i. e. to God in heaven for sin for ever Heb. 10.12 By which offering or presenting his Sacrifice to God he doth at once claim for us by the right of his purchace all those good things for which he paid down the price of his bloud and also by a silent desire pray to God to bestow them upon us whereby he acknowledges him to be the sovereign disposer of them So that this significant action of Christ's presenting his sacrificed body to God is both a Claim and a Prayer or rather it is a Prayer backt and enforced with a rightful claim to the blessings he prays for For so for that particular blessing of the Spirit he himself tells us I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 14.16 not that he offers up any other Prayer to the Father but what his wounds and bloud continually make which with incessant importunity do move and solicite God in our behalf but his meaning is this by presenting that Sacrifice to my Father in Heaven which I am going to offer on the Cross and by which among other blessings I shall purchace of my Father his Holy Spirit for you I will pray him to send his Holy Spirit to you I will pray him by my wounds and bloud which are a thousand times more moving and eloquent than any vocal Prayer I can offer in your behalf for while they pray him to send his Spirit to you they lay an undeniable claim to what they pray for as being the dear and inestimable price by which I am purchasing his Spirit for you From all which it is evident that this address which Christ now makes for us to his Father in Heaven consists in the presenting his sacrificed body to him by which he both prays to him and claims what he prays for III. It is by the continued and perpetual oblation or presentment of this his sacrificed body to the Father that Christ continues and perpetuates this his address or intercession in our behalf For the fiâ—st presenting or oâ—lation of his sacrificed body in Heaven was the beginning and commencement of his intercession and the whole progress of his intercession is nothing but that same oblation continued and perpetuated For as the High Priest was interceding for the people all the time that he was presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Lord so Christ is interceding for us all the while that he is presenting his sacrificed body in Heaven For it is by the presence of his sacrificed body that he intercedes and therefore so long as his body is present in Heaven so long he must be interceding by it in our behalf So that between the Iewish High Priest's Intercession and Christ's there is this vast difference that the former presented himself in the Holy of Holies with his Sacrifice and consequently interceded by it but once a year viz. on the great day of Expiation whereas the latter continually presents his Sacrifice in Heaven and so doth continually intercede by it and whereas the bloud which the High Priest presented was so mean and inconsiderable that the whole vertue of it was still spent in one Act of Intercession as not being available enough for him to intercede with it twice insomuch that in every new act of Intercession he was still fain to present new bloud the bloud of Christ was of that infinite moment and value as that though he makes a continued and perpetuated Intercession by it yet the vertue and efficacy the power and prevalency of it with God remains fresh and unimpaired so that he needs not sacrifice again that so he may have new bloud to present but with that
them whether it be Fear or Sorrow or Ioy and it being in their power to excite our Passions to what degree they please there is no doubt but that being ministring Spirits they can and do minister Ioy and Comfort to us when ever our case and circumstances require it IV. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their protecting his Subjects against the Rage and Fury of evil Spirits for considering with what a fierce and indefatigable malice those malignant spirits which in vast numbers rove about in the Air are animated against mankind and especially against the Subjects of Christ their most dreaded and implacable enemy and considering also the mighty power they have as they are Angels to do mischief it is not to be imagined but that were they not opposed and restrained by a mightier power than their own they would never be able to forbear exercising their direful rage and cruelty upon us till they had converted this Earth into Hell and made this School of our Probation the place of our Torments and as for the Kingdom of Christ whose Subjects have so solemnly renounced their Yoke and Dominion to be sure they would never cease infesting it with the fiery darts of their malice till they had utterly ruined and destroyed them and therefore to prevent their mischievous attempts God in mercy hath thought meet to commit us to the Guardianship of his holy Angels and to send them forth under the Conduct of Iesus our Mediator to fight against these Hellish powers in the defence of his Church and People for so God promised Ierusalem Zech. 2.5 that he would be as a wall of fire round about her i. e. as the most learned Expositors suppose by surrounding her with a Guard of Angels whom in the defence of his People against evil Angels he maketh a flaming fire as the Psalmist expresses it Psal. 104.4 and in Rev. 12.7 we read of a War in Heaven or the airy Region of which the Devil is called the Prince Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels which War Michael undertook as the foregoing verses tell us in the defence of the Woman that was cloathed with the Sun which all agree was the Christian Church so also in verse 9. of Iude's Epistle we read that Michael the Archangel contended and disputed with the Devil about the body of Moses or Jewish Church so called for the same reason that the Christian Church is called the Body of Christ. And it is very probably supposed that that Hedge which the Devil complained God had set about Iob and about his house by which he was hindered from breaking in upon him was no other than a Guard of Angels by which he was driven back as oft as he attempted to execute his Rage and Malice upon him Chap. 1.10 Now by what means or instruments the good Angels war against and repel the evil ones is I conceive an enquiry beyond our Cognisance Revelation from whence we receive all our notions of the state and Oeconomy of the invisible world being wholly silent in the case only thus much we may say without any way presuming beyond our Capacity that spiritual Agents can as easily strike upon spirits as bodily Agents do upon bodies and though we who are Spectators only of corporeal motion can give no account of the manner how one spirit acts upon another yet there is no reason at all to doubt but that they have some way of impressing one another and communicating to each other a mutual sense and feeling of each others pleasures and displeasures and if so then it is easie to suppose that the more powerful any spirit is the stronger and more exquisite impressions of its displeasure it can make upon other Spirits and consequently that the Good Angels who by preserving their innocence and improving their perfections have augmented and redoubled their natural strength and vigour are much more powerful than the bad ones who have rather impaired it and so are much more able to withstand and repel the violent impressions of the bad Angels than the bad Angels can theirs so that though the bad Angels may and oftentimes do resist and oppose the good yet they can never conquer them but in the conclusion are still forced to flee before them as being unable to withstand their more powerful impressions Since therefore we wrestle not with flesh and bloud i. e. only with flesh and bloud but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against spiritual wickednesses in high Places i. e. against the several Ranks of Devils that are in the Air under the Command and Conduct of Beelzebub their Prince Eph. 6.12 And since these Apostate Spirits are by much too strong and powerful for us so that were we left to grapple with them alone by our own single strength they would infallibly vanquish and lead us captive to eternal ruine God hath thought meet to subject his holy Angels to the command of our compassionate Mediator that so when ever we are too hardly beset by these evil spirits he might send them forth to guard and protect us against them and either to assist us in our conflicts with them or to chase them away from us when we are no longer able to withstand them and accordingly we have a sure word of promise that if we resist the Devil he shall fly away from us Iam. 4.7 not that our weak resistance is in it self sufficient to put those daring and mighty Spirits to flight but the meaning without doubt is that if when they assault us with any temptation to sin we do but oppose them with a sincere resolution God will not permit us to be vanquished by them but when ever they press too hard upon us will be sure to send down some good Angel to us to repel and drive them away from us for so he hath promised that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the Temptation also make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 which plainly implies that should God suffer him the Devil can tempt us above what we are able and this without doubt he is ordinarily hindered from by the timely interpositions of the holy Angels who when our strength begins to fail are always ready to second us and with their victorious arms to encounter and put to flight those evil spirits that do so importunately tempt us V. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their furthering and assisting his Subjects in the Works and Offices of Religion for since they are said to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation there is no doubt but that they minister to them in the discharge of their Religious Obligations upon which their Salvation depends and since as our Saviour assures us there
swim how would it be possible for it in such a vast and unknown Continent ever to find its way to the Seat of the blessed without the conduct of some experienced guide And who can be better experienced in that Celestial Road than those winged Messengers of the Almighty King who in the execution of his high behests are always travelling to and fro between Heaven and Earth And therefore our Saviour hath committed the separated Spirits of his faithful Subjects to these most skilful and faithful Guides who in pursuance of his Commission are some or other of them still attending upon every good man's decease to receive his Soul into their Custody as soon as ever it is expired and to guard it against evil Spirits as it passes through the Air and thence to conduct it through all those spacious fields of Aether which extend themselves far and wide beyond all the visible lights of Heaven to those happy abodes which the divine goodness hath prepared for glorified Spirits VII And lasty Another instance of the Ministry of Angels to our Saviour in his Kingdom is their attending and assisting him in the great solemnity of the day of Iudgment for thus in all his most solemn and conspicuous works of Providence our Saviour hath still been pleased to make use of the Ministry of his holy Angels so when he came to ratifie his Covenant with Iacob the mysterious Preface of that great solemnity was a Ladder reaching from Heaven to Earth and the Angels ascending and descending upon it which was doubtless intended for an Emblem of that Everlasting Covenant by which Man was to ascend to God and God to descend to Man so also when the Law was delivered by him upon the Mount the Angels descended with him and pitched their Tents about it in Circles of flaming fire to signifie to the People those flames of vengeance that would certainly pursue and seize them if they were not obedient to those words that were thence delivered to them so also when he was born into the world the holy Angels came down to sing his Christmas Carol and at once to proclaim and celebrate his Nativity and it is the opinion of some learned men that that multitude of the heavenly Host which St. Luke speaks of and who sang that Anthem of Glory be to God on high at our Saviour's Nativity Luke 2.13 contained the whole Nation of Angels because in Heb. 1.6 it is said that when God brought in the first begotten into the world he said let all the Angels worship him that is as they understand it when our Saviour was born God gave order to all the Angels of Heaven to come down and do homage to him who was ere long to be their Sovereign Lord under the most high Father Thus also a little before Ierusalem was destroyed Iosephus tells us that the Heavens were spread with Troops of armed men who without doubt were the blessed Angels that by their phantastick combats in the Air did presignifie the ensuing Tragedy of that bloudy City It is no wonder then if the great solemnity of Doomsday of which Ierusalem's desolation was only a mournful Type shall also be adorned and illustrated with the presence and attendance of the holy Angels For this great Transaction is to be the winding up of the vast bottom of divine Providence over the whole Race of faln and degenerate Mankind and the close and conclusion of the Mediatorial Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour and therefore will without doubt be performed with the greatest Grandeur and Magnificence This is to be the great Day of our Saviour's Triumph wherein his Friends shall be Crowned and his Enemies made his foot-stool and such a solemnity may well deserve the attendance and Ministry of all the heavenly Angels who accordingly shall then descend with our Saviour from the highest Heavens in bright aetherial bodies such as shall render them gloriously conspicuous to all the lower world and so fit to adorn the Triumphs of that glorious day for so the Scripture assures us not only that he shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God 1 Thes. 4.16 but also that he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him Matt. 25.31 and that he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels and that he shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and in a word that he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mar. 8.38 But what their Ministry is to be in that great Day I shall hereafter have occasion to shew when I come to discourse of that solemn transaction And now having explained the Ministry of the good Angels under Christ I proceed to treat of the Ministry of the evil Angels to him which principally consists in these four particulars First In trying and exercising the vertues of his Subjects Secondly In chastening and correcting their faults and miscarriages Thirdly In searing and hardening his incorrigible Rebels Fourthly In executing his vengeance on them in another World. I. The Ministry of evil Angels to Christ consists in trying and exercising the vertues of his Subjects for this being the state of our trial and probation wherein we stand Candidates for those everlasting preferments in the other World our blessed Lord hath thought meet to surround us with Difficulties and Temptations that so being in continual conflict with them we may never want opportunity to exert and exercise our vertues and to give the most glorious proofs of our Courage and Constancy For difficulty is the Spur of Endeavour and the Whet-stone of Vertue without which the fairest Graces that belong to Humane Nature would be altogether Vseless Worthless and Vnactive such as Faith and Patience Temperance and Equanimity Courage and Resignation to God all which would scarce deserve the name of Vertues if they had not some difficulties to contest withal Now one of the greatest difficulties with which our blessed Lord tries and exercises these Graces of our Nature is the Temptations of evil Spirits who as so many assisting Geniuses to the corrupt inclinations of our Nature are permitted by him to rove about the World in innumerable swarms to Tempt and Elicite those inclinations into action and these being Spirits have a much nearer access to the Souls of men than any material Agents whatsoever for though they are totally debarred from all kind of intercourse with the immediate operations of the reasonable Soul and can no more look into its thoughts than we can into the bowels of the Earth yet our Fancies and Imaginations lying open to them there is no doubt but they can and oftentimes do make what use they think fit of the Animal Spirits there and dispose and order and distinguish them just as the Painter doth his numerous Colours that lie confusedly before him in their several Shells into the Pictures
you keep bound or obliged to that Penalty I also will keep bound and obliged to this This is the Spirtual Iurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church to bind or loose suspend or restore excommunicate or absolve and this he hath wholly deposited in the Episcopal Order For in all the above-cited places it was only to his Apostles that he derived this Iurisdiction they alone were the Stewards to whom he committed the Keys and Government of his Family and it was to them alone that he promised that they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is to Rule and Govern the spiritual Israel which is the Christian Church even as the Phylarchae or Chiefs of the Tribes governed the twelve Tribes of natural Israel Mat. 19.28 and hence in that Mystical representation of the Church by a City descending from Heaven Rev. 21. the Wall of it is said to have twelve foundations and upon them twelve names of the twelve Apostles ver 14. and those twelve foundations are compared to twelve precious stones to denote their power and dignity in the Church ver 19 20. and the Wall being exactly meted is found to be 144 Cubits that is twelve times twelve to denote that these twelve Apostles had each of them an equal portion allotted him in the Government and administration of the Church ver 17. This spiritual Iurisdiction therefore of governing the Church and administring the Censures of it being by our Saviour wholly lodged in the Apostolate none can justly claim or pretend to it but such as are of the Apostolick Order and accordingly in the Apostolick Age we find it was always administred either immediately by the Apostles themselves or by the Bishops of the several Churches to whom they communicated their Order for thus in the Church of Corinth it was S. Paul who pronounced the Sentence of Excommunication against the incestuous person for I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged or pronounced Sentence already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed 1 Cor. 5.3 and what he orders them to do ver 4 5. was only to declare and execute his Sentence and 2 Cor. 13.2 he threatens them that heretofore had sinned that if he came again he would not spare them and that by his not sparing them he meant that he would proceed against them with Ecclesiastical Censures is evident from ver 1. In the mouth of two or three Witnesses shall every word be established which are the very words of our Saviour Matt. 18.16 when he instituted the power of Censuring and then ver 10. he tells them that he wrote these things being absent lest being present he should use severity according to the power which the Lord had given them to edification and not to destruction by which it is plain he means the power of Excommunicating and 1 Cor. 4.21 he threatens to come to them with a Rod that is to chastise them with the Censures of the Church and with this Rod as he himself tells he chastised Hymenoeus and Alexander two stickling Hereticks in the Church of Ephesus whom he delivered unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme 1 Tim. 1.20 and as he frequently executed the Censures of the Church in his own Person so he derived this spiritual Iurisdiction to Timothy and Titus whom he Ordained Apostles or Bishops of the Church of Ephesus and Crete for so he orders Timothy against an Elder Receive not an Accusation but before two or three Witnesses which plainly implies his Authority to examine and try the causes even of the Elders themselves when they were accused and to punish them if he found them guilty for so it follows Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear 1 Tim. 5.19 20. so also he exhorts Titus to exercise this his spiritual Jurisdiction A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject Tit. 3.10 which plainly implies that he had an Authority inherent in him as he was the Apostle or Bishop of Crete to Cite Examine Admonish and Censure persons of erronious Principles and the same Authority it is evident was inherent in the Angels or Bishops of the seven Churches of Asia Thus the Bishop of Ephesus had Authority to try such as said they were Apostles and were not and to convict them for Liars Rev. 2.2 and the Bishop of Pergamus is blamed for tolerating the Sect of the Nicolaitans in his Church ver 14 15. and so also is the Bishop of Thyatira for suffering that woman Iezebel ver 20. which plainly implies that the Authority of curbing and correcting those profligate Sectaries was inherent in them else why should they be blamed any more than others for not restraining them From all which it is evident that the power of Christian Jurisdiction was Originally seated in the Apostolate and that throughout the Apostolick Age it was always exercised by such and only such as were admitted into that sovereign Order viz. either by the twelve Prime Apostles or by those secondary Apostles whom they ordained Bishops of particular Churches and accordingly we find in the Primitive Ages the Bishops were the sole administrators of this spiritual Iurisdiction and though ordinarily they administred it with the advice and concurrence of their Presbytery yet this was more than they thought themselves obliged to for thus S. Cyprian in the time of his recess did by his own single Authority Excommunicate Felicissimus Augendus and others of his Presbyters Ep. 38 39. and when Rogatianus a Bishop of his Metropolitick Church complained to him in a Synod of a disorderly Deacon he tells him that pro Episcopatus vigore Cathedrae authoritate i. e. by his own Episcopal authority without appealing to the Synod he might have chastised him And the fifth Canon of the first Nicene Council plainly shews that it was then the judgment of the Catholick Church that the power of spiritual Iurisdiction was wholly seated in the Bishops for it decrees that in every Province there should be twice a year a Council of Bishops to examine whether any person Lay or Clergy had been unjustly excommunicated by his Bishop which shews that then this Sentence was inflicted by the Bishop only though afterwards to prevent abuses it was decreed in the Council of Carthage that the Bishop should hear no mans Cause but in the presence of his Clergy and that his Sentence should be void unless it were confirmed by their presence but yet still the Sentence was peculiarly his and not his Clergies In some Churches indeed the Bishops did many times delegatâ— power to their Presbyters both to excommunicate and absolve as perhaps S. Paul himself did in the Church of Corinth but in this case the Presbyter was only the Bishops mouth and his Sentence received all its force from that Episcopal Authority he was armed with IV. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of
our faith cannot be sufficient to discharge us from its penalty unless it be such as includes in it repentance and sincere obedience In short the law of grace condemns us as well for impiety injustice and uncharitableness as for infidelity and therefore we cannot be acquitted by it upon forsaking our infidelity unless we also forsake our impiety c. and while we continue in any one wilful sin for which it condemns it is impossible that at the same time we should be acquitted and pardoned by it so that unless our faith be such as doth include in it a renuntiation of all wilful sin or which is the same thing repentance and sincere obedience we cannot be acquitted upon it by the Law of Grace And then if we consider the matter of our Pardon and Remission which is nothing but a releasing us from our obligation to punishment it will from thence also appear that that faith upon which we obtain our pardon must be such as works in us sincere repentance and obedience For the punishment to which we are obliged by the Law of grace consists in the loss of Heaven as well as in the positive Torments of Hell and therefore our pardon must include a release from both but to be released from our obligation of losing Heaven is the same thing as to have a right of enjoying it confer'd upon us so that the Faith upon which we are pardoned and forgiven is the Faith upon which we are intitled to Heaven as all agree includes in it repentance and sincere obedience For these two things are of undoubted certainty that every man shall go to Heaven that dies intitled to it and that no man shall go to Heaven that dieth in impenitence and wilful disobedience For it is our keeping the Commandments of God that gives us a right to the Tree of life Rev. 22.14 And our keeping Gods Commandments is that Holiness without which no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 And accordingly in Scripture the Remission of our sins is attributed to our repentance and obedience as well as to our faith so Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And in Eph. 1.7 If ye walk in the light as he is in the light you have communion with him and the blood of Christ cleanseth you from all sin So also Acts 10.34 35. God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that fearâ—th him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him From whence it is evident that when the Scripture makes mention of faith only in the matter of our Justification it is to be understood of faith in the greatest latitude as comprehending Repentance and sincere obedience for how can we be justified by faith only and yet be justified by obedience too unless our obedience be included in our faith and indeed the Scripture plainly declares that faith it self is not at all available with God unless it be accompanied with sincere obedience So Gal. 5.6 In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth nor Uncircumcision but faith whick worketh by Love and what he means by faith working by love he tells us Gal. 6.16 Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing but the new Creature and what he means by the new Creature he also tells us 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God so that the only thing which avails us with God is faith working by love Faith working by Love is the new Creature the new Creature is keeping the Commandments of God and in Iames 2.26 we are told that as the body without the spirit is dead so faith also is dead without works that is it is altogether ineffectual For so if you compare the 14. and 17. Verses of this Chapter you will find that those two phrases faith cannot save and faith is dead do both signifie the same thing Since therefore faith it self without obedience is unavailable when the Scripture makes mention of our being justified by faith it must necessarily be understood of faith comprehending Obedience And thus you see what God the Fathers part is in remitting our sins viz. that it consists in granting to us an universal act of pardon and Indemnity in consideration of our Saviours Sacrifice and upon Condition of our sincere Repentance and future obedience And this is the ground-work and foundation of all remission of sins without which our Saviour himself hath no right to pardon and forgive us for since the Law against which we have all sinned was peculiarly from God the Father as he is the fountain of Divinity and consequently the head of the divine Dominion it was he peculiarly that was the party offended and consequently it was he to whom our obligation to punishment was due and by whom alone it can be released and remitted and as the grant of Remission was wholly in his will and pleasure so was it also to accept the consideration and appoint the Conditions of it So that now as none can be pardoned but upon his Grant so neither can his grant be available to any but upon that consideration which he hath accepted viz. the precious sacrifice of his own Son and upon such conditions as he hath appointed viz. faith working in us sincere repentance and obedience and accordingly our Saviour in all that he doth in the part he acts in forgiving sins proceeds upon and according to this Grant of his Father for 't is in the right and upon the consideration and condition of this Grant that he forgives us nor can he forgive any by any other right than that which it gives him or upon any other consideration than that which it hath admitted or upon any other condition than that which it hath specified and determined And this brings me to the second Head I proposed which was to shew what it is that the Son doth in forgiving Sins In short therefore the part which our Saviour bears in it consider'd as King under God the Father is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular Sinners upon their faith and repentance For the Fathers grant is only a general promise that we shall be pardoned for Christs sake whenever we sincerely believe and repent but the actual pardoning us consists in the application of this general Promise to us in particular by which the general promise of pardon is converted into a particular sentence of pardon For the promise says thus Whosoever believes and repents shall be pardoned the particular application of the Promise says thus Thou doest believe and repent and therefore by vertue of that Promise I pardon and forgive thee And this is the proper part of our blessed Saviour who having first obtained this Promise of his Father by his sacrifice upon Earth and then still continuing to obtain of him by
participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven so also Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Throne And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood and of a vexatious and tumultuous World they live in continued ease content and joy wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating loving and imitating God and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which necessarily implies that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ and elsewhere he teaches that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence but that they do so is as plain as words can express it in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 From whence it evidently follows that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness where the blessed inhabitants live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure where all their happiness is eternal and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love and Praise and Ioy and Triumph where there are no sighs or tears no intermixtures of sorrow or misery but every heart is full of joy and every joy is Quintessence and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment But of this blessed state I have given an account at large Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded till the end of the World but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth admits them to the joy of their Master to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed and doth always continue to perform I proceed in the III. And last place To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him before he surrenders up his Kingdom and these are reducible to three Heads First He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies Secondly He is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection Thirdly He is yet to judge the World. I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished So Psal. 2.8 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel so also Dan. 7.4 it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominionâ— should serve and obey him ibid. ver 27. so also Dan 2.34 35 44 45. that the stone cut out without hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ should become a great Mountain and fill the whole earth and that it should break in pieces and consume all those other Kingdoms Thus also it is foretold that the Lord should be King over all the Earth Mich. 5.4 and that there should be but one Lord and his name one Zech. 14.9 and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the Rivâ—r to the 〈◊〉 of the Earth Psal. 72.8 and that all Kings should fall down before him and all Nations serve him ibid. ver 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him because the Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall govern among the Nations These and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers
raise us up by Iesus Christ i. e. by his personal Power and Agency and accordingly Iohn 6. 39 40.44.54 Christ promises us over and over again that he will raise us up at the last day and Iohn 11.25 he thus declares himself to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and Iohn 5.28 he tells us that the hour is coming in which all that are in the Grave should hear his voice And of the truth of this he hath given a most sure and certain pledge by his own Resurrection which not only demonstrates the possibility of the thing that the dead may rise but also gives ample assurance that they shall For that he hath in him a power to raise the dead is evident by his raising himself and to be sure that Power and Spirit that was in him when he raised himself is able to raise all those in whom it resides Whoever therefore hath the Spirit of Christ that Spirit by which he rose from the dead hath the power of the Resurrection in him which power to be sure will not be always in vain but one time or other will most certainly be reduced into Act For so the Apostle assures us Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us And indeed considering that Christ in dying and rising from the dead acted as our Head and Representative we may justly conclude that as when he laid down his life he laid it down for ours so when he took it up again he took up ours with it and consequently that he vertually raised us by the same Spirit whereby he actually raised himself because he hath not only Power but also Will as he is our Head and Representative to raise us even as he raised himself So that we are already risen in our causes since our Head and Representative is risen and hath the same power to raise us as he had to raise himself and hence he is called the first-born from the dead and we the Sons of the Resurrection Col. 1.18 because our Resurrection is now in the same causes that is in the same Will and Power as his was before he arose And therefore also he is called the first fruits of them that rise that is the pledge and handsel of the general Resurrection because he is risen with the same Will and Power to raise us that he had when he arose to raise himself and hence we find the Apostle argues from the Resurrection of Christ to the general Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead If we are all agreed that Christ is risen what reason can any man have to doubt of the general Resurrection But if there be no resurrection from the dead then is Christ not risen ver 13. To say that we shall not rise is by consequence to deny the resurrection of Christ because that very same will and power which must have been the cause of Christs resurrection if he be risen must be the cause of ours if ever we rise and therefore if it be insufficient to raise us it could never have been sufficient to raise him and consequently he cannot be risen If it be objected against this reasoning of the Apostle that our resurrection will be far more difficult to accomplish than Christs was because his body was never corrupted nor were the parts of it ever dispersed as ours will be long before the resurrection and therefore that cause which was sufficient to raise Christ may not be sufficient to raise us It may easily be answered that to the infinite power by which Christ was raised all possible things are equally easie and therefore allowing our resurrection to be but possible it must be every whit as easie to that infinite power by which Christ was raised to reduce all our scattered atoms into one mass again and to reorganize them into a humane body and reunite it to its ancient soul as it was to quicken the yet uncorrupted body of our Saviour So that all the question is whether the thing be possible for if it be it will be every whit as easie to the omnipotent cause of our Saviours resurrection to raise our bodies as it was to raise his But I beseech you why should it be thought more impossible for God to raise a dead corrupted body whose parts are all dispersed and scattered throughout the vast wilderness of matter and reunite it to its primitive soul than it was at first to create the matter of it and then form it into a humane body and animate it with a humane soul He who at the first creation could separate the confused mass of matter into so many distinct kinds and species of Beings can doubtless at the general resurrection as easily separate the same matter into its distinct and several individuals For what should hinder him who numbers the stars of the Heavens the sands of the Sea and the hairs of our heads from keeping an exact account of all our scattered particles and from knowing what dust belongs to every body and what body to every soul Or how can it be difficult to him whose power is as immense as his knowledg to recollect all the parts of this curious piece of Clockwork which he both made and took in sunder and to restore every pin into its proper place every spring to its due vigour and activity and every wheel to its primitive figure and motion If it be farther objected that there is an impossibility in the nature of the thing for the same dead body after it is corrupted and its parts all disperst to be reunited and raised to life again I answer that since these dispersed parts of our bodies do not perish but are safely laid up in the Chambers of Nature however they are scattered or wherever lodged they are all within the ken of Gods knowledg and within the reach of his power and so long as they are so why should their separation render it impossible for them to be reunited how and when he pleases If you say that in that perpetual course of transmutation which the matter of humane bodies runs it may happen and sometimes doubtless it doth that the same particles at several times are incorporated into several bodies As for instance when one man eats either the flesh or that which hath the flesh or substance of another in it and digests it into a part of his own body and substance in which case how is it possible at the resurrection that the substance or matter of this part should be reunited to them both To this I answer that considering that scarce the hundredth part of what we eat is digested into
of himself to God and if every one then to be sure the Righteous must as well as the wicked not that there will be any doubt of the righteousness of the Righteous in the breast of the Judge to whose all-seeing Eye the darkest secrets of all hearts lie open but yet for otheâ—â—â—asons it is highly convenient they should undergo a trial as well as others As first for the more solemn and publick vindication of their wronged innocence that all that infamy and scandal with which their malicious Enemies have bespattered them may be wiped off before men and Angels and that being assoiled before all the World they may triumph for ever in a bright and glorious reputation And secondly That all those brave and unaffected acts of secret Piety and Charity to which none but God and themselves were conscious may be brought into the open light and to their everlasting renown proclaimed throughout all the vast Assembly of Spirits for now we shall see all those modest souls unmask'd whose silent and retired graces do make so little shew and noise in the world and all their humble pieties and bashful beauties which scarce any Eye ever saw but Gods shall be exposed to the publick view and general applause of Saints and Angels Thirdly They shall be tried also for the vindication of Gods impartial procedure in proportioning their reward to their vertue that so the degrees of each mans proficiency in piety and vertue being exposed to the view of the world by an impartial trial Angels and Men may be convinced that in distributing the different degrees of happiness the Almighty Judge is no way biassed by a fond partiality or respect of persons but that he proceeds upon immutable Principles of Iustice and doth exactly adjust and ballance his rewards with the degrees and numbers of our deserts and improvements that so even those that are set lowest in those blessed Forms and Classes of glorified Spirits may not envy those that are above them or complain that they are advanced no higher but every one may chearfully acknowledge himself to be placed where he ought to be as being fully convinced that he is only so many degrees inferiour to others in glory as they are superiour to him in divine graces and perfections Fourthly and lastly The Righteous shall undergo this Trial for the more glorious manifestation of the divine mercy and goodness For which reason I am apt to think that even their sins of which they have dearly and heartily repented shall in this their trial be exposed and brought upon the Stage that so in the free pardon of such an infinite number of them the whole Congregation of the blessed may behold and admire the infinite extent of the divine mercies and be thereby the deeper affected with and more vigorously excited to celebrate with Songs of praise the goodness of their merciful Iudge For these reasons the Wise man tells us Eccles. 12.14 that God shall bring every secret thing to judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil which Proposition being universal must extend to the Righteous as well as to the Wicked But yet though their sores shall be then laid open it shall be done by a soft and gentle hand by a serene Conscience and a smiling Iudge who without any angry look or severe reflection or any other circumstance but what shall contribute to the joys and triumphs of that day shall read over all the Items of their guilt and then cancel them for ever For IV. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Sentence Although to us whose operations are so slow and leisurely by reason of the unwieldiness of these fleshly Organs with which we act such a particular trial as hath been before described of such an infinite number of men and women may seem to require an unreasonable length of time yet if we consider that then both the Iudge and those who are to be judged shall be array'd in spiritual bodies in which they will be able to act with unspeakable nimbleness and dispatch we shall find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction for the Iudge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction and they who are to be judged being by reason of their spirituality in a condition to attend to every ones trial while they are undergoing their own I see no reason we have to imagine that they shall be tried successively one after another and if not why may we not suppose that we shall all be tried together at the same time and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one And that they shall all be tried together is very probable since it is apparent from Scripture that they shall all be sentenced together for thus Mat. 25.34 Then shall the King say to those on his right hand i. e. to them all together Come ye blessed c. Having first by an accurate and impartial Trial manifested their integrity to all the world he shall arise out of his flaming Throne and with an audible voice and smiling Majesty pronounce their Sentence all together in these or such like words Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world to which welcome Sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful Choir of Halelujahs through Heaven and Earth Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Iudgments ' Salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for wonderful are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints And now all their business being finished here below they shall from henceforth be no longer detained in this Vale of tears and misery but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever For V. And lastly Another thing implyed in this their Iudgment is their Assumption into the Clouds of heaven For their blessed Lord having thus publickly acquitted and pronounced them blessed they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the Bar but from thence will call them up to his Tribunal there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person and more intimate participation of his glory At which powerful call and invitation of his they shall in an instant all take wing together like a mighty flock of pure and innocent Doves and fly aloft into the air singing and warbling as they go to meet their Redeemer in the Clouds of Heaven For so the Apostle in 1 Thes. 4.17 Then that is after their Resurrection and Judgment we which are alive and remain who never died but only have been changed and glorified shall be caught up together with them who shall be raised from the dead
smallest threds and fibres of their hearts laid open and exposed to the view of men and Angels their own shame and the intolerable rack of their consciences will force them to confess their Charge and proclaim themselves guilty before all that vast Congregation of Spirits But O the inexpressible horror and confusion these wretched Souls will then be seized with when they shall see themselves thus publickly unmasked and turned inside outwards and be forced to stand forth like so many loathsom spectacles before God and his Angels without any excuse or retreat for their shame without any vail to hide their infamy and blushes when their filthy practices shall be no longer confined to the talk of a Town or a Village but be proclaimed in the hearing of all the rational World O now it would be happy for them if as formerly they could drown the retorts of their conscience in noise and laughter and forget its cutting repartees which were always uneasie to bear but impossible to Answer But alas those jolly days are gone and now in despite of themselves they must listen with horrour and confusion of face to what those two great Judges Iesus and their own Consciences unanimously give in charge against them Thus he whose piercing Eye doth now penetrate their hearts and ransack every corner of their souls will in that great day of discoveries bring forth all that secret filth that is there reposited and expose it for an infamous spectacle to the publick view of men and Angels IV. Another particular implied in this judgement of wicked men is their Sentence Their Trial being now over in which their guilt hath been sufficiently evinced and detected to their everlasting infamy and reproach they will by this time have received the sentence of death within themselves and stand condemned in the judgment of all the World the Righteous Iudg who is too great to be overawed too just to be bribed and too much provoked to be intreated whose Ears are now for ever stopped and whose Bowels are impenitrably hardened against all further Overtures of mercy will with a stern look and terrible voice pronounce that dreadful doom upon them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels which though it be of a horrible import will appear so just considering the horrible things which have been charged and proved against them that it will be immediately seconded with the unanimous suffrage of all that bright Corona of glorified Saints that sit as Assessors round the Throne who with one consent will all cry out together Iust and righteous art thou O Iudge of the World in all thy ways But O the fearful shrieks and lamentations that will then be heard from those poor condemned Creatures For if A Lord have mercy upon thee A take him Iailor from an earthly Iudge be able to extort so many sighs and tears from a hardened Malefactor what will A go ye cursed do from the mouth of the Righteous Iudge of the World and when so many millions of men and women shall be all involved together in the same doom and all at once lamenting their dismal fate Lord what a horrible outcry will they make Now in the bitter Agonies of their souls they will cry to heaven for mercy mercy but alas poor souls they cry too late their Iudg was once as importunate with them to have mercy upon themselves but because when he called they refused when he stretched forth his hands they regarded not now when they call he will not answer when they cry he will not hear but will laugh at their calamity as they did at his counsel and mock when their fear and destruction is come upon them V. And lastly Another particular implied in this Iudgment of the wicked is the execution of their Sentence For immediately after their sentence is past by which they stand doomed to everlasting fire an everlasting fire shall be kindled round about them a fire which within a few moments shall spread it self over all this lower World and convert the whole Almosphere about us into a furnace of inquenchable flames For then all those fiery particles which are every where intermingled with these terrestial Bodies and have hitherto been kept within their proper limits shall be disintangled and set free from those more gross and sluggish ones that now bind and fix them and swarm together like so many sparks into one huge globe of Fire which from the lower-most centre of the Earth shall spire up and kindle upon all that Airy Heaven above and with one continued flame fill all the vast expansum all that fiery matter which is now dispersed up and down within the entrails of the Earth shall by degrees gather together into Rivers of Fire which rolling to and fro within to force their way into the open Air will perhaps produce those prodigious Earthquakes of which our Saviour speaks by which at length the Earth being cleft and torn it shall every where vomit out Torrents of Fire from its flaming bowels and at the same time the Sea shall boil and swell and roar like water in a seething Pot till 't is all evaporated by the strugling flames from below which having rarified its waters into vapours shall kindle those vapours into flames and at the same time also the Heavens above shall groan and crack with incessant Thunder accompanied with thick and fearful flashes of Lightning which joyning with those vast streams of Fire that will be continually issuing out of the Earth and Sea will make such a prodigious deluge of flames as will quickly overflow the whole World. For thus we are assured from Scripture that the Element shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 So also St. Iohn in his Vision of the day of Judgment Rev. 20.11 I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them not that the matter of them shall be annihilated but the form of them shall be destroyed by their being converted into an everlasting Fire and in this Fire shall those condemned wretches live and suffer to eternal Ages Hence it is called the vengeance of eternal fire and we are told that it will be in flaming fire that the Lord Jesus will render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not his Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 And that this flaming fire shall be the conflagration of the World that of St. Peter seems plainly to imply 2 Pet. 3.7 But the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men and being reserved unto fire against the day of perdition of ungodly men we may justly conclude that the fire it is reserved to will be the Perdition of ungodly men Thus upon our Saviours pronouncing
bound and tremble as miserable Captives under our hands Others of them appeal to the Consciences of the Heathens themselves who had been Spectators of their miraculous Victories over these infernal Spirits So Minutius Faelix All these things are very well known to a great many of your selves that your Gods are forced by us to confess themselves Devils when by the torment of our words and by the fire of our Prayers they are chased out of human Bodies even Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter and the greatest of those Gods you worship being overcome with sorrow are forced to acknowledge what they are and tho it be to their shame especially when you are present yet they dare not lye but being adjured by the true and only God they quake and tremble in the bodies they possess and either leap out immediately or vanish by degrees Others of them offer to make the experiment even before the Tribunals of the Heathen and to answer for the success with their own lives So Tertullian in his Apologetick Let any man that is apparently acted by one of your Gods be brought before your own Tribunals and if that supposed God being commanded by any Christian to speak doth not confess himself to be a Devil as not daring to lye to a Christian take that malepert Christian and pour out his blood immediately Yea how often saith he a little after only upon our touch of and breathing upon possessed persons are these Gods you adore forced to depart out of their Bodies with grief and reluctancy you your selves being present and blushing at it And these things as Origen tells us cont Cels. lib. 7. were ordinarily performed even by the meanest Christians which is a plain Argument that it was done merely by the power of Jesus without any Conjuration or Magical Art. And can we imagine that the Devil without any constraint from some superior power would ever have quitted that Tyranny he had so long exercised over the bodies and consciences of men who had thitherto adored and worshiped him or that he would ever have confessed himself to be a Devil to those men who sought the ruin of his Kingdom and made use of his Confessions to that purpose had he not been forced to it by the Authority of the Father of Spirits Is it likely he would have exerted his power to the ruin of his own interest and the amendment of those Souls he had insnared and captivated as he must necessarily have done should he have impowered the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection to confirm their Testimony by Miracles And since they all along declared they did them in the name and by the power of Iesus to be sure if it had not been so the God of truth would never have impowered them to impose such a cheat upon the World. These Miracles of theirs therefore were plain signs and tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead and that not only as they were so many divine seals by which God himself did confirm their Testimony whose goodness and veracity could never have permitted him to set the seal of his miraculous power to a lye But besides this the Apostles Miracles were so many plain demonstrations that Jesus was risen and alive since they did them all in his name and by his power For how is it possible that Jesus could have impowered them to do Miracles had he been still among the dead and in a state of inactivity A dead man can do nothing himself much less can he impower others to do Miracles So that by those miraculous Works which the Apostles did by the power of Christ they did in effect thus bespeak the World Look here O incredulous World if nothing else will persuade you that our Lord is risen and alive behold the vital operations which he exerts in us his Disciples tho of our selves we are as impotent as you yet no sooner do we invoke our great Masters Name and implore his Aid but we are presently enabled to perform mighty things beyond the power of any mortal Agent without any other Charm but his powerful Name we raise the Dead bind the Devils restore the Blind recover the Lame and cure all manner of Diseases and is not this as plain a token of his being alive as if he were now standing before you in our room and doing all these things in his own Person If he were dead still he could not act in us as you see him do and therefore if nothing else will convince ye that he is alive again behold these mighty powers which he exerts in us and be at length persuaded by these sensible tokens of his activity which we produce before your eyes that he is risen from the dead For it is worth observing that this gift of Miracles was never so plentifully communicated to the Apostles as after Christs Ascension into Heaven for before he ascended he commanded them to tarry at Ierusalem till they had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost or which is the same thing the Gift of Miracles Acts 1.4 5. and this gift as he himself tells them vers 8. was to enable them to bear Testimony to him unto all the World for he being now ascended into Heaven they could no longer produce his person to convince unbelievers of the truth of his Resurrection and therefore to supply this defect Christ gave them the gift of Miracles that that might be instead of his bodily presence a plain and sensible token of his being restored to life again And indeed this was as certain a sign of it as if he had continued upon Earth and openly conversed among men in the view of the World for the most crrtain sign of life is action and by what hath been said it is apparent that Christ did not more visibly act in his own Person when he was upon Earth than he did in the persons of his Apostles after he ascended into Heaven These miraculous Operations therefore which they performed by the Power of Jesus were all of them so many plain and sensible Signs and Tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead So that considering all these circumstances of the Apostles Testimony I dare boldly affirm that from the beginning of the World to this day there never was any matter of Fact more sufficiently and credibly testified than this of the Resurrection of our Saviour and by raising him from the dead God hath bore witness to him before all the World that he really is what he pretended to be the true Messias and only Mediator between himself and us Which brings me to the second Head I proposed to shew what an excellent convincing Argument this is of the truth of our Saviours Doctrine and Mediation and how effectually it justifies his pretence of being the true Messias and only Mediator 'T is true all the Miracles which our Saviour wrought while he