the Children to the Fathers 3. If all these places of Scripture might be solved and answered with a vertual and effectual presence and appearance of Christ yet the Faith and desires of the spouse cannot be satisfied without the Personal presence and enjoyment of her glorious Head and Bride-groom who is more to her then all whom having not seen she loves in whom though she see him not yet believing she rejoyces with joy unspeakable and full of glory and what hath she an eye for but to see him and why did he take our Nature and Form but to be so contemplated and enjoyed by his people especially when we take in this that in every line in every feature of that all-glorious face and person we shall see Divinity sparkling forth and if we could entertain our selves here with his good things without his person yet he cannot so satisfie himself to withhold himself in the most full and perfect way of enjoyment from us He that left the Fathers bosome to die for us will he refuse to drink the fruit of the vine the wine of joy with us in the Kingdom of his Father If there were no other reason that I confess sticks with me and is of it self alone sufficient that our Saviour saith Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory will Christ then send them from his presence to the earth and not accompany them thither if the Scriptures had said nothing of it or will he come down with them and not continue with them there while they continue there How can we ever be with the Lord as from the change it is said we shall if Christ keep in Heaven and we be upon the Earth How did it animate Stephen when the stones were about his Eares Act. 7 5◠with what sweetness did it fill his spirit when the Heavens opened upon him and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God How will it animate how will it raise and influence the whole Body mystical to see Christ with his Heaven and all his glory to come down and dwell in the midst of them which is no more then the spirit affirms shall be for behold the Tabernacle of God which is the person of the Lord Jesus and that not without his humanity for that properly is the Tabernacle of God is with men for so it is said of his incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He Tabernacled in the midst of us as the Tabernacle of old was pitcht in the midst of the Tribes in their encamping in the wilderness But besides this there are many other reasons as well as Scriptures to induce to believe this Article of Christ's personal glorious appearance and residence with his people in that glorious state of his Kingdom as being that point to which the eye of our Faith and expectation is constantly directed both as the necessary produceing and conserving cause of all that felicity It is the center into which all the lines from the whole circumference do strike and wherein they meet It is the Crown and perfection of all the antecedent and inchoate Salvations without which they would be but Embrio's and abortives To Philalethes Himself SIR I Have now done with your argument my greatest task behind is to address a few lines to your selfe a task so great that I can truly say by the difficulty I laboured under in the prospect of it I was hindered from putting Pen to Paper longer then the Angel was withstood by the Prince of Persia Dan. 10.13 The difficulty arose from a twofold ground first the common and general nature of opposition and controversie which as is observed of War is a sluttish thing and requires more than ordinary skill and circumspection that we wound not our friends instead of releiving them against their mistakes 2. From the peculiar nature of your cause and your singular way of mannaging it your cause carrying spirituality in its banners and your way of mannaging it with reference to my self being with all christian candor and friendly respect and that not only in your Epistle Dedicatory but through all the parts of your discourse How I have comported with the spirituality of your design I must leave to your self and the impartial Reader to judge I can truly say I heartily desired and endeavoured to be found in a full compliance with it being sorry for nothing more then to find so fair so lovely an Image of your mind engaged in so unhappy an opposition and dismembred from it self And sure no other then the Enemy hath done this for as the Woman is not without the Man nor the Man without the Woman in the Lord so neither is Letter without Spirit nor Spirit without Letter the outward form without the inward nor the inward without the outward in the Lord no more than the Soul is without the Body or the Body without the Soul in living man The outward form in Christs Kingdom being as the Woman the Letter the Body which is the image and glory of the Man i. e. of the inward form and spirit It is so in the Lord. There is indeed a state wherein they are not found together and thence arises your disgust because in Anti-christs kingdom you find the letter without the Spirit and not only form without power but the outward form exalting it self and behaving it self uncomely against the inward spirit and life denying it laying it by setting up it self in the room of it and this not only among the Papists but those that call themselves Reformed yea what form what judgment what perswasion can wash their hands of this guilt more or less how few even among our purest Churches but have defiled their garments this way But Sir let us remember It is not so in the Lord nor will it be so in his day and Kingdom While things are thus carried it is Antichrists day not Christs day It will then be otherwise This makes us look and long for his appearing I confess if we must have but the one the Spirit or inward glory were by infinite degrees to be preferred before the outward form and glory by all that have tasted that the Lord is gracious for he is a living Stone that puts life into all that are joyned to him There is no life and peace but in the Spirit Rom. 8.6 To such a one To be carnally minded is death If we seek an outward kingdom an outward glory that shall not be all Spirit It is as the stretching out our hands to a strange God Psal 44.20 and forgetting the name of the Lord our God and will not God search this out But on the other hand consider what the Spirit himself saith not only as before The Man is not without the Woman in the Lord 1 Cor. 6.13 but the body is for the Lord and the Lordfor the body the Spirit and the inward glory
his appearing and his Kingdom will concern himself about our Bodies to change them and make them like his own glorious Body even as himself hath shewed us the pattern in himself in the transfiguration when his Face shone as the Sun and his Garments were White as the Light whiter then any Fuller or Earth could make them If the Kingdom of Christ be wholly Spiritual and Invisible and concern not it self about the Body nor any of our Visible and sensible concerns how comes it that our Saviour giving an instance and representation of his Kingdom and second coming pitches so improperly on a visible Glory and an Audible Voice And yet after all this the Kingdom of Christ though revealed on Earth and takeing all the things of the Earth into its Charge and under its conduct and management yet is no terrene Earthly Kingdom but wholly and altogether Spiritual and Heavenly and all things in this Kingdom are of God 2 Cor. 5.18 Even our body which we have of him in the present state 1 Cor. 6.19 which shall then be a spiritual body standing in the Spirit as in its principle growing out of the Spirit that quickening Spirit the Lord from Heaven as its root sed and nourished by the Spirit of the Heavenly springing forth in the Image of the Heavenly and bearing the Heavenly fruit of the Spirit unto God and this food this Life this Image this Glory they converse and are entertained with in all their Franchises Priviledges and enjoyments in the Earth as has been observed before upon that Text Esa 65.16 And I hope by this time I need not purge my self of a private interest or design for this is an Universal Monarchy as the Lightening that passes from East to West instantly nor of advocateing for a fleshly Mahumetan paradice for this is the most holy and the People are the Saints of the most high I should now come to your possitive account of this Kingdom against which for the main I have no controversy the Kingdom of God undoubtedly is well and rightly stated by the Apostle in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost You and I may differ in our notions and expressions about some things relateing to these which being excentriche to the point between us I shall not be diverted by them from our main business only find my self rather the cause I am engaged in concerned in a more then implyed jealousie in drawing forth this inward form and life of the Kingdom against the outward appearance of it as if it were an enemy to it which jealousie manifestly involves this inward Kingdom in an enmity against the outward and then I am sure they are neither of them the Kingdom of Christ but an enemy drest up in the Cloaths of the one or of the other It is for Satans Kingdom to be devided and that not till its fall be near but the Kingdom of Christ is one and that which doth sibi constare both within and without righteousness peace and joy let us consult the place Rom. 14.17 For the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost We need look no higher nor read no farther the sence is absolute and entire though the whole Chapter is of the subject these are not opposed to the glorious visible state of Christs Kingdom on Earth in the end of the World but to the then antiquated and abrogated usurpation of Meats and Drinks prohibited by the Law which were by some set up for the Kingdom of God If ever we saw Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light it is here in raising a most unnatural civil Warr in the very bowels of Christs Kingdom yea the Father Son and Spirit brought in to destroy their own Kingdom for so you call this Trinity of all divine Excellencies It is not you Sir but the Enemy hath done this that hath deceived you it is past his skill or power to draw any one of these into the field to appear against this Cause for the Kingdom we contend for is not without these nor all other divine excellencies as I shall shew you particularly 1. Righteousness 2 Pet. 3.13 Nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 2. Peace Esa 9.7 Of the encrease of his Government and of peace there shall be no end 3. Joy Esa 35.10 And the Ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away so that they are but the names the notions of these things that are banded against the Life the Vertue the efficacy of them and that with this design I say not by you Sir I hope better things of you as the Apostle saith but by the Enemy to keep in the Kingdom of God from making its appearance in the World to hold it in a suffering state under an unrighteous oppressive World as if there were no passing from under these glorious sufferings but we must fall into the shameful pleasures of Sin a most unsufferable scandal of this pure and holy Kingdom of our Lord Jesus I shall close with this if you carry Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost indeed in your banners we will open our files to them and they will I am sure march up with us into this Kingdom of God unto that glorious and open manifestation of themselves there and then let them look to it that stay behind and thus I part with your second Position your third runs thus 3. Posit The Kingdom of God and of his Christ is a free state a Kingdom of much Light and Liberty yea of absolute Perfection and Glory Of much light and liberty and why is not this absolute as well as the Perfection and Glory The one is so as much as the other but I suppose you intend that all this light and liberty is only within Spiritual and Invisible for how else are we delivered in the present state from the World from Death and the Grave to instance in no more if this be all our liberty this is too short an account of the Kingdom of Christ for this is a liberty which the Kingdom of men which allow us you may be as holy as you will and as free in your Conscience as you will so that you keep them to your selves this liberty a man may enjoy in Turky Again this liberty makes no provision for the Creatures which have a promise of liberty nay this liberty so far is it from that that it provides not for all men but only for Saints whereas the Kingdom of Christ will work out a glorious liberty for the whole creation in their order after the manifestation of the Sons of God so that you did prudently avoid the term absolute in this liberty men in absolute liberty do not groan as the
whole Creation doth unto this day Yea we that have the first fruits of the Spirit saith the Apostle even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption viz. the redemption of our body Sir I trust we are not and shall not be found without our mouths filled with praises for this inward Kingdom of God in the Spirit in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost nor for this glorious freedom and liberty in the inward man but yet we groan and are allowed so to do and it is our duty and the Spirit himself assists us in this groaning and assists us with his sighs and groanes which are deeper then ours for the glorious completion of this Kingdom and the manifestation of it In respect whereof and in comparison with which our present state is but a prison and that in two respects the one respecting the inward the other the outward liberty First in respect of the inward this Spiritual inward liberty of which you treat though in respect of the ground and object of it which is Christ and the work of our Redemption wrought by his Death be full and perfect in its self yet in respect of its Application it is neither fully given forth nor but weakly apprehended by us The times of the full giving forth being reserved till Christs second appearance when the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be seven fold as the light of seven days viz. In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroak of their wound Esa 30.26 At present though the Object be uncovered in comparison with the times of the Law yet our sight is weak and therefore our weak eyes need a Glass as the Apostle saith 2. In respect of the outward The vision of our peace is as a book that is Sealed The times of this world are the Seales upon it six of them were open'd long since the seventh containing all the Trumpets and Phyalls under it is opened so far that there remains but the last Trumpet and Phyal which sticks but by a little Wax and then the times of this world are ended and the book flies open and then that is written within shall be perfectly manifested Now Sir let me bespeak you in your own words p. 30. Look not awry upon these things neither manifest any manner of dislike or neglect or carelesness Gallio like about them And take not the present in payment for the whole Look into the ancient Types of this Redemption we wait for they were not meerly inward and spiritual but outward also The deliverance of Israel out of Egypt the bringing back of the Babilonish captivity The bringing up of the Christian Church from under the Heathenish persecution These were but in part and shall this glorious Kingdom we expect fall short of these God forbid That measure of outward Liberty we enjoy at this day is by the Prerogative dispensation of this Kingdom of our Lord Jesus which hath set foot in these Nations and will not let go its hold till it hath wrought out a full liberty and deliverance for us I come now to the other part of your third Position that this Kingdom of Christ is of absolute perfection and glory which I readily assent to and the perfection and glory of it to be greater than what you instance or describe but not actual in the present state but only in hope and enjoyed at present only by Faith I say first the perfection and glory of this Kingdom of Christ is greater than what you rest in for the perfection and glory you describe rests in God and in the Person of the Lord Jesus and we are interessed in it only by faith for this is all the evidence you bring or indeed can bring for the absoluteness of this perfection and glory our imperfections manifold testifying against us that we are not actually or manifestly perfect throughout in our whole spirit Soul and Body nor in either part of them and therefore by the convincing evidence of this imperfection you are driven to fly to your Metaphysicks of unum bonum verum vel perfectum p. 44. and to grant that we in our selves and of our selves are still the same only look what we are to God that we are in Him and not in our selves p. 42. and very studiously and industriously you purge your self of placing this perfection in the flesh or in the letter but that it hath its being and foundation wholly and altogether in the life and power and spirit of the Lord Jesus c. p. 47.48 which is so well spoken that I wish those that rejoice in your book as countenancing their dream of perfection may understand it and come to a better understanding by it But is this all the perfection we ever look for in Christs Kingdom an objective perfection shall there be two Men always in us the Old and the New the Flesh and the Spirit shall we be always torn and divided and drawn asunder by two Centers two Laws the Law of our Members rebelling against the Law of our Minds T is most certain our Life our Perfection our Glory shall ever be more objective than subjective even to Eternity that is our happiness our blessedness more properly more truly consists in the Relation we have to God and Christ in the Vnion we have with God and Christ then in any habit qualities or graces that are wrought in us or by infusion imparted or communicated to us and with us else what means the Beatifical Vision But there is a vast difference between the way of apprehending this glorious full and perfect object of all blessedness now in the present infirm state and hereafter We now walk by faith saith the Apostle not by sight but then we shall walk by sight and not by faith while we walk by faith the object is at a distance for faith is the evidence of things not seen the substance of things hoped for now hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for therefore faith is not sight properly though the Apostle calls it a seeing in a sort because it makes a kind of supply of the want of sight yet 't is but a dark but a weak sight and therefore says he we now see through a Glass darkly for the weakness of the sight and the remoteness of the object the glass is needful The Lord Jesus his Person his transactions is in this our present state but as a glass through which we see God and this glass is very remote He is in Heaven and we now see him not as the Apostle Peter says 1 Pet. 1.8 and there will abide till the times of the restitution of all things and we only see him by Faith through the revelation of Scriptures the representation of Ordinances and the spiritual form of himself brought forth
whom God shall bring with his Son at his next appearing and then there were Peter James and John as representing the whole number of Disciples or Surviveing Saints and there was between both these departed and Christ and between Christ and his Disciples familiar converse and discourse in and during that Scene of Glory Now such as the earnest is such must the full payment be in the same Coyn it were a grand Soletism to state a glorious Kingdome of Christ with out Christ appearing in glory in that Kingdom and therefore David in the prophetical view he takes of this day Psal 68.17 Sees the Lord among them as in Sinai in the holy place and the Prophet Micah when he sees by the same spirit the full reduction of Israel sees their King passing before them and Lord on the head of them Mich. 2. last But Secondly how can it be otherwise but that the Lord must appear from Heaven in this glorious state of his Kingdom because of the great the Stupendiously great and ineffable works that are then to be done the ministry and effecting whereof is committed to Christ and to this his glorious appearing so that here is a complex argument the things to be done are singular rare extraordinary effects and they are such as will yeild to no power but that of the Lord Jesus in person as the raising of the dead and the judgment of the quick and dead and the changing of the surviving Saints there is no man in his wits will say these are the works of every time nor of any times but Christ's being reserved to those times for the glory of Christ and of his appearance as it was his voice that shook the earth at the giving of the Law so it is his voice that must now shake Heaven and Earth both Heb. 12. last It is his Voice must raise the dead Joh. 5.28 Not only the Mystical dead in Sins and Trespasses by his mistical or Spiritual voice put forth in the Ministry of the Gospel of which he may be understood to speak ver 25. in manifest difference from his way of speaking here but the dead properly and therefore whereas of the other he had said ver 25. The hour is coming and now is He saith not so of this hour ver 28. that it now is but that it is coming which is meant of his personal voice even as by his personal voice he raised Lazarus This is indeed marvelous in comparison wherewith the other though very marvelous yet hath no marvel in it and therefore out Saviour says marvel not at this yet Christ having said it who shall dare to question it So likewise Christ in person is to be Judge of all men Christ appearing as man in that forementioned 17th of Acts. though this man is God also So also the times of refreshing depend or derive themselves from the presence of the Lord they issue and now from that Bosom Act. 3.19 and that we might not put it off with a spiritual presence the next words shew it is personal and he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you not Christ shall send the comforter but the Father shall send Jesus again whom the Heavens must receive untill the times of the restitution of all things what violence must be offered to these and 20 other Scriptures if we allow not these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things to be not of all times but special times and to come in with the revelation of Christ's glorious person from Heaven therefore he is called in Malachy the Sun of righteousness who with his chearing warming enlivening rayes and influence shall both enlighten and quicken his own dead body first through them all things in their just order I confess they that state the utmost glory of Christs Kingdom to lie in the reformation of the old state of things to a better degree only are not obliged by that their judgment to expect Christ's personal appearance in the work his spiritual appearance or the power of his spirit in the way of Faith having already succeeded in that work and done much and being able to do more but it is not a higher or better degree of what now is that will answer the heart and design of this Love nor the grounded hopes and expectations of the Saints but a new state of things an old thing is but an old thing still be it repaired never so firmly and so is an old state the new state hath a new root and springs up in a new Image But these are but Terms let us attend the thing the Root of this new state is the person of the Lord Jesus called the Lord from Heaven the Lord that spirit that quickening spirit and such as he is such must the state be that is brought forth by him as is the Heavenly such must they then appear to be when he shall appear for he shall then appear in glory in the glory of the Father in the glory of a quickening spirit he is a quickening spirit now and we are now the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear but is hid in God his appearing is when he shall appear in us in changing us we mistake Christ's appearance if we look on it only us an objective appearance as a glorious object that shall affect our natural sences though he is and will then be a most glorious object but if we be not furnished with Spiritual sences to take in his glory we shall be confounded by it as all his enemies on whom he shall let it forth will be but if Christ should do no more but set himself in the eye of his people as a glorious object this were not to appear as a quickening spirit to appear as a quicknening spirit is to appear in a work of transformaâ—ion throughout to the transforming of Soul and body therefore it is said when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is that is we shall see him as a quickening spirit by the power whereof our very Bodies shall be changed and made like unto his glorious body and this he shall do in an instant in the twinkling of an eye for that is the working of a spirit much more of this quickning spirit therefore ir is said his reward is with him and his work before him a quickening spirit carries his own effect in his own efficiency certainty presently at once and in an an instant It works not long and leisurely gradually and successively that is the difference between the present state and that how long are we getting Victory over corruption but no soone shall Christ appear as a quickening spirit but sin shall be so utterly annihilated as if it had never been neither root nor Branch of it left to them that look for him shall he appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex secundo the second time without sin unto salvation But this is
for Jesus sake but with this Counsel and design That the Lâ—fe also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Body yea in our Mortal flesh which expectation and hope he casts into the times of the Resurrection vers 14. Or the day of Judgment as it is in the next Chap. vers 10. when we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Text may be rendred that he may receive such things by or through his Body according to that he hath done where the Body is brought in not as the instrument of those things done as the Translation in the English would carry it but for that state of man wherein he shall receive his full reward whether for good or bad which is when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul as in the Resurrection for if the Apostle should refer the doing of good or bad only to the Body or those things wherein the Body was the Agent or Instrument it would be too short to take in all good and bad there being many both good and bad fruits wherein the Body hath no hand as all mental Sins and spiritual wickednesses and so spiritual vertues and graces his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad For this cause it is that he says in the former Chap. vers 16. We faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us c. While we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen c. Here lies the knot what are these things NOT SEEN This is the strength of your Argument if there be any strength in it The Apostle shews both before and after what he means They are things that relate not only to the Soul but to the Body the mortal Flesh the Earthen Vessel or the Earthly house of this Tabernacle which shall be exchanged for a Building of God an House not made with hands a House from Heaven a Vessel of Gold which the same Apostle in the former Epistle Chap. 15. calls a Spiritual body Now is all this a meer INWARD SPIRITUAL AND INVISIBLE Glory Give me leave Sir to tell you what hath led you out of the way it it the taking of the things not seen for things Invisible whereas the Apostle is not heard to speak so in this place The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not things simply or in their own nature absolutely invisible but with respect to the present time as it is restrained in a parallel case and instance of Noah Heb. 11.7 Noah warned of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching things not seen as yet viz. The destruction of the old World by the Flood a thing which they saw and felt to their cost in the season appointed And so the recompence of reward that Moses had respect unto and the promises unto Abraham that he should be the Heir of the World they were things not seen as yet but not in their nature invisible but were seen in their time in bringing Israel into Canaan as an Earnest of the whole world to be given in due time to the seed of the Antypâ—â—â—l Abraham So also the Apostle speaks of this hope that remains still to the People of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we see not yet all things put under him He doth not say we shall never see but implies the contrary nay we have earnest of it in the glory and honour with which our Lord Jesus the head of this mystical body is Crowned Such is the Apostles Argument and such is his sence and so is he to be taken in this your place of the Corinths the things the Apostles lookt unto and comforted themselves in were things not seen as yet for they take not place till the Resurrection and the day of Judgment which I suppose you overlooking or not considering the time of this glorious visible Administration but thinking I took up as perhaps too many do in a corruptible state of things in changes made by men on this side the Resurrection of the Dead hath been a stumbling block that hath turned you out of the way whereas it is not till the Resurrection of the Just that we look for this reward as our Saviour himself determines Luk. 14.14 When the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we that survive shall be changed Now to deny a visible and outward Kingdom and Glory when the bodies of men shall put off Mortality and there shall be an universal change in the whole nature of things in Heaven and Earth and all Creatures and in all Administrations is without any plausible pretence either of Reason or Scripture It must be granted that all along in all times there have been by dispensation certain visible Earnests and foretasts of this recompence serving as Types and Prefigurations for the confirmation of our Faith and Expectation as in Enoch during the times of the Old World in the bringing of Israel out of Egypt in Moses time in the flourishing raign of Solomon c. In the Translation of Elijah in the transfiguration of our Saviour and there have been some rare examples that have pressed farr and bid high for perfection as Paul even for the Resurrection of the Dead to pass by those in every age who put themselves forward in their own spirit which will come to nothing but never any in their mortal flesh attained the full glory of this state but only a little portion of it it being the glory of another time and that which awaits the Second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints as Enoch the first of these Instances witnesseth in his Prophecy And now Sir I have done with this your second proof and I thank you for bringing it into the field it hath done us more service then you though I hope all is a service to you and you will find and acknowledge it so in the end but I speak with reference to your present cause and engagement you must needs be sensible that your own weapons are turned upon your self for these things that are not seen to which the Apostles and Believers do look have been proved to be the things of the resurrection such as concern the glory of our bodies and the restitution of all things as well as the perfecting of our spirits and to be called things not seen not for the invisibility of their nature but for that the time of their appearing is not yet So that now unless you will say which I know you will not that the putting all things even Death it self in subjection under Christ and his Saints is no part of the Kingdom of God and of Christ you cannot say it is wholly inward and invisible Your third Quotation may
is a Kingdom Daniel 7.27 And the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High This promise comes in upon the dissolution of the fourth and last Monarchy both East and West The little Horn that riseth after the Ten being the Turk and therefore did not the very express terms and circumstances in the Text decide it the Time the Place the order of Succession would carry it to be a vissible and powerful Kingdom to be exercised here on Earth The very notion of a Kingdom imports a collection a panoplia of all delights but when it is said the Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven it imports an Vniversal Monarchy or the Monarchy of the Universe whereof the four precedent Monarchies were but improperly so called by a Synecdoche and this Universal Monarchy to be most absolute most full most perfect for all felicity and abundance otherwise it could not invite and unite all the Earth as it shall do for the Kings shall bring their glory into it it shall be set in the top of the Mountains many Nations shall say come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and they shall find themselves at rest here and therefore is the reign of the Lord Jesus celebrated with such joy by the Spirit of Prophesy Psal 96. The heavens and the earth and the Sea and the Fields and the Trees of the Wood are called upon to rejoyce and sing and so in the next Psal 97. The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof so that as there shall be Righteousness Peace and Joy Heavenly and Divine within which is the whole substratum of your model of Christs Kingdom so over above and besides this shall righteousness likewise dwell in this new earth and shall fill all the administrations of this new World and the Kingdoms thereof and Peace as the work of this righteousness and Joy as the fruit of all these are the Mystical flowers and fruits that shall adorn this new state of things when the Winter of the Militant and suffering state is over and gone 4. This Kingdom contains in it and under it All the Kingdoms of this World Rev. 11.15 Possibly not all at first but only the Kingdoms of the fourth Monarchy both East and West but in the process of it it shall reap and gather in all the rest for the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish Esa 60.12 Yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted the whole Chapter is of it and in the last Chapter of that Prophesy we are made acquainted with one means how this shall be brought about vers 19. where the Lord saith I will set a * And what difference between a Signo Digito monstrari dicier hic est Sign among them and I will send those that escape of them unto the Nations to Tarshish Pul and Lud that draw the Bow to Tubal and Javan and to the Isles afar off that have not heard my Fame neither have seen my Glory and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles He had said before vers 15. Behold the Lord will come with fire and with his Chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire for by fire and by his Sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many Then they that escape of these judgments shall be sent to the Nations who shall be armed and instructed not only with the Gospel of tydings of Christs first appearance but with the tydings of his second appearance and shall declare unto them what Christ hath done to the fourth Monarchy utterly consuming it and making it as the chaff of the Summer threshing floor to be carried away with the wind for ever for there will the judgment begin and this Embassy will prevail with many and those that stand out must expect the like severity and to be broken in pieces with the Rod of Iron as a Potters Vessel is broken to Shivers This is no mystical business no more then the destruction of Jerusalem was of old by Titus and Vespatian nor then the destruction of Heathenism was under the Sixth Seal Now if Christs Kingdom shall do all this and yet not concern it self with the world I much marvel 5. But this will be yet more clear if we consider in the next place that this time of Christ's coming is called the times of refreshing and Restitution of all things and if all things shall be restored then as the Apostle argues on the like universal Term. There is nothing excepted there is a dissolution is first to pass and that is upon an all too seeing all these things shall be dissolved saith the Apostle Peter but the work of Christ rests not there for nevertheless we according to his promise look for a new Heaven and a new Earth the restitution shall be as larg a restitution of all things where by the way we may learn that the new Heavens and Earth are the same Heaven and Earth new cast as I may say to which the word dissolution doth point as Plate that is melted down and cast in a new Mould and takes a new form and therefore it is called a restitution to its Pristine beauty integrity and innocency though I conceive the pattern to which it shall be restored is the pattern in a higher mount than Paradice even that mount where corruption never entred nor can enter for it is said as is the Earthly such are they that are Earthly and as is the Heavenly such are they also that are Heavenly and as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly 1 Cor. 15.48.49 Which is a glory far superior to the glory of the terrestrial Adam and that state of things which was Mutable and corruptible at the best and therefore if this renovation were but the restoring all things to that state it could not properly be said That it were new for Solomon saith nothing is new that hath been of time before Now when and how this great change shall be the Apostle tells us ver 53. when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality 6. That which yet farther strengthens this is The Redemption of our Body which the Apostle saith the most spiritual Believers even notwithstanding their being possest of the first fruits of the Spirit yet even they groaning within themselves do wait for Rom. 8.23 and this the Apostle calls the Adoption Adoption is of Strangers whereby the Apostle intimates that till the body be redeemed we are as Strangers or in a Strange form and appearance not like the Sons of God as John saith 1 Joh. 3.1.2 Therefore we see Christ at
and the Holy Ghost entirely within themselves in the unity of the God-head where God and his Kingdom God and all his works are one This is the Original Kingdom the head of all here both God and his Kingdom are properly invisible to any created Eye 1 Kings 8.12 or understanding dwelling in thick darkness as Solomon saith possessing all entirely to and within himself in an incommunicable glory this is properly the Kingdom of the Father The Kingdom of Christ is the Mediatory Kingdom wherein Christ as God-man is set up from everlasting in Heaven in a heavenly state and glory to make forth to created understanding the invisible glories of God and of his Kingdom as a living Image and representation thereof Of this state of Christs Person and Kingdom before the world Solomon speaks by the Spirit in a most high and divine strain Prov. 8. from v. 12. to v. 32. and our Saviour himself recognizeth it in those expressions of the Son of Man in Heaven and in that Prayer Joh. 17. Joh. 3.13 Glorâ— thou me with the glory I had with thee before the world was And the Apostle Paul Phil. 2. saith He was in the form of God Both these Kingdoms which are one though distinguished are eternal from eternity and to eternity suffering no dammage or diminution by time or any the chances changes or injuries of time In both which known to God and known to Christ Act. 15.18 are all their works from the foundations of the world In the Kingdom of God there Christ as a Mystery and all things else created and increated lay in the Bosom of the Father In the Kingdom of Christ in this Heavenly state The world and all the times of it lay in the Mediatory bosom before they were brought forth into actual existence in themselves So the Apostle saith We were chosen in him before the foundations of the world Eph. 1.4 and he is before all things Col. 1.17 and in him all things consist and stand in a most harmonious frame and he is the head of the body the Church 1 Cor. 11.3 Rev. 5.5.20.16 who is the beginning and the head of every man the head of this world In this state is Christ properly the rooâ— of David and of all things which lay eternally as a Mystery hid in him and there lay his own humanity which in time he was to take up of the Virgin as He and all his Mediatory Kingdom and glory was a mystery hid in God Eph. 3.9 But now in the second place there is a state of this glorious Mediator and of his Kingdom revealed on earth which is properly the Subject of our debate that the will of God may be done on Earth by the Son of Man on earth and in the state of his Kingdom on earth as it is done in Heaven in and by the Son of man in Heaven and in the heavenly state of his Kingdom there which is the second Petition that follows in that Doctrine of Prayer which our Saviour instructs us in immediately following upon the first Thy Kingdom come Now this Kingdom of Christ may also be considered in a twofold state viz. In a state of exercise and suffering and this state lasts from the fall of man who being set in honour continued not and runs down through all the times of this degenerate world till Christs second and glorious appearance 1 Rev. 9. and is called by John in his Revelation the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ The other state of Christs Kingdom is the Victory and Triumph Esa 25.8 when he even his Father who hitherto worketh with the Son Joh. 5.17 and the Son worketh also shall have put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.24 27. and shall put down all Rule Authority and Power as it is inimical or contrary to him and this state of the Kingdom is called Peace Esa 9.7 and rest ch 11.10 his rest shall be glorious and this properly is that Kingdom whereof we enquire Now Sir having premised this distinction of the Kingdom of God and his Christ let us apply it This state of Christs Kingdom in peace in rest and victory in the visible manifestation of it to every created understanding and eye you can by no means say was from everlasting nor hath been all the times of this world but hath its proper times to be exhibited and those in the end of this old corrupt degenerated world by its appearing it will make all things anew and will be the restitution of all things That which may be a vail before our eyes in discerning this Truth is the glorious things that are spoken of this present state of the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ in the present state of it in Faith in which it is truly a Kingdom though a suffering Kingdom and gets the better of all its opposers though not without blows and blood and it gives rest and peace to all the subjects of it mystical inward and spiritual rest and peace Heb. 4.3 1 Pet. 1.8 Isa 26.3 Philip. 4.7 Psal 110.2 in the midst of enemies and troubles for we which have believed do enter into rest and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory and our minds are kept in perfect peace even with a peace which passeth all understanding and so Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies and God hath given us the Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 through our Lord Jesus Christ yea we are come to Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Eph 2.6 1 Joh. 5.4 Joh. 12.31.16.17 and are set down with Christ in heavenly places having overcome the world by Faith and the Prince of this World is judged and cast out and we inherit all things But we must remember all this glory is in death and suffering and under the Cross both inwardly and outwardly and all the life and glory that we feel and experience is but to carry us up under the Cross and dying of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle at large discourses 2 Cor. 4 from the 7. verse to the 15. and in that refreshing Ordinance of the Supper we shew forth the Lords Deaâ—h till he come which death being the gate of life all Believers in their successive generations are passing through and will or must be so till the Lord come This is the gate to the City Rev. 22.14 call'd there Gates because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and as Christs suffering was his great Obedience called obedience unto Death and is that which is meant by that phrase Lo I come to do thy will O God So this is the doing of Gods will and commandments by Believers the presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice thereby proving by experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God This is the way to the City which the fool that is drunken with the Spirit of
not all though this is a great change the first Adam was without sin and was holy but spirituality of holiness shall be the product of this glorious appearance of the second Adam and as he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead so shall his brethren his members in their proportion be by the removing of sin shall the hurtfulness be taken away that is in all the Creatures but by this spirit or spirituality of holiness shall a spiritual glory break forth upon all the Creatures whom in that day we shall see to be all of God as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.50 That holiness in that day shall be universally diffused displayed upon all things all employments all enjoyments Zeck 14.20.21 Every Pot in Jerusalem holiness to the Lord. Holiness writ upon the Bridles and Bells of the Horses this is the spirituality of that day it will turn all into spirit a conversation in Heaven a walking in the truth not in a vain shew the truth filling all things and exhibiting it self in every Shadowy form so filling it and making it substantial this is the inside as I may say of the appearing of Jesus Christ his appearing is the appearing of power the appearing of life when Christ Joh. 6.63 who is our life shall appear and he is all life his words were spirit and life his very body now is life and spirit It is a great vail before our eyes the Nature of a Body framing the conceptions and taking in the notion of it from the bodies that we know which are only natural but a spiritual body is another thing though a real body still and another vail is Time that Christ's appearance should depend on time or be governed and ruled by time looking on time in an abstract notion from its work whereas Christ and his times are one Hitherto the Father worketh and I work when the work of Faith is finished when patience hath had its perfect work when the sins of the Amorites are full and when the measure of the sufferings of Christ are fil'd up in his body mistical which are all set and numbered and time doth but serve to measure those or rather is measured by these Christ doth not turn up vain hour-glasses and sit idle till so much time be run out but when his work is done when God hath glorified himself in the tryed Faith Joh. 10.12 and patience of the Church when God hath wrought out that peice of glory he designes in and under the suffering state then enters the blessed hope which is but one peice with the other and shall receive illustration from it Of this state I have many things to say and those hard to be understood we are so carnal and dull of hearing and indeed De Deo nil nisi in Deo of God and his Kingdom nothing can be worthily spoken but in the spirit of that Kingdom and therefore we may well apply that of the Apostle here The day shall declare it in this day was John when he had the vision of it this was the Lords day undoubtedly he there meant a day that will knock off from this world Rev. 1.10 and the concernes thereof in that carnal sinful way that we now incumber our selves about them which this appearance of Christ as hath been expected inward and powerful as well as visibly glorious will only prove sufficient for by giving us in exchange such entertainment of another kind as will teach us the right use of all things Then indeed shall the Saints be Spiritual persons strangers shall stand feed your flocks and the Sons of the Alien shall be your Plow-men and Vine dressers but ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God Esa 61.6 So that though they may have the use of flocks and fields and Vines yet they shall not encumber themselves with them and their use of them shall be highly Spiritual Indeed their whole course and time shall be as a continued Feast of Tabernacles as we read Zach. 14.16 to the 19. Now Sir if you say all this may be effected by a powerful and spiritual appearance of the Lord Jesus though his person keep still in Heaven as in the primitive times when by the falling down of the spirit upon believers they sold their possessions and laid them down at the Apostles feet and no man said any thing was his own but they had all things common I shall not deny but if this were all that were to be done it might be done so without the appearance of Christ's visible person Though yet 〈◊〉 â—uestion is not of what may possibly be done but of 〈◊〉 way and meanes God hath ordain'd and appointed this new state of things to be ministred into the world by whether he hath not consign'd this honour peculiarly to Christ to bring in these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things as when he wrought reconciliation for us he appear'd in flesh so now that he brings Salvation to appear in glory I am sure the scripture speaks in such a stile as to favour yea to prompt us to such an understanding saying the Lord shall send Jesus and bring again the first begotten into the world and these times of refreshing they are said to be from the presence of the Lord. But this inward worke is not The All that is to be done in that day but the dead are to be raised and as I conceive at the very erection of the glorious estate of this Kingdom else the Surviving Saints should prevent them which the Apostle saith must not be and the surviving Saints must be changed at the same time or else it would be a disadvantage to survive to Christ's coming Now if the dead be raised in the beginning of this Kingdom then Christ must appear from Heaven for by his voice must they be raised and least any should say this may be by a voice from Heaven the person of Christ keeping still in Heaven the Apostle prevents that by saying the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven 1 Thâ—s 4.16 Now we do not read that after Christs descending he shall return to Heaven again nor is it probable he should leave all the raised Saints here on Earth all the time of his raigne But that he may give forth the glory of his glorious person gradually I do not deny that is in such proportion as may stand with the ends of it which I note because some cannot tell how to reconcile building and planting and procreation with this new state whâ—… the Prophets mention with it Esa 65. which maâ—… 〈◊〉 this be qualified For though the passing away of sin and death be a great change yet that brings us no higher then the state of Adam in innocency which may be done by Christ and by his personal appearing though he give
have taken it for the last and general Judgment whereof it was a lively figure and representation Revel 6. from 12. to the end 5. The next coming of Christ is his coming upon the man of sin after he had by the space of a thousand years fixed his throne and Usurpation over all Christendome for the generallity of it called the Holy City Setting himself in the Temple of God whom the Lord by the Spirit of his mouth in his witnesses and reformers consumes and brings to a skeleton in order to destroy him with the brightness of his coming Now as all the appearances of Christ to the Fathers and the Prophets were gradual and preparatory workings to his first Personal appearance wherein and wherewith also he ministred the light and notice of his second appearance so all these several comings of Christ since his ascention are so many gradual steps and preparations to his second and glorious Personal appearance and coming And as none of those appearances of his to the Fathers and the Prophets were his first personal appearance such as was promised and intended by God and expected by those that believed the promises so neither do any of these comings since Christs ascention discharge the promise of God or the expectation of believers but that they groundedly expect not only a farther and fuller Revelation of Christ but a Personal appearance and descending of the Son of man from Heaven bodily after the same manner as he appeared the first time and as he ascended though in a far greater glory which second appearance of his in person will finish our Salvation as his first did perfect our reconciliation The necessity of this second and personal appearance for these ends will appear more clearly after we have removed one objection which may lie in the minds of many it is this Christ is a spirit a quickning spirit the Lord that spirit His Body is spiritual a spiritual body can act at a distance why therefore may not all that is to be performed for the Church be done by Christ without changing his place why must we needs understand his descending from Heaven to be Local visible and bodily Why may not a vertual presence serve the turn and especially when the phrase of Scripture favours such a sence for it is said he cometh in a cloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 21.27 and he shall descend from Heaven in a shout in the voice of the Archangel in the Trump of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if the shout the voice of the Archangel the Trump of God were the vehicle and the vertue or power of Christ put forth therein were all the appearance he makes and all the voice he puts forth and not his Organical voice It was the voice of Angels that shook the earth at the giving of the Law though it be call'd his voice he putting forth his power therewith and with that voice and with that effect is this shaking of Heaven and Earth parallel'd Heb. 12. To which may be added that Christ is God as well as Man and hath all power in Heaven and Earth and his very humane Nature is carried up to the right hand of power and in association with his Divine Nature is thereby qualified to act as a spirit yea as God and the Centurion could say when he sought Christ for his servant and Christ told him he would come and heal him speak but the word and thy servant shall be healed as much as to say no need of Local motion or corporal application to all which I answer 1. Of the power of Christ who is the true God and eternal life there is no dispute He can do whatsoever he pleases by a word by a Beck by a motion of his will nor do we limit circumscribe or give Laws to a spiritual body which in the spirit is and can act as the spirit so that the question is not of what is simply possible to Christ but the question is what is the will the counsel the determination and appointment of the Father 2. The same argument will lie against the necessity of Christ's first Personal appearance for Christ was the Lamb slain from the Foundations of the world in the eye of God and his Sacrifice did operate as an atonement with and on the behalf of all the faithful from the begining and they beheld this Sacrifice and reaped the comfort of it in all their Sacrifices under the Law yet all this made not the personal appearance of the Lamb of God in flesh needless for all those figures had their vertue from this and all the Faith of the Saints look unto this in those shadows Now if notwithstanding all this it was necessary that Christ should come in the flesh and fulfil those shadows that pointed to him which had else all been in vain The cause is the same here in respect of his second appearance for all the judgments that have been hitherto shewed and executed on Jews or Heathens for resisting Christ or on the Antichristian world for mocking of Christ have not yet succeeded so as to make Christ's Victory perfect to put all Enemies under his feet nor all the Salvation outward or inward that he hath wrought for his followers have not given them rest from all their labour and sorrow Isa 14.3 and hard Bondage wherein they have been made to serve both inward and outward they have not yet received the hope Gal. 5.5 or Harvest of the righteousness of Faith but wait for it they have not yet received the quiet and full possession and fruition of their inheritance Eph. 1.14 neither of Heaven nor Earth but only the earnest of it The whole payment awaits this second glorious Personal appearance of the Lord Jesus from Heaven Not but that the things are great which have been done by the spirit and were Faith improved what a glorious improvement farther might be made of our present state and interest but as that first ministration of the Law though glorious in its end and tendency Yet as that end drew near did Sink and became less powerful in the Letter and even declined as a shadow and came to nothing so this ministration of the Gospel from Christ's first appearance may be expected to be with the generallity of professors of Christianity as Christ's second appearance comes on insomuch that the very Faith of it will be even vanished out of the Earth Luk. 18.8 And little but the form of goodliness without the power to be found among many if not the most of professors yea the sincere the true seed will be sensible of great sailours great decayes of spirit Isa 32 1◠to relieve which is that promise of the spirit to be poured from on high on the wilderness the latter raine and of sending Elias Joel 2.23 Mal. 4.5 to turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children and