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
as are common to all his comings as 2 Pet. 1.16 we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which place undoubtedly intends his visible and personal glorious coming which was exhibited in the tranfiguration as in a Type or foretast and is to be in a like glory and visibility of his person in due time yet he speaks of it with no speciality but power which is common to all his comings so likewise that day of Christ which the Apostle Paul sets the Thessalonions right in who were ready to think the day of the Lord to be at hand 2 Thes 2. was this day of his glorious Personal appearance we look for yet the Apostle speaks of it only as an Epiphany which is a Term applicable to any glorious manifestation of his spiritual presence and appearance So in the third place the Revelation of Jesus Christ is a Term common to his spiritual as well as his personal appearance and is used promiscuously 1 Cor. 1.7 It is there used of his spiritual appearance waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which in the Greek is the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ but in the second to the Thes 1.7 The same word is used in his Personal coming that which I note from hence is that the Personal appearance of Christ is a powerful a glorious coming and appearance a revelation but every powerful glorious coming or revelation is not the second appearance or revelation of Christ's person I shall take the several comings in order as they lie in the New Testament there is a spiritual coming of Christ which he promised his Disciples to abate their grief for his departure when he was about to leave them a little while Joh. 14.18 I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you This I take to be over and above besides the promises of the comforter of whom he had spoken in the verses immediately before I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter even the Spirit of truth Christ and the spirit though the same in nature yet are Personally distinguished so also vers 28. He repeats this promise ye have heard how I said unto you I go away and come again unto you And again ch 16.16 A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me which he inculcates again vers 22. ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you all these Scriptures intend not that visible appearance which Christ made to his Disciples after he arose for many reasons 1. Because they are all consecutive of the sending of the comforter which was not sent till after his Ascention 2. The sight of Christ before his Ascention was not improved to such glorious advantages as he tells them this shall be to instance but in two only the 1. you have Joh. 14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you The second you have ch 16.23 In that day ye shall ask me nothing verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full But after that the Holy Ghost came upon them they received power as our Saviour tells them they should to improve the advantages of their state and interest yet I say this was more then the sending of the comforter to them even the exhibition of his spiritual person to the eyes of their minds or their inward man for so Christ hath appeared and exhibited himself according to his good pleasure and as the exigence hath required to his chosen ones both before his coming in the flesh and since to many Saints and Martyres to Saints on their death beds as well as to Martyres in their sufferings for Christ hath and ever had a person in the spirit Before Abraham was I am Joh. 8.58 Joh. 1.20 he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not he in this spiritual person appeared to the Patriarks and spake unto the Prophets Thence had they that assurance of the word that came to them and that confidence to engage upon it against all the disswasions of flesh and blood as Abraham in leaving his own Countery and offering his Son and against all the Terror of men and this world yea this presence this appearance how hath it triumphed over all the power of the enemy and swallowed up death the King of Terrors in Victory and that this hath been through the spiritual sence and demonstration of the Lord himselfe both their own affirmations and the Testimony of the Holy Ghost himself in the Scriptures do shew which speak of the Lords appearing to them The next that we read of Christs comings to pass over his sending the spirit in the day of Pentecost and the manifestation of the spirit in manifold extraordinary gifts then and afterwards during that age of the Apostles is his coming in the destruction of Jerusalem dismantling the Jewish Church and Nation and removeing Judaism of this coming the Epistles are full and many of those intimations are mistaken as if intended of Christs last coming as that Phil. 4.5 Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand and those places in Heb. 10.25.37 and ch 12.26 and James 5.8 They all refer immediately to the destruction of Jerusalem though through that as a Type they look at the destruction of earthly Jerusalem and Babylon at Christ next coming Thirdly we find a coming of Christ both promised and threatned to the seven Churches of Asia 1. The Church of Ephesus is threatned if she repent not that Christ will come unto her quinkly and remove her Candlestick 2 Rev. 5. and so the Church of Pergamus vers 16. is threatned with Christ coming to them and to sight against them with the sword of his mouth But the faithful in Thyatira are incouraged to hold fast that they had till he came vers 25. So also the Church of Philadelphia ch 3.11 Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown and to that pittiful Laodicea vers 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man here my voice and open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me Thus God came in the dismantling of these Churches also saveing all the sound Materials he found in them providing otherwise for them 4. The next coming of Christ we read of is his coming at the opening of the 6th seal in the dissolution of the Heathen Empire or of Heathenism in the Roman Empire which is set forth in such a stile as some
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
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
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
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
in the night that shall lift up their voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord when the shadow of Death shall dwell upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth As it fared with the Jews from the times of the second Temple the state of their worship and civil policy was sinking and declining every day more and more after that little reviving and that little help wherewith they were holpen in the dayes of the Maccabees as the day of Christs first appearance drew nearer and nearer whereby they that waited not for the consolation of Israel and looked not with some comfortable assurance and evidence for that Redemption in Jerusalem were in a most deplorable and desponding condition so hath it for a long time succeeded with surrogated Israel since the new Erection of Churches collapsed and faln during the long Babilonish Captivity under the Beast and so it will be more and more as Christ withdraws as a Bridegroom from us in the comforts of his first appearance as he did from his Disciples for a little time by his Death during which time they Mourned and had Sorrow as a Woman when her hour is come till he visited them again in the Spirit which was for an instruction to us in Type and Figure of his withdrawing the Comforts of his first Appearance before his great illustrious and visible appearance in Person the second time This is that Song in the Night even the hope and expectation of this Appearance that is to relieve us in this mystical Night which therefore it concerns us to state aright according to Scripture Rule and evidence both for time and manner that our joy may be grounded regular and full which otherwise will be Lame and totter if we place it not upon both the Leggs and Bases of it his Person as well as his Spirit his Presence as well as his Power In this light I hope and express it again The shadows of the evening are not so far stretch-out upon you and me but we may yet meet and rejoice in the mutual communicating of our right and regular apprehensions touching this Kingdom of Christ and the near the very near approaching glory of it when and whereby it is that you will substract and withdraw from a CARNAL PARTY that matter of joy which you have without an Evil Designe I verily hope and believe Ministred unto them by your appearing against this hope and expectation In which hope I rest Dear Sir Consider what I say and the Lord give you unstanding in all things Octob. 16. 1676. Your affectionate friend Brother and Servant in our great and dear Lord J. S. A Brief Synopsis of the most material evidence for the drawing nigh of our Redemption contained in each Sermon of that little Book I sent you intituled News of a New World IN the first Sermon the four Watches mentioned by our Saviour Mark 13.35 are open'd as measuring all the Times from his Ascension to his second personal coming and are distinctly applyed viz. the evening contains all that time from Christs departure to the rising of Antichrist in which space of time these three remarkable Events do accur 1. Jerusalem was destroyed 2. The Churches of Asia were dismantled And 3dly Heathenism was abolished in the Roman Empire This time lasted to the opening of the sixth Seal and Constantines coming to the Empire The midnight Watch which is the darkest and most dangerous Watch wherein all are wrapt up in sleep is also the longest continuing all the times both of the Beasts Growth and Rampancy by the space of a thousand years during which mystical Night Isa 30.29 Rev. 14.13 the Church the Invisible Church had a mystical Song and Reign with Christ which the rest of the world understood not The Cock-Crowing-Watch began from the times of Reformation about the year 1300 with the fifth Trumpet lasting all the times of that Trumpet and great part of the sixth till the pouring forth of the sixth Phyal Then saith the Lord Behold I come as a Thief and from thence fourthly commenceth the Morning-Watch containing but a short space of time but of great moment and consequence being as I humbly conceive Daniels 45 Prophetical days from the end of his 1290 days which commencing about the year 1650 are so far past as from that time and have left but 18 or 19 years to compleat the 1335 days which bring us to that time whereof the Spirit himself saith Blessed is He that waiteth and cometh thereunto And whereas it is said Ye know not when the Master of the house cometh whether at Even or at Midnight or at the Cock-Crowing or in the Morning It is there shewed that this is not to involve the second personal and glorious coming of Christ in uncertainty but to shew a concern All ages would have in one coming of his or other all the former being but preliminary or leading in a way of gradual growth and preparation to his last coming In that Sermon also is shewed the necessity of Christs spiritual and powerful coming in our Spirits without which his outward personal coming will be of no advantage to us and also the necessity of his personal coming to those that know his spiritual and powerful coming in some measure as a glorious Ministry to awaken and call up that life of the Spirit of Christ that lies bound as in a sleep even in the Saints themselves And thus his spiritual and his personal appearance are reconciled and it is manifest we rest not in a visible and personal appearance without the spirit and power of that appearance revealed and working in us no more then we may rest in a spiritual appearance or the hopes of his personal Appearance without the thing it self in due time to be performed The import of the second Sermon is to shew that the times of the Man of Sin are expired and the times of Christs second glorious appearance are drawing on a pace and very near 1. From the Calculation of the Prophetical Periods both in Daniel and the Revelation 2. From the opening of the signs of the times given by our Saviour and Recorded by three of the Evangelists In the calculation is shewed the Agreement of both the Prophets Daniel and John in the term of expiration though they differ in their Epocha The one viz. Daniels time measuring the conculcation of his People and Nation by the four Monarchies and Johns number of 1260 days measuring the answerable treading down of the holy City among the Gentiles by the Papacy Accordingly the Epocha of the former is pitcht from Julian about the year of Christ 360 the latter from the time of that Famous defeat of Eugenius by Theodosius in which the life and cause of Heathenism in the Roman Empire expired and way was made for the man of Sin to get up into the Temple of God which was about the year 390 but both these times viz. of 1290 days in Daniel and 1260