he was received up into glory 2. To answer the hopes and expectation of his People they wait for a Saviour from Heaven Psal 3.20 and look for God's Son Jesus from Heaven 1 Thes 1.10 3. Christ will be Revealed from Heaven to shew the Spiritual Nature of his Kingdom that it is a heavenly Kingdom That he hath had his Throne in Heaven and from thence his Kingdom hath ruled over all He hath observed all the rage and actings of his enemies and all the love and obedience of his friends He hath inspected all the concerns of his Members and transacted all the affairs of his Kingdom This hath been honorable and glorious to Christ that he hath had a rest Is 1.10 in Heaven and yet neglected none of his work in repressing the rage of his enemies and in reviving the fainting spirits of his friends and steering all the affairs of his Church to a safe and happy Port. He hath supplied his poor and supported his weak Members 4. Jesus Christ will be Revealed from Heaven for the greater confusion and terror of his Enemies How will this affright and amaze them that he who they thought slept under the clods of the Earth should appear riding on the clouds of Heaven Rev. 1.7 that he who the Jews thought was suffering in Hell for deluding and deceiving the World should come to Judge the World and to Condemn Men to Hell for not believing on him Mark 6.16 Joseph was thought by his Brethren to be lost or dead but how were they confounded and troubled when they found him alive Gen. 45.3 heard him speaking to them saw him under Pharaoh Ruling over all the Land of Egypt So how will it dismay and overwhelm the unbelieving World when Christ that was thought to remain dead shall be presented to their eyes as alive When he that was ill treated by Men in the form of a Servant shall appear in the glory of a Lord to judge both the Quick and the Dead and shall be manifested as having all Power in Heaven and Earth committed to him and can justifie and crown those that have believed on him and condemn and punish those that have rebelled against him who neither have believed his Doctrine or obeyed his Commands USE of Examination Examine your selves under what Notion Christ will be Revealed and come to you at last Whether he will appear as your Friend or as your Enemy To your joy or sorrow As a loving Bridegroom to receive you to himself John 14.3 Or as an incensed Judge to Sentence and Cast you from himself saying Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Matt. 25.41 Will Christ come to give you any thing Will he bestow a Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.18 A Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 Will he call you to inherit an everlasting Kingdom Matt. 25.34 Or will Christ come upon you as a Thief in the Night to impoverish spoil deprive you of all the good things you now possess and enjoy Will not your Cisterns then be broken your Candles and Lamps be put out Will not your whole Paradise of sensual and sinful delights be lighted and blasted Will not Creatures be withdrawn from you and God himself also depart The floor and the Wine-press shall not feed you and God himself will leave and forsake you Hos 9.2 12. Will you not at once be turned out of your Stewardship and also be cut off from all hope of the heavenly Inheritance Will not Christ's coming be your utter undoing Will you not sustain a damage and loss never to be repaired For your wooing and buying time will be over the Spiritual Market will be at an end Will it not be sad when others are rich Heirs for you to be poor Bankrupts emptied and stript of all valuable and desirable good for ever Inquire therefore seriously and diligently how it stands with you in relation to Christ's coming Is Jesus Christ Revealed in you and to you and is his new Nature formed in you It is not Flesh and Blood but our Father that is in heaven that must reveal Christ to us Matt. 16.17 he that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to the Son Hath the spirit ever glorified Christ in your eyes Is he most precious to you If Christ be not Revealed to you while you are on Earth he cannot be Revealed from Heaven to your joy and comfort Have you an understanding to know the worth excellency and preciousness of Christ so that you give your selves to him and are in him If Christ do dwell in your hearts below you may be assured that you shall dwell in his House above Are you related to Christ Are you really his Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh They that are Christs shall be made alive at his coming 1 Cor. 15.23 Is the Match made up between Christ and you by a mutual Spiritual kiss Doth Christ kiss you expressing his servent love towards you and speaking powerfully and effectually to you the Doctrine of Grace the Word of Reconciliation The Gospel of Salvation is your own Interest in Christ's precious Promises sealed and delivered to you 2. Do you kiss Christ the Son of God Ps 2.12 Cant. 8.1 When Ishould find thee without I would kiss thee And Abraham Isaac and Jacob are said to salute kiss or embrace the Promises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the mouth of Faith doth meet with the mouth of Christ speaking the Word of Life and the promises of Spiritual Benefits is perswaded of them doth embrace them then the Soul kisses Christ There is also a kiss of Homage as Samuel kissed Saul acknowledging him as the Lord 's Anointed When we receive the Law from Christ's mouth and profess our subjection to his Scepter and obedience to his Laws then we kiss Christ 3. Are you willing that Christ should come Do you desire long for and love Christ's appearing The Church saith Make haste my beloved Cant. 8.14 When Christ said I come quickly she adds her Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22.20 Christians are said not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by their wishings longings earnest desires Do you fervently love the appearing of Christ as that which will be exceeding honorable to him comfortable and beneficial to you Do you love Christ's appearing as that which will be exceeding glorious to him For by his voice he shall quicken raise call forth all that are in their Graves John 5.28 That Christ knows all that ever lived can distinguish their dust from the dust of one another and from the dust of the Earth That he knows all their thoughts words and actions remembers them and will call them to an account for them 1 Pet. 4.5 Then Christ will sit on the Throne of his glory and all Nations shall be gathered before him to be judged by by him This is the perfection of Christ's Kingdom and his
of Christ they shall sit eat and drink with him at his Table Luke 22.29 30. in his Kingdom There is no Good absent at this Feast to cause a wandring of desire no Evil present to cause sighs and sorrow under it Here Saints may eat and be satisfied for ever 4. This will be a most Honorable Rest Saints that sit in the Throne with Christ Rev. 3.21 and reign in life for evermore As all Tears shall be wiped from their Eyes so Crowns shall be set on their Heads a Crown of Life and Righteousness Rom. 5.17 This is the highest Honour that Creatures can aspire to and therefore may be fully satisfied with and rest in it This Honour shall never be forfeited neither shall this Feast be disturbed and interrupted 5. The Saints that now are troubled shall rest with the best Company they shall be where Christ is Joh. 17.24 and they shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God Matth. 8.11 As they have been Companions with other Suffering Saints in the Kingdom and patience of Christ Rev. 1.9 so they shall enter into the same Joy possess the same Inheritance and partake of the same Feast with them If Servants shall be where their Lord is John 12.26 much more may they be assured of rest and refreshment with their Fellow Servants Though they be more eminent than they for Gifts Graces and Services yet they shall rest in the same Bosom of Love and sit in the same Throne of Glory What harmonious Melody what sweet Comfort will there be when all Suffering Saints shall be gathered together to sing the Praises of their Father to celebrate the Honour of the their Redeemer and be swallowed up for ever in the love of the Father Son and Spirit USE of the Doctrine If Troubled Saints shall have rest then be not afraid of do not start or recoil from the Cross of Christ it will end and issue in a Crown of Glory Your Sufferings are light your Glory will be weighty your Afflictions and Sorrows will be momentary but your Joys will be everlasting 2 Cor. 4.17 Do not buy the Worlds Peace with the Trouble and Terror of your Consciences Some Apostate Protestants in France had such burdened Consciences such wounded Spirits grew so weary of Life that they came and offered themselves to their Antichristian Enemies and desired that they would kill them Do not slavishly dread Sufferings for Christ did not your Lord endure greater Troubles for you John 12.27 28. Now saith Christ is my Soul troubled he made his Soul an Offering for Sin he poured out his Soul to the death Is 53.10 12. You are but in shallow waters of afflictions but Jesus Christ was in a deep Sea of Sorrows You have but some small drops that sprinkle you but he had a dreadful Storm that fell on him You have but some sparks that fly on you but the Lamb of God was roasted by the Fire of his Fathers Anger Do not think it strange if siery Trials should be kindled against you and break out on you 1 Pet. 4.12 Do not think to be Priviledged from Troubles and to be Exempted from Hardships on Earth and yet be secured from Pains and Torments in another World Satan will roar and wicked Men will rage against you In the World you shall have Tribulation but in Christ you shall have peace John 16.33 Though wicked Men do scorch your Bodies yet your Souls do sit under Christs cold shadow Cant. 2.3 And you shall have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Acts 3.19 Though you are appointed to Afflictions 1 Thes 3.3 yet God hath not appointed you to wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 5.9 You are now clouded with Sorrows and Reproaches but you shall shine out in the Kingdom of your Father Matth. 13.43 Your smoaking Furnace will issue in a burning Lamp Gen. 15.17 your sighs will be succeeded by Songs your darkness and shadow of Death will end in a bright and glorious Morning Persecutors will be cast into Prison and the Persecuted taken into the Palace Enemies shall seel cruel Bondage and Saints be Translated into glorious Liberty Wicked Men now Revile and Reproach the People of God but the Time is at hand when Christ will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their Fear cometh Prov. 1.26 but Saints shall have praise from Christ enter into the joy of their Lord and enjoy a rest that will abundantly recompence all their Troubles 2. When shall this rest be enjoyed It is said when the Lord Jesus shall be Revealed Two things are here affirmed 1. That the Lord Jesus shall be Revealed 2. That he shall be Revealed from Heaven The words give this Doctrine Doct. 2. The Lord Jesus shall be Revealed from Heaven 1. The Lord Jesus shall be Revealed 2. He shall be Revealed from Heaven 1. The Lord Jesus shall be Revealed This is necessary on a double Account 1. Jesus Christ was veiled and clouded in the World the Sun of Righteousness was in a continual Eclipse for about 33 Years Tho' he was Rich yet for our sakes he became Poor 2 Cor. 8 9. Tho' he was full yet he emptied himself Phil. 2.7 8. Tho' he was Lord over all God over all Rom. 9.5 yet he took on him the form of a Servant and this was as a thick Veil cast over all his Glory Phil. 2.9 The World saw no beauty in him Is 53.2 He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Psal 22.6 He was trod on as a Worm Ps 10.9.23 and tossed up and down as a Locust by the Wind of his Adversaries fury From the Garden he was offeâ—d to Annas from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod to Pilate again then to Golgotha Thus the Scripture was fulfilled That he was tossed up and down as a Locust So mean was his Condition and so low his Circumstances that the World did not know him John 3.1 and therefore a glorious Appearing of his is necessary Tit. 2.13 to let all the World know who and what he is and how they have been mistaken 2. Jesus removed and withdrew himself from the World he is Travelled into a far Country Luke 13.12 He is gone within the Veil Heb. 6.19 20. He is hid with God Col. 3.3 Thousands do love him tho' they have not seen him and believe on him tho' they do not yet see him 1 Pet. 1.8 The Object of our Faith is become invisible and far removed from the Eye of Sense and Christ doth stay so long that Wise and Foolish Virgins do fall asleep Matt. 25.5 And his Rebellious Citizens send a Message after him saying We will not have this Man to reign over us Luke 19.14 All those they cruelly persecuted and wickedly slew for Proclaiming Christ as King and calling them to bow down to his Royal Scepter were sent in this Embassy or with this Message after
of his pleasant fruits Acts of moral Justice may profit Men may be beneficial to the Common-wealth and human Society yet if they flow not from a spiritual Spring grow not on the root of love to God they do not please God they are not accepted with him The Fathers as Vossius in his History of Pelagianism tells us did call these Opera Sterilia barren Works because they had no tendency to no influence on Eternal Life but if you break up the fallow Ground are renew'd by and sow to the Spirit you may receive in this life an hundred fold and at last reap and inherit everlasting life Mat. 10.29 Gal. 6.8 Judgment may dwell in your Wilderness Isa 32.16 and you that were formerly altogether unprofitable Rom. 3.12 Philemon's Epist may become profitable highly serviceable to God greatly beneficial and useful to Men unclean Creatures may be washed old and corrupt Creatures may be renew'd Tit. 3.5 2. Consider how bad it will be not to be plowed and sowed This is threatned as a terrible Judgment That the Land of Canaan should keep its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and ceaseth from Tillage Is it bad for the Ground to lay desolate to keep a Sabbath to cease from Culture how much worse is it for the Soul to keep its Sabbaths not holy but carnal and prophane Sabbaths while God's Plow doth not break it up nor his Seed be sow'd in it Men then will be far from Righteousness Isa 46.12 will serve divers Lusts and Pleasures and be without God in the World they will chuse their own ways and their Souls delight in their abominations The Adversaries of the Jews in the Babylonish Captivity saw their Sabbaths and mocked at them Lam. 1.7 but the great Enemy of Souls will rejoyce at the idle and prophane Sabbaths that wicked men keep when they cease to do good and leave off Righteousness in the Earth Amos 5.7 2. Those that are not broken up and sowed will be Satan's Possession as he claims Strays as his so he is the Lord of fallow Ground Such are of their Father the Devil and his lusts they will do John 8.44 It is sweet and honourable to be God's Husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 but how dreadful is it to be Satan's Husbandry Satan will still be working in them Ephes 2.2 and filling of their Hearts Acts 5.3 he will be sowing planting and grafting in and on them he will tutor his Nursery by continual suggestions and temptations Satan will still be serving his turn on promoting his interest by and accomplishing bis designs in Souls that lye fallow how bad will it be to keep Sabbaths as resting from spiritual tillage This is to keep Sabbaths to gratifie and worship Satan these Sabbaths are working days to please the Flesh and rejoyce the Devil such do the Devil's Will in time and if Grace doth not prevent they must suffer God's Will to Eternity 3. Those that are as a fallow Ground do bitterly provoke God to anger Hos 12. last They bring forth Grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Deut. 32.33 Can the heavenly Husbandman feed on and delight in such Grapes doth not his Soul loath and abhor them but as to good Grapes are they not empty Vines Hos 10.1 These fallow Grounds are like the barren Fig-tree Christ hungred and came to this Fig-tree and found nothing on it but Leaves this so provoked Christ that he cursed it Mat. 21.18 19. and said unto it Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever and presently the Fig-tree wither'd away In what danger are Souls that are barren Fig trees Christ may curse them so that their Leaves may wither their form of Religion decay and be utterly lost a Sentence may go forth against them Cut them down why should they any longer cumber the ground Luke 13.7 Those that are not Trees for Fruit shall be Trees for Fuel The Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Mat. 3.10 The Ground that after Rain and Dew have come often on it and yet it bringeth forth only Briers and Thorns it is nigh to cursing and its end is to be burnt Heb. 6.8 4. If you continue a Fallow Ground you will bring forth Fruit only to Death and fit your selves for Destruction Rom. 7.5 You will pile up fuel in the Infernal Tophet and fill the Treasury of God's wrath Rom. 2.5 as the clusters are bitter and so abhorred by God so your Wine is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel venom of Asps and so most fatal pernicious and destructive to your selves As Men now drink in iniquity like water Job 15.16 so they must shortly drink of the wrath of the Almighty Job 21.20 O therefore cry mightily to God that he would remember you in your miserable and lost Estate There is a sweet Promise that God makes to the Mountain of Israel Ezek. 36.8 9. Behold I am for you and I will turn unto you and you shall be tilled sown and yield your Fruit. O plead this word with God put him in remembrance of it Confess you have long lain Fallow Perhaps some of you have kept a Sabbath of Years yea are come to a great Sabbatical Year Forty nine or Fifty Years you have ceased from Spiritual Tillage you have been idle all this while and done no work for God you have been barren and have brought forth no Fruit to God O will you not now send up strong cries to Heaven Will you not now wrestle mightily with God that he would be for you and turn to you in Grace and Mercy that you may be effectually filled skilfully sown and plentifully bear Fruit to God Doct. 2. It is the Duty of Unregenerate Men to break up their Fallow Ground They should not be idle or stand still or be contented with their present Barrenness that God who calls you to Act can breathe Life and put Strength into you to enable you to work As God in the first Creation spake to the Earth and said Let it bring forth Grass Herbs and Fruit-bearing Trees and it was so as the Father commanded and the Son was the Word so the Holy Ghost executed all The Earth had no Seed of Grass or Herbs or Roots of Trees within it self or power to bring them forth yet Gods Word was as Seed then and gave a productive Power to the Earth So God said Let the waters bring forth Fish to move in them and Fowl that may fly above the waters and earth in the open Firmament of Heaven and tho' the waters had no spawn of Fish or Eggs of Fowl in them yet the Word of God was powerful effectual and soon fulfilled So Christ is the Resurrection and the Life and the beginning of the Creation of God he can quicken dead Souls recover and heal a withered arm and hand Mark 3.5 so that it shall be stretched out and enabled to hold the Plough and carry on this Spiritual Tillage that