Brother another And how often also do the Saints in Scripture reprove the wicked and ungodly I need not give you Instances for that It is not enough that we have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but we must also reprove them We must appear for Christ his Truth his Rules and Glory or where is our love to him Sometimes you shall hear cursing and swearing in your presence sometimes reproaching slandering flithiness foolish talking and sinful jesting sometimes you shall see Covetousness Pride Passion Anger and uncomely Language and sometimes inordinate affections and somtimes gross omissions of duty either to God or Man Here now are opportunities of doing a service for Christ and of appearing and witnessing for him so as you cannot do hereafter in glory In such cases therefore consider your duty and what the Lord requireth of you who will take it very ill if you have never a Tongue for him And do not say I am loth or I am afraid to speak and it will be ill taken or I shall do no good by testifying or I shall be accounted a busie-body but attend your duty and leave the event to God only beg Wisdom which is profitable to direct And however a Reproof take or speed yet you have done a better service for Christ than any Saint in Heaven can do I know indeed that such testimonies for Christ are soldom well taken but that ariseth from the pride of Man and however that must not hinder your duty for I am sure that the with-holding such testimonies when you are called to give them is very ill taken by Christ and if he take them well let proud spirits take them as ill as they please The like I may say as to the opposing of Error and Heresies according to your capacities and of informing and instructing the ignorant when a season is offered and of warning the unruly c. And you know not but you may do much good in such cases and your work may live when you are dead however your rewerd is with the Lord for whom you have performed this service There are other good and gracious Offices to be discharged which cease when you are dead I did briefly mention some of them in the Doctrinal part Let me now exhort you to attend them also As to pray one for another which Duty ends with our Lives For as I have said God will have but one Intertercessor in Heaven but here he requireth many Here we may yea must be trading one with another viz. Prayers for Prayers Ministers with people and people with their Ministers and one Saint with another Not but that we must pray for others also Oh! what a trade did Paul drive this way I have sometimes thought what a Catalogue of Churches and Saints he had to commend to God in his daily prayers How many Churches did he usually pray for saith he to the Church at Rome God is my witness that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers The like for the Church at Ephesus saith he I cease not to give give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers So for the Church at Philippi saith he I remember you always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy And thus too he saith he prayed for the Church at Colossus The very same for the Church at Thessalonica We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembring without ceasing your work of Faith labour of Love and patience of Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ And doubtless had he written Epistles to all other Churches we should have heard of his prayers for them Neither did he pray only for Churches but also for several Saints in particular For he saith that he prayed for Timothy night and day that is Morning and Evening the whole put for the part And as for Philemon he saith That he made mention of him always in his prayers What a Catalogue then had Paul of Churches and Saints to recommend to God in his daily prayers For it is very likely that he prayed for many more than we find in his Epistles And as he prayed for the Churches so he desireth to be remembred in their prayers For as I said he drove a holy trade this way He begs the prayers of the Church at Rome in the very Language of a Begger for an Alms. Now I beseech you Brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be delivered So of the Church at Ephesus and of the Philippians and of the Colossians and of the Thessalonians and of the Hebrews for the greatest Apostle had need of the prayers of the meanest Christian only he begs no prayers of the Church at Corinth in his first Epistle to them as looking upon them under many and great offences for which he there reproves them Nor of the Churches of Galatia whom he look't upon as greatly backsliden from the Faith And he would not trade with broken men But here you see I have given you a notable example for your imitation in this Point Pray therefore for one another and trade together as you shall see occasion Yea you must pray sometimes for such as never desired it So likewise if you do hear of the afflicted condition of such and such of the Saints suppose in great poverty or in prison upon the account of Christ and a good Conscience or in some great distress otherwise or under sickness and in danger of death look upon your selves as obliged to put up one Prayer for them You know what the Apostle saith Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being your selves also in the body Remember them How To sympathize with them to pray for them and to your power to help and relieve them And think it not enough that you pray for Saints but perform the like service for sinners also for your prayers may contribute much to their conversion as Christ's prayer Luke 23. 34. did to the conversion of many that were his enemies Acts 2. and Stephens prayer probably was heard in the conversion of Paul And be sure to pray for Children and Childrens Children that they may live in the sight of God and bear up his Name in their generations Neither rest in particular persons but pray also for the Churches of Christ this day in whom he is so much concerned as exercising his special Government in and over them Pray therefore for their peace and purity and progress in holiness and that they may be edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Ghost be multiplyed And this is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem And
THE PRIVILEDGE OF THE Saints on Earth BEYOND Those in HEAVEN In respect of Gifts and Graces exercised Duties and Services performed sufferings and Tryals undergone by them which the Glorified are not capable of BEING The Sum of a Discourse upon a part of Hezekiah Song of Thanksgiving after his Recovery from his Sickness To which is added A short Discourse of the Nature and 〈◊〉 of the Gospel-day reaching from the Destruction of the Old to the 〈…〉 of the New Jerusalem out of 〈…〉 By WILLIAM HOOKE Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for John Wilkins and are to be sold at his Shop in Exchange-Alley next door to the Exchange-Coffee-House over against the Royal-Exchange 1673. Courteous Reader Thou art desired to correct with thy Pen these following Errata's PAge 9. Line 15. for imparted read imported P. 11. in the Margin r. Eph. 3. last P. 13. l. 6. f. hence r. here P. 16. l. 10. for Spiritual r. special P. 22. in the Margin r. Job 7. 2. P. 23. l. 10. for the r. this P. 35. l. 13. blot out yet P. 51. l. 28. r. bridled P. 53. in the Margin r. Luke 8. 48. Luke 7. 50. P. 65. l. 9. for the r. your P. 91. l. 23 24. for Argumentations r. Augmentations P. 92. l. 8. for for r. so P. 92. l. last for were not the r. were it not for the. P. 95. l. 20. f. from plain to Plain r. from Place to Place P. 101. l. 22 for lon r. long In the second Sermon in the Epistle for go r. therefore TO THE READER THe greatest and highest Honour of the reasonable Creature is to serve him who is the best Good and last End Herein do we communicate with Angels whose glory it is that they are Ministring Spirits always beholding the face of God our Father for this very purpose How diligent then should we be to lay hold on and to improve all opportunities of service seeing our time is so short our work so great and our salvation nearer than when we first believed The Son of God hath given us a glorious pattern herein I must work the work of him that hath sent me c. Christ Jesus our Master improved all opportunities went up and down doing good filling all places where he came with the favour of his Doctrine and Miracles because he knew his time was short and the recompence of reward at hand The serious thoughts hereof would exceedingly spur us to a holy diligence especially considering that Heaven is a place not of work but reward where the Saints will be divested of serving and honouring God in many of these ways wherein now through grace they are enabled to bring much glory to his Name Many Graces Duties Gifts have here their place while we are Viatores but shall have no room when we come to be Comprehensores And this is the design of the worthy Author in this little Tract viz. to set before thee the great opportunities thou hast of service to God while thou art on this side Heaven beyond what are to be enjoyed there Were this throughly weighed how would Holiness be promoted Saints thrive Families flourish Churches revive we should not so passionately desire death meerly to be rid of all sufferings but should prize life if with it Christ Jesus might be magnified It is glorious work that God calls his Saints to ' ere they get to Heaven Is not suffering for Christ glorious work is not the exercise of Faith Hope and Patience glorious work To do good and to communicate both to the bodily and spiritual necessities of Saints and others is not this glorious work In a word to propagate pure Religion undefiled to the generations to come is not this glorious work Why herein are the Saints on Earth priviledged beyond those in Heaven where there is no room for the exercise of these Graces and Duties Oh! who would not pray that he might live to do God service spin not out precious time unprofitably Pray that thou mayest be counted worthy of this calling which is indeed a high calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith Hope and Patience with power that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Isaiah 38 18 19. For the Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day The Father to the Children shall make known thy Truth THe words are a part of Hezekiah's thanksgiving for his recovery from his sickness beginning at the ninth verse This good King was not simply afraid of Death as appeareth ver 3d. But First He had then no Son to succeed him in the Kingdom for Manasseh was not then born and he was sollicitous for a Successour and the fulfilling of God's Promise to David which we have four times expressed viz. 2 Sam. 7. 12 13 16. 1 King 8. 25. Psal 89. 28 29. 132. 12. In all which places we find this Promise to David that there should not fail a Man of his Seed to sit upon the Throne of Israel so that his Children took heed to their wayes to walk before the Lord in truth as David their Father had done Here was a Promise with a Condition And hence it is I suppose that Hezekiah in his Prayer vers 3d makes mention of his fulfilling that Condition viz. That David's Children must take heed to their way if they desired to sit upon his Throne that they walk before him as David had done For saith Hezekiah Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart have done that which is good in thy sight As much as to say Lord I hope thou wilt not cut me off and leave the Kingdom without an Heir of the Seed of David seeing thou did'st promise him that thou wouldest not provided that his Children took heed to their way that they walked before him as David did And through thy Grace I have so walked in my measure and therefore I hope thou wilt not take me away who have performed the Condition So that Hezekiah though a very good Man was afraid of Death yet not simply but lest the Kingdom should want an Heir of the Seed of David And this that I have said confirms the Opinion of those that say that Hezekiah was loth to dye because then he had no Heir though that was not all the reason For Secondly He was also loth to dye in God's displeasure so as a Child of God my do For God doth testifie his temporal displeasure many times against his own Children If his Children forsake my Law and walk not in my Judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments Then will I
when you hear of a Church bereft of its Pastor pray to the chief Shepherd to supply the empty room with a meet successour As Moses said in another case Let the Lord the God of the Spirits of all flesh set a man over the Congregation which may go out before them and which may go in before them and which may lead them out and which may bring them in that the Congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no Shepherd Oh sirs There is a great service to be done for Christ by prayers during the opportunity of our intercession which dieth together with us What great things have been and still are done by prayers By these was the Church delivered out of Babylon and Peter out of Prison By these was Zion built By these is the Gospel upheld the enemies thereof brilded and liberty obtained c. And when God will do great and wonderful things he will gather his praying Saints together and pour out a mighty Spirit of prayer upon them Sixthly Comfort the feeble minded and support the weak Speak a word in due season to the weary For sometimes you shall meet with such as want it and who walk in darkness and see no light and are ready to complain like Heman Psal 88. at large In such cases Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees and say to them that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not And this it seems was Jobs practice He strengthened the weak and his words upheld him that was falling And if they were in affliction the moving of his lips asswaged their grief For heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop but a good word maketh it glad And this savoureth sweetly of the Spirit of Christ who would not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax. The words are diminutive for the meaning is he would strengthen the bruised Reed and blow up the smoaking Flax. For he carries his Lambs in his bosom that is he tenders them and laies them near his heart As when the Church was in affliction and sick of love he stayes her with flagons and comforts her with Apples his left hand is under her head and his right hand embraceth her Not his right hand under her head and his left hand embraceth her for that is not next the heart of Christ He is our High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities hath compassion on us in just proportion He speaks to the heart of the trembling Haemorrhoiss when she fell down at his feet and saith unto her Daughter be of good comfort thy Faith hath made thee whole go in peace And he takes part with that brokenhearted sinner that sate behind him at his feet weeping and washing and wiping and kissing them and rebukes censorious Simon and saith to her Thy sins are forgiven thy Faith hath saved thee go in peace Oh the sweet Spirit of Christ Let the same mind then be in you which was in him And comfort them that are in trouble with the comforts wherewith you your selves have been comforted of God And be kindly affectioned one toward another in brotherly love And when the case requires it shew your self a son of Consolation Seventhly In Heaven you know are no necessities whereas here are many which will give occasion therefore to such service as Heaven hath no need of For here are poor Saints and the poor are always with us who sometimes want Food sometimes Clothing sometimes Lodging sometimes Money c. You then that are able must follow Job's example saith he I have not with-held the poor from their desire nor caused the eyes of the Widow to fail nor eaten my morsel alone but the Fatherless hath eaten of it also Neither have I seen any to perish for want of clothing or any poor without covering but his loynes have blessed me and he was warmed with the fleece of my sheep The stranger did not lodge in the street but I opened my door to the Traveller c. and the eyes of our Lord Jesus are much upon such good works as these for he beheld how the people cast their money into the Treasury Heaven affordeth no such objects of your Love and Compassion There are indeed many Beggers at Heavens Gates but never a Begger within Heavens doors And there are many Widows and Fatherless Children here but never a Widow nor Orphan there Brethren Be ye then merciful 〈◊〉 your Father in Heaven is merciful And blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy And it is that which will lengthen out your lives Mercy even to the bruit creatures shall prolong your dayes much more then to Men especially to the houshold of Faith Lazarus shall rise and have a new lease of his life to entertain Christ again And so shall Tabitha to make Coats and Garments for Widows again Life is well bestowed upon merciful ones And life is the time of acting this Grace for bowels are shut up in Heaven and no pity shall be shewed to the nearest perishing relations in the day of Christ Again Here you may entertain Jesus Christ in his Members and Ministers Here you may be fellow-helpers to the Truth and Gospel And what says John of that We ought therefore to receive such that we might be fellow-helpers to the Truth And saith the Apostle Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares We cannot entertain Angels in Heaven for they have their places there as well as we and there we are rather entertained by them Zech. 3. 7. but here it hath been done as by Abraham and Lot And though we cannot expect to entertain them as they did yet if we could what is that to the entertainment of Christ himself And if we entertain his Members at our houses or do any Office of Love for them we do it unto Jesus Christ Eighthly Let us be willing also if need be to suffer for Christ which is a service peculiar to this life But I say If need be because we are not to cast our selves upon suffering uncalled We must take up but not make a Cross But when the providence of God and his Word calleth us to witness for Christ to the loss of ought that is nearest and dearest to us let us remember that this is one of the services which termineth with our lives and cannot be performed in glory It hath indeed been our portion hitherto to escape those sufferings which many of our brethren have undergone But have we been sufferers in affection Have we been prepared for the Cross Or have we not been among the fearful And have we sympathized with our Brethren in their sufferings and have we accounted them happy that have endured yea and their sufferings honourable for the sake and in the quarrel
World to gather them to the battel of the great Day of God Almighty And that must needs be a very sad Evening especially in respect of trouble great oppositions and commotions For there shall be as terrible Signs and Presages fore-running the erection of the New-Jerusalem as there were before the Destruction of the Old Hinc illae Tenebrae But how then shall it be light at this Evening time Secondly In some respect therefore it shall be the most lightsom part of the Day hitherto And indeed it will be the light of the Evening that will very much occasion the Darkness of it I mean the Light of the Truth that shall then shine forth shall darken the Kingdom of the Beast and cause his Followers to gnaw their very Tongues for pain For that is under the Fifth Vial and if the Kingdom be full of Darkness it must needs be that Christ's Kingdom will then be full of Light For the Witnesses will be â—isen long before the effusion of the Fifth and Sixth Vials and Antichrist be greatly consumed with the breath of Christs mouth viz. in the Preaching of the Gospel And therefore in this respect it must needs be a lightsome Evening and a time of greater Light than ever shined since the daies of the Apostles Thus you see what a time the Evening shall be But shall this Evening then determine this Day so that the Conversion of the Jews shall become another Day No But as this Day is one and the same and constant to it self as we have heard so shall the Day of the Jews Conversion and the time following be one and the same day with this But how Not in respect of Light and Darkness intermixed so as in the Day before the Evening but in respect of one and the same Covenant and way of Holy Administration still continued For the Ordinances now used shall be continued to the coming of Christ For it is observable First That this dark Time is not called The Evening but the Evening-time Quo tempore advesperascere Nox esse solet At what time it begins to be Evening or to look like an Evening and the Sun seems to be setting And therefore Seâ—â—ndly Though it is called an Evening-time yet there is no Night said to follow it Sol occubuit Nox nulla secuta est It is such an Evening wherein the Sun setteth and no Night succeedeth It is true One would little expect light in the Evening especially more light than in the Day before But such an Evening-time is this after which shineth the greatest Light that ever was seen since the daies of Jesus Christ You see then what this Evening is Secondly What is that Light that shall shine so gloriously at the Evening-time especially at the end of it Answ It is the same in kind and quality with that which shined before this Evening-time only it differeth in degrees For now the Light shall excel and that shall be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Arise and shine for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee c. Now as I may say 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 Daies Yea The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light and thy God thy glory The Sun shall no more go down neither the Moon withdraw it self for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light But wherein shall this Light consist First There shall be a great effusion of the Spirit of God in those times whereof a Pledge was given in the Morning of this Gospel-day It shall come to pass in the last daies that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh And the like we find in the words following my Text And it shall be in that Day that living Waters shall go out from Jerusalem c. And hereby is meant the Spirit of God with his Gifts and Graces compared to living Waters And these I take to be the same with Ezekiel's waters which rose at last to a very great depth Secondly Hence it followeth That there will be a very great light of Knowledg in this Day so that there shall not be so much need as now there is for one to teach another saying Know the Lord for they shall all know him from the least to the greatest And that shall be the time especially when The Earth shall be full of the knowledg of God as the Waters cover the Sea Thirdly This Light of Knowledg shall have a great influence into the Hearts and Lives of Men who shall shine eminently in Holiness insomuch that the inscription upon the Fore-head of the High-Priest shall then be put upon the bells of the Horses and the very Pots in Jerusalem and Judah shall be Holiness to the Lord Even Carters Cooks and Kitchin-Maids shall then shine in purity of life and there shall be no more the Canaanite in the House of the Lord of Hosts Fourthly That Day shall shine with the Light of Peace Tranquillity and Joy for these go together Esth 8. 16. Swords shall then be turned into Plough-shares and Spears into Pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Fifthly In that Day there shall be the Light of Comfort for this will follow necessarily from all the former and the Consolation will be both External and Internal viz. When the Spirit of God the Comforter shall be poured out so plentifully and when the Spirit shall have his Day as the Father and the Son had theirs And when Knowledge Holiness and Peace shall abound on the Earth when Turk and Pope and all that oppose the Kingdom of Christ shall be destroyed and Satan bound and confined to the bottomless Pit during the Thousand years I say This must needs be a very comfortable time Great then shall be the peace of Zions Children when God shall make her an eternal Excellency and a joy of many Generations when violence shall no more be heard in her Land wasting and destruction within her Borders but men shall call her Walls Salvation and her Gates Praise and when they shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord who shall turn the former Mourning of his People into Joy and comfort them and cause them to rejoice from their sorrow For they shall come to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon their Heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away And thus you see the Light that shall be at the Evening-time and the Doctrine cleared in the several parts of it the Uses whereof now follow Uses First What hath