and shall be filled with horror and astonishment in the certain looking for of Judgment and that siery Inaignation which shall devour the Adversaries and even now already seising upon them For surely this Sight shall be the beginning of their sorrows but of everlasting joys and triumphs to the followers of the Lamb Who now comes in glory to meet them and to receive them to himself Which brings me to the second Meeting mentioned here in the Text c. The Saints meeting with Christ their Head The Saints meeting with Christ Jesus to meet the Lord in the Air. In this Meeting there be three things considerable 1. The Persons meeting 2. The Place where they meet 3. The ends of their meeting 1. The Persons meeting Christ and his Saints He Descends to meet them and they Ascend to meet him Such is the Love and Condescention of the Lord Jesus to his Saints that he cometh out of his Royal Pavilion more than half way to meet them and then sends his Charrets and Horse-men a Guard of Angels to carry them up in the Clouds and to conduct them unto the place where he stayeth for them There shall they be brought into his Royal presence and like a Royal Spouse who hath been long separated from her Bridegroom by distance of place they shall fall down before Him and with Tears of joy shall wash his feet and wipe them dry with the Kisses of their Lips while at the same time Christ will take his Bride up into his Arms and with the Father of the Prodigal fall upon her neck and kiss her and with all the unconceivable expressions of Love and Joy receive her to Himself and bid her welcom into his presence Oh! what Soul can conceive what mutual Joy and Triumph there will be between Jesus Christ and his Saints in this blessed Interview Oh how welcome will the Saints be to the Lord Jesus at that day The Saints under a three-fold Relation when he shall look upon them under a three-fold Relation sc 1. As the Father's Election First The Fathers Election Joh 10.6 Eph 1.18 To see the whole number of names which were given unto him by the Father from all Eternity as the fruit and reward of his Passion now at the last all gathered together and given into his actual possession as an inheritance for ever 2. To look upon them as the Purchase of his own Blood 2. The Sons Purchase If it was a satisfaction to the Lord Jesus when behold he was in the throws and agonies of his Travel with them upon the Cross to see his Seed Isa 53 11. when they were but in the swadling Cloaths of their imperfect Regeneration according to their successive generations wherein they were to be brought into the Church Oh what infinite satisfaction will it now be to the Lord Jesus to see the Travel of his Soul in their perfect and consummate estate all the mixtures of Corruption and Infirmity now deleted and they come to a perfect man to the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ to see them all brought in not a Soul wanting of all those whose names he bare upon his breast while he hung upon the Cross that not one drop of Blood not one Prayer not a Sigh or Groan or Tear that ever he spent for them in the days of his Flesh is lost or fruitless as to any one Soul whom he purchased of the Father Joh. 17.12 In the Pastoral charge of Christ there was one Son of Perdition but in his Mediatory charge not one Soul shall miscarry but all shall be presented to him safe and entire at his appearance And over them shall he glory saying as it were All these are mine the Travel of my Soul the Purchase of my Blood the Fruit of my Agonies for these I was born and for these I was made under the Law For these I Bled Joh. 1â— 24 and for these I made my self an Offering for sin Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me Come near unto me my Sons and my Daughters that I may kiss you Gen. 27.27 See the smell of my Redeemed is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed A Woman when she is in Travel hath sorrow because her hour is come Joh. 16.21 but as soon as she is delivered she remembreth no more the anguish for joy that a man-Child is born into the World Surely the joy of our Lord will so much transcend the joy of all natural Mothers by how much his agonies were more bitter the birth more precious and his Soul more capacious of higher and purer joyes than are to be sound in the poor narrow Creature 3. When he shall look upon them as the charge and deposisitum of the Holy Ghost Whom the Father did Elect the Son was to purchase and whom the Son purchased the Spirit was to Sanctifie Who therefore is called the Holy-Ghost not only because as the third glorious Person in the blessed Trinity he is essentially holy in himself but because by Office he is a Fountain of Holiness to all the Elect. The Blood of Christ indeed is the Fountain of Merit but the Spirit of Christ the Fountain of operation and efficacy gathering the Elect out of the world wherein they lay in common with the rest of the lost Sons and Daughters of Adam Gal. 5.22 23. planting their Souls with the habits of Grace which are therefore called the Fruits of the Spirit and then acting supporting preserving and ripening those habits into perfection The Father's Election and the Son's Purchase are both perfected by the Sanctification of the Spirit The Father's Election 2 Thes 2.13 so the Apostle tells his Thessalonians God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit The Son's purchase Tit. 3.5 He saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Oh how acceptable then must the Offering up of the Saints be to Jesus Christ because thus Sanctified by the Holy-Ghost And when Christ shall thus present his Redeemed unto Himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but Holy and without blemish How will he rejoyce over her as the Bridegroom over his Bride That day being indeed the Marriage of the Lamb of which anon Rev. 19.7 Thus will the Lord Jesus the King of glory rejoyce to meet the Saints And surely the Saints according to their finite capacity will not less rejoyce and triumph to meet their Lord. Oh! to meet him now whom their Soul loved whom in the days of their Pilgrimage upon Earth they often sought and could not find sought him in Prayer Meditation Conference c. but could not find him and when they could not find him mourned for him lamented after him bedewed their
3. Earnestly beg the Spirit of God 3. Help Beâ— the Spirit His Office is twofold as to assurance 1. Mediate To clear your evidences The Office of the Spirit twofold 1. Mediate This he doth two wayes 1. By helping the soul to know and believe the evidence as it lyeth in the word such as these He that believeth shall be saved Rom. 10.9 They that through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body shall live Rom. 8.13 Hereby we know we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren 1 John 3.14 18. cum 19. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 The heirs of glory are only such as God hath made meet for the Inheritance Col. 1.12 He that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.12 We groan to be cloathed upon that mortality might beswallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 These and many other are the Graces and Qualifications to which God hath infallibly annexed heaven and glory And to these evidences the Holy Ghost helps the Soul to set his seal as to the infallible testimony of God that they are true John 3.33 2. The Spirit clears the evidence by the Candle of the Lord enabling the Soul to read it evidently written in the heart by his own finger the Spirit enlightens the understanding to see that these graces in the Soul are real and genuine The believer dan say I believe I through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body I keep under my body and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9. ult I love the brethren and the more of God I see in them the more my heart cleaves to them I have the Son as a fountain of light and life dwelling in me I am in some measure made meet I hope to be partaker of the inheritance c. Now from the premises the Spirit enables the believer comfortably to issue this blessed conclusion Therefore I shall be saved Therefore I am a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Behold this is the first office of the Spirit Oh pray for it Christians that in judging of your evidences neither on one hand you may be deceived with shadows instead of substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 1.22 Bristol-stones instead of Diamonds as hypocrites deceive themselves and perish for ever nor on the other hand still lye trembling under a causeless suspition that all is but counâ—erfeit when there is no just ground for it and so for the present loose your comfort be sure not to trust your own spirit in so infinite a concern and if at first you cannot so readily make this practical Syllogisme wait and pray for the Spirit which is of God That you may know the things that are freely given to you of God! Cry with David Search me O God 2 Cor. 2.12 and know my heart c. Psal 139.23 24. It is good to be afraid to deceive our selves The second Office of the Spirit is that which some Divines call immediate 2. Office Immediate and it is a bright irradiation of the Holy Ghost beaming out upon the soul not only giving iâ— a clear distinct discerning of its own graces that we referr'd to in the former Office but immediately witnessing to the soul its adoption by Jesus Christ and right and title to the Kingdom of God wherein God speaks to the soul in some such like language as that I am thy salvation Psal 35.3 Making the soul to hear joy and gladness Psal 51.8 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins Isai 44.22 I have redeemed thee like that in the Gospel Thy sins be forgiven thee Matth. 9.2 Now this act is usually called immediate i. e. without the mediation of signs and evidences as in the former Office not but that there are signs and evidences in the person testified but that the Spirit makes no use of them in the act of testification there are gracious qualifications in the soul sufficient to distinguish and justifie it from all the false witness of the lying Spirit upon all seasonable occasions but the Spirit of God doth not refer to any of these qualifications in this act but immediately darts in light and comfort which fill the soul wich joy unspeakable and full of glory This act of the Spirit is sometimes called in Scripture 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Seal of the Spirit Ephes 1.13 The office of a Seal being like that of an Oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6.16 an end of all strife to put the matter beyond doubt or disputation So a Believer sealed is set beyond all fear or danger and God as it were leaves himself no possibility of receding or going back from his word and promise Heb. 6.18 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This act is called an earnest 2 Cor. 5.5 Who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit Now the office of an earnest is not only to assure but to give possession an earnest is part of the purchase or bargain so is this act of the Spirit an act whereby the soul is not only assured of but put into possession of the heavenly inheritance it is as it were part of it the joy of the Lord enters into the soul before the soul enters into the joy of the Lord assurance is nothing else but antidated glory heaven on this side heaven This is my B. the second Office of the Spirit which I well know some eminently learned and godly Divines deny acknowledging no other act of the Spirit in assurance but the former But I resolved at the entrance of this work not to dispute but thetically to assert my own opinion and judgment in any point that admits of debate In this case therefore I know and believe there is enough in the former Office of the Spirit to carry a believer to heaven yet this second Office can be no useless redundancy or over plus a Believer will need all the assurance that is to be had and therefore if God be so bountiful to give both let a Believer pray and wait for the promise of the Spirit in both these Offices mediate and immediate if he speed it will be a labour well bestowed if he speed not it will be a labour well lost I have done with this third Help or Means to attain assurance I come to the fourth and shall more briefly dispatch them that remain A fourth Help to get assurance is this 4. Help Be very tender of the Spirit Make much of the Spirit surely it concerns us highly to be very tender of the Spirit for if both kinds of assurance be the fruit of the Spirit we had need to hear as it were founding in our ears Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 whereby ye are sealed to the
more precious than a Ruby and who art thou that thou shouldst refuse Cordials from Heaven made of the blood of Christ Jewels taken out of Gods own Cabinet Away away Christian with Rachels peevishness and Jonas his passion which serve for nothing but to turn sorrow into sin I do well to be angry doth ill become meekness of Christs Spouse say rather I will bear the indignation of the Lord Mic. 7.9 because I have sinned against him What if God hath given thee a bitter potion he comes now to comfort thee he offers thee a sovereign Cordial Oh spill it not upon the ground as a vile thing nor say in thy passion Let God keep his Cordials to himself and so as it were take revenge on God for afflicting thee Oh lay thine hand upon thy mouth yea put thy mouth in the dust that it may not cause thy flesh to sin Thou art a man or woman of sorrows it were thy wisdom as well as thy duty to look out for some spiritual Cordials and not to reject soul refreshment when it is offered say not to thy comforters with the Prophet Isaiah Look away from me Isai 22.4 I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort me and thy case will not bear it He was weeping the Churches tears thou art poring over a private personal trial consider in so doing thou art but preparing new causes of sorrow for thine own soul and when thou hast done sorrowing for thy loss thou wilt begin anew to sorrow for thy sin in so sorrowing Heark soul Ever be with the Lord. Is not there a word that may wipe away all tears from thine eyes even on this side heaven In the next place 8. Branch of Information hence we gather this sad truth scil That there is not a word of comfort belonging to wicked men when they die nor while they live in sin Comfort one another none other but one another not the ungodly they and their parasites may flatter themselves and one another but there is not one word of comfort belonging to them of all those Rivers of pleasures that are at Gods right hand not one drop for a Dives Of all those treasures of glory not one mite for an Esau Indeed pity belongs to wicked men and reproof belongs to them Reprove them rather Ephes 5.11 and counsel belongs to them Let the wicked forsake his wickedness and expostulation belongs to them Why will ye die c. And prayer belongs to them Father forgive them c. But comfort doth not belong to them Consolation is none of their portion in the state wherein they are As there is no peace to the wicked so consequently no comfort for them Indeed a wicked man hath his portion but 't is a dreadful one Psal 11.6 Vpon the wicked shall the Lord rain snares fire and brimstone alluding to the destruction of Sodom this shall be the portion of their cup these fiery ingredients shall be put into their cup after the delicious draughts of sinful pleasures this was Dives his case Luke 16.23 24 c. after his delicate fare the Devils snap dragon draughts of flaming fire was his portion for ever and this is all the comfort that is to be administred to them Isai 3.11 Say thou to the wicked it shall be ill with him They shall be cast into utter darkness with the Devil and his Angels for ever c. These are their words of comfort they are ministers of hell who have any better words of comfort for wicked men while wicked for the Devil would have them dance about the snare till their foot be taken in his gin They that can cry peace peace when there is no peace are the Devils Factors who bring him in the greatest revenues to his Kingdom But alas how shall a wicked man be comforted His death is not a sleep but death indeed Rev. 6.8 death armed with all its horrors death with its sting which is sin death with hell at the heels of it death with the wrath of God and death with the loss of eternal life Indeed a wicked man shall rise again but it is that he may have the more solemn trial and more tremendous sentence from the Judge in the face of heaven and earth and who can comfort him that doth truly represent his condition to him How much then are we concerned to labour to be such as may have comforters in our own death 9. Branch of Information and leave matter of comfort to our surviving friends It is a duty incumbent on us to make our death as comfortable to our selves and our godly friends as may be And how is that done but in a word to get an interest in Christ Scripture evidence of that interest and the Seal of the Spirit to those evidences The death of some persons is exceeding dreadful not only to themselves but to standers by this is the supposed reason of that lamentable ingemination of David Oh my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom q. d. Absalom dyed in his rebellion I fear he is fallen into a worse hand than Joabs Oh that my death might have prevented so dreadful a miscarriage Oh Absalom would God I had dyed for thee But alas my brethren it is not freedom from such parricidious villanies no nor all the moral innocence in the world nor civil righteousness in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the altitude of it that can fill a dying Saint with joy or the surviving godly Mourners with comfort whatever blaze unregenerate persons make in the world they go out like a stinking snuffe but a Saint leaves a persume behind him he embalms his own death he leaves every one of his weeping friends a Legacy of hope concerning his eternal state he sets up a lustre in the House of mourning brighter than those were with which Great mens Hearses are watched and in an instant turneth it into a House of rejoycing he is entered into glory and hath left behind him the prints of his feet to guide us thither and being dead yet speaks to us as Christ to Mary Magdalene Why weepest thou The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Study therefore I say an interest in Christ that while you are ravished with the joyes of Heaven you may leave comfort on Earth for your godly Relations Carnal friends are satisfied with a negative holiness for themselves or for their Relations that dye before them to be better than the worst is evidence enough to them of a blessed state or whatever their life hath been put but in a little dead repentance into the premises they will put heaven into the conclusion Oh say they he is happy he is in heaven sure enough But Christians whose eyes have been opened to look into the horror of the bottomless pit out of which free grace hath redeemed the Saints the purity of the Gospel rule and the glory
marg for Acts 13.19 read 3 19 page 145 marg for Matt. 5.27 read 5 17 page 155 marg for Psa 30 3. read 130 3. PART 3. page 2 marg for Luke 21 46 read 21 36 marg for Rev. 3 2 r. 14 4 page 8 line 16 for Mat. 24.21 read 24 51 page 29 marg for Matt. 8 10 read 18 10 page 30 marg for Joh. read 1 Joh. page 31 marg for Gen. 13 24 30. read 32 24 30 page 34 marg for Psal 48 2 read 84 2 page 38. marg for 1 King 4 25 read 4 29 page 46 marg for Maâ— read Matth. page â—â— marg for Mark 12 32 read 13 32 page 60 line 31 for Matr. 25 24 r ad 25 34 page 62 marg for Matt 18 1. read 8 11. page 79 marg for Rom. read Revel page 81 marg for Eph. 5 1. read 4 24 page 110 marg for 2 Thes 1 9. read 2 Cor. 4 4. page 125 marg for 2 Cor. read 1 Cor page 132 line 13. for Cant 6 12 read 7 12 page 135 marg for 1 Cor 9 52. read 9.25 page 150. marg for 1 Pet. 1 18. read 1.8 page 153. line 1â— for Psal 94.10 read 94.19 p. 164. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first Epistle Dedicatory p. â— l. 6. for weak r. mean In the second Epistle Dedicatory are these 3 pages mistaken in the Title vâ—z p. 7 p. 10 p. 11. for The Epistle to the Reader read The Epistle Dedicatory And in the same Epistle page 9. l. 9. for their excess read this excess page 10. line 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MOVNT PISGAH OR WORDS of COMFORT OVER THE Death of our Gratious Relations 1 Thes 4.18 Wherefore Comfort one another with these Words THese words what words are these Scripture words in their general Nature more particularly the Words of Comfort conteyned in this Context from v. 13. I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren c. down to my Text. For therein doth the Apostle by the dictate of the Holy Ghost lay down a model or platforme of Consolatory Arguments as so many soveraign Antidotes against immoderate sorrow for our pretious Relations which are departed And with these words the Apostle would have Christians be able to comfort themselves and one another Comfort one another with these words For the handling of the Text I will do these two things 1. I will shew you what these words are and open the sense and meaning of them as they lye in the order and method of the Context 2. I will improve them for 1. Comfort 2. Counsel For the first of these The words of Comfort laid down by the Apostle in this model 10 Words of Comfort may be reduced unto 10 Heads some of them very comprehensive and all of them like mother of Pearl dissolved exceeding Cordial and Restorative The first word of Comfort is this The first word of Comfort namely That our pretious Relations over whose departure we stand mourning and weeping are but fallen asleep I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep We may say of departed Saints as our Saviour said concerning the Damsel Math. 9.24 They are not dead but sleep the same phrase he also used to his Disciples concerning Lazarus John 11.11 our Friend Lazarus sleepeth A notion which the Disciples at first understood not because their understandings were not yet inlightened they dreamed of a natural sleep saith the Text of taking Rest in sleep And yet as men in their sleep do somtimes dream true so did they in this dream of theirs speak truer than they were aware of they said Lord if he sleeps he shall do well it is true indeed the Saints of God do but sleep when they lye down in the Grave that which we call death in such is not death indeed It is but the Image of Death the shadow and metaphor of death deaths younger Brother a meer sleep and no more The Holy Ghost who best knoweth what things be hath phrased it so and that not so little as twenty times in Scripture to shew that it was not a sudden expression incautelously dropt from the Pen of any one of the Secretaries of Holy Writ but the true proper and genuine notion of death suggested to them by the infallible dictate of the Spirit of God they do but sleep and if they sleep they shall do well their sleep shall be sweet unto them as sweet as once the Prophets was Jer. 31.26 I shall not follow the Analogy that is between Death and Sleep in the latitude of it sufficient to our purpose it will be to take notice of two main properties of Death which do carry in them a lively resemblance of sleep The first is Isâ— Ligath suâ—â—â— That sleep is nothing else but the binding up of the senses for a little time a locking up of the Doores and shutting of the Windows of the body for a season that so nature may take the sweeter Rest and Repose being freed from all disturbance and distractions Sleep is but a meer Paerenthesis to the Labours and Travels of this present life Secondly Sleep is but a partial privation a privation of the Act only not of the Habit of Reason They that sleep in the Night do awake again in the Morning then there is a regress or return of the habit to its Act again The Soul returneth to the discharge of all her Offices again In the internal faculties to the act of Judging and discourse in the Intellect to recalling things for the present and recording things for future use in the memory It returns to its Empire and command in the will to its judicature in the Conscience Excusing Accusing Condemning Et sic in caeteris So likewise the soul returns again to the execution of all her functions in the external senses to seeing in the eye to hearing in the ear to tasting in the pallate as also to working in the hands to walking in the feet and so in the rest In a word the whole man is Redivivus restored again to its self as it were by a new * Providentia est continuata Creatio Creation that which lay as senseless and useless tantum non dead all the night is raised again more vive and fresh and active in the morning than it lay down at night Such a thing as this for all the world is that which we commonly call Death but with this considerable advantage that in the interim of Death the soul acts more vigorously than before as being released from the weights and intanglements of the body First It is but a longer and closer binding up of the senses Nature's long vacation The Grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to Rest with its Curtains drawn close about it that it may not be disturbed in its repose so the Holy Ghost pleaseth to phrase it Isa 57.2 He
2.5 The Believer in Christ implieth Communion and fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 When Christ is said to be in the Believer we are to understand it in reference to sanctification When the Believer is said to be in Christ it is in order to justification It is Christ without us 1 Cor. 1.30 Righteousness that justifieth it is Christ within us that sanctifieth Grace in the Apostles phrase is Christ formed in the heart Gal 4.19 These and the like expressions hold forth that transcendent and mysterious Vnion which is between Christ and the Believing Soul whereby they are not only joyned together but in a sober Gospel-sense united oned as it were Christ becomes one with them and they one with Christ This Union with Christ for the clearer and safer understanding of so great and precious a mystery Six or seven properties of this Union I shall endeavour more fully to open in these six or seaven distinguishing properties It is a 1 Spiritual Union It is a 2 Real Union It is a 3 Operative Union It is a 4 Enriching Union It is a 5 Intimous Union It is a 6 Total Union It is a 7 Indissoluble Union The first property It is a Spiritual Vnion First property It is Spiritual When we speak of this Union we must abstract from all that is gross and fleshy there is nothing in it obvious to sense perceptible by the eye or by the ear or by the touch or tast it is not effected by any corporeal contact Christ and the Believer are not tied together by any material bonds and fleshy sinews but their Union is a pure immaterial sublime Vnion altogether Spiritual and that upon a double accompt First partly in as much as by this Union Christ 1 Cor. 6.17 and the Believer are made one Spirit He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit not onely one Spiritually but one Spirit not as exclusive to the body it self Ephes 2.29 for we are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones but expressing to us the top and perfection of this Union He that is joyned to an Harlot is one flesh in an impure and carnal sense Man and Wife 1 Cor. 6 16. though their conjunction be more honourable yet are but one flesh also in a conjugal sense For two saith he shall be one flesh I but he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit an Union infinitely more honourable than that in Marriage the Believer is joyned to Christ into one and the same Spirit he is animated and acted by one and the same Spirit with Christ though in a different degree and measure for God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Jo. 3.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ as Mediator for in that capacity Believers are United unto him and not merely as second person received the Spirit without measure * Christ was anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal 15. ◠〈◊〉 he had a larger effusion of the Spirit poured out upon him than all other Kings and Priests and Prophets Believers have but their stinted measure and proportion and yet notwithstanding the Spirit of God dwelling as truly in them as it did in Christ himself though not essentially they thereby become one Spirit with Christ And then again It is a spiritual Union 2. Partly because the bones and ligaments of this Union are not Carnal but Spiritual Scil. the Spirit whereby Christ Unites himself to the Believer on Christs part The presence of the Spirit maketh this Union by vertue of which God communicates with us as with his Sons and we communicate with God as with our Heavenly Father The exercises of Communion on both sides are managed by the Spirit of Christ Gal. 4.6 And the bond of Faith on the Believers part whereby the Believer is Vnited to Christ as the Cion is engraffed into the Stock and thereby grows up to be one with the Stock So is the Believer implanted into Christ by Faith Ephes 3.17 grows up in him receiveth life and nourishment from him and is preserved in him to life eternal kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. Behold 〈…〉 here is the subordination of these two bonds Faith keeps the Believer and the power of God keeps his Faith ‖ Per organum â—â—lei Spâ—ritus Christi virtuâ—â—â—â— now the Spirit of God is that power Upon this twofold account then is this Union a spiritual Vnion viz. 1. Because an Union of Spirit 2. Because effected by spiritual bonds A second property of this Union It is a real Vnion A second Property Real in a tenfold opposition Entia Rationis and that in a tenfold distinction First In opposition to an imaginary Union it is no metaphysical notion or like those things which Logicians call Intellectual beings or your Mathematical Lines which have their existence only in the understanding and fancy Secondly Nor is it a Relative Vnion only as Father and Child Master and Servant are united such an Union there is between Christ and Believers but that is not all Thirdly Neither is it a legal Vnion only Christ and the Believer are not one only as the Debtor and the Surety are one in Law in a forinsecal sence i.e. in the interpretation and judgment of the Court. In this sence they are one indeed viz. in the judgment of God as a Judge as I have formerly shewed but not only so Fourthly Nor is it an Union only of assent in point of doctrine and judgment though so much it is for saith the Apostle in the name of all Believers We have the mind of Christ 2 Cor. 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Believer so far as he is a Believer is of the same mind judgment and opinion with Jesus Christ in all things And this truly gives them a kind of oneness whence a firm and stedfast continuance in the Faith i.e. in the doctrine of Jesus Christ Fides quae creditur is called an in being in Christ John 15.4.6 and an abiding in Christ 1 John 2.24.28 Scil. a professional or doctrinal Union with Christ This the Saints of God have but neither is this all Fifthly Nor yet is it merely an Union of consent The Believer is not one with Christ only by consent of wills The Arrians whilst they blasphemously deny the Deity of the Son betray a double ignorance and if but ignorance there sin is the less the one in the doctrine or assertion it self the other in the ground which they alledge for it which is Christs own words praying to his Father for Believers John 17.22 that they may be one even as we are one whence they supposing Believers to be one with the Father and the Son only by consent of wills do infer neither are the Father and the Son one in any other sence But say we they err in the very foundation we acknowledg
indeed Believers to be so far one with Christ Idem velle Idem nolle vera est amicitia and that is a very sweet and precious union to will and nill the same things is an high degree of love and oneness but to say no more of the Union betwixt Christ and his Saints is to say too little Sixthly Neither is this Union barely a Sacramental Vnion whereby Christians in either of the Sacraments or any other Evangelical institution are in an Elemental professional way joyned to Christ and Christ to them Thus all good and bad Elect and Reprobate Simon Magus as well as any of the Believing Samaritans Acts 8.12 13. Judas as well as Peter all I say are made one with Christ in an external professional use of those Gospel-institutions while in the mean time a real Believer in a true living spiritual saving way is made partaker of Christ and of all his benefits in all Gospel-Ordinances Seaventhly In contradistinction to the Union which we have with Christ by vertue of his assuming our humane nature Christ was incarnate in the Womb of the Virgin and thereby was personally united to our flesh which is the highest advancement of the humane nature that can be conceived Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Christ assumed mans nature being God from all Eternity he took on him the one to the other and so made of those two natures one person by this we have a kind of Union with Jesus Christ ver 11. He which Sanctifieth and they which are Sanctified are both of one i.e. of one God say some the Son of God and Saints are all of one God the Father others understand it of Adam Christ as concerning the flesh and all the sanctified are of one common root and Father though by a different generation But of one here is to be referred principally to the nature whereof both the sanctifier and sanctified are partakers i.e. Acts 17.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are of the same blood and kindred of the same mould constitution of the same humane nature This is a near and an honourable Conjunction for by this means Jesus Christ is become our Immanuel God with us bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh but yet this Conjunction is common to all sanctified and unsanctified prophane and holy and verily it will be found an high aggravation of sin in the great day that sinners should dare to profane and prostitute that nature to sinful purposes Heb. 2.11 which the Son of God hath sanctified by so wonderful an assumption of it into one and the same personality with the divine nature Thus the sanctified are one with him that sanctifieth but that 's not all Eighthly It is real in contradistinction to that contemplative Vnion which the Saints have with Christ in their holy Meditations Meditation doth bring the object and the faculty together and makes them one And thus the Saints are often united to Jesus Christ in holy contemplation whereby they let in Christ into their Souls and their Souls into Christ and become as it were One Spirit or one in Spirit with him but neither is this all for even common gifts and parts may produce this Conjunction as well as Grace Art may thus Unite Christ and the understanding as well as Faith One may be thus United to Christ for a time and yet be separated from Christ for ever Again Ninethly It is a real Union in contradistinction to Reconciliatory Vnion Falling out separates between person and person Reconciliation makes them one again Reconciliation is the Attonement of Enemies and thus indeed God and Sinners are Reconciled by Christ by him we have received the Attonement those whom sin made two Rom. 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reconciliation Christ makes one This is a choyce fruit of Christ's death a concomitant of our Union with Christ yet not the very Vnion it self or not the whole of this Union there is between Christ and Believers the Union of Friendship 2 Cor. 5.18 19. But neither is that all Tenthly and lastly This Vnion is real in contradistinction to affectionate Vnion Crederes unam animam in duobus esse divisam Min. Fel. Oct. Love is as an uniting affection it makes the lover and the beloved one as if two persons had but one Soul between them thus Christ loves the Saints Rev. 1.5 and the Saints love Christ again 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ's love to them is the cause their love to Christ is the effect 1 Jo. 4.19 Yet this Union is rather a fruit of that Union we are now speaking of than the Vnion it self as in Marriage the conjugal bond and conjugal love are distinct things Indeed Love doth Unite Christ and the Saints but Love is rather the fruit of this Union than the Union it self there is somewhat more real in this Union than the Love it self None of all these reach the nature of this Union The Scripture describes it to be a real and a solid Union as real as that beween Head and Members Root and Branches for although it be a Spiritual Union yet doth it not therefore cease to be real things are not therefore less real because Spiritual yea therefore more God who is the most absolute and real Being a Being which gives Being to every thing which hath a being is most spiritual John 4.24 God is a Spirit and the nearer any being or excellency approximates unto God the more real it is the more it self as we see in Angels and the Souls of men Our Saviour his giving of us his Flesh to eat is not as the Papists believe or rather as they would make us believe they do believe literal and carnal the truth it self bearing witness John 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing q. d. If you could literally tear my Flesh with your teeth and pour my Blood down your throats this would not profit you at all in point of Salvation What then will Why the words which I speak are Spirit and Life i. e. they are to be understood in a Sacramental and spiritual sense c. And yet although Christs Body be not food in a fleshly but in a spiritual sense Jo. ◠55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly or Verily it is not therefore less real no my flesh is meat indeed and my Blood is drink indeed it is neither painted nor Enchanted meat but real and substantial yet not corporal but spiritual yea it is so real that in comparison of that all other corporal food is but imaginary and metaphorical it is but like bread it is but like wine painted bread Quasi food and painted wine not so indeed and in truth compared with Christ in the holy Supper Such is this Union although yea because it is not a corporal but a spiritual Union therefore it is so true and real that in comparison of it all Unions and
you to is to exercise your selves much in the vision of God here and to that end I would have you 1. Make much of your glasses But 2. Take heed of resting in and being satisfied with your glasses First Make much of your glasses Be thankful for them How many Churches of Jesus Christ have their glasses taken away or broken Robb'd and spoiled of all their precious things and have not so much as a glass left wherein they might have some glimpses of divine light conveyed into their understanding Oh Christians before it be so with you make use of your mediums While you have the light walk in the light c. Bless God that the Sun is not totally gone down upon your Prophets Mich. 3 6 nor the day dark over them God hath done that for you in as much wonder and more mercy that once he did for Joshua caused your Sun to stand still in your Gibeon c. Oh bless God for it Make his praise glorious And secondly Make good use of your mediums attend Reading and Hearing and Prayer and Sacraments while you have them take heed of that dangerous notion of being above Ordinances it is a Precipice upon which many have stumbled into darkness Oh that it may not prove utter darkness the blackness of darkness for ever There is a living above Ordinances which hath a good sence in it that is First When God hath taken away Ordinances or permitted men to take them away then to live above them i. e. to be able to live immediately upon God as knowing that though God hath tied us to means he hath not tied himself to means he that converts and saveth by Ordinances can do his work without them the means can do nothing without God but God can do what he will without the means so to live by faith is exceeding precious Secondly In the use of Ordinances to look above Ordinances to look up to God whose Ordinances they are as only able to make his own Institutions effectual to the accomplishing of his own ends thus to use Ordinances and to trust God is excellent but for a people while they have Ordinances to slight them and neglect them and talk of living above Ordinances this is intollerable pride and folly yea it is a mocking of God to be wiser than God and instead of living above Ordinances to live without God Oh learn to make much of the Ordinances lest that angry question come and sweep away all Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 seeing he hath no heart to it A second thing I would call you to is while you use Ordinances to take heed of resting in and of resting contented with Ordinances an Ordinance of God without the God of the Ordinance what an empty glass is it There is a vision of Ordinances and there is a vision in Ordinances oh take not up with that without this pray for such a spirit as he had whose voice it is Psal 63.1 My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee David was now in the wilderness banished from the Tabernacle and Ark Altars those legal Ordinances of the Sanctuary I but it is not the bare Ordinances that will serve his turn but God in the Ordinances thee thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee Oh Christians let the same mind be in you which was in holy David make God the object of your vision in your Evangelical attendances God commands it Seek ye my face Psal 27.8 Seek the Lord and seek his strength and seek his face evermore Psal 105.4 Oh let your hearts eccho with David's Thy face Lord will I seek or as it may be read Let my face Lord seek thy face What he meaneth by the face of God and so by thee thee in the 63. Psalm he expounds himself ver 2. That I may see thy power and thy glory in the Sanctuary namely the powerful and glorious manifestations of God in his Ordinances the manifestation of all his divine attributes and excellencies that which God offered unto Moses Exod. 33.23 and which our Lord promiseth to all his loving and obedient Disciples John 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him yea Father and Son ver 23. we will come and make our abode with him This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height and altitude of our Gospel vision as God told Moses thou shalt see my back-parts the face of God the vision of God his essence whatever it is that is reserved for an higher form the vision in glory yea I must tell you the clear manifestation of any divine truth in the brightness of it upon the understanding and in the sweetness of it upon the heart is this Evangelical vision as well as those higher manifestations of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in divine ravishments I say when it pleaseth God by the Spirit to beam in Gospel-truth from the very face of Christ not into the head only but into the heart with such a glorious light 2 Cor. 4.6 1 Peter 2.9 that it seems to be the same in the Soul as it is in Jesus the very glory of God so that the Soul stands wondering at the light when in his light we see light divine truth by a divine irradiation not by borrowed mediums and natural representations only by its own native brightness and lustre This this Christians is Gospel vision which as it doth necessarily tend to so it will infallibly expire into the beatifical facial vision in glory How rare are those Christians that do experience this vision of God in the Ordinance yea how rare are they that do thus breath and pant and cry out for the living God with this holy Psalmist Hence darkness hence deadness hence formality a powerless profession hath wofully spread it self upon the face of Christianity yea upon the very reformed parts of it Let Christians stir up themselves and let their souls press hard after God when they come to Ordinances or else this very thing will be worse to them than all the evil that befell them from their youth until now it may provoke God to withdraw even the Evangelical vision from them here and without great repentance to deny them admission to the beatifical vision hereafter They that will not seek Gods face in Grace shall not see Gods face in Glory The sixth and last object of the beatifical vision is Sixth Object of the blessed vision All things in God All things in God God is the universal Library of all truth whether divine or natural yea all truth quà truth is divine and doth emanate from the God of truth in whom it is there to be read as in its original and lieth open for all the whole Vniversity of those heavenly Academicks to peruse Yet we must remember that the
divine essence is an arbitrary and voluntary glass manifesting all mysteries not by necessity but according to the freedom of his own will there the Saints may read to the full the Mystery of the blessed Trinity how three in one and one in three Father Son and Holy Ghost God blessed for ever That thrice glorious and till we come to Heaven not to be fathomed Mystery the wonder and adoration of the believing world that immense ocean over which so many daring Spirits having essayed to fly have fallen in and been drowned that burning light unto which so many presuming to approach too near have scorcht their wings and lost both their eyes and themselves together that sacred Ark into which too many presumptuous Bethshemites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having dared over boldly to look have been smitten What is essence And what is person And how they differ How the Father begets and the Son is begotten and how the Holy Ghost proceeds from both how they are distinguished by their order their personal properties and manner of working upon the Creature how the Father worketh from himself the Son worketh from the Father and the Holy Ghost worketh both from the Father and the Son How there should be alius alius and not aliud aliud c. These will be Lectures which shall be read in the Trinity it self in glory and that in a most clear and intelligible notion then shall the Saints be able to understand the mystery of the incarnation of the second Person the Son of God that Mystery of Godliness of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 because it transforms sinners into Saints and mystery because it containeth so many deep and mysterious wonders in it The blessed blessed-making Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ scil Why the second Person in Trinity rather than the first or third should be incarnate Why he should take the nature of man rather than the nature of Angels and that when it was at the worst how he could take the nature of sinful man and yet not take the sinfulness of his nature the Hypostatical union between the divine and humane natures in the Lord Jesus in one person how there should be there aliud aliud and yet not alius alius That mysterious union between the Lord Christ the Head and all Believers the true Members of his body what it is and how they are made one with Christ as the Father and the Son are one this precious Mystery I say shall then be made manifest Jehn 14.20 at that day you shall know both what it is and how it is that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you c. then and not till then How he that is every where filling Heaven and Earth with his presence should yet be included in the narrow limits of a Virgins womb How he that made the Law should be made under the Law How the Ancient of dayes should become an Infant of moments How he that was begot before all time should be born in the fulness of time Ephes 3.10 How a Virgin and yet a Mother These and a thousand difficulties more wherein doth meet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multiform multivarious wisdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1.12 Ephes 3.10 as lines in a center where into the very Angels desire to peep and for some imperfect discoveries whereof they are glad to be beholding to the Lectures read in the Churches by their * Hoc vâ—rd nostra altior no titis praedicatur quam Anclorum tan 〈◊〉 intelligit Petrus ea nobu promitti quorum complementum videre cupiunt Cal. in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alludit ad propuiatorii formam c. Jam tum indicante figurâ fore ut in Christo cujus typur erat arca omnes sapientiae intelligentiae insiderent thesauri per Evangelii praedicationâ—m patesaciendi avidâ— ipsis Angelâ— beatâ— totum hoc mysterium cognoscare cujus etiam exhibitionem jam inde ab ipâ—is Christi noscentu incunabilu ecclesiae enarrâ—rant Beza in loc earthly Angels the Ministers of the Gospel these I say shall be clearly read and understood in that original wisdom wherein they were first conceived That profound and dark Mystery of Election and Reprobation why God should chuse one and leave another Why God should love Jacob and hate Esau Why the one should become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why first the Jews should be a Church and the Gentiles Aliens should afterward be adopted into the Covenant and the Jews broken off and cast out That God should break open the heart of a rebellious sinner by efficacious Grace and deny sufficient aid to one that hath improved his present strength far better With all other the dark profound Mysteries of Gods Decrees shall then be made glasses And lastly That mystery of wickedness and abominations and why God hath suffered him so long to reign and to usurp so great a part of Christs purchased and promised possessions with all his witchcrafts and sorceries whereby he hath deceived the Nations they shall all be discovered and brought to light to his eternal shame and confusion That God should shine out only upon some few spots of ground with the light of the Gospel and shut up the rest in palpable darkness The Creation of the World shall then be more clearly understood in the cause than now it is in the effect how all things were made out of the first matter and that out of nothing Rev. 13 10 14.12 Those hard mysteries of providence which do now try and exercise the faith and patience of the Saints scil Why they that are best should speed worst That there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked and again That there be wicked men Eccl 8.14 unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous In so much that now we call the proud happy Mal. 3.15 and they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered Why the worse cause should many times have the better success Why God should suffer his dearest Children to be abused and insulted over when wickedness in the mean while triuÌ„mphs securely Why wickedness should be set up in high places and innocence should be trod under foot Somewhat of these Riddles the Word doth now interpret unto the Saints blessed be God to command their silence and submission to God but then shall they return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not all this will be then seen in God to infinite satisfaction The grand Article of the Faith The Resurrection of the dead being then already past shall be fully understood how the body after thousands of years in some through unutterable varieties of mutations and vast
Heaven there is eternity but no old age the joyes of heaven are alwayes young The flowers of Paradise of which the Saints Posie is made do neither wither nor change colour the drops of their morning dew standing thick upon them like orient Pearls preserve them in their perpetual verdure and odoriferousness God himself the fountain and spring of all those glorious beings is not a moment older than he was from all eternity and therefore all their fresh springs being in God their roots feed their branches with continual and unchangeable moisture and influence God who is an Object of infinite fulness doth alwayes feast the glorified Saints and Angels with fresh visions of delight and wonder Yea God himself the fountain and spring-head of all those glorious Beatitudes doth wash their roots perpetually with fresh moisture and influence though God be but one and the same ineffable essence yet he being an Object of such infinite fulness it cannot be conceived but he must needs feast the eye of the glorified Angels and Saints with fresh discoveries of delight and wonder to all eternity so that they can never be cloyed or furfeited with the same beatifical vision All the joyes of Heaven are present 9. Property Present there is nothing in the beatifical vision antecedaneous or future but as God himself is but one pure Act or Being alwayes the same from eternity to eternity so are all the felicities of Heaven There are no fragments in glory There is nothing in glory which shall be and is not nor any thing in fruition which shall ever cease or change Glory borrows that immense title of the God of Glory what the Jews say of the ten Commandements is Rev. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was and is to come a name that is not to be divided or taken asunder but must be spoken all together in one word So Is as that it was so was as that it shall be so shall be as that it is Eternity is a single Point such are all the blessednesses of the Saints were and are and shall be so Past as to come and so to come as present this is a mystery and it is marvellous in our eyes Out of these nine Ingredients or Properties there ariseth a tenth the very top of all scil Delight and Complacency 10 Property Complacency and this makes Heaven to be Heaven indeed the joy of the Lord even the same joy which God himself possesseth the same for kind though not for degree Propriety Possession Intimacy Suitableness Satiety Reflexion Immutability they all meet in God essentially making up an infinite delight and complacency in the Saints and Angels they are perfectly though bounded and limitted according to the capacity of the Creature We cannot conceive it until it receive us making up a delight and joy which on this side Heaven passeth all understanding of which the Psalmist sings In thy presence is fulness of joy Psal 16.11 and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Behold faith in the glorious Redeemer doth at times raise the Soul of the poor Believer to a marvellous high pitch of joy and ravishment 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye now see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The expression is very full faith brings the Soul in love with an unseen Christ and fills the heart with joy not ordinary joy such as men do easily express upon all occasions but unspeakable the heart conceives such joy that the tongue cannot utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ineffabilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea it is not to be uttered by the tongue of men or Angels it cannot be spoken it is ineffable and that is not all it follows it is glorious and our translation gives it an addition very emphatical Of the Saints jâ—y and delight in heaven see incomparable Mr. Baxter's Saints everlasting rest p. 41 part 1. And else where abundantly full of glory and yet that reacheth not the top of this joy for the Greek signifieth not glorious only but Glorified faith fills the heart with glorified joy a joy that rivals as it were the joy of the glorified Saints a joy which sets the Soul for the present above it self and puts it into Heaven before its time Oh Christians if faith which must not enter in within the veil can transport the Soul into such extatical raptures what can vision and fruition do Oh the mountings of mind the ravishing joys of heart the solace of soul which glorified Saints possess in the beatifical vision The Soul shall live in joy and be filled with delight in the mirrour of all delights love and joy shall run in a circle and mutually empty themselves into one another love shall dissolve into joy and joy shall resolve into love a River an Ocean of unmixed Complacency wherein the Soul shall bathe it self for ever The Saints are so pleased with their own beatitudes that as they cannot spare any joy they have so they know not what their souls can wish for more This is pure complacency there are none above them that they need envy none beneath them capable of their pity Oh blessed state The fourth and last Priviledge contained in cohabitation is Conformity Even in the Evangelical state below Conformity is the fruit of vision vision produceth Assimilation We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Surely the heavenly vision will beget so much more full and perfect conformity by how much the mirrour is more vital and energetical The Apostle reacheth forth this blessed truth and the reason of it together as a known Doctrine Beloved now we are the Sons of God 1 John 3 2. that were dignity enough for a poor sinner one would think I but that 's not all it is well and it shall be better God hath laid out much upon us but how much glory he hath laid up for us we cannot conceive it doth not yet appear what we shall be This only we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him That 's infinite honour indeed But how doth he prove it Why he proves our conformity from our vision we shall be like him for we shall see him Him ver 3. God in Christ the Godhead in the glorified humane nature of Jesus Christ even while he was here in the dayes of his flesh the flesh of Christ was a veil 1 Tim. 3 1â— through which the deity of Christ did appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God was conspicuous in the humane nature John 1.14 the invisible God was as it were made visible in a body of flesh We beheld his glory sayes the Evangelist if it were so upon earth how much more will it be verified in heaven The
towards heaven from whence they came And are these the things which are proper to make up to a man a standing holding selicity No saith the Apostle the things which are not seen are eternal God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect and Heaven and Glory c. these are the only beatifying objects as being only of a pure spiritual fixed immutable nature the things that are not seen are eternal and upon that account only able to constitute an adequte blessedness for an immense and an immortal soul an intellectual being Corporeal delights like so many sparks may make a crack and vanish Sapientl nihil est magnum cui nota est aeternitotu magnitudo Luth. nothing can seem great and excellent to him that knows the infinite vastness of eternity Ever with the Lord here 's a summum bonum for an heaven-born soul this Moses kept his eye upon and therefore all terrestrial felicities were but as sounding brass and a tinckling cymbal much noise but no harmony he saw him that is invisible an elegant contradiction q. d. he saw him that could not be seen he saw him by an eye of faith whom he could not see by an eye of sence and so did Saint Paul and so did all his fellow Apostles and Saints We look on the things which are not seen i. e. we look on them and them and them alone as our ultimate unmixt and supreme good Men and women who have none but eyes of flesh such as beasts have may chuse their good as beasts do by sight and sence but man that is in honour and understands not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 Man that understands not what a bubble what a shadow Ratio humans tantum in praesenti sta◠haeret nihil aliud audit sentit intelligit vider cogitat Luth. in Isai 54.7 what a dream all sublunary glory is man that understands not what immarcessible Crowns of glory are prepared for them that love God this man shall be like the beasts that perish he shall have the burial of an ass though he hath swayed a Scepter he shall fall like a brute into the ditch and dye there though he hath flourished like a green Bay-tree rottenness shall be upon his root and his blossom shall go up into smoak Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye people of the earth spend not your strength in vain and your labour for that which satisfieth not strive not to force that out of the Creature which God never put in you may as well extract fire out of the Ocean mollifie rocks into syrup wash the Ethiopian white as squeeze happiness out of mortality Behold vast sums are required to make up a summum bonum scil Goodness Fulness Sutableness and Immutability Find me such a Creature under the Moon Psal 47.4 Lam. 3.24 and do with it what you please but saith the Church Lord thou shalt chuse our inheritance for us yea the Lord is my portion saith my soul It is impossible to churn happiness out of a Chest of gold it will never come you can never make immarsible crowns of fading flowers Or I will tell you when pleasures profits honours will make you blessed when you can sow your fields with Grace and fill your barns with sheaves of Saffron when the Lord Jesus is your wine the Word of God your bread the bosom of Christ your bed of love the honour of Christ your trade the graces of the Spirit your gold then and not till then you may write happiness upon these things These are the pleasures which are for evermore this is the enduring substance these the Crowns that wither not here you may find that which your soul seeketh for here is the mine here is the vein here the spring of happiness Ever with the Lord. Loose not I beseech you eternal glory for a flash of impure joy sell not an eternal inheritance cheaper than ever Esau sold his birth right for one draught of swill out of the swine-trough of sensual pleasures The Devil offers you the glory of the world God offers eternal glory put not a scorn upon Gods offers nor a cheat upon your own souls the Devils offers are not only inconsiderable but fraudulent he offers that which is none of his own to give the world or if it were it would be insinitely too short of the price he will have for it your precious and immortal souls What shall a man give in exchange for his soul And suppose thou shouldst repent of thy bargain the Devil will not repent of his nor will he sell as he buyeth shouldst thou say to him here Devil take the world and give me my soul again I repent he 'd but laugh at thee and say as the Priests said to Judas See thou to that what is that to me thou hadst what thou agreed'st for I have done thee no wrong The sinners feast is soon served in but the Messengers of divine Justice are preparing the reckoning and then are ready to take away And how sad will the catastrophe of that pleasure be when the sting of the shot must survive in Conscience of the sinner to all eternity Glorified Saints are entertained upon freecost no affeighting thoughts need discompose them so as to break any one draught of those pleasures wherewith their cup runs over or to hinder the pleasing swallow of those delicate morsels wherewith their table is full fraught no army of evils or of devils can break in upon them to make them forsake their Nuptial feast sensitive pleasure is contracted to the narrow point of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the sense hath no delight but by the enjoyment of the present object and indeed so is glorified pleasure too but with this difference that Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is eternity it self They shall ever be with the Lord. Oh what a prodigious forfeiture of reason is this for the momentany satisfaction of a sordid lust to loose eternal cohabitation with God this transcendent beatitude ever with the Lord Yea to plunge ones self into that opposite gulf of misery never with the Lord but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2. Thes 1.9 and from the glory of his power The life from God the life with God the life of God can never expire Christians here is your summum bonum chuse it and your souls shall live Use the second It may serve in the next place Vse 2 not only to inform the erroneous judgment 2. It shews how much we are concern'd to secure our interest in this blessed state but also to awaken the sleepy Conscience Is this heaven Is this the summum bonum of immortal souls Then oh how much is every one of us concern'd to secure our interest in this glory What a folly is it for men to take such indefatigable puns to make sure
of a rich and honourable match and when hands come to be joyned then to be rejected this is enough to distract Thirdly The less hope of recovery the fadder and more killing is the disappointment to be cast in a Suit of Law for an Inheritance which is uncapable of a second trial is enough to put a man besides himself Behold oh precious souls disappointment at the day of Judgment falls under the terror of this threefold aggravation and that in the most dreadful notion that tongue can express or heart conceive 1. Here disappointment is in a matter of no less value than a Crown a Kingdom A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 Life Rev. 2.10 Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A Kingdom of God Luke 13.28 29. Heaven Matth. 5.3 Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1.11 Oh how dreadful will that disappointment be especially with that addition Everlasting kingdom 2. This will be the disappointment of highest confidences and presumption None are so confident of beaven as those who have nothing to shew for their right to it most Christians promiscuously so caled think themselves as sure of heaven as if they were there already and oh when these shall come and knock at the door with their bold Lord Lord Mat. 7.21 22 23. cum Luke 13.16 27. open to us crying loud and pleading hard what they have done how they have preach'd and pray'd and received Sacraments and possibly converted others expecting now to have the door opened and ready to set foot over the threshold of heaven and shall then be thrust back with that terrible blast I never knew you depart from me Oh what shame and confusion will this disappointment fill their faces and consciences with for ever Surely this will be the very emphasis of damnation to have been within a step of salvation and yet miss 3. And all this without the least hope of speeding or speaking to Christ any more for ever about the matter of salvation Now therefore fear and tremble and pray that this may not be the portion of your cup from the hand of the Lord. Another Consideration may be This will make you Motive 5. fruitful in the work of Grace Christians that make their calling and election sure will and cannot but be fruitful in good works for by these you must maintain your assurance as being the fruits and evidences of your salvation A third improvement of this point Vse 3 Is this the glory and happiness of the future estate in heaven Let it then excite in us an holy ambition to be often looking into this glory to anticipate it by our frequent contemplations the sweeter the vision the more taking it should be with men of ascending and ambitious spirits Can earth-worms take such complacential contentment from beholding a bag of gold or a field of corn or a sumptuous fabrick and please themselves in a peculiar manner with the reflexion of their interest Psal 108.8 this is mine that appertains to me as David sings Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine Ephraim also is the strength of my head And shall not Saints turn their song to an higher key and be joyful in glory singing upon their beds God is mine and Christ is mine and the Holy Ghost is mine Angels are mine and Saints are mine all the glory of Heaven is mine this for ever with the Lord is mine I knew a rich Mammonist near the place where I was born In Kent that would once a day take all his bage of silver and gold out of his trunks and laying them in several heaps for he was exceeding rich upon a large table would go to the utmost end of the room and there having glutted his eyes with so delightful an object for a good while would all on a sudden take his run to the table and with stretched out arms gathering all into one vast heap as a man overcome and distracted with joy cry out All is mine Quere all is mine Why may not the Children of the Kingdom rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and collecting those treasures of glory into several heaps and embracing them with the arms of faith Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos cry out in an holy extasie All is mine all is mine Shall the adult heir of a fair Lordship or principality be often enquiring into his patrimony search into his writings and even grow great with the thoughts and contemplations of what he is born to And shall not the Heirs of the Inheritance of the Saints in light much rather delight themselves with the fore contemplation of their incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 undefiled inheritance that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for them Object Yes so we would if we were sure it were ours Sol. And is that the cause of your apathy and flatness of spirits to these heavenly fruitions Truly this very uncertainty should even startle and affright us into an earnest contention to make heaven sure so infinite a weight of glory and we not ascertained of our interest upon some good Scripture-evidence is enough to make us to forget to eat our meat enough to break our sleep and to keep our eyes waking all the night long and to make us take little comfort in the present comforts we possess Quest You will surely ask then Evidences of Heaven What are the Evidences Answ 1. Why Evidence 1. truly this one thing would amount to an evidence and not the least evidence viz. Active endeavour to assure our selves of a share in this Inheritance of the Saints this would argue an high appretiation of this estate in the practical judgment as most incomparably and absolutely eligible this is the very language of an heaven-born-soul What have I to count upon but my treasure which is in heaven What business have I on earth comparable to this to ensure my portion in heaven for this cause I was born and for this end I came into the world the whole earth in comparison of heaven is but a dunghill Cabul 1 Kings 9.13 as Hiram called the Cities which Solomon gave him dirty or displeasing This will argue a child-like spirit Children mind their inheritance absent Children long to be at home at their Fathers house they are often there in their thoughts and wishes so the Saints We groan within our selves desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Secondly Evidence â— Especially if the holiness of heaven do kindle those desires in us more than the happiness when a poor foul can truly say I should not account it an heaven were it not that it is a land of holiness a land flowing with milk and honey of pure and immaculate joyes that there the beauty of holiness shines forth with unconceivable lustre and glory and there saith the soul I shall be in some degree
day of redemption whereby ye are sealed i. e. whose office it is to seal up believers Grieve him not Malitious sins despise the Holy Ghost Heb. 10.29 Wilful sins vex the Spirit Isai 63 10. Obstinate going on in sin resists the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Immersing our selves in pleasures and profits of this present world doth quench the Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 But the least sins convinced of grieve the Spirit He is an holy Spirit and therefore sin must needs grieve him sin quâ sin being a pure contrariety to his holy nature Enemies do despise and vex and resist and quench but friends are properly said to grieve and such are the persons to whom the Apostle directs his exhortation friends believers unkindnesses do most properly grieve a friend Oh all you that desire assurance take heed of Vnkindnesses take heed of small sins appearances of sin take heed of neglecting your communion with God in holy duties take heed of bitterness wrath anger be ye kind one towards another Res delicato est Spiritia sanctin tender hearted c. for so it exegetically followeth the Text q. d. by all these the Spirit is grieved It is a tender thing and you may quickly grieve it and if you grieve your Comforter who shall comfort you And if you grieve the holy Spirit who shall sanctifie you And if you grieve the sealing Spirit who shall seal you to the day of redemption Never look for assurance as long as you are not afraid of grieving the Spirit which is the earnest of the inheritance Carnal mens question is May I do this and not be damn'd But a godly mans question is Can I do this and not grieve the Spirit of God Will not Jesus Christ take this unkindly 5. 5. Means Take heed of blotting that evidence Take heed of any thing that may darken your evidences or damp your comforts a small drop of ink or dirt falling upon an Evidence may make it illegible or darken it people make nothing of small sins but small sins do not the least hurt to the soul if it were no more than this small sins will raise up a jealousie between God and the soul great sins will destroy peace little sins will disturb it the least hair casts its shadow and a barly corn laid upon the light of the eye will hinder the sight of the Sun as well as a mountain abstain from all appearance of evil if you desire God should be a God of peace to you 1 Thess 5.22 cum 23. Abstain from all appearance of evil and the God of peace sanctifie you Make much of the least intimations of love and favour from God in prayer hearing or reading meditation 6. Means Make much of the least hint of Divine love at Christs Table or any other of your holy converses with God the least beam or ray of Gods face upon thy soul let it be as life from the dead do as Benhadad's servants 1 Kings 20.33 did to the King of Israel Diligently observe whether any thing will come from him any smile from Christs face any wink of his eye any sweet breath any whisper of peace from his lips such possibly Son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee or the like and hastily catch at it thy Son Lord I am most unworthy to be called so not worthy to be an hired servant but Lord since thou pleasest to deign me so infinite an honour Luke 1.33 Behold the servant of the Lord and be it unto me according to thy word come in thou blessed Lord and take possession of my soul and rule in me according to all the desire of thine heart Object But how shall I know whether such a whisper of peace may be indeed the voice of God or a delusion of Saan Answ For answer briefly 1. Such breathings of God upon the soul do usually carry their own evidence with them if God say I am thy salvation the irradiation carrieth a satisfying light with it the Sun needeth no other luminary to comment upon its own light but its own nor the Spirit of God any other manifestation of its own presence but it self 2. We say though it want no other manifestation it hath other the effects as Christ said of his miracles John 5.36 and impressions of such whispers and breathings upon the soul will witness of them whence they come Springs will rise as high as they fall that which cometh from heaven will carry up the soul to heaven Do therefore such hints and intimations of love and favour endear God to thy soul cause that to say as Psal 103.1 and 116.1 Do they make Evangelical Ordinances publick and private more sweet and delightful to thee To say as Psal 43.4 I will go to God my exceeding joy Do they make thee more active and vigorous for God and for the promoting of the interests of Christs Kingdom in thy place and station Fear not thy God and the God of thy Fathers hath given thee treasure in thy sack That is the answer which in my poor ministry I have used to give to all those who have repaired to me for satisfaction whether their peace and comfort be good Doth your comfort make you more humble more active for God more holy Peace be unto you your comfort is heaven-born comfort and you may christen it Gad for behold a troop cometh Oh be very thankful for the least of such messengers of peace to thy soul and write down such divine testimonies in thy book Habemii dabitur Mat. 25.29 with the year and day of the month that it may never be forgotten be thankful for what thou hast and thou mayst comfortably expect more Be much in duties of mortification 7. Help lye often in sackcloath and ashes before the Lord exercise thy self in frequent acts of Self denial little dost thou know how soon God may put a new song into thy mouth Lord thou hast turned for me my mourning Psal 30.11 thou hast put off my sack-cloth and hast girded me with gladness to the end my glory may sing praise unto thee and not be silent c. Be careful to mortifie corruptions and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 A mortified Christian is the fittest vessel to contain the precious liquor of assurance Mortification first purifieth and then dilates the heart and makes it capacious to divine consolations I keep under my body and bring into subjection 2 Cor. 9. ult 2 Cor. 5.1 was his voice that could say We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. He filleth the hungry with good things Set others to pray for thee Yet not every one 8. Help who it may be can pray Assurance is not an errand to send every common Christian to the Throne of Grace about Special Favourites are imployed to Princes for special Favours thou canst not pray
it with all thy might Labour hard here 's eternal rest after thy labours Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours Thou hast but a moment to work in but an eternity to rest in be industrious now and anon thou shalt be glorious Enter now into thy Lords Vineyard and soon thou shalt enter into thy Lords Joy Take pains here there remains a rest an eternal rest not an eternity of being only but an eternity of well-being Ever be with the Lord. Ply the Oar of duty Christians a blessed Haven is at hand you look for more than others what do you do more than others Never did servants expect such a recompence of reward The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult Oh let the fear of missing this glory urge you to the greater diligence let it stir you up to the most severe and intensive acts of holiness and obedience Phil. 2.12 Work out your expected salvation with fear and trembling he that runs for a great prize fears he should fall short Let us fear Heb. 4.1 lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to fall short you cannot merit it by your diligence but your may forfeit it by your sloth Oh work and work out your salvation Hope calleth up a Saint to duty he is said therefore to be saved by hope Christ in the soul and hope of glory Rom. 8. 1 John 3.8 cannot be an idle and sluggish principle He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure There are no bounds to his holy endeavours after conformity to Christ his hope to live with Christ in heaven puts him upon utmost essayes to live the life of Christ here on this side heaven Momentany enjoyments are strong inducements to worldlings to greatest pains and labours and will not the everlasting fruition of God make you stedfast unmoveable and alwayes abounding in the Lords work 1 Cor. 9.52 They run saith Paul for a corruptible crown but we for an incorruptible Oh how should we run They rise early to build an house that in one hour may be consumed to ashes what pains should we take to get an interest in that house which is eternal with God in the heavens They toil and moil and sweat to heap up riches for an unknown possessor and shall not we labour for that better portion that cannot be taken from us Heb. 3.2 Moses was faithful and active in the house of him that appointed him Chap. 11.26 and this did in a great measure excite him he had respect to the recompence of reward and shall we fear to over-do our work who have a clearer prospect of heaven than Moses had His face was vailed we see with open face There 's no inducement to take pains comparable to this ever with the Lord 2 Cor. 3.13 18. Ever in the Presence-chamber of the greatest Monarch in the world may ever upon the Throne giving laws to Kingdoms ever increasing treasures of gold and silver and precious stones ever bathing in the full streams of sublunary pleasures is no wayes comparable to one moments enjoyment of the presence of the Lord in heaven Let that mans money perish with him said that noble Marquess Galeacius Caracciolus who esteemeth all the gold in the world worth one dayes society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit c. I have often thought with my self that if heaven were capable of grief those very rivers of pleasures would swell with the tears of glorified souls to think that they have served God no more served him no better did no more for that God who hath prepared such an heaven full of glory for such an unprofitable servant as I have been Oh how coldly did I pray for this inestimable blessedness How unaffectedly did I hear the report of this great salvation And what little pains did I take for this exceeding and eternal weight of glory which exceeds all hyperboly While slightest expressions are too big for my diligence What! all this joy and so little pains to obtain it All this glory and so little zeal for the glory of God! So great an harvest and so little seed sown So great a reward and so little service Surely there would be a day of humiliation kept in heaven and it might well take up half eternity to bewail the Saints remissness in the work of the Lord were heaven capable of it or did not the reflection of glorified souls upon the former iniquities of their holy things issue only unto the admiration of the riches of that grace which hath brought them to glory But though heaven will not admit of grief thy present estate will mourn therefore that thou hast been so dead and so dull in the service of God who hath set before thee no less a reward than the enjoying of himself to all eternity and let the sense thereof quicken thy dead heart to work after another rate for the little remnant of mortality yet behind Say not yet there is two much sand left in the glass for God and eternity say rather Oh that were it not to keep me so much the longer from my Fathers presence oh that every hour yet behind were a day every day a month every month a year every year a life it were all too little for that hope which is laid up for me in heaven Oh had I an hundred pair of hands they were too little to imploy in my heavenly Fathers work an hundred pair of feet they would not carry me fast enough in the way of his Commandments an hundred pair of eyes were not enough to behold God in every Creature round about me Col. 1.13 a thousand tongues were not sufficient to trumpet forth his praises who hath made me meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light Oh Eph. 5.16 what shall I do If I cannot love God more serve him better bring him more glory than hitherto I have done I am undone I am undone Oh redeem Christians the eternal Jubile is at hand the trumpet is ready to sound and the glorious eternal liberty of the Saints and Servants of God ready to be proclaimed up and be doing now as ye would be found when Christ shall come with his mighty Angels and his reward with him that you may hear the blessed Euge Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. Vse 4 In the fourth place This may serve as a preservative to the people of God to keep them from fainting and falling away in time of sufferings and persecution for righteousness sake after a moments sufferings they shall have eternity of rest they shall ever be with the Lord and thenceforth there shall be no more sufferings nor sorrow all tears shall be wiped from their eyes and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads once hous'd in
that shall be revealed at the appearance of the Lord Jesus they cannot take up with such miserable comforts as men usually dye with And it must needs be an addition to the torments of hell to leave godly Relations mourning under the dreadful apprehensions of a Relation miscarrying to all eternity And to be regardless of our friends anxiety of spirit even in this respect is somewhat less charity than they have in hell Dives in hell was sollicitous to prevent his brethrens coming thither Graceless Relations dying with the marks of their unregeneracy upon them do even scorch the hearts of their gracious surviving friends with the sence of those flames which they suffer So it will be to them while they are yet in the body Woodcock his Sermon of Heaven p. 657. though at the Resurrection as one saith it shall be no more allay to their joy than if they saw so many fishes caught in a net Impartially therefore and accurately examine your own estates make your Consciences faithfully to answer this Question Can I give my self or friends comfort in this present state should I dye this very moment If Conscience assisted with Scripture light say no this is a lost estate this is a damnable condition I am now in oh poor wretch how highly doth it concern thee this very hour to look about thee for thou knowest not how near thou art to the last point and period of thine appointed time Vide Morning Exercise Giles in the Fields 1659. It is a vain thing for thee to comfort thy self without some Scripture grounds of interest in Christ who is the resurrection and the life Paul sends Tychichus to comfort the Colossians but he must know their state first Colos 4.8 That he may know their state and comfort their heart We have a generation that comfort others without knowing their spiritual estate which is to clap on a plaister without searching the wound a way to lead men to hell hoodwinkt the spiritual estate must be known before comfort can be well applied Examine therefore and suffer others to examine and search how it is with your souls in relation to Christ and Grace what knowledge what repentance what faith what mortification what contempt of the world what love to Christ what thoughts of the world to come If these things be in you and abound then comfort your hearts For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In the tenth and last place 10. Branch of Information Hence we are informed how much it concerns every man and woman that would comfortably observe this blessed Command of administring comfort to himself or others who are in tribulation I say how much it concerns them to search the Scriptures O study the Scriptures that Magazine and Store-house of all divine comfort especially in the reading of Scriptures to make a Collection of the Promises which are the nests and boxes of Christs Cordials and Antidotes against the fainting Fits to which Believers themselves are subjects there are the soul-refreshing water-brooks the wells of salvation ever sending forth streams of consolation to make glad the City of God Here is Christs Wine celler and Banquetting-house Cant. 2.4 to which he doth invite his disconsolate Spouse and where he doth revive her fainting soul according to her longing desire Stay me with apples and comfort me with flaggons for I am sick of love What though the Scripture and the Promises do abound with consolation if we be ignorant and unacquainted with the variety nature and use of these heavenly Ingredients they signifie no more to us than for a man to be in an Apothecaries shop fraught with the richest Drugs but he knows not the boxes where they are laid nor the vertue of them he and his friends may dye in a Fit and miscarry in the midst of all those Preservatives or if he venture on them he may peradventure take poyson instead of Cordials Wherefore study the Promises and in studying of them be careful to refer them to their distinct heads Make your selves Catalogues of Promises that refer to several soul distresses and exigencies and do as Apothecaries Collect the Promises of Scripture into distinct heads write their titles over their Heads Promises for pardon Promises for power against corruption Promises for comfort prison Promises sick-bed Promises Promises relating to the loss of gracious Relations c. I say be careful skilfully to sort your Promises that you may know whither to go when you repair to the Scriptures and may not administer mistaken Ingredients Corasives instead of Cordials as Job's friends did nor Cordials instead of Corasives as the generality of ignorant Christians do 2. Study the great art of officing the Promises labour to know to which of the Offices of Christ every Promise doth relate which to his Kingly Office as the Promises of grace and increase of grace and power against temptation the conquering of death and the fear of death which belong to his Prophetical office as promises of knowing God and Christ and the Spirit promises of being taught of God inward powerful experimental knowledge what Promises belong to his Sacerdotal office as promises of reconciliation to God peace with God acceptance of person and performances peace of Conscience joy in the Holy Ghost comfort in the loss of sweetest Relations and this will be of great use to inable you in prayer to plead the Promises and to put them in suit in the proper office a great honour to Christ and a mighty help and incouragement to faith 3 Pray for the Spirit whose Office is to make good the Promises to the Children of Promise and upon that very account called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter The Promises are never comfort until the Spirit apply them to the Conscience and then they are Cordials indeed whether to our selves or others then they are full of life and power and can with one taste comfort more than all the Arguments of Philosophy in the world And verily Christians as all the Cordials in Scripture are no Cordials until they are applyed to the Conscience by a powerful hand and breathed into the soul by the warm vital animation of the Spirit of God to know it your selves are Physicians of no value in this great work of comforting one another until ye learn to joyn the words of prayer with the words of comfort until by prayer you call in the presence and power of the Comforter who only is able to make these words to be so many real consolations Amen Soli Deo Gloria FINIS A TABLE Of the principal things contained in this TREATISE The first Figure notes the Part The second the Page A A Basement of Christ 3.20 Christ his abasement and exaltation compared together 3.21 Absolution the Saints shall be absolved in the last day from all guilt and punishment 2.134 And in what sense 2.136
of conscience and the book of Gods remembrance will agree exactly together 2.172 Whispers of conscience to be hearkened unto 2.172 Conversion in conversion how sins past present and to come are pardoned and how not 2.134 Righteousness imputed to the saints the first moment of their conversion 2.160 Converse knowledge of one another in heaven a great motive to converse one with another on earth 3.11 Covenant a comparison between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace 3.81 Creature we should sit loose from it 3.113 Cross the merit of Christ's cross is for justification and the power of his cross for mortification 2.156 Cup the cup that Christ drank was bitter but it was sweetned with three ingredients 1 But a cup not a sea 2.151 2 His Fathers cup not the Devils ibid. 3 A gift not a curse ibid. D Dead how to behold dead friends 2.103 Relations that die only fallen asleep 1.2 Death our Relations not alone in it 1.9 Our wages 1.10 Every person subject to it 2.65 At the hour of death the Saints are fully pardoned 2 134 Not terrible to a child of God 3.140 Death of some persons dreadful to themselves and to standers by 3.160 It is but a sleep 1.2 Resembled to it in two respects 1.3 Not a total privation of the habit 1.4 The godly infinite gainers by it 1.6 Degree different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 Delusion how are the whispers of God distinguished from the delusions of Satan 3.129 Denyal there will be no denying of sin at the great day 2.167 Desertion Saints under desertion often bely themselves 2.131 Devised the world have counterfeit cordials 3.154 Disappointment a most afflicting evil and admits of three aggravations 3.115 Divine essence we shall not have an intuitive vision of it 3.27 How far we shall have a vision of it 3.30 Do this and live not a commandment only but a covenant 2.144 Draw all men to me how to be understood 2.105 Duties all the Saints duties performed publick or private shall be owned at the last day 2.128 Duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 E Earth the place where the wicked will receive their sentence 2.124 It cannot be made sure 3.112 Election and purchase both perfected by the sanctification of the Spirit 2.123 Holiness not the cause of election but the end of it 3.43 Elect the future estate of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.89 Endeavour after assurance an evidence heaven 3.119 Enjoyments worldly enjoyments not what we fancy them 3.70 Eternity a description of it 3.84 97 Souls not eternal a parte ante and why 3.86 The future estate both of the elect and reprobate set forth by eternity 3.88 Eternity of God is an assurance of heaven being eternal 3.92 Evidences of heaven 3.119 A good evidence to be sollicitous about evidences 3.123 Exaltation Christ his exaltation and abasement compared together 3.21 Examination we should examine our selves and suffer others to examine us 3.162 Excuse no excuse for sin at the great day 2.167 172 Eye Gods essence cannot be seen by the bodily eye though glorified but by the eye of the understanding 3.23 F Faith the great saving office of it is to unite the soul to Jesus Christ 1.43 It is an hand to apply the righteousness of the first covenant as fulfilled by our Surety 2.146 Many do believe and yet do not believe that they do believe 3.71 Fear there is never a fear in a Christian but there is a fear not in the Scripture as an Antidote 3.147 Fidelity the faithfulness of the Saints will be owned at the last day 2.128 Fruition whatever the Saints see they enjoy in heaven 3.58 It consists of a tenfold Ingredient 1 Propriety 3.58 2 Possession 3.61 3 Intimacy 3.63 4 Fulness 3.65 5 Suitableness 3.67 6 Fixedness 3.70 7 Reflection 3.71 8 Freshness 3.73 9 Present 3.75 10 Complacency ibid. G Glory different degrees of the Saints glory 3.5 The glory of God will swallow up all private and personal considerations 3.14 God he can do what he will 2.100 His essence cannot be seen by the glorified corporeal eye but by the eye of the understanding 3.26 Godly Christ his being Judge great comfort to them 2.75 Good the good of the Saints will be mentioned not their evil at the great day 2.130 None of the good that ever the wicked did shall be mentioned to their honour 2.170 Gospel and Law reconciled in the mystery of justification 2.153 Tryal by the Gospel will be the most severe of any 2.166 Grace in the Saints is under a covenant 1.39 A comparison between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works 3.81 Graves the wicked raked out of them in their ugliness 2.102 They are beds wherein the bodies of the Saints are laid to rest 1.4 Guilty to be not guilty and to be righteous are two different capacities 2.139 H Happiness looking more after holiness than happiness is an evidence of heaven 3.120 Heaven it belongs to the Saints 1 By inheritance 3.60 2 By purchase ibid. In heaven none have the less for what others do enjoy but every one an whole God 3.65 It is a place of unmixed joy 3.69 It may be made sure 3.111 To look after an interest in heaven is an argument of wisdom 3.115 Evidences of it 3.119 Heavenly mindedness the evidence of 〈◊〉 heavenly blessedness 2.112 Hell separation from Christ the worst part of it 2.105 It is a place of unmixed sorrow 3.69 Holy Ghost why so called 2.122 Holiness by the Spirit of holiness Rom. 1.4 what meant 1.12 It doth best capacitate the soul for the Vision of God 3.39 41 In the Saints it is the divine nature not the divine being 3.42 God loveth it more than the creature how it is true and how in Arminius his sense not true 3.42 It is not the cause but the end of election 3.43 What holiness that must be that can capacitate us to see Gods face 3.44 Looking more after holiness than happiness an evidence of heaven 3.120 Humane nature of Christ the highest beatifical object in heaven next to the divine Essence 3.18 The glorifying of Christ's humane nature is the reward of his passion 3.19 Hypocrite no hypocrite in heaven 3.8 I Image that the Image of God suffered a miscarriage was not of improvidence but of ordination 3.80 Imitation it is the duty of Christians to imitate Christ universally 2.101 Immutability the immutability of God giveth assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.91 Imputation of righteousness is the positive part of justisication 2.133 Imputed righteousness is the same materially that the Law requireth 2.149 Indictment the sinners indictment and plea 2.147 Innocence is no security against oppression and cruelty 1.51 Intercessor there is no Intercessor at the great assize 2.171 Interest to look after an interest in heaven an argument of wisdom 3.115 Justice of God an assurance of the eternity of heaven 3.95 Judge Christ must be the Judge of great terror to