Text for it seems he believed Christ to have been both able and willing to save him which is in effect to own him for a Mediatour Hence we find him making solemn and earnest Addresses to him for Mercy Lord saith he remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom One would think these Circumstances which I have mention'd namely his deep Sense of his Sins his humble Confession of them his Charity to the Soul of his Fellow Thief and his strange and prodigious Faith I say one would think these Circumstances so wonderful and so extraordinary that they were sufficient of themselves to evidence the sincerity of his Repentance how short soever it was and yet by way of Overplus we have the Testimony of our Saviour himself concerning it This day saith our Saviour thou shalt be with me in Paradise Sure that Repentance must be sincere and perfect which enters into Heaven passeth into Paradise and makes so notorious a Thief all on a sudden so fit a Companion for the Holy Jesus And now let us enquire what matter of Comfort here can be for the bold Daring Sinners of the Times Have they any reason to expect such a lively vigorous and extraordinary Faith Or is it possible they should be so well assured of the sincerity of their Repentance The Age of Miracles did expire long ago and God having abundantly confirmed the Truths of the Gospel by mighty Signs and Wonders did resolve to leave the succeeding Ages of the Church to the ordinary Means of Grace How then can we expect at the Hour of Death to find such a wonderful Faith wrought in those profligate Wretches who have all their Life time despised Gods Ministers quenched all the Motions of his Holy Spirit trampled on the Blood of the New Covenant and shamefully abused all the ordinary Methods and Dispensations of the Gospel And as we cannot expect to find in the Clinicks of the Age such a prodigious and extraordinary Faith as was in this penitent Thief so neither is it possible they should be so well assur'd of the sincerity of their Repentance as he was I am willing to be as Charitable to these Penitents as the Salvation of their Souls will allow me to be And therefore let us suppose such Presumptuous sinners to be deeply sensible of their sins and willing to Confess them Let us suppose them sending for their Debauch'd Companions to remind them of Eternity and the great danger of delaying their Repentance Nay farther let us suppose them watering their Couches with their Tears and making most solemn Protestations of better Obedience if God should restore them to their former Health Supposing all this be done by the Clinicks of the Age is it possible for a Minister to afford them a Cordial or any solid Comfort from this Example of the Text For my part I must declare that I think it impossible We may hope well in the Judgment of Charity but to give them any such Assurance as this penitent Thief is beyond the power and skill of the wisest Minister for the Heart is deceitful above all things and since Ministers are not Omniscious as our Saviour was they cannot pass an infallible Judgment upon the sincerity of such a late Repentance When Esau had lost his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage did not he shed as hearty and unfeigned Tears as these supposed Penitents can do and yet it is said found no place for Repentance Did not Iudas run to the Scribes and Pharisees Did he not confess publickly that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood Nay did he not throw down the Thirty peices of Silver And sure if he had not been in earnest such a Covetous Wretch would never have parted with his Mony and yet we know his Repentance was not right Alas the Horrours of Conscience and the ghastly Apparitions of Death will force men to do many things which God will not accept of because they proceed from fear of Punishment and not from the Love of him Nay let me add yet farther that sad Experience has set its Seal to this Observation That many such Penitents who have made the most solemn Protestations of better Obedience in the time of their Sickness when God has restored them in Mercy to their former Health they have with the Dog return'd to their Vomits and with the Sow to their wallowings in the Mire Thus you see that Repentance of the Thief in the Text was so remarkable so wonderful so extraordinary in all the parts of it as will afford little solid Comfort to repenting Sinners at the Hour of Death 4ly This Repentance of the Thief will be found yet farther extraordinary and such as can afford little Comfort to the Clinicks of the Age if we consider those great and extraordinary Temptations he had to grapple with Christ was now in his worst Estate in the very lowest degree of his Humiliation there was no Beauty no Form no Comeliness in him that he should be desired The Chief Priests the Scribes and the Elders mocked him all that passed by reviled him wagging their Heads Of his own Disciples some denied him and all of them shamefully and most ungratefully forsook him This poor penitent Thief was the only Confessor he had And what Inducements had he at this time to own him He could expect no Wordly Advantages all that he could promise himself was only this that as he was now Crucified as a Malefactor only so for such his Confession his Torments would have been enhanced and he persecuted as a Martyr And can now the Clinicks of the Age shew us any such extraordinary Repentance Is Christ now under the same Circumstances of Pain and Ignominy that he was then Do not all our Creeds tell us that he is now at the Right Hand of God That He is made the Head of all things both in Heaven and in Earth And will it be any such heroick Act of Faith now to seek unto such a Glorious and Triumphant Saviour Sure there is a vast difference between the case of the Thief and the case of the presumptuous Sinners The Thief had no inducements to fly to Christ for succour and these have none to fly to but their Saviour There is therefore but little solid comfort for such Penitents in the Example of the Text. 5ly The case of the Thief will yet further be found extraordinary if we consider the time when he obtained Mercy it was no ordinary time but a time when God was shewing a publick Act of Grace and Mercy to the World God at this time was giving his own Son out of great love to Mankind And therefore it might seem proper and well becoming so solemn a time that there should be some Monument of this Infinite Mercy It may possibly deserve your serious observation that God Almighty did always something extraordinary to grace the several Passages of our Saviours Mediatorship We know at his Nativity a Glorious Star shone in the Air
Providences his is Praise and Glory surely the wrath of Man shall praise thee First The Rage of the Wicked against the People of God is very great This is the very Nature and Disposition of Wicked Men as the Psalmist tells us Psal. 37. 12. The Wicked plotteth against the Iust and gnasheth upon him with his Teeth Nay so great is their Malice that the Holy Ghost in Scripture compares them to Fire and VVater to Briars and Thorns to Lions Bulls Dogs Vnicorns VVolves and the like You 'l find this Truth also confirmed by a thousand Examples How did Cain hate his Brother Abel What wrath did boil in Esau against Iacob How cruelly were the Israelites treated by the Egyptians I should be too prodigal of the time should I reckon up all those Examples of Holy Writ which are recorded for this purpose I shall therefore content my self at present with the Example of Sennacherib to which the Text as you hear alludes Now how did this Bloody Emperor swell with Rage how full was his Heart of Wrath The Prophet Esay speaking of this proud Assyrian Chap. 10. 7. tells us that it was in his Heart to destroy and cut off Nations not a few And what the Prophet avers of him in the general is confirmed more particularly of him by Berosus an Antient Historian which has left this Character of him Sennacherib qui apud Assyrios regnabat omnem Asiam Egyptum Bello infestabat Sennacherib saith he King of the Assyrians infested all Asia and Egypt with War But tho' other Nations felt the weight of his Wrath yet none more than the People of God For the Scripture tells us that he waged War three years together with the King of Israel whom he took at last and carried him with the ten Tribes into the Land of Captivity Eight years after this his Rage brake forth against good Hezekiah for we read 2 Kings 18. That he came up and seized into his Hands all the frontier Cities of Iudah Whilst he was at Lacish one of the frontier Cities Hezekiah sent Ambassadors and purchased an Ignominious Peace at a very dear rate for Hezekiah was forc't to give him all the Silver that was found in the House of God and in the Treasures of the Kings House nay all the Gold that was upon the Doors and upon the Pillars of the Temple And yet all this would not satisfie his Wrath but he presently sends Tartan Rabsaris and Rabshakah with a great Host against Ierusalem and with words of Blasphemy against God himself Nay Rabshakah threatens the People that they should be forced to eat their own Dung and drink their own Piss If all this be not sufficient to shew the Anger the Wrath and the Rage of this proud Assyrian I shall add one instance of it more out of the Book of Tobit where we find that after the slaughter which the Angel made in Sennacheribs Army he was forced to return home and dwell at his great City Niniveh his Fury which was stopt at Ierusalem brake forth against the poor Iews the Ten Tribes which were now Captive at Niniveh and therefore Tobit tells us Chap. 1. 18. That when King Sennacherib slew any of the Iews after he was fled from Judea I buried them privily for saith he in his wrath he killed many Here was the remainder of his Wrath here was that which made it Rages in the plural number But even this remainder of Wrath did God restrain for this wicked King was soon after killed by his own Sons in the House of Nisroth his God as I shall shew you afterwards And as we have seen Anger and Wrath in the Text so may we see much more in the Day and find the Rages of the Papists far exceeding all the Rage of these Barbarous Assyrians It is the saying of St. Gregory Dilatat Behemoth Caudam suam in fine Mundi nequius which Latin I cannot English better than in those known words of the Revelations Wo unto the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea for the Devil is come down with greater wrath because he knoweth that his time is short The Malice of Hell never appeared unto the World with more Rage and Fury than since it has been managed by the Church of Rome Who can recount without horror and detestation the Barbarous Murders of the Albigenses the Massacres of France the Wars of Germany and the most inhuman Cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition Here is presented a large Field to range in and a Field of Blood too but the time would fail me to give a tolerable account of that Wrath and Rage which they have exercised from time to time against this poor Church of England since the Reformation We may justly take up the words of the Psalmist and say Many a time have they fought against us from our Youth up yea many a time have they afflicted us from our Youth from the beginning of the Reformation may our Israel say How many were those Funeral Piles which were kindled by them in the reign of Queen Mary How well did Ignatius deserve his name which signifies Fire when several hundreds of Innocent Protestants were sacrificed to the Moloch of their Rage in the space of less than four years Nay our late Historian of the Reformation tells us that like Wild Beasts they preyed upon the very Carkasses and dead Bodies of God's Saints for they digged up the Bones of Wickliff and exercised the utmost of Malice upon the Ashes of Bucer and Fagius If we pass on to the reign of Queen Elizabeth our English Deborah we shall find Anger and Wrath and Rage enough Indeed for well nigh eleven years they were pretty quiet hoping to gain Queen Elizabeth by their politick flatteries But as soon as these failed they erected three Colledges for English Seminary Priests one at Doway another at Rhemes and another at Rome and indeed these proved the Seminaries of all those Treasons and Rebellions which were acted afterwards And now the Popes Bulls begin to roar the Queen is Excommunicated her Subjects absolved from their Oaths and now see their Wrath and Rage in the Rebellion of the unhappy Earls of Northumberland and VVestmorland in the Treasons of the Stanlies in Darbyshire and of 120 Priests and Jesuits such as Sanders Brislow Parsons Campian and the like You may see more of this Rage in the Plots of Somervile Mayne Ntlson Tompson and the rest of that Crew and of Payne and his fifty Resolutes hired by the Pope to murder the Queen What need I speak of Throgmorton Paget Moody Parry with several others when the Invasion of 88 proclaimed their Wrath and Malice to the full For in their Ships they had great Knives with this Inscription as Bishop Andrews reports Cut English Throats they had also Whips of Cord and Wire which Don Pedro de Valdez one of the Commanders confessed were intended to whip us Hereticks to death and being asked by the Council what they
Resolution Now tho' all this do abundantly shew a late Death-bed Repentance to be a thing most dangerous and in some sort impossible and yet seeing this is a Subject of most serious importance 5ly I will in the Fifth place add one Consideration more which will shew it yet to be more dangerous and in some sort impossible And pray let it be Consider'd that the Day of Grace may be lost before the Day of Death come Sure it is not possible that such sinners should repent without the assistance of God's Grace and yet before their death they may sin to such an height as to forfeit this assistance of God's Grace It is the vain fancy of such presumptuous sinners that the Day of Grace and the Day of Life run parallel and that as long as the one lasts the other will last too and therefore they encourage themselves in their wickedness thinking they shall have time enough to repent when they come to dye But if this Fancy of theirs be vain the delaying of Repentance till the Hour of Death must needs be a thing most dangerous and in some sort impossible Now it is very plain from Scripture that God has set bounds to his Patience and limits to his Mercy Tho' he bears very much with sinners and waits a long time to be gracious yet he has told us expresly Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with Men We find in the following Verse that God allowed the Anti-Deluvians or Old World a long Day of Grace he promised to bear with them 120 Years now during this time he sent unto them Noah a Preacher of Righteousness Besides those Admonitions and frequent Calls the Holy Man gave them to repent his very building the Ark was a constant daily Sermon to them but when they would not hearken unto this Preacher but scoffed at his Discourses God did not tarry for the time of their death but with a dreadful Deluge swept them all away In Luc. 19. 41 42. we find our Saviour weeping over Ierusalem and declaring their wretched Condition in such like doleful Accents as these O that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace but now are they hid from thine Eyes It seems the Day of Grace has an Evening before the Night of Death approaches The things of Peace were hid from the Eyes of Ierusalem before they were closed by the Hand of Death To this we may add what we read in Prov. 1. 28. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not find me There is a certain measure of Iniquity God is said in Scripture to allow Sinners to fill up and when this Measure is full they may call upon him in vain they may seek him early and late but he will not hear them And as is it thus plain from these Texts that the Day of Grace may be lost before the Day of Death so the same Truth may be evidenced by sundry Scripture Examples God allowed Cain a Day of Grace and during the Time of this Day Cain tho' he sinned again and again yet he heard nothing but this Still Voice if thou dost well shalt not thou be accepted but if thou dost ill Sin lieth at the door But when all the Means of Grace were lost upon him when notwithstanding the frequent Admonitions of his Father and solemn Remembrances of Heaven he added sin to sin till at last he fill'd up the Measure of his Iniquity by murdering Righteous Abel His season of Grace was then gone and God tells him in plain terms that he was then accursed from the Earth Now this hapned unto him some hundreds of years before his death Another Instance we have in Esau whom the Apostle styles a Prophane Person He was an idle unprofitable Fellow one who spent too much of his time in Gaming and impertinent Recreations and to all his other sins he added the felling of his Birthright on which were entailed all the Blessings of Heaven and this indeed shewed him to be a Prophane Person with a witness one that preferr'd his Sports and Recreations before God and his Religion Now this great sin fill'd up the Measure of his Iniquity so that his Day of Grace expir'd some 50 years before his death as Divines compute And tho' now he endeavour'd to regain his Birth-right tho' he sought the Blessing earnestly and with Tears yet he was rejected there was no place found for Repentance Heb. 12. 17. I shall add but one Instance more and it shall be the Example of wicked Saul God had striven with Saul many ways and many times He had given him Riches and Honours yea all the Glories of a Kingdom and which were more than all the gifts of his Spirit but when Saul multiplied his Transgressions and notwithstanding such signal Tokens of his Favour rebelled against the Lord God then cast him off yea he sent an Evil Spirit to torment him and would no longer hearken to his Cries as he sadly confesses to the Witch of Endor Now this Rejection hapned 36 years before he died according to Iosephus's Chronology Thus God does withdraw the Assistance of his Spirit from sinners long before they dye In their Life time he delivers them up to a Spirit of slumber and of giddiness He hardens their Hearts and sears their Consciences and gives them over to a Reprobate sense And since these things are so it will be too late for the Clinicks of the Age to Repent when they come to dye If they will obstinately go on in a Course of wickedness and multiply their Transgressions till the measure of their Iniquity be full then they are beyond the possibility of Salvation they have then forfeited the Assistance of God's Grace without which it is impossible they should repent It will therefore be safe for sinners to follow St. Pauls Advice To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts As the Prophets Exhorts Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Let not this present Discourse this present Opportunity be lost upon you for as the Apostle speaks Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Begin this very moment to resolve against thy sins come this day to the Holy Sacrament and there vow and swear that thou wilt hereafter keep all Gods Righteous Iudgments I shall conclude all with the excellent Advice of the Son of Sirach Say not God's Mercy is great and he will be pacified for the multitude of thy Sins For Mercy and Wrath is with him he is mighty to forgive and to pour out Displeasure and as his Mercy is great so are his Corrections also Therefore make no long tarrying to turn to the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddenly shall the Wrath of the Lord come forth and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed Humble thy self
eternally to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth and admire the Lustre and Beauty of the Glorified Jesus So we are told 2 Thess. 1. 10. where it is said that when Christ shall come in the Glory of his Power he shall come to be Glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe 2ly The Godly shall be with Christ in respect of his Divinity In Heaven we shall enjoy the Glorious presence of the Divine Majesty Here we shall see God and which is more we shall see him as he is Here it is that we shall see the King of Heaven in his perfect Beauty and we shall not only see him but we shall also enjoy him and have sweet and ravishing Communion with all the persons of the ever blessed Trinity And this is that which is the very height of bliss To enjoy the Company of Saints and Angels is happiness great beyond our utmost imagination and yet they are but as little drops if compared to that Ocean of Bliss which will flow into the Soul upon the enjoyment of God himself It was a noble saying of Luthers that he had rather be in Hell with God's presence than in Heaven without it And if the presence of God be thus able to convert even Hell it self into Heaven the enjoyment of this will certainly make Heaven become what it is styled in Scripture an Heaven of Heavens This therefore is the Flower of Joy the Quintessence of Comfort the Crown of Blessedness and the very Soul of Heaven For whilst we enjoy God we must needs enjoy all things All that is good did at first flow from him and therefore is more eminently to be found in him as in its Fountain and Original All that can delight our Souls or ravish our Hearts all that is lovely and desirable are here to be found in their greatest perfections Well then might the Psalmist say Psal. 16. 11. In thy Presence there is fulness of Ioy and at thy Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore But because so Copious so Pleasant and so edifying a Subject does deserve better than to be lightly toucht in the close of a Sermon I shall reserve the fuller handling of it till the next opportunity Thus ye see the top of our Happiness in Heaven consists in our enjoyment of the Blessed Trinity And since these things are so give me leave to exhort you to acquaint your selves with this great Mystery of the Trinity The more we know of the Trinity here the more capable shall we be of enjoying Communion with the Father Son and Holy Ghost hereafter When therefore ye go home meditate on the Lessons and other Portions of Scripture which our Church this day recommends to your serious consideration This is the way to be well acquainted with the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity and prepare your selves for the happy enjoyment of them in Heaven which God grant SERMON IX Luke xxiv 43. To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I Have formerly made some entrance upon these Words and hope now to finish them The Method I proposed was First To shew you that the Souls of the Godly are immediately admitted to the actual possession of Happiness upon their departure from the Body Secondly The Happiness is exceeding great for it is said here in the Text That they shall be with Christ and they shall be in Paradise First The Souls of the Godly after their departure from the Body are immediately admitted to the actual possession of Happiness There are a sort of Men in the World they call Psycho-pannicletes who hold the Soul after its separation from the Body sleeps all the while till the general Resurrection and consequently is neither in a State of Joy or Misery But how do these men err not knowing the Scripture For here in the Text our Saviour says unto the Thief to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Paradise is a place of Joy and Bliss and to be with Christ is to be in a state of Happiness Now in such a place and in such a state was this honest Thief to be that very day I named several Texts for the clearing of this Truth but I shall only name one of them at this time which you will find Phil. 1. 21 22. I am in a strait betwixt two saith St. Paul having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the Flesh is more needful for you As much as if the Apostle should have said I cannot tell whether I should desire to live longer or die sooner being prest with Arguments on both sides If I consult my own good it is doubtless better for me die and enter presently into Happiness but then if I consult your convenience it were better I should live longer in the World to be serviceable to your Edification Now I think it is evident that if the Apostle could have supposed that his Soul should have slept after Death and not presently have entred into the fruition of Bliss there could have been no strait in the case nor any dispute but that it was better to live still in the World to continue in the Comforts of a good Conscience and of doing good to others rather than to be in a constant Sleep or in a sensless state of Stupidity and Inactivity From these places of Scripture it is most plain that the Souls of good Men do not sleep after Death but are immediately received into Bliss as Lazarus was into Abrahams Bosom and this honest Thief in the Text into Paradise Secondly This Happiness of the Godly is exceeding great for they are said 1st To be with Christ. And 2ly To be in Paradise 1. The Godly after Death are said to be with Christ and how great is the Happiness which lies couched in these words For we cannot be with Christ but we must be with all the Saints and with all the Angels of Heaven nay further we must enjoy the sweet and ravishing Communion of all the Persons of the ever Blessed Trinity So much may be gathered from Heb. 12. 22 23. We shall come saith St. Paul to the General Assembly of the First-Born to the Spirits of Iust Men made Perfect to an innumerable company of Angels to God the Iudge of all and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant From this place it is most plain that we cannot be with Christ but we must be with God with Angels and with the Spirits of Just Men made perfect And sure such Glorious Company cannot but make the Happiness of Paradise exceeding great 1. I shew'd you that we shall in Paradise be with all the Saints in Heaven nor shall we barely be with them but we shall know them If the Three Disciples who were admitted to Christ's Transfiguration knew Moses and Elias whom they had never seen before no doubt but we being fully illuminated and perfectly Glorified in Heaven shall know all
Ordained and whereof he hath given us assurance in that he hath raised him from the Dead Tho' we are not certain when the day of Judgment will come that we may be alwayes preparing for it yet you see it is certain that there will be such a day and that Christ our Mediator is ordained Judge A happy day for all that are truly pious they need not fear this Judge who is no other than their Merciful Saviour But it will be a day of darkness and gloominess unto the Wicked these will then mourn when they shall see this Son of Man coming with great Power and Glory so much we are told in the Text Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth Mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory For the better understanding of these words we will enquire First Why Christ is called the Son of Man Secondly What is here meant by the Sign of the Son of Man Thirdly That this Son of Man will come to Judge the World Fourthly That he will come with great Power and Glory Fifthly That all the wicked of the Earth will then have just cause to Mourn First Let us briefly enquire why Christ is called the Son of Man Some learned Men observe that he is called so in the Scriptures more than forty times and there are two reasons of the Name 1st He is called the Son of Man in token of his Humanity Christ our Blessed Mediator was both God and Man and therefore as he is often called the Son of God to denote his Divinity so he is as often called the Son of Man to denote his Humanity 2ly He is called the Son of Man to denote that state of Humiliation to which he condescended for our sakes It was usual for the Jews to style Princes and Potentates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sons of strong Men but such as were poor they styl'd Beni-Adam Sons of Men. Christ therefore aspired to no higher title than that of Son of Man He was pleased to humble himself for us He as the Apostle speaks became poor that we might become rich Born he was of the poorest Parents such as neither had an House of their own to lay him in when he was born nor able to procure any place besides a Stable for his reception into this World And as he was born in this poor condition so tho' the Birds of the Air have Nests as he speaks yet whilst he lived he had not of his own where to lay his Head Nay further yet when he came to die we know he was beholding to the Charity of Ioseph of Arimathea for a room in his Sepulchre No wonder then if Christ be ambitious of no more Honourable Title than this of Son of Man since he made himself so vile so mean so contemptible for our sakes Thus I have briefly shewn why Christ is called so often the Son of Man it denotes the truth of his Humanity as also that state of Humiliation to which he condescended for our sakes I come now in the second place to enquire Secondly What is here meant by the sign of the Son of Man It would spend too much of our time to mention all those conjectures which learned Men have made concerning this Sign since it is a matter we may be safely ignorant of I shall only set down two of the best interpretaions I have met with 1st Very many learned Men both Antient and Modern do by the Sign of the Son of Man understand the Cross. St. Ierom St. Chrysostom and Venerable Bede upon this place affirm this Sign to be no other than that of the Cross. The Ethiopian Church is so peremptory in this matter that it is put into the Articles of their Creed as the Learned Gregory informs us There is hardly any thing the Antient Fathers are more unanimous in than this And to say the truth there is some tolerable Reason for this Antient Opinion For what can be more Honourable to our Lord and Saviour or more full of Terror to his Enemies than that the Cross of Christ which they counted foolishness and more than so esteemed the greatest reproach of the Christian Faith should at that day be made the Herald to Proclaim his Coming and call all Nations of the World to appear before him But tho' this interpretation be backt both with Reason and great Authorities Yet 2ly There is another interpretation that seems as plausible if not more plausible than it For the learned Vossius Mede Twisse Millet and several others do understand by the Sign of the Son of Man who is a Sign This kind of Dialect this manner of Speaking is frequent in the Scripture thus the Law of Faith is all one with Faith that is a Law the Law of Sin that is Sin it self which dwelling in unregenerate Persons reigns as it were by Law So the Sign of the Son of Man that is the Son of Man who is a Sign And that which gives the greatest Authority to this Opinion is that St. Luke in the parallel place interprets it so Chap. 21. 27. where the word Sign is left out and the Verse runs thus Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory And St. Mark renders the words the same way Chap. 13. 26. If therefore St. Mark and St. Luke may be allowed to be as good interpreters of St. Matthew as any other by the Sign of the Son of Man we may understand the Son of Man himself whose Glorious appearance in the Clouds will be a certain infallible sign that the day of Judgment is come Thus I have shewn you what Conjectures learned Men have made concerning this Sign of the Son of Man Some understand the Cross others Christ himself whose Glorious appearance will be a certain sign of the approaching Judgment I come now in the third place to shew you Thirdly That this Son of Man will come to judge the World None but that God who made us has any right to judge us As we have received all things from him so as Stewards must we render an account of all things to him Indeed this Judgment belongs originally to the whole Trinity but the outward administration of it shall be committed to the Son of Man So we are told expresly in the Text Then shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven Thus you see the Judgment of the last Day is committed to the Son of Man and indeed it is committed to him because he is the Son of Man our Saviour tells us so expresly John 5. 20 27. As the Father has life in himself so hath he given unto the Son to have life in himself and has given him Authority to execute Iudgment also because he is the Son of Man Ye see the Son of Man will come as
other Nations And now was the time for God's Providence to step in and determin him to what Object he thought most proper He therefore directs the fury of this Assyrian chiefly against Israel and uses him as a Rod to chastise his own chosen People And as God does thus imploy the wicked as Schoolmasters to correct his People so he also imploys them as Executioners to punish his Enemies Hence Isaiah 13. 17. God is said to stir up the Medes against the Babylonians a People notorious for their Enmity to God and the Iews These Medes and Persians are upon this account called God's sanctified ones Verse 3. not in respect of any inherent righteousness or holiness in them but because like the Vessels of the Sanctuary set a-part for Gods service and excited by a secret instinct of Providence to execute wrath upon wicked Babylon Thus God turns the Hearts of Kings as the Rivers of Waters whither soever he pleaseth Tho' their Hearts be very full of wickedness and like the troubled Sea are always ready to cast up the Mire and Dirt of Sin yet God's Providence shuts up this Sea with Bars that it cannot pass till God is pleased to break up these Bars and let it rush sometimes on his Enemies to overwhelm them sometimes on his own People to chastise them and wash away their Filth 2ly The Providence of God does not only determine the wickedness of Man as to the Object but likewise as to the Modus and measure of it If God did not bound the Malice of Satan and wicked Men their little Finger would be bigger than their Loins are now and instead of Chastising God's People with Whips like cruel Rehoboam they would scourge them with Scorpions When God was pleased to break down the Hedge of his Providence he had set about Iob with what fury did the Sabeans and Chaldeans kill his Servants drive his Camels and spoil him of all his Goods Nor did all this mischief satisfie Satans Malice he would fain have gone further and made attempts upon his Life But God here was pleased to set limits to his fury as we read Iob 2. 6. Behold saith God to Satan he is now in thy Hand only spare his Life I need not spare much time in proving the boundless Malice of Satan and his Instruments against God's People we may learn enough of this from that remarkable Name the Prophet bestows upon them Isaiah 27. 1. In that day the Lord with his great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the peircing Serpent By Leviathan in this place is generally understood Satan and his malicious Instruments and the word in the Hebrew signifies Augmentation or Addition intimating the boundless Malice of Satan and his Instruments who still desire to lay more burdens on the Godly to increase their Troubles and augment their Afflictions But God he is faithful and merciful and by his Providence takes care that his People be not tempted above what they are able to bear And therefore the same Prophet tells us at Verse 8. That God allows Satan and his Instruments to smite his People only in measure There is a greater Elegance in the Hebrew than is exprest in our English Translation for the word which we render Measure signifies one of the smallest Measures in use among the Iews namely that Measure which they called the Sea containing no more than the third part of an Epha Such you see is the wonderful goodness of God that he curbs and restrains the Fury of those Leviathans and tho' they think no Strokes too many no Burdens too heavy for the People of God yet he limits their Malice and allows them only to smite in Measure and with Moderation 3ly The Providence of God does also determin the Malice and Wickedness of Men as to its time and duration There is indeed a great and sad truth in the observation of the Antient Tragedian Nullum ad nocendum tempus angustum è malis No time saith he is too little no time unseasonable for the Wicked to do Mischief yet there is some comfort in what the Wise Man tells us Eccles. 3. 1 That God has set a Season to every Thing and a time to every Purpose under Heaven And indeed the Providence of God does limit the Wicked both as to the time when their Fury shall begin and also how long it shall continue Our blessed Saviour was no sooner born into the World but there was a bloody Herod seeking to destroy him and send him out of it again Afterwards when he was to enter upon his Ministry we find Satan carrying him to a Pinacle of the Temple and tempting him to cast himself down from that dangerous height And when all this proved succesless several stratagems were used by the Iews to dispatch him out of this World But God who has put Times and Seasons in his own Power defeated all these their wicked purposes till that determinate time was come mentioned by St. Luke 22. 53. Tho' I was with you daily in the Temple saith Christ yet you could not stretch forth any hands against me but now is your Hour and the power of Darkness And as the Wickedness of Man is limited in respect of its beginning so likewise in respect of its continuance and duration Thus God determined the afflictions of Israel in Aegypt four hundred years and their Captivity in Babylon to seventy If God had not predetermined the persecutions of the Primitive Christians St. Iohn could not have foretold they should last no longer than forty two Months Now if we reckon these Months by Sabbaths of Years as the honest Author of the Book of Martyrs tells us he was taught to reckon them by a particular Revelation they will amount to the sum of two hundred ninety four years the precise time of the ten first Persecutions I shall add but one instance more of these effects of God's Providence and that one is hinted to me by a Right Reverend Historian of our own Nation It seems in Queen Mary's days Gardiner and the other bloody Papists hoped to continue their persecution of the Protestants till they had utterly destroyed them But God's good Providence allowed them but a very short time to rage in for when Queen Mary fell into that kind of Dropsie which Physitians call the Mola the wisest of her Friends and Physitians were so far infatuated as to conclude her to be with Child By this means all Physick was forbid till her Distemper grew desperate and so her unexpected death put a speedy period to the Rage and Fury of the Papists Thus I have shewn you how the Providence of God is employed about sin and wickedness whilst it is in fieri whilst the Heart of Man is but conceiving and devising it I now proceed to shew how the same Providence is employed about sin in facto esse after it is finisht and brought forth into Act. Tho' Almighty God can wither the Arm of a wicked Ieroboam