sin because they beleeve not on Christ and evidences it to be great unrighteousness from the consideration of what great things he hath done for them as also from the faithful evidences thereof to them instructing and moving to it as their reasonable service so that indeed they render him hatred for his love and evil for his good will and are without cause his adversaries yea against and contrary to all right reason or cause They not regarding the work of the Lord nor the operation of his hands which was true in him for and towards them that through him they might have beleeved Joh. 16. 8. 14. 1 Sam. 12. 24 25. Psal 68. 18-21 2 Corinth 5. 11-21 6. 1 2. Psal 28. 5. 109. 4 5. 3 This work of faith in Jesus is a righteous work directed in truth as may be seen in every act or branch of this faith of the operation of God For 1 Such it is as in which they acknowledge God to be true in his testimony concerning Christ which is the great things of his Law and in all the instructions and sayings thereof and therein acknowledge and disown themselves and all their own imaginations and the traditions of men as discovered and detected in the light of Gods testimony to be vanity and lyes he that hath received his testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true whereas on the other hand hee that beleeveth not God hath made him that is the God Fountain of all truth a Lyar because he beleeveth not the record that God gave of his Son even this record that God hath given us eternal life in his Son so as to bee received in receiving him in his testimony c. Joh. 3. 33. 1 Joh. 5. 10-12 What greater unrighteousness than to make God a Lyar and yet this is done by all that when they hear beleeve not the record of God concerning Christ but in the faith of Gods operation God is acknowledged to be true and every man a lyar his Word received as his and reverenced and preferred before all the Traditions or Precepts of men if never so many and those never so learned or holy 2 Such it is as in which they ascribe righteousness to their Maker and make their boast of his righteousness and of his only Job 36. 2 3. Psal 71 15 16. As that in which Law is answered Truth fulfilled a Door of approach to God opened and without which they must have been for ever cast out as an uncleane thing so as in this they acknowledge their owne sinfulness and vileness as therein evidenced They are the true confessors of sins that doe in the belief of that testimony of God concerning Christ owne them as theirs according to the discoveries of the true Light and so confess and disowne and give them up as filthy as thereby detected to be purged and such confession and acknowledgement of our owne vileness is certainly included in this faith of the operation of God If a man with the heart beleeve Gods testimony concerning Christ then doth he therein beleeve what it faith concerning himself or concerning Sin or Righteousness to bee true and so beleeving ownes its reproofs whence the Apostle John faith If we any of those great Apostles and so consequently any beleever in this life say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we say that we have not sinned we make him a Lyar and his word is not in us 1 Joh. 1. 8. 10. If any object against the righteousness of this act of faith That it is affirmed of Zacharias and Elizabeth that they were both righteous before God walking in all the Commandements of the Lord blameless to this we answer This confirms what we have already said for if they walked in all the Commandements of the Lord blameless then they walked in this of confessing our sins always acknowledging our owne vileness and wretchedness And truly this was contained in all those Commandements and Ordinances of the Law under which he served in the Priests Office for in those Sacrifices there was a remembrance againe of sins every year Heb. 10. 3. yea the High Priest himself ought as for the people so also for himself to offer for sin 8 Heb. 5. 3. And now the prefect Sacrifice is offered and the Purgation for all Sins compleatly made in the vertue of the bloud of Christ men are in the testimony of this Foâ—untainepened discovered to be sinners and all their righteousness as filthy raggs and so their owne vileness and the need of coming to this Fountains for washing always shewed in the opening of it so that he that walks not in the confession or acknowledgement of his sinfulness vileness and wretchedness as there discovered ascribing righteousness only to his Maker he doth not righteousness hee makes God a Lyar the truth is not in him hee walks not blameless for by the deeds of the Law shall no man be justified as blameless in the sight of God for all have sinned and are sinners have Sin in them as well as Death upon them while in this mortal body rendring it vile and wretched Phil. 3. last Rom. 7. 18-24 And for a sinner to hide his sin is most worthy of blame the just are they that live by faith in the righteousness of another even of Jesus Christ the just and righteous one Behold his Soul which is lefted up is not upright in him Galath 3. 11 12. Rom. 1. 16 17. Hab. 2. 4. Hence the confessing of our sins answers to and is put for the walking in the light as he is in the light 1 Joh. 1. 7. 9. and good reason for God is always in the discovery and demonstration of Christ the true light discovering our sinfulness and vileness that we may not trust in our selves but receive the sentence of Death there that we may learn in the beleife and mindfulness of his testimony concerning Christ to trust in him that raiseth the dead So that if we bee walking in the light beleeving and acknowledging Christ in his testimony we must needs be found in the beleeving view and remembrance of what he hath done and is become for us and Gods glory in him confessing our sins and so he that is borne of God that is led of the Spirit of God that always leads into and in Christ for all righteousness and life though he have sin in him for which simply God holds no man underblame or Condemnation by Christ yet so farre forth as he is born of God that is as he abideth in Christ he sinneth not hee doth not commit or serve sin no not in hiding his sins which is the first step of making provision for it which who so doth shall not prosper truly he should sin with a very high hand even to the making God a Lyar if he should say that hee had no sin in him warring and moveing for service or that he had not sinned yea
releeve Yet for our selves we have cause to lament Yea sure the Judgement is of large extent And larger than to them that lay 't to heart Nor is' t the less because few feele the smart Yet still our cause of lamentation's more To ses the Children of the Spiritual Whore Against the Heavens themselves with sport rejoyce Not doubting to prevail with their strange voyce Reproaching now the poor that trusts in God Because afflicted with their Fathers Rod But in due time God will arise and then No place will be for these proud wicked men In the great Judgement then they shall not stand But shall be broken with a mighty hand A little while and then he will not stay But come with all his Saints O come away Is it not yet the time to judge thy Flock When as to outward means their powers do slack Is there yet any left shut up or hid Cause them t' appear thy flock to help and rid Make them more wise and strong to doe exploits Through thy good name to shew the deep deceits So manifold of him whose name is Legion That with us may remaine the pure Religion And haste the coming of that blessed day In which thou wilt wipe all our tears away In mean time teach us to account and mind Thy patience is Salvation to th' unkind A pleasure in their death thou now hast none While yet thy grace brings them Salvation Of thy mind make us more as reading well i th' greatness of thy love thy terror sell Thence instantly with meekness praying them Now to be reconciled unto him That was made Sin and Curse for 's all that we The righteousness of God in him might be T. M. Junior A Lamentation over the dead in Christ with Instruction Admonition and encouragement to the Survivers in some explication of the words of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 57. 1. as compared with other Scriptures Isaiah 57. 1. The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come THe words present us with a Two-fold matter of Lamentation or cause of grief doubled in the expression of each part to note the greatness of the Judgement and to awake us to the more diligence to learn righteousness by it 1 That the Righteous perisheth merciful men or men of kindness and godliness are taken away 2 That no man laies it to heart none considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil We read to come but those two words being added by the Translators as appears by their different Character may be left out in our reading and the text without them not only as fully takes in the truth expressed by but is more signified viz. That he is taken away from the evil as well that present as that to come The Instructions fully signified and set before us in the words of this Lamentation are 1 That the perishing of the righteous the taking away of men of kindness and godliness is a sad correction to the survivers which God would have so laid to heart and considered by them 2 That when God so strikes and yet none lay to heart or consider it it is an evidence of wilful blindness and great hardness in such a people and a sign and fore-runner of greater Judgements 3 That even in these sad Judgements there is special mercy and choyse blessedness to those so taken away and that to be considered also they are taken away from the evil Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yèa saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them I That the perishing of the Righteous is a sad correction to the survivers which God would have so laid to heart and considered by them for our understanding and usefulness of this wee shall propound to consideration 1. Who are the Righteous 2. In what sence they may be said to perish and when they so doe and then shall further demonstrate and explicate the Position I Who are the Righteous and merciful men or men of kindness or godliness truly if men be considered as they are by Nature and first birth as descended from Adam or as they are in and of themselves or in what they may attain to by the will of flesh or will-wisdome and strength of man in whatever exercised There is none righteous or doth good no not one of all the naturall Children of Adam they have all sinned and are come short of the glory of God they are become wholly sinful weak and corrupt they are dead in sins and trespasses and children of wrath as so considered one as well as another Psal 14. Rom. 3. 19-23 Ephes 2. 1 2. By the Law is the knowledge of sin in the best as well as in the worst works of men yea it discovers his whole nature over-spread with it and therefore by the deeds of it shall no man be justified in the sight of God Rom. 3. 20. Gal. 3. 11. Psal 143. 2. There is only one man of all the Nature even the man Christ Jesus that is in a proper and strict sence Good or Righteous in and of himself and for us and he is none of the natural Children nor naturally of man but of God Mark 12. 18. who also prepared for him a Body in our Nature and of a Woman by the secret and wonderful efficacy of his holy Spirit and did in that Body deliver him to Death for our Offences and raise him again for our Justification and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God And he is expresly called the Righteous 1 Joh. 2. 1. the Just Jam. 5. 6. even the righteous or just one and justly too for 1 He is perfectly so in and of himself being the Natural and only begotten Son of God so that he is of the Father the same that the Father is Righteousness Justice Truth Holiness and Goodness it self yea in that Body prepared for him in mans Nature though he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh subject to all our infirmities that came by sin yet without sin He knew no sin And this rendred him a meet and worthy Person to undertake for Sinners to prepare and give a Ransome to God and bee a Mediator for them for Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one therefore no meer man can redeeme his Brother or give to God a ransome for him for such a High Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled c. 2 He is perfectly so in what he hath undertaken and done for men in that Body prepared for him in mans Nature he hath perfectly and voluntarily fulfilled that will of the Father he came to doe as to the works to be finished in his own Body on the earth Psal 40. 6 9. Hebr. 10 5 12. Joh. 17. 4. He humbled himself and became obedient to death
manifested in Christ and yet perceives no such preciousnesse in Christ and his testimony as to move him according to his measure to count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ but easily listens to and admires the pretended excellencies of other spirits that lift not up the Son of Man according to the Apostles Doctrine but privily some other thing or work in his stead or embraces and cleaves to the things of this present world nor is moved with like love and compassion towards men from the grace in Christ beleeved nor united in heart with them that fear his Name and call upon him in truth to know and own them as brethren and strive together with them for the faith of the Gospel but hath left his first Love or else hath not yet so received the love of the truth as to save him let us not acknowledge his sayings to bee true that he doth so unfeignedly beleeve the truth as it is in Jesus for so we shall render God a Lyar and his Word without effect but let God be true and every man a Lyar for that grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men teacheth us That denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live righteously soberly and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the mighty God and our Saviour Let none of us therefore be moved to mean thoughts of the efficacy of the word of faith because we or others prove it not while we think and say we beleeve that thence we should slight that as vain and run to some other way to wait for the Spirit or for perfecting what was begun by the Spirit in the hearing of faith but let us judge our selves of wavering unconstancy or double mindednesse and of neglect of that so great Salvation and having itching ears after something sutable to our divers lusts and let us suffer our hearts by the grace of God while yet admonishing and striving with us to be more fixed trusting in the Lord without guile or waveringnesse seeking righteousnesse in Jesus through the knowledge and faith of him through which he gives all things pertaining to life and godlinesse Let us give more earnest heed to the things we have heard in the word of the truth of the Gospel least at any time we let them slip Consider that love of God to manward appearing in and through Christ saved the Apostles and so and therein they had the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost shed on them abundantly through Jesus Christ and that Gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth for therein is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith And to this answers the other descriptions of the righteous ones in this text They are merciful men or men of kindnesse or godlinesse Men filled and seasoned with the apprehension and perswasion of the mercies compassions and kindnesse of God to sinners to the unkind and evil and of that as discovered in the face of Christ where he is to be truly known and worshipped And so of his good will in Christ begotten through the word of truth to their faith and hope in him and joy in hope of the glory to bee revealed and patience in tribulations and thence moved and filled with bowels and mercies compassions and kindnesse answerable to that they beleeve and perceive to be in God towards others even towards all in blindnesse and distresse yea to the unkind and evil the love of Christ constraining them to perswade them to be reconciled to God in Christ and to seek â—heir good by all means within their capacity and with all earnestnesse knowing also the â—errour of the Lord because they thus judge That if one dyed for all then were all dead and that be dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him this dyed for them and rose again yea hence also they are filled with delightful love of and desire of fellowship with those that call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart and with bowels of mercies humblenesse of mind meeknesse and goodnesseone towards another and towards all men answerable to the kindnesse and mercies of God in Christ And so if we read it men of godlinesse it will come to the same for they are the right and true worshippers of God who worship the Father in spirit and truth and such the Father seeks to worship him they worship adore honour magnifie beleeve and trust in him in the Spirit that is in the light and power of and according to the testimony of Jesus and of Gods glory as shined in his face which testimony the Holy Ghost hath given and in it his evidence and demonstration of Christ and of the Father is And therefore when we are called upon to godlinesse or to worship God that testimony of Jesus is said to be the spirit of Prophecy in and according to which we are to worship Rev. 19. 10. and so they in that light and strength of the Spirit have their rejoycing in Christ Jesus The truth And have no confidence in the flesh Joh. 4. 23 24. 5. 23 24. Phil. 3. 3. and in this true worship and fear of the Lord they are made partakers of the Divine Nature in interest in it union or fellowship with it conforming to it so as by Christ through faith so as thereby they goe on purging themselves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord 2 Corinth 6. 16-18 7. 1. purifying their hearts through beleef of the truth and retaining the hope of it in them to unfeigned love of the brethren and to more freedome from the intanglements and cares of this world as those that are pressing after the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus which pure religion and undefiled brings forth its fruit in their visiting the Sick the Widdows and fatherlesse in their affliction and keeping themselves unspotted in the world so as they walking in the Spirit though they have flesh warring in them are by the light and power of the Spirit in the testimony of Jesus kept from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and so preserved blamelesse unto the day of Christ Rom. â— 8. 1-13 Gal. 5. And to this agrees that two-fold description of the Persons that shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place Psal 24. 3 4 6. The first is He that hath clean hands and a pure hears that hath not lift up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully for though there is none righteous no not one but all have sinned and are wholly polluted and unclean yet this truth remains for ever Without holiness no man shall see the Lord so that if there be
yea their worm dyeth not and their fire is not quenched nor is there any darkness or shadow of death in which the workers of iniquity may hide themselves O then it will appear that Blessed are all they that trust in him yea therefore from henceforth Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord they having part in the first Resurrection this second Death shall have no power on them On the other hand they that in death which terminates the gathering time and space of repentance are found out of the Lord dying in their sins they are then and thence for ever blotted out of the Book of Life cut off from all hopes of ever attaining or having part in the first Resurrection though they shall be all of them raised and made alive from the first death and then and therein brought to the clear sight and acknowledgement of the truth of the grace of God in the Lordship of Christ through his death sometimes and while it was due time bringing Salvation to them that which here they wilfully rejected when light came to them and which if it had been now received in its own light and power bringing Salvation would have been to their everlasting comfort in the quickning them to a new and living hope through the resurrection of Christ they shall then confess to the glory of God and clearing his Justice in judging them for ever according to the rule of his Gospel to a second and never dying death infinitely worse than the first and in sealing them up in Prison from the time of their filling up the measure of their sin of that nature which is at the utmost at the time of the end of their Natural life when he hath done striving with them and waiting to be gracious I say in his sealing them up in prison from such time to that dreadful Judgement Isa 45. 23. Phil. 2. 10 11. Rom. 3. 4. From which time they are shut up under the sentence and condemnation of that second Death and so in respect of their state and condition are from thence Trees twice dead pluckt up by the roots though the wrath in respect of the full and most dreadful execution of it on soul and body for ever is yet to come so that in death they perish for ever from the presence of the Lord and from his favour in which is life the wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death So then they that are fallen asleep in Christ are not perished or cut off for their parts no not from their union with Christ by vertue of which even their bodies that sleep in the dust shall bee first raised even to the resurrection of life yea they are from henceforth and more then ever blessed the day of their death infinitely better to them than the day that they were born We come next to consider in what sence such persons may be said to perish and when they so doe and this we shall finde explicated to us in the other expressions of this chastisement in this verse as compared with other Scriptures they are said to perish from the earth to cease and fail from among men that yet survive when by Death they are taken away from them they having no more a portion in any thing done under the Sun nor capacity of being helpful to the survivers in any knowledge wisdome or work for in death there is no remembrance or commemoration of him among the survivers in the Grave who shall give him thanks or praise him to others yet living or shew forth their hoping in his truth The living the living he shall praise thee saith Hezekiah as I doe this day the Fathers to the Children shall make known thy truth which explicates in what sence the dead praise him not nor hope for his truth that is they celebrate not his praises among the survivors nor are capable of exercising or shewing forth their hoping in his truth to them-ward or among them they cannot make known his truth to them and so not praise him as he did then the Fathers to the Children Eccl. 9. 10. Psa 6. 5. Isa 38. 18 19. for otherwise in respect of themselves and to Godward the dead in Christ even in these respects doe live they retain their hope in death and joy in it yea they enter into a more full and peaceable enjoyment of it in spirit their spirits are made perfect each one walking in his uprightness and are still confidently expecting longing and waiting for that day of full Redemption even the redemption of their body and the judging and revenging their sufferings and wrongs on them that dwell on the earth crying Lord how long Prov. 14. 32. Isa 57. 2. Heb. 12. 23. Revel 6. 9 10 11. They are with Christ which to them is farre better as is shewed before but they are dead to us and can no longer in their persons be profitable to us which made the Apostles and Prophets in their longing desire of the good of all and for the furtherance of the Gospel among men and that the truth of it might remain with those that had received it so much desire to abide with them even to abide in the flesh in this body though so much to their own disadvantage preferring others good before their own in death they perish cease and depart from us and are out of capacity of being helpful to us And yet further These Scriptures The Righteous perisheth the good man is perished out of the Earth and so the cause of grief here lamented is not verified simply in the taking away one or diverse of the Righteous by death but when also they are taken away as such a time and in such manner as that there is none of like faithfulnesse to God and kindnesse to men left in the place or places where they lived to survive them or at least none in their room or stead But that if one or more of them be taken away there is so many the lesse of that Generation or Righteous Nation that keepeth the Truth left in the midst of the crooked and perverse Nation to shine as lights in the world Most sadly and fully is it verified when there is none left in the place or places whence they are taken and thus is this matter of lamentation explicated in the expressions of it in other Scriptures as Psal 12. 1. Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth the faithful fail from among the children of men so Micah 7. 1 2. Woe is mee for I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the Grape gleanings of the Vintage no cluster c. The good man is perished out of the Earth and there is none upright among men Oh that the matter of this sad complaint were not too sadly verified amongst us and in this place at this time These things being thus opened wee shall briefly demonstrate and explicate the position That the