priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
the Angels of Heaven but the Father there 's the doctrine and then the use is verse 42. Watch therefore for ye know not the hour when the Lord doth come Therefore indeed is the last day concealed from us that we may watch every day And therefore Christians look about you what have you been doing so many years together under the ministry of the Gospel are your accompts yet ready are your evidences cleared is your pardon sealed your interest in Christ secured your calling and Eleclion made sure have ye wrought out your salvation with fear and trembling Luk. 12 35 36. Are your lights burning and your loynes girded and you your selves like unto men that wait for the coming of the Lord that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediatly up and for the Lords sake yea for your own sakes make haste this may be the day the hour when the Son of man may come Wo unto that man to whom the coming of the Lord will be a surprize Therefore I say again watch what you do do quickly I come now to the third branch of this seventh word of Comfort sc Third branch of the seventh word of Comfort The ground and reason of this comfortable truth which lieth in the first clause of the next verse For verse 16. the Lord himself shall descend c. The words are of a twofold consideration sc Absolute And Relative The absolute and positive holds forth a main Article of our Faith sc Christ's last coming to judgment in person The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative and so they are a confirmation of this comfortable truth They which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep and why so For the Lord himself shall descend c. In their absolute sense the words are as I say a main Article of our Faith concerning Christ's coming to judgment in person and therefore may justly challenge their room to make up one entire and distinct word of Comfort in this divine context And so I will first consider them and then in their relative tendency sc as they are a ground or reason of the former Comfort In the order of this second part they are the second but in the method of the whole Context 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are The Eighth word of Comfort Eighth word of Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself shall Descend Here the Apostle describes unto us the last coming of Christ to judgment In which description we have three considerable particulars sc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person that shall come The Lord himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certainty of his coming He shall come 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of his coming With a shout I begin with the first of these The Person that shall come 1. The Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself i. e. Jesus Christ God-Man the Mediator between God and Man He that came at first to purchase and redeem the Elect of God the same person will now come to raise them out of their Graves to gather them together and to bring them with him unto Glory He will not send a Deputy-Angel about the solemn work of that day but will descend Himself in Person to finish that last and grand trust of his Mediatory-Office And that upon a twofold account 1. R. Why Christ will come personally sc because the Judgment must be visible 1. The Lord himself will Descend in his own Person Because the judgment must be visible and therefore the Judge must be so too There is a dispute whether Christ shall sit on a visble Throne and it is very probable he shall sure we are from the Scripture that he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven that He may be heard and seen of all Behold Rev. 1.7 he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him Clouds are visible things and these Clouds shall not obscure him but rather render him more conspicuous Every eye shall see him He shall so come with Clouds that they shall be a Throne to exalt and lift him up to the view of all the world therefore is the posture noted as well as the Throne Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power Math. 26.64 and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Clouds shall be his Throne and sitting will be the posture the posture of a Judge To judge the world is an act of supream Authority and therefore it must be done by one of the three Persons Now the Father and the Spirit are invisible therefore hath the Father appointed a day Act. 17.31 wherein he will judge the world by the man Christ Jesus The Flesh of Christ is a Veil to his Deity by which God is made visible to an eye of Flesh Christ is God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God conspicuous in the humane nature and in that humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin will Jesus Christ appear in Judgment that so every eye may see him the wicked to their terror but the Godly to their unspeakable joy Isa 66.5 Secondly 2. R. for the recompence of his abasement The Lord himself shall appear for a recompence to his abasement It is requisite that he that was judged by the world should now come to judge the world He came at first humble lowly despised sitting upon an Ass spit upon Crucified but he shall come again in power and great glory It is good somtimes to compare the two Comings of Christ together At first he came into the Flesh In Carâ—â—â— he shewed himself in the nature of man to be judged But at his second coming he shall come in the flesh In Carne He shall come from Heaven in the same humane nature which he carried up with him into Heaven there to be the Judg both of the quick and the dead His fore-runner then was John the Baptist the voyce of one crying in the Wildeâ—ness At his second coming his fore-runner shall be an Arch-Angâ— With the voyce of an Arch-Angel and the Trump of God as in the Text. Then his Companions were poor Fisher-men Now his Attendants shall be the mighty Angels of Heaven 2 Thes 1.7 Then he came riding on an Ass a Colt the Foal of an Ass Now he shall come riding on the Clouds sitting on a Throne At his first coming he appeared in the form of a Servant Now he shall come as a Lord in the glory of his Father Then he came in the likeness of sinful Flesh to suffer as a Sinner for Sinners Now he shall appear the second time to them that look for him Heb. 9. last without sin unto Salvation Then he drunk of the brook in the way but now shall he lift up his head This for the recompence
safely brought in thither also onely it must stay its time appointed by the great Husband-man whose method is this first Christ the first Fruits and afterward they that are Christs at his coming Be of good cheer Christians weep not it is the Fathers good pleasure that not a Sheaf not an Ear not one grain be lâ—st so witnesseth the Truth and the Life the Truth to testifie it and the Life to make it good John 6.39 this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of all that c. i.e. not the least Person nor the least Member of the least person how mean and contemptible soever Will this content thee Christian Thy sweet Relation is not lost but sowen and that which is sowen is not quickned unless it dye At the Harvest time thou shalt have thy seed again revera faenore interitu injuria usura lucro damno Tertul. de Resur when that which thou callest perishing shall be thy improvement thy treasure is not cast away but put to use and thy loss shall be thy gain Christians This believed is a word of Comfort indeed so the Text tells us If we believe that Jesus died and rose again thy dead men shall live Together with his dead body shall they arise Obj. But what not else Answ Oh not so not our Resurrection or the Resurrection of our gracious Friends depend upon our Faith but our assurance and comfort of their Resurrection depends upon our Faith The Resurrection of the Saints stands upon a surer foundation than our Faith it stands upon a four-fold foundation as you have heard Sc. The Merit Influence Design Vnion which is between Christ his Saints A Foundation which stands surer than Heaven and Earth Heaven and Earth may pass away but not one of these Foundations shall ever pass away or faile The Foundation of the Lord stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 So then not their Resurrection but our comfort in their Resurrection is that which depends upon our Faith Sence stands blubbering and crying my Parent is dead my Yoke-fellow is lost my dear Child is perished No saith Faith no such matter they are alive they are safe they are happy And all this Faith inferreth upon Christ His Resurrection So that whosoever hath Faith enough to put Christ's Resurrection into the premises may by the same act of Faith put the Saints Resurrection into the conclusion He that by an eye of Faith can look upon Christ's Resurrection as past may by the same eye of Faith see the Resurrection of the Saints as to come he that by Faith can say Christ is risen may with the same breath of Faith say also The Saints shall rise because I live you shall live also as a pledge and instance whereof when Christ arose many of the Saints which slept were enlarged out of the Prison of the Grave the heart strings whereof were now broken to attend the Solemnity of their Lord's Resurrection Math. 27.52 53. and were as an other kind of first fruits of the last Resurrection of all Believers By all these evidences and demonstrations Jesus Christ now in Heaven speaks to his mourners as once he did in the days of his flesh to Martha thy Brother shall rise again so he speaks to us man woman thy Yoak-fellow shall rise again thine Isaac whom thou loved'st shall rise again And oh that we had but Faith enough to answer with Martha I know he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day This would be a soveraign Cordial to keep our hearts from fainting under our sorrows If indeed we have not Faith to realize this comfortable truth our dear Relations if they could speak would cry to us out of their Graves in some such language as that in which our Saviour rebuked the women which followed him to his Cross Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me c. So ours Son Daughter Husband Wife Father Mother and whatever other dear Relations weep not for us but weep for your selves and for the unbelief of your own hearts I Christians there is the spring-head of all our misery Hinc illae Lacrymae our unbelief It is unbelief which robs us first of our sweet Relations and afterwards of our comfort in their gains and if we look not to it the better it will keep us and them asunder to all Eternity we cannot enter in to their rest if we continue in our unbelief Mark 9.24 cry we then with the Father of the Child I believe Lord help my unbelief If we believe that Jesus rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him which brings me to the fifth word of Comfort Them that sleep in Jesus The first word of Comfort in this model was Fifth word of Comfort the Saints sleep in Jesus that our Christian Relations departed this life are not dead but fallen asleep Here followeth a word of Comfort of a richer import which tells us that as they do but sleep so they sleep in Jesus This expression noteth to us that blessed and admirable Vnion which is between Jesus Christ and his Saints 1 Cor. 15.18 They who are fallen a sleep in Christ an Union frequently set out to us in Scripture under a twofold notion Scil. 1. Christ in the Believer 2. The Believer in Christ First Christ in the Believer Rom. 8.10 If Christ be in you the body is dead c. Colos 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory and here in the Text they are said to be in Jesus Secondly The Believer in Christ 1 Cor. 1.30 of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made c. 2 Cor. 5.14 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Colos 1.2 the Saints in Christ See both together John 14.20 You in me and I in you 15.4 Abide in me and I in you 5. He that abideth in me and I in him These expressions are the same for substance both setting forth to us the Vnion it self a mutual intimate in-dwelling or in-being between Christ and his Saints He in them and they in him so making one They differ somewhat in the notion and import of the phrase hinting to us a different mode and fruit of this mutual In-being viz. Christ is in the Believer by his Spirit 1 Jo. 4.13 and 1 Cor. 12 13. The Believer in Christ by Faith John 1.12 Christ in the Believer by Inhabitation Rom. 3.17 The Believer in Christ by Implantation Jo. 15.2 Rom. 6 35. Christ in the Believer as the Head in the Body Col. 1.18 as the root in the branches Jo. 15 5. Believers are in Christ as the Members are in the Head Ephes 1.23 as the Branches in the Root John 15.1.7 Christ in the Believer implieth Life and Influence from Christ Col. 3.4 1 Pet.
Jam. 1.17 Were not this more than a shadow of turning Of the Lord and Head of the Saints in the dayes of his flesh it was said having loved his own he loved them to the end And is his love less now in heaven than it was on earth Is Christs love to his Church now she is his wife less sincere and intense than when she was but his Spouse Did Christ love more ardently at a distance than now in their mutual embraces These are prodigious blasphemies Jer. 31.3 not once to be admitted into our thoughts Nay saith God The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee An eighth Attribute is Justice 8. Attribute The justice of God The cessation of heaven and hell would utterly destroy divine justice and make that cease also for ever Take away those two tremendous patterns of Rewarde and Punishments heaven and hell by which the Saints here below do justifie God and vindicate the truth of the Christian Religion against all other Religions in the world and you cut the very sinews of Religion and make Laws of God vain and insignificant you starve the hope of the godly and extinguish the fear of the wicked Ninthly A cessation of the joys of Heaven and of the torments of Hell would turn Heaven into nothing else but the carnal dream of a Turkish Paradise and Hell into the ridiculous fancy of a Popish Purgatory If ever we be happy we must be assured of the perpetuity of our state or else the whole vision will be but as a pleasing dream wherein we may fancy our selves to be happy but are indeed miserable in ignorance and mistake Fear of loss will not only lessen the joy of heaven but turn joy it self into anguish yea the damned in hell might seem to have the better of the Saints in glory by how much hope of deliverance out of present misery is better than the expectation of the loss of present fruitions Surely the love of God never prepared such bitter sweets for his children neither could I have been induced to have spent so much time in fortifying so grand an Article of our Faith against supposed violence of atheistical spirits had it not been by occasion hereof to discover the beauty and strength of those pillars by which this dear-bought truth is supported To conclude It was not possibly without a type that the first Sabbath is mentioned without an evening and the new Jerusalem had no night Gen. 2.2 Rev. 21.25 both were prophetick to the eternal Sabbatisme of Heaven my Text assureth all the Saints of an everlasting fruition of God Ever with the Lord. There was an ever in the will of the Saints to holiness Hell is wrath to come and Heaven the Saints remaining rest and God who takes the will for the deed doth put an â—ver to their future reward that hell may be the everlasting witness of divine justice and heaven the perpetual monument of divine grace Christians this is the measuring Reed of the new Jerusalem the Cube of the heavenly Temple the breadth and length and height whereof none but he that can lay his right hand on the one end of Eternity and his left hand on the other end hath given unto us the computation whereof infinitely exceeds our Arithmetick yea the Arithmetick of all the Angels in heaven Those comparisons of the running out of an hour-glass by a single sand once in the revolution of a thousand years by which computation there would be scarce six sands lessened in the glass since the Creation of the world to this day or a little birds carrying away a mountain of sand by one small dust once in a twelve-mouth the emptying of the Sea by a drop once in an age and whatever of the like nature these are but like the span of an Infant to measure the circle of the heavens so many empty cyphers without a figure to calculate eternity by though they may seem Hyperbolies to our childish capacities oh who can describe eternity It is an Ocean without a bottom it cannot be fathomed a Sea that can never be sailed over from shoar to shoar Ever is that which cannot be measured but by it self ever is that out of which take never so many ages and worlds of time there is not a moment less to come ever is still to begin never to end eternity is still entire a spring which fills as fast as it emties a vast circle which begins where it ends and ends where it begins And now Christians is this the duration of Heaven Is this nothing less than this the measuring line of the Saints cohabitation with God Their Presence with God Their Vision and of God Their Fruition of God Their Communion with God Their Conformity to God What ever with the Lord Oh the purchase of Christ Oh the gift of God! Oh the love of the Spirit How unscarchable 〈◊〉 his counsels and his thoughts past finding out Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift And here I might fix a full point to mine own and the Readers labour but because I find our Apostle closing his words of comfort with a word of counsel Wherefore comfort one another c. give me leave to follow my Guide and before we dismiss this beatifica contemplation let us enquire a little further what blessed improvement may be made of it even on this side of Eternity And the first Vse we may make of it may be that which the Psalmist makes the title of the 32. Vse 1 Psalm as of some others Maschil a Psalm to give instruction Let this I say be a word or Doctrine to teach And what doth it teach Even the very sum in the total sum which David's Psalm there teacheth namely who is the truly blessed man and wherein real blessedness doth consist Holy David saw the sons of men every where dis-spiriting themselves in the vehement prosecutions of blessedness every man would be happy but the mischief is men seek blessedness where it is not to be found every one knocks at the wrong door and therefore he labours to call them off from their mistaken purfuits in some such language Oh ye sons of men how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which saetisfieth not Come hither and hearken and I will shew you the thing which you are seeking and hunting after but in vain behold I will shew you who is indeed the blessed man namely the pardoned man blessednesses to the man whose transgression is forgiven Alad solum 〈◊〉 â—dest 〈…〉 proâ—â—◠〈◊〉 so 〈…〉 〈…〉 offic whose sin is covered blessednesses to the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity q.d. other men may seem blessed to have what one would and do what one listeth this may be accounted a â—are