he sheweth hard things to his people giving them the wine of Astonishment lifting up the right hand of their Adversaries upon a most excellent Councel and design that must be acknowledged such as will turn to the eminent and superlative advantage of his people and interest and to the repenting of his Enemies and making his judgment more clear and conspicuous upon them for when patience hath had its perfect work then the Lord will not hold his peace He breaks his painful silence Isa 42.13 14 Dan. 7 9 10 He crys out like a Travelling woman he devours he destroys at once His Throne is like the fiery flame and his wheeles as burning fire a fiery stream issues and comes forth before him Dan. 7.9.10 as we had a figurative representation from mount Aetna some few years agoe from which place of Daniel it is probable the Apostle takes the Description of our Saviours appearance 2 Thes 1.7 When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day And this is the proper season of Christ's glorious visible Kingdome which the Book I sent you drives at and this is the proper appearance of Christ and his aspect towards Enemies and therefore called the terrible day of the Lord till then the Kingdome the People the Interest of the Lord Jesus are that stone that is refused by the builders that the Princes and the Prelates fall upon and seek to remove but cannot but instead thereof break themselves upon it it hath borne all the fell blowes of the Roman Empire both Heathen and Papal and all the kindreds of the Earth from the primitive dayes until now but this stone under all its misusage like the Palm-tree shoots the higher as Israel in Egypt multiplyed the more as their oppression grew till it becomes a mountain and then it shall fall upon those that have fallen upon it and grind them to powder Mat. 21.44 3. Though in this day and Kingdom of patience which measures the militant state neither doth the Lord nor must the servant of the Lord strive much less strike nor use the Sword or any violence to propagate Religion or to displace the powers of the world how much soever they suffer under them yet Christ hath all along in a most clean unblemished righteous way of proceeding come upon these his and his Churches Enemies and hath raised up adversaries against them who have avenged the Churches quarrel upon them as he raised Cyrus against Babilon and many times he gives these Namrods up to the invasion of the Civil rights and liberties of men Psal 78.13 whereby they give men a just quarrel against them and thus he divides the waters and makes way for his ransomed ones the earth helps the woman though the earth designs it not Rev. 12.16 and the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands Psal 9.16 as you very well observe and I do but fall in with you in this observation p. 50. then which you say there is not a more pleasant sight in all the world in which admirable judgments of God Mens cause is one but Gods cause is another 4. Though the Spirit of this Kingdom of Christ doth not carry forth the Subjects of it to War or violence for Religion sake that is to avoid personal suffering or to impose their light upon others but they leave God to perswade Japhet and to aveng their injuries of that kind yet it doth not make it unwarrantable or unlawful for them in a cause of civil liberties under lawful powers that shall take up the defence of their Country and their established laws and liberties to use the material Sword for by being the Subjects of a higher Kingdom then this world they are not discharged from the duty they owe their Prince their Country themselves as men in case of unjust invasion or usurpation within or from without but are the fittest and best instructed men to use the Sword aright their civil relation to humane Society being not dissolved but improved by this higher relation and therefore Christ himself disowns not the title of a Warriour but is called Rev. 19 11. The Lord of Hosts and in righteousness doth he judge and make War 5. Though it be none of the praise of the friends and followers of this meek and lowly suffering Lord while he hath patience with his persecuting and oppressing Enemies to anticipate his judgments and to be taking the Sword into this own private hands in their own time and season yet let us exercise that gentleness and moderation as not to cast off all such who are in their judgments too ready too officiously to employ themselves this way in zeal for Christ though not according to knowledge it being an error that may be found in a Disciple as you know it was in Peter who when his Master was apprehended drew his Sword and laid about him and smote off the right ear of Malchus and was but the same spirit that was found in other of the Disciples that would have called for fire from Heaven upon those that would not receive their Master in that tender he made of himself to them and of his inestimable Treasures sufficient is the rebuke which our Saviour gives to such Mat. 26.52 They that take the Sword in this way and without his Warrants shall perish by the Sword 5. Position 5. Position Your fifth and last Position is That the Kingdom of God and of his Christ is an unlimited Kingdom a boundless Prerogative not capable of any restraints or confinements or limitations whatsoever In this Position you necessarily engulph me in great deeps wherein the Lord be our Pilot and bring me off safe Your Position bears an Antithesis or opposition to the glorious and visible manifestation of Christs Kingdom in the end of time while you make it alike through all time as in Eternity I must therefore here first distinguish the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of his Christ and then secondly distinguish the times and seasons of both these Kingdoms for they have one state in Eternity and another state in time and in time there are two states one in suffering and the other in triumph 1. First then I say there is a Kingdom of God and a Kingdom of his Christ and these are distinct Kingdoms You know Sir the glorious persons in the Trinity of the Godhead are rightfully distinguish'd though not to be divided So may the Kingdom of God and of his Christ 2. The Kingdom of God is that which is exercised by the blessed Trinity the Father the Son
in our hearts by the Spirit this is another glass that conveys the eye-beams to the glass of his Person and to his Blood which he hath carried into the holy place and to his Glory that as our Forerunner he is there entered into for us so here is glass upon glass or one glass serving to another but all this while we see not the Face of God but as in a glass but our Lord Jesus in his second appearance will then be no longer a glass but the very face of God unto us then we shall not converse with him through the forementioned glasses of Scriptures of Ordinances of Graces or his spiritual Form begotten in our hearts but shall see face to face and know as we are known the Person of the Lord Jesus shall then give forth unto us the very Face the very Image the very Life the very glory of God therefore it is said he shall come in the glory of the Father this was that he said to Maâ—y Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father and this was that he said to his Disciples I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of this Vine until that day when I drink it now with you in my Fathers Kingdom Mat. 26.29 And when we shall thus immediately converse with this ever blessed and full object God our Father shining forth giving forth himself nakedly immediately fully through the Person of our Lord Jesus his essential Image how great must the fruit of such a sight of such a converse with God needs be how unspeakably great must that glory be that shall then be revealed in us Christ is in full glory already in himself but he hath not his full glory in us nay how small a portion hath he of it did not the Scriptures so abundantly testify of our imperfection our meanness were not our infirmity so great a part of Scripture Revelation our own sense and feeling our own experience might suffice to acquaint us with it but so utterly imperfect are we that we are not capable of our own imperfection without Scripture Revelation nay without Spirit Revelation and is this to be boasted as a state of perfection I will be bold to say The greatest perfection now is to know our imperfection They are the most perfect men that see most of their imperfection But shall we never attain a further perfection then a sence of imperfection Is this all the glory to be revealed in us the revelation of our shame no nor the covering of it neither by a Robe of imputation That Kingdom of God that is in us now in suffering must be in Reign in Triumph in Victory Isa 25.8 There is a victory in Faith in the present time that stays the Soul but the victory of Faith ends not the Battle but looks to this victory of that day of glory Isa 42.1 3. when the judgment that was given for us in Christs death or rather in his Resurrection shall be brought forth unto victory when our right shall be acknowledged and all our Rights Priviledges Immunities all the glorious Acquest of our great Captain the Lord Jesus shall be given forth paid in and performed to us All the promises all our hopes the hope of righteousness by saith Gal. 5 5. that Believers through the Spirit have waited for all along to that day when all the work that Sin hath made all the works of the Devil 1 Joh 3 8. All this dark scene of wrath and trouble that came in by Sin All these waters of the curse that have covered the face of the Earth since the Fall shall all be dryed up and pass away for ever This and not any thing short of this is the absolute perfection and glory of Christs Kingdom You will not say that this is actual and present it neither is nor can be so 1 Pet. 1.13 because it is that grace that is to be brought unto us at the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Scriptures abundantly acquaint us It is so appointed by the Father It is his good pleasure which is enough to stop any further enquiry God is Love and as free as we can desire hath given us all things pertaining to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.13 1 Joh. 5.11.12 but 't is through the knowledge of him even our Lord Jesus Christ He hath given us Eternal life but this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life He that hath not the Son hath not Life All his communications to us are by and through his Son and he hath cut out his work for him Joh. 12.49 50. ch 14.31 Act. 17.31 both for his first and second appearance and Christ takes it and finishes it up as his Father gives him command He hath appointed the day when he shall judge the world and when he shall save his people and that is at his second appearance Heb. 9. last And this work of Salvation can no more be performed so as God will have it be for his full glory and our full joy without Christs personal appearance the second time in glory then the work of reconciliation by his death could be without his coming in our infirmity the first time and therefore the Apostle in Gods behalf engages that God shall send him again Acts 3. and he shall bring him again into the world saith the Author to the Hebr. ch 1.6 Indeed the Salvation the Change the glory is too great for any hand to bring but Jesus Christ in Person But of this we may have occasion to speak more ere we have done I come to your fourth Position 4. Position That the Kingdom of God and of his Christ is a Kingdom of much meekness and gentleness and goodness and heavenly moderation in all the various appearances or administrations of it This position and all that stands under it is of so Mild so Humane so Generous so Christian an aspect that I shall desire even to be found peacably and amicably comporting with it and I thought to have passed it in silence without a word more but yet to prevent any misunderstanding and that I be not by this Applaudatory Testimony involved in any Concession prejudicial to my Cause give me leave to subjoyne these two or three Animadversions following 1. That though Christs Kingdome be a Kingdom of much meekness and gentleness and goodness c. Yet that Christ is a Lyon as well as a Lamb and that this Lamb hath his Wrath as well as his Meekness Rev. 5.5 and chap. 6.16 And that his Enemies must expect to feel the one as his subjects servants and friends shall find the other 2. That both the Gentleness and the wrath of the Lamb have their times and their seasons and each is beautiful in its season the present time or the times of the militant state are times while the gentleness the patience the long-suffering of God waits upon his Enemies and all that time
not all though this is a great change the first Adam was without sin and was holy but spirituality of holiness shall be the product of this glorious appearance of the second Adam and as he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead so shall his brethren his members in their proportion be by the removing of sin shall the hurtfulness be taken away that is in all the Creatures but by this spirit or spirituality of holiness shall a spiritual glory break forth upon all the Creatures whom in that day we shall see to be all of God as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.50 That holiness in that day shall be universally diffused displayed upon all things all employments all enjoyments Zeck 14.20.21 Every Pot in Jerusalem holiness to the Lord. Holiness writ upon the Bridles and Bells of the Horses this is the spirituality of that day it will turn all into spirit a conversation in Heaven a walking in the truth not in a vain shew the truth filling all things and exhibiting it self in every Shadowy form so filling it and making it substantial this is the inside as I may say of the appearing of Jesus Christ his appearing is the appearing of power the appearing of life when Christ Joh. 6.63 who is our life shall appear and he is all life his words were spirit and life his very body now is life and spirit It is a great vail before our eyes the Nature of a Body framing the conceptions and taking in the notion of it from the bodies that we know which are only natural but a spiritual body is another thing though a real body still and another vail is Time that Christ's appearance should depend on time or be governed and ruled by time looking on time in an abstract notion from its work whereas Christ and his times are one Hitherto the Father worketh and I work when the work of Faith is finished when patience hath had its perfect work when the sins of the Amorites are full and when the measure of the sufferings of Christ are fil'd up in his body mistical which are all set and numbered and time doth but serve to measure those or rather is measured by these Christ doth not turn up vain hour-glasses and sit idle till so much time be run out but when his work is done when God hath glorified himself in the tryed Faith Joh. 10.12 and patience of the Church when God hath wrought out that peice of glory he designes in and under the suffering state then enters the blessed hope which is but one peice with the other and shall receive illustration from it Of this state I have many things to say and those hard to be understood we are so carnal and dull of hearing and indeed De Deo nil nisi in Deo of God and his Kingdom nothing can be worthily spoken but in the spirit of that Kingdom and therefore we may well apply that of the Apostle here The day shall declare it in this day was John when he had the vision of it this was the Lords day undoubtedly he there meant a day that will knock off from this world Rev. 1.10 and the concernes thereof in that carnal sinful way that we now incumber our selves about them which this appearance of Christ as hath been expected inward and powerful as well as visibly glorious will only prove sufficient for by giving us in exchange such entertainment of another kind as will teach us the right use of all things Then indeed shall the Saints be Spiritual persons strangers shall stand feed your flocks and the Sons of the Alien shall be your Plow-men and Vine dressers but ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord men shall call you the Ministers of our God Esa 61.6 So that though they may have the use of flocks and fields and Vines yet they shall not encumber themselves with them and their use of them shall be highly Spiritual Indeed their whole course and time shall be as a continued Feast of Tabernacles as we read Zach. 14.16 to the 19. Now Sir if you say all this may be effected by a powerful and spiritual appearance of the Lord Jesus though his person keep still in Heaven as in the primitive times when by the falling down of the spirit upon believers they sold their possessions and laid them down at the Apostles feet and no man said any thing was his own but they had all things common I shall not deny but if this were all that were to be done it might be done so without the appearance of Christ's visible person Though yet 〈◊〉 â—uestion is not of what may possibly be done but of 〈◊〉 way and meanes God hath ordain'd and appointed this new state of things to be ministred into the world by whether he hath not consign'd this honour peculiarly to Christ to bring in these times of refreshing and this restitution of all things as when he wrought reconciliation for us he appear'd in flesh so now that he brings Salvation to appear in glory I am sure the scripture speaks in such a stile as to favour yea to prompt us to such an understanding saying the Lord shall send Jesus and bring again the first begotten into the world and these times of refreshing they are said to be from the presence of the Lord. But this inward worke is not The All that is to be done in that day but the dead are to be raised and as I conceive at the very erection of the glorious estate of this Kingdom else the Surviving Saints should prevent them which the Apostle saith must not be and the surviving Saints must be changed at the same time or else it would be a disadvantage to survive to Christ's coming Now if the dead be raised in the beginning of this Kingdom then Christ must appear from Heaven for by his voice must they be raised and least any should say this may be by a voice from Heaven the person of Christ keeping still in Heaven the Apostle prevents that by saying the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven 1 Thâ—s 4.16 Now we do not read that after Christs descending he shall return to Heaven again nor is it probable he should leave all the raised Saints here on Earth all the time of his raigne But that he may give forth the glory of his glorious person gradually I do not deny that is in such proportion as may stand with the ends of it which I note because some cannot tell how to reconcile building and planting and procreation with this new state whâ—… the Prophets mention with it Esa 65. which maâ—… 〈◊〉 this be qualified For though the passing away of sin and death be a great change yet that brings us no higher then the state of Adam in innocency which may be done by Christ and by his personal appearing though he give
and the Holy Ghost entirely within themselves in the unity of the God-head where God and his Kingdom God and all his works are one This is the Original Kingdom the head of all here both God and his Kingdom are properly invisible to any created Eye 1 Kings 8.12 or understanding dwelling in thick darkness as Solomon saith possessing all entirely to and within himself in an incommunicable glory this is properly the Kingdom of the Father The Kingdom of Christ is the Mediatory Kingdom wherein Christ as God-man is set up from everlasting in Heaven in a heavenly state and glory to make forth to created understanding the invisible glories of God and of his Kingdom as a living Image and representation thereof Of this state of Christs Person and Kingdom before the world Solomon speaks by the Spirit in a most high and divine strain Prov. 8. from v. 12. to v. 32. and our Saviour himself recognizeth it in those expressions of the Son of Man in Heaven and in that Prayer Joh. 17. Joh. 3.13 Glorâ— thou me with the glory I had with thee before the world was And the Apostle Paul Phil. 2. saith He was in the form of God Both these Kingdoms which are one though distinguished are eternal from eternity and to eternity suffering no dammage or diminution by time or any the chances changes or injuries of time In both which known to God and known to Christ Act. 15.18 are all their works from the foundations of the world In the Kingdom of God there Christ as a Mystery and all things else created and increated lay in the Bosom of the Father In the Kingdom of Christ in this Heavenly state The world and all the times of it lay in the Mediatory bosom before they were brought forth into actual existence in themselves So the Apostle saith We were chosen in him before the foundations of the world Eph. 1.4 and he is before all things Col. 1.17 and in him all things consist and stand in a most harmonious frame and he is the head of the body the Church 1 Cor. 11.3 Rev. 5.5.20.16 who is the beginning and the head of every man the head of this world In this state is Christ properly the rooâ— of David and of all things which lay eternally as a Mystery hid in him and there lay his own humanity which in time he was to take up of the Virgin as He and all his Mediatory Kingdom and glory was a mystery hid in God Eph. 3.9 But now in the second place there is a state of this glorious Mediator and of his Kingdom revealed on earth which is properly the Subject of our debate that the will of God may be done on Earth by the Son of Man on earth and in the state of his Kingdom on earth as it is done in Heaven in and by the Son of man in Heaven and in the heavenly state of his Kingdom there which is the second Petition that follows in that Doctrine of Prayer which our Saviour instructs us in immediately following upon the first Thy Kingdom come Now this Kingdom of Christ may also be considered in a twofold state viz. In a state of exercise and suffering and this state lasts from the fall of man who being set in honour continued not and runs down through all the times of this degenerate world till Christs second and glorious appearance 1 Rev. 9. and is called by John in his Revelation the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ The other state of Christs Kingdom is the Victory and Triumph Esa 25.8 when he even his Father who hitherto worketh with the Son Joh. 5.17 and the Son worketh also shall have put all Enemies under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.24 27. and shall put down all Rule Authority and Power as it is inimical or contrary to him and this state of the Kingdom is called Peace Esa 9.7 and rest ch 11.10 his rest shall be glorious and this properly is that Kingdom whereof we enquire Now Sir having premised this distinction of the Kingdom of God and his Christ let us apply it This state of Christs Kingdom in peace in rest and victory in the visible manifestation of it to every created understanding and eye you can by no means say was from everlasting nor hath been all the times of this world but hath its proper times to be exhibited and those in the end of this old corrupt degenerated world by its appearing it will make all things anew and will be the restitution of all things That which may be a vail before our eyes in discerning this Truth is the glorious things that are spoken of this present state of the City of God and the Kingdom of Christ in the present state of it in Faith in which it is truly a Kingdom though a suffering Kingdom and gets the better of all its opposers though not without blows and blood and it gives rest and peace to all the subjects of it mystical inward and spiritual rest and peace Heb. 4.3 1 Pet. 1.8 Isa 26.3 Philip. 4.7 Psal 110.2 in the midst of enemies and troubles for we which have believed do enter into rest and rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory and our minds are kept in perfect peace even with a peace which passeth all understanding and so Christ rules in the midst of his Enemies and God hath given us the Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 through our Lord Jesus Christ yea we are come to Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Eph 2.6 1 Joh. 5.4 Joh. 12.31.16.17 and are set down with Christ in heavenly places having overcome the world by Faith and the Prince of this World is judged and cast out and we inherit all things But we must remember all this glory is in death and suffering and under the Cross both inwardly and outwardly and all the life and glory that we feel and experience is but to carry us up under the Cross and dying of the Lord Jesus as the Apostle at large discourses 2 Cor. 4 from the 7. verse to the 15. and in that refreshing Ordinance of the Supper we shew forth the Lords Deaâ—h till he come which death being the gate of life all Believers in their successive generations are passing through and will or must be so till the Lord come This is the gate to the City Rev. 22.14 call'd there Gates because through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and as Christs suffering was his great Obedience called obedience unto Death and is that which is meant by that phrase Lo I come to do thy will O God So this is the doing of Gods will and commandments by Believers the presenting their Bodies a living Sacrifice thereby proving by experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God This is the way to the City which the fool that is drunken with the Spirit of