they shine with subtlety they appear shattered through their vanity that upon those words of St. Peter 2 Peter 3.8 One day with the Lord is as a thousand years a thousand years sa one day have dogmatically concluded that as the world was created in six dayes and then followed the Sabbath so was the world to continue for six thousands years Whereof two thousand before the Law two thousand under the Law two thousand six hundred fifty six since the Law being fully elapsed as soon as the remainder of three hundred forty four foure shall be run out the Day of Judgement shall immediately auspicate the worlds rest whose solemnity yet wherein will we hear our Cock-brained Millenaries our Saviour shall reign in all manner glorious Pomp and State upon earth shall continue for a thousand years no otherwise then the first Sabbath was a Day of equal length with any other of the Days of the Creation And now were it proper to fly out into Tropological excursions how present and easie were it for me to give you an account of signs not so much immediately preceding as actually accompanying this Days Advent as our Sun turned into Blood our Moon not giving her Light our Stars faln from Heaven and shut up in black Abysses of obscurity But this judge himself seemeth advisedly to labour the stay of our bold adventures for the fathoming of this depth by whatever whether Literal or Metaphorical signs Of that Day and Hour knoweth no man no not the Angels in Heaven nay not the Son man himself Mark 13.32 Non novit i. e. non notificavit saith Damascene he is said not to know it for that he is not pleased to make it known A gloss yet should we smoothly swallow the light of this knowledge we might upon the same ground as justly deny the Father as him for that the one is no more pleased to make it known then the other Much better therefore St. Gregory in Humanitate novit non ex Humanitate In his Divinity as God though made man in no wise may he be charged with the guilt of any ignorance but in his Humanity in the mean time as meer man justly may he disavow all such manner of knowledge And shall we then poor worms and no men be curiously inquisitive nay positively Definitive where the Son of man himself is deliberately content to be ignorant The Prophet Isaiah 6. his Prophesie And the 2. seeth God on his Throne and the Seraphins above it with two wings covering his Face and his Feet with two His face with two saith St. Hierome thereby shutting up from our Eyes the secrets of his Predestination from the beginning and his Feet with two thereby concealing the certain time of his comming to Judgement at the last day And then as the Egyptian in Plutarch to him that would needs be prying into his covered Basket Gum vides velatam quid inquiris in rem absconditam Since we finde the precise time of this Judges comming deliberately shut up in secrecy from us how can we without the gross forfeiture of I say not all Christian onely but even Natural modesty adventure upon a bold enquiry thereinto much more a Positive Definition thereof And as Antigonus sometimes to his son Demetrius demanding of him when the Camp should move Num te solum metuis Art thou afraid that thou only shalt not hear the sound of the Trumpet how can we without even a profession of steely forheads be prying into this recluse Mystery whereof the sound of the last Trumpet is the only certain signal to be expected And of the designation of the certain time of this Days advent from the search much more discovery of any mortal Eye St. Augustin seemeth to give a pregnant reason Latet Dies ultimus ut omnes Dies observemus no certain notice have we given us of the time of this last days comming to caution us to expect and prepare for its comming every Day And the contemplation of this Dayes so near and uncertain approach the son of Sirach before we enterprize any thing would still have us to propose to the Eyes of our Minde as the best Line and Square whereby to regulate the whole course of our lives Whatsoever saith he thou takest in hand remember thine end this thy last end and thou shalt never do amiss Eccles. 7.36 For as a Ship is best guided by the Stern so is the course of our life best ordered by having a continual recourse unto this our last end And as he shooteth best that still eyeth the Mark so that man in semblance best levelleth the Shafts of all his actions that hath the mark of this his last end still in his eye And then as is the old Philosophy Rule Primum in intentione Vltimum in Executione Since this last end of ours is the last thing to put in Execution how can we but conclude it highly reasonable and seasonable that it precede and go before every act of ours in intention and consideration O! that Men were therefore so wise saith Moses as still to remember this their last End Deut. 32.19 And with St. Hierom to be so sagely fanciful as still to conceive they heard the sound of this last Trumpet still ringing in their ears The serious recognition whereof could not but make the most Heathenish Felix to tremble when as Bias sometimes on Ship-board that there was but an Inch between him and Death we shall come duly to consider that there may not be a Days yea perhaps not an Hours nay possibly not a Moments distance between my present Speaking your Hearing and this Judges Appearing to Judge the World Iob in that his excellent description of a War-horse amongst many other eminent properties of his reckoneth this for one most highly remarkable that he doth Procul odorari Bellum Smell the Battle afar off in the 39th of his Book and 25th And what just reason then that we be sentenced for worse then Horse or Mule that have no understanding shall we not with the Nostrils I know not whether to say of Faith or Fear sent that bloody day we know not how near at hand wherein he whom by our sins from time to time we have been still provoking every day more and more to become our Adversary shall yet come to sit in judgment upon us And shall not therefore send out our Ambassadours Preces Lachrymas Cordis Legatos saith St. Cyprian our Prayers and our Tears the Ambassadours of our souls for the making of our Peace and Atonement with him whilst he is yet upon the way and may still be at some distance from us Certainly with Habakkuk in the 2. of his Prophsie 1. It shall stand us in hand at all Essays to stand upon our watch-tower and see what we shall answer him when he shall come to reprove us for these our whatever Enormities and as himself speaketh Psal. 50.21 shall set in order Sicut solet in
not God so much as a man like unto themselves speaking unto them in judgement and so as the Apostle in another case 2 Cor. 4. 7. shall have the Heavenly treasure of the final discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all their sins brought unto them in an earthen though now glorified vessel what darkness and blackness of horrour think we shall seize the souls of the wicked when they shall see him whom they have pierced as it is in the 1. of this Book 7. when as St. Hierom cerves manus Iudaee quas fixeras The Iew shall see the Head he hath wounded And the Roman the side he hath gored Nay if Iosephs brethren were not a little affrighted and afflicted at his presence when he told them that he was Ioseph whom they had sold into Egypt Gen. 45. how shall even the best of us sinful souls appear stricken with astonishment when we shall hear this our Brother but now judge semblably upbraiding us I am Jesus your Saviour whom from time to time you have sold for the vile price of sin And so upon the result shall desire the murtherous Barabbas of your sinful concupiscence to be given you and vote his delivery up a second time to be crucified when the Sun the Moon and the Stars shall in an awful reverence hide their heads when the Heavens shall be rolled up like a Scroule and the Elements melt with heat how shall the faces of sinners be abased and confounded The dreadful sound of the Trumpet that shall cleave the Rocks startle the dead out of their Graves yea shake the very Powers of Heaven how shall it thunderstrike the guilty conscience O Angustia saith holy Anselme Hic erunt Accusantia Peccata c. O the anguish of spirit we shall in that day be surprized with on the one side we shall hear our sins accusing us on the other Justice threatning us under Hell gaping for us above an angry Judge writing bitter things against us within the conscience galling without the world burning Quando latere erit impossibile as that Father goeth on when a Latitat shall be impossible and yet an Appearance intolerable our God shall come and shall not keep silence saith the Royal Prophet there shall go before him a consuming fire and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him Psal. 50.3 Et sitalis terror futurus sit advenientis saith Eusebius Emissenus upon the words and if to the eye the appearance of his person shall be so horrid how hideously think we will the sound of his sentence ring in the ear Certainly Horror ubique animos plurima Nostris Imago Tribulation and Anguish must needs be on that Day in great extremity upon those souls that shall then appear with any of their unrepented sins about them when we shall all both small and great come to stand up before God But here me thinketh I hear as some with the Saints under the Altar in the 12. of this Book 10. crying out How long Lord holy and true doest thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth So others as those in St. Peter in the 2. of his Epistle 3.4 scoffing where is the promise of his comming For all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation All as the Disciples Matthew 24.3 busily enquiring Quando ist haec erunt When shall these things be Learn a Parable of the Fig-Tree you know is our Saviour just answer to this their curious Quare Verse 32. of the above-praised Chapter And now from time to time we have seen no withered Fig-tree putting forth many a Prognostick Leaf how insensible shall we proclaim our selves if the sight of such a spectacle shall not induce us without the least Haesitation to conclude that this summer this scorching summer is very near at hand what the least abatement even amongst our new self-canonizing Saints of excess of wantonness of pride of sacriledge of perjury of all manner vanities nay an abominable grouth of al these do we find even now that Leves undae as S. Greg. speaketh those lesser waves of our long continued unnatural self-wasting Jars still tossing and turmoiling us nay of the abomination of desolation still laving and wasling away all the Religious endowments of our holy Places yea and now standing with as great confidence in them as if he were of Gods own placing as if their errand were expresly to tell us that it cannot be long ere the Lord in a dreadfull tempest of Fire as in Noahs days sometimes of water arise to judge the earth of which signs our Saviour himself in the above-praised Mat. 24 what palpable symbols of Antichrist unmasked doth our daily experience present us withal in the well-nigh universal exaltation we sadly see against all that is called God and in that late starting up of not a few withall deceivableness of unrighteousnes of which the Apostle 2 Thes. 2 what swarms of Apostats from the faith giving heed to the seducing spirits of false Prophets speaking lyes in Hypocrisie even such as would make the blackest Fiends of Hell to blush forbidding to marry at least the regular way by the Priests tying that sacred knot and substituting I know not what profane exotick hand to act in the place thereof of which the same Apostle 1 Tim. 4 what heards and troops of covetous proud boasters blasphemers truce-breakers false accusers despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded having a show of godliness but denying the power thereof Creepers into houses leading captive silly women laden with sins and led away with diverse lusts of which the same Apostle 2 Tim. 3. what mockers even mockers of God sometimes by Mock-fasts in order or disorder rather to the smiting with the fist of wickedness and setting Naboth on high for the effusion of his Innocent blood and the seizure of his poor vineyard and Mock thanksgivings sometimes for deliverance from Poetick dangers which God in his good time may in justice make reall Nay as in our Chronicles we read of the Scotch that having invaded our Borders and having observed a great mortality in our English camp and upon a cessation of Arms enquiring of our Country men the reason and told that it came by Gods grace they daily prayed to be delivered from that foul disease and fra Gods grace what thanksgivings have been made for a deliverance from Gods choisest blessings the best established Government and ordered Religion the world ever heard of of which St. Iude the 18. of his Epistle what storms of persecution against the true Professours of Christs name by a war upon them and a victory over them of which our Divine Evangelist in the 11. of this Book and 7. Some of the Rabbins I meet with of whose fancies I shall have to just reason to say what St. Augustin sometimes of the School-mens arguments Dum lucent subtilitate franguntur vanitate that while
Bello acies saith St Chrysost. as we use to set an Army in Battle-aray against an enemy before us what things we have done I have sometimes heard of an harsh answer that an hard-hearted chuffe made a poor man when he begged an Alms of him that if the day of judgement were at hand he would not give him a Penny To whom the poor man maketh no other reply but this that did he but believe that that day were at hand he would give him a Penny Doubtless the most flinty-hearted amongst us would be far from shutting up the Bowels of his compassion against his distressed Brother much less would he what is the worlds present guise for the general trample upon him and tirannize over him nor would any of us ruffle in Pride revel in excess dally in wantonness roar in Blasphemie mask under the visour of Hypocrisie as more then a good many of us familiarly do did we but duly contemplate with our selves that this great day of Judgement may be at hand nay did we but entertain a certain perswasion that there will be a day of Judgement And therefore those Arms wherewith Gideon furnished his Souldiers for their encounter with the Midianites Every one an empty Pitcher a burning Lamp and a Trumpet in his hand Iud. 7.16 will be proper for us still to have in a readiness in our thoughts for our encounter with the Hellish Midianites an emptie Pitcher even the apprehension of the brittle Pitchers of our bodies empty of strength and life of a burning Lamp a Lamp still lighted by a stream of Fire and Brimstone in the Infernal Tophet and a Trumpet which we know not how soon shall rouze us out of our Graves to try our strength Integrity before this Judgement seat Without all peradventure it is that the Midians or Jerichoes term them which you please shall never be able to stand or hold out shall they at all essays be surrounded with the due recognition of this Trumpets sound as a Signal for the opening of the Books Which might fitly bring me to the view of the third particular I commended to your observations the evidence to be given in which we see here is recorded in Books But I fear that I have already exceeded the limits both of my time and your patience Leaving therefore what remaineth for some other Days Essay beseech we the Almighty to grant that the words we have this day heard with our outward Ears may through his grace be so inwardly graffed in our hearts that they may bring forth in us c. The Second SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great c. Mat 24.44 Be ye also ready for in such an Hour as you think not the son of man commeth Abbas Elias Ego tres stimeo una est quando egressura est Anima de Corpore aliam quando occursurus sum Deo tertiam quando adversum me proferenda est sententia Apoc. 20.12 and the latter part of the Verse ANd the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works The whole Verse when I first undertook it I termed and that perhaps not unfitly a lively Effigies and Representation of the Great and General and Unspotted High-Court of Justice that at the last day shall be erected in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein having given you a summary view as of the Prisoners to be arraigned the Dead Small and Great and the Judge to pass sentence God we are now according to our proposed Method to heed the Evidence to be given in the equal proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all And first the Evidence to be given in offereth it self to our considerations which we see is Recorded in Books And the Books were opened What cannot be denyed of any what ever Judge of this supream Judge of Heaven and Earth must needs Ex abundanti be granted and confessed that he is Lex loquens a speaking Law yea Quicquid libet licet as that gross Parasite sometimes to the King of Persia so exact a Rule of Law is his will that to question the equity of what ever he willeth were Crimen laesae Majestatis no other then an height of Rebellion And then Books for the information of the understanding and so guidance of the will of this Judge may justly seem superfluous But he that is the Fountain of Justice and would therefore by his own Exemplary practise prescribe a course of unerring Justice unto all that under him will needs lay claim to any Judiciary Power as in the first piece of justice he did upon our first Parents though taking them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the very Act he doth not presently without further enquiry pass sentence upon them but first calleth man to the Bar Adam where art thou Where man appearing he apposeth him with a question which yet hath the nature of a smart charge Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Yea and then what Nicodemus now boldly alledgeth in the behalf of his Mr. Iohn 7.51 whom in the preceding verse for fear he sought In tenebris by Night with patience he heareth what this guilty Person can say for himself before he giveth him his Doom so here for the making up the exact complement of his Justice in the last Judgement that the most clamorous Delinquent may have no just cause of exception against his just way of proceeding he passeth sentence not as many a Brain-sick Enthusiast preacheth without Book but out of Books and these known Books of Law and those opened And the Books were opened For the number of these Books I know no Penman of holy Writ so proper and present to acquaint you as this our signally Divine Evangelist and Apostle St Iohn who here giveth us an intimation of three at least which he here professeth and that by Revelation to have seen And I saw the Books opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life For their Titles if you please to take them amassed into one great volume you may stile them all collectively by the name of Gods Doom-day Book If in several pieces you may not unfitly stile the first Secundum quem the second Ex quo the third In quo the first his Statute-Book the second his Day-Book the third his Book of Records And every of these Books shall we see opened when we come all both Small Great to stand up before this Righteous judge of the whole Earth I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The first of these his Statute-Book is made of three Tomes in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion For the first of these the Law of
in the old law was to make an atonement for the Holy offerings of the People that they might be accepted Exod. 28.38 never may the best of our Services without some Atonement and Expiation hope to be sped of Acceptance at his Hands in whose Eyes the Stars are not clear Iob 25.5 but is of Purer Eyes then to behold any Iniquity Hab. 1.13 And then if in our best Dresses we may not hope to appear Acceptable in our worst how Abominable must we needs appear in his sight And therefore St. Aug. word to the Lord cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant Vae etiam laudabili vitae Hominum si remota Misericordia discutias eam Woe to our most laudable course of Life saith he if thou O Lord without the Spectacle of Mercy shall be pleased to look upon it Nay this way of work-trial the whole Stream of the Divine Pen-men seemeth every where to cross setting up Grace and Faith not in competition only with but in a direct opposition unto works in the work of our Salvation and so in this Day of Trial we conclude saith St. Paul Dogmatically that a Man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 2.28 There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace saith the same Apostle in the 11. of the same Epistle 5. and 6. and if by Grace then is it no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace And if by Grace and Faith we are to look for Justification then how is it that according to our works we shall be Judged It will not be so difficult a Task perhaps upon a full discussion of the whole matter to reconcile this so much seemingly jarring Triumvirate as at first sight may appear Grace is the first yea Principal Impulsive cause of our Justification Being Iustified freely by his Grace saith the same Apostle Rom. 3.24 faith the instrumental for the laying hold of this grace in Christ The righteousnes of God saith the same Apostle in the 22. of the same Chapter by the Faith of Jesus is upon all them that Believe Good works are for the present to every one of us as at this last Day they shall be in the Presence of the whole world Sole but sufficient Evidence that we by Faith apprehend this unspeakable Grace and Mercy in Christ And therefore the same Apostle may you observe to be so far from opposing of either of these to other that Ephes. 2.8 you may see him Coupling Grace and Faith By Grace saith he are you saved through Faith Nay 1 Tim. 1.14 both Grace and Faith and good works together The Grace of our Lord was exceeding Abundant with Faith and Love the sourse of all Good works in Christ Jesus The lively Emblem and Representation of all three may you clearly discover in the Eye of a Man The Light we know is the only Object this Eye contemplateth And the Eye the sole Organ for the Contemplation of this Light And yet little comfort shall there be found by any Man in this object of Light nor will this Organ of the Eye be of any use if by any means it shall be divorced from the other Members of the Body To the Eye Light cannot be more welcome then is the Grace and Mercy of God that bringeth Salvation to the soul You are kept saith St. Peter by the Power of God unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Salvation the clearest Evidence as of the Mercy so Power of God And Faith the only means for the sealing up unto us this Evidence And yet shall Faith though of this Intuitive and Obsignative Efficacy as the Eye from the other Members be divided and separated from all other Gifts and Graces of the soul as Humility Meekness Temperance Patience it shall appear no better then Dead For Faith without works is Dead alone Iam. 2.17 Briefly by the Grace of God I am what I am you know is our Apostles word of himself 1 Cor. 15.10 whatever we may have in us whether of the Seeds of Faith or the Fruits of good works may in no wise be Pimarily ascribed to any cause but the Grace of God So that then for that both for the best Plerophory of our Faith we shall have too just reason to cry out as that Father of the Daemoniaque Mark 9.24 Lord I Believe help mine unbelief and for our choisest works for that they are so far from holding any the least conformity unto the Rule of Gods Law sadly to bemoan our selves before him as doth the Royal Prophet Psal. 130.3 If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amiss who may abide it Nay for that we cannot conceive the least hope of Salvation by our best works without borrowing much out of the inexhaustible Treasury not of Gods gracious Interpretation only but his Imputation of his Son Merits unto us Christ was made sin for us saith our Apostle that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 who seeth not how more then suffient ground there will be for our saying one to another what Zorobabel sometimes of the stone of the great Mountain Zach. 4.7 Grace unto it Grace unto it And for those two Faith and Good-works thus genuinely and equally springing from the same Root the grace of God far be it from us from becomming such Boutifeaus and Incendiaries as to blow and kindle the Coals of any Division between them which without the least prejudice or disgust nay without the extream prejudice of the destruction of our souls cannot be set or kept at the least distance Indeed without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 And yet never shall Faith be able to please God without the Observation of his Commandements It is Faith that apprehendeth the Merits of Christ Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5.1 And yet Opera mea testantur de me as our Saviour sometimes of himself Iohn 5.36 They are good works that must justifie our Faith for true and sincere Faith as the Kings Daughter Psal. 45.14 cannot but appear gratious and amiable in her Heavenly Fathers Eyes yet may she not be brought into his Presence until she appear in her Raiment of Needle-work and the Virgins of all other spiritual Graces for the keeping her Company V. 15. and 16. Faith like one part of a pair of Compasses must still center in the free grace of God through Christ But then must Love like the other be moving about the Circumference of the relief of our distressed Brethrens necessities So that then for our Faith however possibly we may conceive of it as our Apostle sometimes of his Faith of Miracles Heb. 11.33 34. that it is of force to subdue Kingdoms stop the Mouths of Lions quench the violence of Fire yet may we not fancy that it shall be able to open the Gates of the Kingdome of Heaven as long as we are so far destitute of
such good-works which may become Newness of Life as that we have any thing of Abomination or defilement about us for the keeping us out the last v. of the last Chap. of this Book And therefore however for the work of our Justification God may say unto us as to the two Blind-men Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you yet if now upon this foundation of our whatever Faith we shall be so far from building up the Gold or Silver Superstruction of Pious and Religious works as that we shall lay on nothing but the Hay and Stubble of all manner of vanities yea Impieties and Enormities so far shall such a Faith be from saving us that most woful must our condition needs appear when we shall all come to stand up before God to receive our sentence either of Acquital or condemnation according to our works Every Mans works shall be made manifest saith Saint Paul for the Fire shall try every mans works of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 where by Fire will we hear St. Augustin and diverse others of the Antients We are to understand either the Fire of all manner of Temptations and Tribulations and Persecutions which as Fire are to try and prove sound Doctrin and reduce to nothing the Hay and Stubble of Humane Invention When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of judgement and Fire saith the Prophet Isa. 4.4 or the Fire of the Holy Ghost He shall Baptize saith the Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3.11 or our Saviours appearance at this Day of Judgement either for the brightness of his Presence Who is the true Light that lightneth every one that commeth into the world Iohn 1.9 or for his consumptive quality that as is the same Psalmists Prediction Mat. 3. â—2 is to burn up the Chaffe with unquenchable Fire So that then finde we in our selves some ability for the bearing of Tribulations and Persecutions Some eminent graces of Gods Spirit Some Light of Illumination of our understandings for the discerning of those things that are Excellent Some consumption of the Hay and Stubble of all manner of Corruptions within us Upon these and no other Terms just reason shall we have to conclude that we are truly justified by Faith in the free Grace of Christ and so shall be counted worthy to stand before this Son of Man as himself speaketh Luke 21.36 Let then the Light of our Faith so shine before Men that they seeing our goods works may thereby be induced yea enforced to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let not our Lean Profession of Faith devour and swallow up the Fat of all manner of good works amongst us But let the Pomegranats of all manner of Fruits of Gods Spirit every where appear in the Coat of our Christianity as well as the Bels of our loud Profession of Faith Let Faith which commeth by hearing be as Mary conversant about one thing the Hearing of the word whilst the other as Martha is careful for many things the entertaining of Christ in all his needy Members Let Faith sing the Plain-song and Good-works the descant for the making up of a Melodious Harmony in the Ears of the Highest Let Faith and good works in every of us prove as Rachel and Leah fruitful for the building up of the House of our Christian Profession That so being Justified by Faith and having good works for the Justifying of this Faith of ours in the End of our Days we may receive the End of our Hopes the Salvation of our Souls when this great God of Heaven and Earth shall judge the Dead Small and Great out of those things that are written in the Books according to their works And thus far shall it serve to have examined the equal Proceedings of the Court which clearly appeareth in that the Dead Small and Great shall without any further distinction or discrimination be thus as you see Judged I shall only give you a short glimpse of the infallible certainty of all that which is irrefragably evident in that our Divine Evangelist professeth himself to have been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Eye-witness of all I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The Poets word it is Segnius irritant Animos The objects of Hearing make not so sudden an impression upon the Ear as those of seeing do upon the Eye And the reason hereof given by the Phylosopher cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant for that those things we see saith he come to the Eye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a direct Line but the things we Hear to the Ear {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} oblickly and as we say on every side Had our Apostle by Hear-say only by Tradition from others acquainted us with the Dead Small and Great standing up in this wise before God and yet this same Evangelist of our Ears conceiveth but even such a Relation to be Edged with Authority sufficient what we have heard saith he declare we to you in the 1. of his 1. Epistle and 5. the less strange might it seem did we appear to distrust the Relation not only for that our Age to palpably aboundeth with Lies much more then Truth but for that much more the greatest part of us that have led the Lives of Infidels would gladly cry down this Christian Truth rather for a Fabled Romancee then a Divine Oracle Sed cum certissimus Index Eplicuit presens oculus quem Fabula nescit But now what the greatest Sceptick can in the least measure question the Truth of this Report which so Authentick an Author as this our Evangelist reporteth himself to have seen and this by so unquestioned away as this of Revelation I saw and that with mine own Eyes and that by so unerring Evidence as Revelation the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Indeed I am not Ignorant that there are Revelations that may to justly be stooped to draw in the same Yoak with Dreams Hearken not to your Prophets is the Lords own word to the King of Sidon of Tyre of Moab and Ammon nor to your Diviners nor Dreamers Ier. 27.9 Every even the meanest of us hath for a long time as the Corinthians of old in the 1. of those Epistles 14. and 26. hath a Revelation an Interpretation of his own Of every of which therefore far greater reason shall we have to Quaere then those Philosophers sometimes of our Apostle Acts 17.18 what will this Babbler say But when we meet with a Testificemur quod vidimus as from this our Evangelist Iohn 3.11 we Testifie that which we have seen and that no Prophesie of Scripture is of Private Interpretation but Holy Men of God spake still as they were moved by God 2 Pet. 1.20 that Sceptick must needs be concluded to be above measure Sceptical that shall distrust the Credit of such a Relation I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Let it then be the careful Provision and Circumspection of every one of us that his dreadful sight of the Dead Small and Great standing up before a most impartial Judge and of the Books made up of three volumns in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second â—is Day-book of two whereof the first is that of our own Conscience the second of his Remembrance the third his Book of Records and this of a twofold Nature the one wherein the Church Registreth those for his Sons that by an outward Profession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards prove gross Impostours and Hypocrites the other that immutable Fore-knowledge whereby from Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of Time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life let this spectacle I say what the Lord sometimes to his People of the Book of the Law Ioshua 1.8 depart never out of our Mouths but meditate we therein Day and Night And let it be the Hing of the same Care of ours to consider that we shall be saved or condemned not by the Leaves or Blossoms of faire Shews or Semblances but by the Fruits of Good-works And then having laboured as much as in us lieth to conform us to his Example that is the Resurrection and the Life when he which is this Life of ours shall appear just reason shall we have to become confident that we shall also appear with him in Glory with the Lustre of which Appearance in thy good time O Lord irradiate every one us for thy Mercies sake c. FINIS