the Second Death is a State Given as Removed from all Appearance Psal 73. all along Rev. 20. last So that there must be such a peculiar State of Appearance under Wrath according to all Scripture Q. Is not This a Curiosity only of Speculation or of what Practical Force is it A. Surely of very Great seeing nothing is so suited to moving to Repentance and to perswade us to Holiness as this Terror of the Lord that is so suited to men Knowing and understanding Themselves as here in Bodies And which is so written in Nature that Any Instances of it in this World either of Gods Crowning Holy Persons and their Actions with Honour or his Judgments on wicked Men made Examples here do above All other Things exceedingly Affect us 2 Cor. 5. 10. 11. Psal 64. 7. 8. 9. And the Contrary is by Solomon Accounted the Great Cause of Impenitency Eccles 8. 11. Q. How comes it then to pass the Resurrection hath been no more thus Explain'd and press'd A. Because the darkness of the Apostasie and Love of this present World as if the Glory of it were Given to Antichrist as the Vicar of Christ is that Word which the Apostle says hath Eaten as it were a Gangrene as if the Resurrection were now already or as if there were no Resurrection in such a State of Glory and of Visible Appearance in contempt but a sudden Translation into Eternity with God or in the Lake 1 Cor. 15. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 17. 18. Q. Give Account of a Second Scripture Ground of this Visible Glory and Kingdom of Christ and of the Subjection of his Enemies A. Without such a State of the Kingdom of Christ in the Creation restor'd or in a Restitution of All Things the Redemption of Christ were not Perfect and Compleat For whatever the First Adam desolated the Second Adam was to Restore and to Bring again into order There must be therefore a Deliverance of the Creature from the Bondage of Corruption and from all their mutual Enmities So that the Wolf and the Lamb may dwell together c. And on this very Account There must be a Generation of Saints below as Adam and his Seed should have been in Paradise and the Saints dead in Christ in a Restored State in the Heaven above which Evil Spirits now Inhabit and from thence They behold the Glory and Happiness of the Humane nature in the Remaining Saints here below and the whole Creation of God as Renewed and Restored by the Mediator and by Him set out in Glory according to Psal 8. which is by Heb. 2. 5. c. Applyed to the World to come whereof we speak and to Jesus Christ Adoninu or Lord in our Nature or the Second Adam Q. But is there any proof that this State of Restitution pertains not only to the Glory but to the essential perfection of the Redemption A. I Account the Apostle hath given us the proof of this in the Resurrection the greatest Instance of the Restitution So that by a Parallel with that the whole Restitution will be prov'd also to pertain to the essential Perfection of this Redemption Q. What is that proof A. It is 1 Cor. 15. 12. and so forward Q. How do you draw out the proof of what you are upon according to that Scripture A. In these Four Things 1. That whatever Adam lost and whatever was a Part of the Death Threatned upon Adam's Fall must be Restor'd by the Second Adam the Mediator For so saith the Apostle v. 21. 22. and he Brings it in by way of Argument For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead And as in Adam All Dye so in Christ shall All be made Alive By Agreement of Reason since by Man came the Curse on the Creation of God by Man came also the Restitution and if there be Argument in one It must be also in the other 2. A Future State of Happy Spirits might be supposed without a Resurrection as well as a State of Spirits in misery without a Resurrection Now the Apostle supposes a State of Spirits in Misery though there be no Resurrection of the Dead For Those words v. 17. You are yet in your Sins suppose a State of Future Misery of Spirits without a Resurrection Therefore There might be a State of Christ in the Glory of Spirits and so of his Saints though no Resurrection But this according to the Apostle's Argument will not suffice the very essential perfection of the Redemption without a Resurrection Proportionably the Curse upon the Creation being a part of Adam's Death as appears Gen. 3. 18. 19. That must be taken off as necessary to the essential Perfection of the Redemption And a Happy State of Eternity in a dissolved Creation can no more suffice then a Happy State of Spirits without a Resurrection 3. The Vnjust Arise and are yet in Their Sins for They Rise to Condemnation So that a Resurrection without a State of this Restitution wherein that Resurrection shall be Happy is a Death and not a Resurrection in general Scripture Account Therefore Resurrection is to Glory all along this Chapter 4. To the Compleating of this parallel betwixt the First Adam's death and the Second Adams Life There must be a Wee of Saints who shall not dye but be Changed making up the All the Full number of Saints viz. Those who are Dead in Christ and Those who are Changed For in the State of Restitution There can be no Death to the Seed of the Second Adam And if It be in this World It must be a World in a State of Restitution And because such a State on Earth had been if Adam had not sinn'd It must be now by the Second Adam Q. Is there yet any Further Account of the Kingdom of Christ from Scripture Reason A. There is yet the Highest Scripture Reason for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that is that His Saints may be Fitted to be deliver'd up with the Kingdom to God and to the Father that He may be All in All which is the ultimate End and Last Result of All Things The Apostle therefore discourses of the Kingdom of Christ as in an Immediate Conjunction with and Subordination to that Eternal Kingdom of the Father God All in All. 1 Cor. 15. 28. Q. Why do you call this the Highest Scripture Account of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ A. Because That which is the Highest and last means to the Highest and Last End which Highest and Last end gives value and Reason to All means Receives the Highest Reason and the most Absolute necessity for it self from that Last End now It is most evident and certain from the Apostles discourse The Kingdom of Christ is the Highest and Last means to the Last and Highest End It is the Highest because It Alone is thought worthy to Touch and Attain that End And It is the Last because no other comes between it and that End For when in
Obedience of Christ the Linnen white and clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints that It Invests Them All which makes the difference betwixt the Saints and the Reprobate Inconceivable For the Talents that the Reprobate might have here by General Grace to Adorn Them are Taken from them and All their Sins find them out and are as the Garment that covers them and the Girdle wherewith They are Girded continually Allowing yet the differences of Punishment betwixt the more and less Malicious Sinners Jerem. 50. 20. Luke 23. 40. c. Mat. 25. 28. Q. But the Kingdom of Christ seems a State of Purgation for that last State of Delivering up the Kingdom to God All in All Why may not therefore some that have not Repented here Find place in that State for Repentance especially when some are Converts so near Death and so many dye Infants and are Sav'd who had no space of serving God in this World A. In the deep and wise dispose of God besides that Standard of Glorifying God here on Earth the Spirits unreconciled to God in Christ and unsanctified in the very moment wherein They leave the Body become Devilish James 3. 15. and so can be no more chang'd after then Devils and the Bodies being laid down without any Seeds of the Divine Life not the Temples of the Holy Spirit are Taken up in the very same State and can never be chang'd because the Spirit to Inhabit them cannot And so thus as the Spirits of Holy Men are Pledges of Happiness to the whole Man so the Spirits of Vnholy Men in Prison are Hostages for the whole man to Justice under Wrath and hereby there is in each order of Spirits having in themselves a sense of their Future Condition a Preparation for the Kingdom of Christ in Glory or in Dishonour For thus there is no discontinuance in the Sense and Knowledge Each have in the Reasons of the Future State as there would be if the Spirits of Men stâ—pt in the dust as their Bodies do till the Resurrection and that Visible Appearance in the Judgment and Kingdom of Christ But They are Spirits in Prison or with Christ 1 Pet. 3. 19. Philip. 1. 23. Q. But there seems to be some Greater Refinement of Saints in the Kingdom of Christ for Vnion to God All in All A. The Spirits of Saints having been with Christ from their Leaving the Body and in the very beginning of the Kingdom of Christ the whole * Just Men not Spirits made perfect Man being made perfect Heb. 12. 23. They are for 1000 years Confirm'd in that most perfect State and with Angels They Behold in this Great Oeconomy the utmost God is pleas'd to have seen in a Created State in order to Vnion with God All in All and so are Deliver'd up with the Kingdom the Just Contrary to which is in every particular to Wicked Men for their being Cast into the Lake Q. Hath not the Eternal Word in Humane Nature a Kingdom throughout Eternity A. The Eternal Word in Humane Nature hath a Kingdom throughout Eternity but not as the Son of Man but as the Eternal Word The Glory in which then Christ is seen by his Saints being the Glory he had with the Father before the World Began of the same Nature wherein He is now at the Right Hand of God till He appears and the Vnion in that Eternal State is by God to God by the Word to the Father so the Son as Man is Subject and God All in All John 17. 5 24. Q. Is God excluded in the Kingdom of the Son A. No He is Excepted saith the Apostle who put All Things under Christ The Throne of God even as of the Lamb is in the New Jerusalem It is Gods Kingdom He Appoints sitting at the Right and Left Hand of Christ But the Divinity pleases so to Oeconomize its own Glory that the Son may be seen to Reign in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 27. Revel 22. 3. Mat. 20 23. Phil. 2. 11. Q. But it seems by the High Expression of God who is purest Spirit being All in All and by the Lake of the Second Death and even the New Heaven and New Earth after the 1000 Years Flying away Revel 20. 11. there is no Bodily or Material Nature Continued no not of the Son 's Glorious Body who is then Subject nor of his Saints A. Scripture having Declar'd no such Thing No such Thing can be suppos d but that Christ and his Saints shall be in Bodies But it is certain There shall be Highest Spirituality in Conformity to the Divine Nature that He may be All in All and in Vnion to Christ most Spiritual Bodies Even as in the Lake All the Damned become Spiritual Wickednesses to the Highest Degree All which Confirms the Nature and State of the Resurrection to stand in Visibility and Appearance for the thousand Years Phil. 3. 21. Ephes 6. 12. Q. What kind of State must that be of the Beast and of the False Prophet who are Cast Living into the Lake even before the Devil the Dead Death and Hell are Cast into it Rev. 19. 20. c. 20. 10. c. A. The finding out the meaning of that State is the more necessary because it will much clear that Last Issue or Casting of the Devil Death and Hell into the Lake 1. The Casting into the Lake therefore signifies Finall and most utter Cessation of Action so that the Casting the Beast and the False Prophet into the Lake Imports to us that the Antichristian State of which the Beast and the False Prophet were the Supream Constituents or Parts being the Counterfeit and Undermine of the True Kingdom of Christ shall as the Apostle speaks 2 Thes 2.8 be utterly Consum'd and Abolish'd by it 2. In that it is a Lake Burning with Fire and Brimstone It speaks severest Punishment and Torment by the True Kingdom of Christ shining upon the Beast and False Prophet and as it were in their very Faces 3. In that the Beast and the False Prophet are Cast Alive into the Lake It Declares that the Full Abolition of the Antichristian Kingdom shall be in the very Beginning of the Kingdom of Christ and that the Punishment of the Antichristian Kingdom as the Counterfeit and Undermine of the Kingdom of Christ shall be the most Conspicuous and Illustrious of all the Punishing Part of Christs Kingdom So that All other Enemies of Christs Kingdom shall be only as Dead Men Slain with the Sword of Christs Mouth in Comparison But the Severity upon the Anti-christian Kingdom shall be like Burning Alive as it were in Just Recompence of their Vivi-Comburia or Burning Those Servants of Christ They call'd Hereticks Alive upon the Beast his False Prophet and all their Worshippers and their Babilon And the Smoke of their Torment Ascendeth for ever and ever and Wicked Men have their part first but are not cast till the very End into the Lake Rev. 19. 3. 21. c.
Water of Life and over Them the second death can have no power Q. But it seems They only who have been Martyrs and especially They who would not Receive the mark and Name of that Antichristian Idolatrous Power which the Revelation calls the Beast are They who thus Rise and enjoy that State a Thousand Years Rev. 20. 4. A. They are indeed the principal there nam'd to Answer the Table or Representation of Things in that Prophecy of the Revelation But it is subjoyn'd immediately v. 6. Blessed and Holy is He that hath part in the first Resurrection though they are not the principals Beheaded for Christ And the Apostle Paul assures us All who have died in Christ will God bring with Him That none should Mourn without hope for Dead Friends as if They should loose that Glory For none of the Saints can be perfected the one without the other The Living Saints cannot prevent the Dead and the Wee of the Living Saints are Joyn'd in that Glory with the Dead Rais'd 1 Thess 4. 15. and Heb. 11. last Call'd we All as making up the whole Q. What then shall be the State of the Saints Living and Remaining at the Coming of the Lord A. They also are as was said Partakers of the First Resurrection so that the Second Death shall have no Power over Them For the Blessed and the Holy is only He who is so Partaker And it is expresly said These shall not dye but be Changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the Clouds and be for ever with the Lord So they cannot fall into the Lake of the Second Death The Leaves of the Tree of Life are therefore for the Healing these saved of the Nations And the River of Life from the Throne runs down to them and the Trees of Life are for their Food and Medicine and the Healing Waters from the Sanctuary so that whatever doth Live shall Live Rev. 22. 2. Ezek. 47. 11. They shall be as Adam had he continued in Paradise served with the whole Variety of the Creation for Use and Delight without Lust or Sensuality without Labour Sorrow Curse or Death till They are so changed and they shall propagate a Holy Seed Psal 110. 3. in such abundance as to recompence with a much more to the Glory of the Second Adam Rom. 5. 12. to the end for the few that are saved within the World of the First Adam Q. What Entercourse shall there be betwixt the Saints of the New Heaven above and the Saints of the New Earth beneath A. Such as betwixt the Lights of Heaven and the Firmament and our Selves now on Earth For the Nations of the Saved shall walk in the Light of the New Jerusalem above shining as the Sun and Stars down to them And as All Glory on Earth is refer'd to the Light of the Sun and the Heaven over us So the Saints the Kings on Earth shall bring their Glory to the New Jerusalem above especially They shall give their Glory and walk in the Light and Enjoyment of God and of Christ And Angels and Saints above Angels Equalls shall Ascend and Descend on that Jacobs Ladder whose Foot being on Earth its Top reached to Heaven and God and the Lamb are on the Top of it and by Ezekiel's steps enlarging and winding still upward shall All below Ascend upward Gen. 28. 12 13. Ezeck 41. 7. Q. Give yet a fuller Account of the State of the wicked in this Kingdom of Christ A. The Scripture is not so full nor so clear in setting out the State of the Wicked under this Kingdom yet so that It is most certain that They who have lived before it are rais'd to Illustrate the Glory of it and to bear the Shame and Dishonour of their wickedness under the Just and Righteous Condemnation of Christ call'd a being slain with the Sword of his Mouth Shame and Contempt shall be pour'd upon Them as a Just Recompence of all the Scorn They have cast upon Christ his ways and Servants and They shall be seen in a State of Punishment Destruction and Death under a sharp sense of it in Themselves and so that They shall be seen as Carcasses whose Worm dyes not and their Fire is not quenched so that They are an Abhoring of all Flesh And this is a Just and Righteous Recompence of all the Cruelties They have exercised upon the Servants of God and their Disobedience to God and to Christ and their so obstinate prefering the present World before and above the World to Come Lastly in what ever State Any of them can be suppos'd to be They are certainly so under Christ and his Saints That They are made his Foot-stool Dan. 12. 2. John 5. 29. Esay 66. ult 2 Thes 1. 9. Psal 110. 1. Q. When does the Kingdom of Christ begin A. It begins at the Coming and Appearance of Christ and at the Resurrection of his Saints at that his Coming and Appearance a Resurrection to Life Honour and Immortality and to a visible Glorious Appearance with Christ and Reigning with Him Q. Is there not a Resurrection of the Wicked at the same Tme And if so How then does their Resurrection stand in Relation to the Happy Resurrection A. There is their Resurrection as was last declared but because It is a Resurrection to Punishment and Dishonour It is called Death and They are called the dead though iâ— a visible Appearance The Scripture therefore but seldom names the Resurrection of the wicked as a Resurrection and when it speaks of the Resurrection at any Time absolutely It means the Happy and blessed Resurrection as Luc. 20. 35 36. 1 Cor. 15. throughout Rev. 20. 4. 6. And therefore there can be no other Respect had to them in the Kingdom of Christ and the Resurrection proper to it but as They add to the Triumph of the Kingdom and are in a State of Deprivation of its Glory Q. What proof can you give of the Kingdom of Christ at his Coming and Appearance A. The whole Stream of the New Testament Joyns his Coming and his Appearance and his Kingdom One with Another The Son of Man coming in his Kingdom Mat. 16. last When the Son of Man shall come in his Glory and All the Holy Angels with him Then shall He sit on the Throne of his Glory Mat. 25. 31. Remember me when Thou Comest in not into thy Kingdom Luk. 23. 42. Because They thought the Kingdom of God should immediately Appear He spake a Parable unto Them of a Nobleman going into a Far Country to Receive a Kingdom and to Return and Having Receiv'd a Kingdom He Return'd in it Luke 19. 13 15. When we made known unto You the Power and Coming of Christ and were Eye Witnesses of his Majesty to wit in the Transfiguration that Great Fore-Appearance of his Kingdom Behold He who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth cometh in the Clouds and Every Eye shall see Him Revel 1.5.7 And his Appearance