The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 2, Section 10

The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 2 · Section 10

p. 448SECT. X. Of Christ's Regal Acts in his Kingdom.

HAving in the foregoing Section given an account of the several Ministers which Christ imploys in the Administration of his Kingdom, we proceed in the next place to inquire what those Acts of Royalty are, which he himself exerts in his Kingdom, and by which he perpetually rules and governs it; and these may be distributed into three Orders:

First, Such as he hath performed once for all.

Secondly, Such as he hath always performed, and will still continue to perform.

Thirdly, Such as are yet to be peformed by him before the surrender of his Kingdom.

First, One sort of the Royal Acts of our Saviour are those which he hath performed once for all; and these are reducible to three particulars:

1. His giving Laws to his Kingdom.

2. His Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue mens minds to the obedience of those Laws and to govern them by them.

3. His erecting an External Polity or Form of Government in his Kingdom.

p. 449I. One of those Regal Acts, which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all, is giving Laws to it; and this he performed while he was upon Earth in those excellent Sermons and Discourses which he then preached and delivered to the World. For though he preached as a Prophet, yet it was as a Royal Prophet, as one that had Regal authority to Enact what he delivered into Laws; for he was a King while he was upon Earth, vid. p. 853, 854, &c. so that all his Prophesies were inforced with his Regal Authority, and he commanded as he was a King whatsoever he taught as he was a Prophet. Indeed, had he been a mere Prophet, he could not have obliged men by any Legislative Authority of his own to believe and obey him; his Declarations had had no farther Force in them than as they expressed the Will and Command of the Almighty Sovereign of the World, and if what he declared had not been Law before, it could not have been made Law by his declaring it. But being a Royal Prophet, his words were Laws, and all his Declarations carried a commanding power in them. And hence the Gospel is called the Law of Christ, Gal. 6.2. and the Law of the Spirit of life in or by Christ Iesus, Rom. 8.2. and that command of loving our Neighbour as our self is called the Royal Law, i. e. the Law of Christ our King, Iam. 2.8. for this our Saviour calls his Commandment, John 15.12. and his new Commandment, viz. that ye love one another even as I have loved you, Joh. 13.34. and not only this, but all other duties of the Gospel are called his Commandments, Ioh. 14.21. and Matt. 28.20. by all which it is evident, that in revealing p. 450his Gospel to the World he did not only perform the part of a Prophet, but also of a Legislator, and that by his own inherent Authority, as he was a King, he stamp'd those Doctrines into Laws which he taught and delivered as a Prophet. And such as his Kingly power is, such are his Laws and Commandments; he is a spiritual King, a King of Souls, of Wills, and of Affections, and accordingly his Laws are spiritual, and do extend their obligation to the Souls, and Wills, and Affections of his Subjects. For they not only oblige our outward man, but also the inmost motions of our heart, they lay their reins upon our thoughts and desires, as well as upon our words and actions, and give directions to our inward intentions, as well as to our outward actions: so that to satisfie their demands, it is not sufficient that we do well, unless we also intend well, that the matter of our actions be good, unless the aim and design of them be so also: for according to the tenor of these spiritual Laws, a bad intention unconsecrates the best actions, and converts even our Prayers and our Alms into the most loathsom Cheats and Dissimulations, vid. Matt. 6.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.16, 17, 18. and as they oblige our inward intentions to good ends, so they also restrain our inward concupiscence from evil objects, so far forth at least as it falls under the command and disposal of our Wills. For they not only forbid us the doing of evil actions, but also the consenting to them, and even the taking pleasure in the contemplation of them, and the very affection to any bad action if it be voluntary and consented to, is in the construction of these Laws the same with the Commission of it; for so Hatred p. 451is construed Murder, 1 John 3.15. Covetousness, Theft or Robbery, Mark 7.22. inordinate lusting after a woman Adultery, Mat. 5.28. and so in general the wicked Will is in the construction of these Laws, the wicked action it chooses and consents to. Thus the Laws of our Saviour (to whose all-seeing eye our inmost motions are as obvious as our most open practice) do as well take notice of our vicious affections, those internal springs, and fountains of iniquity as of the vicious actions which stream out from them, and we are as well accountable to them for harbouring the desire of sin, when we have not the convenience or opportunity to act it, for consenting to it (though we never commit it) when ever opportunity occurs▪ yea, and for indulging to our selves the Phantastick pleasures of sinful Meditations, which are but the antepasts of the actions, and as the Twilight to a dark night, but the first approaches towards the deeds of darkness, as for the sinful actions themselves. This therefore is the common nature of the Laws of our Saviour, that they are all of them spiritual ▪ and do in the first place lay hold upon our Wills, and bind our inward-man, and from thence extend their obligation to the outward actions. They begin with that which is the Principle of all moral good and evil, and by rectifying the Spring and Wheels of our Will and Affections within, communicate a regular motion to the hand of our practice without.

But for our better understanding the nature of these Laws and the Obligations they devolve upon us, it will be necessary to consider them more particularly, they being all reducible under two p. 452Heads; First, The Law of Perfection: And secondly, The Law of Sincerity. Both which require of us the same instances of Piety and Vertue, though not in the same degree, nor under the same Penalty.

I. There is the Law of Perfection, which requires the utmost degrees of every Christian Vertue, which in the several states and periods of our lives we are capable of attaining to. For so we are injoyned not only to do, but to abound in the work of the Lord; not only to have grace, but to grow in it, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, and to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. For the nature of God is the Standard of that Perfection whereunto we are obliged to aspire, and our growth in Piety and Vertue is never to come to a period, till we are pure as he is pure, and holy as he is holy, i. e. till we are arrived to infinite holiness; which because our finite nature can never do in any period of Duration, therefore we are to be growing on to Eternity. So that this Law by prescribing no limits to the degrees of our growth, hath cut out work enough for us to imploy all our Faculties for ever. Not that it is a sin against it for a man to be short or defective of the utmost degree of perfection; for it requires no more of us than what is within our present possibility, which always increases proportionably to our present improvements. When we are arrived but to one degree of Vertue it is no sin against this Law of Perfection that we do not thence immediately ascend to six or seven, because it is not in our power, and no Law can oblige to an impossibility; but when we have acquired one, that gives us power p. 453to acquire a second, and that a third, and so on ad infinitum. Thus our Obligation to be more and more perfect increases proportionably to the improvement of our power; for the end of all power either to be good, or to do good, is to be good, and to do good; and therefore the more power we have to be good the better we ought to be, otherwise our power is in vain; while we are but Babes in Christ, or beginners in Religion, we have not that strength and power as when we are men, and have made a considerable progress; and therefore we are not then obliged to all those degrees of growth and perfection, but whatsoever degree is within our power in the different stages of our growth and progress, that we are actually and immediately obliged to; and so long as we are defective in it, we are offenders against the Law of Perfection. As for example, Mar. 12.13. our Saviour commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength; that is, that we should always love him as much as we can; but it is as much in our power to love him still more when we love much, as when we love him little; and so we are equally bound still to love him as much as we can, when we have ten degrees of power, as we were when we had but one. So that by this command we are obliged always to love God as much as we are able, and thereby to be always augmenting our ability to love him, and as our ability increases, to be always loving him more and more for ever. Now the Penalty by which this Law obliges us is not eternal damnation, (and God forbid it should, for then I doubt no flesh would be saved) but only p. 454the deprivation of some degrees of future happiness, which is no more than what is the natural consequence of all defects of goodness: for so essential is goodness to our future happiness, that proportionably as we fall short of the one we must necessarily be defective of the other; and accordingly the Scripture tells us, that proportionably to our non-improvements in this life God will substract from our reward in the life to come. For he that soweth sparingly, saith the Apostle, shall reap sparingly, and he that soweth abundantly shall reap abundantly, 2 Cor. 9.6. And our Saviour by a Parable doth expresly teach us that our future reward shall be apportioned to the degrees of our present improvements, Luk. 19. where he represents himself as a Master coming to take account of his Servants, among whom he had intrusted a stock of ten pounds, delivering to every one an equal share. The first by an extraordinary diligence had improv'd his Pound into ten, and he is rewarded accordingly with the Government of ten Cities, ver. 16, 17. the other had been faithful, though not altogether so diligent, and by his one pound had gained five, and accordingly he is made Lord of five Cities, ver. 18, 19. By which he plainly declares, that by so much as we fall short of those improvements we might have made in Piety and Vertue, so much he will substract from our furure reward. So that the sense of the Law of perfection is this, as you would not incur the forfeiture of some degrees of your happiness in the other life, be sure you imploy your utmost diligence in this to improve your selves in every grace and vertue of Religion.

p. 455II. There is the Law of sincerity, which requires the being and Reality of all Christian Graces and vertues in us, together with the proper Acts and Exercises of them, as we have opportunity, and doth no farther forbid those gradual defects of them which are within our possibility to supply, than as they are the effects of our gross, continued, and wilful neglect, and so inconsistent with sincerity. Now the Reality of these Christian Vertues in us consists in the universal and prevailing consent and resolution of our Wills to regulate our practice by them, so as not wilfully to admit of any thing that is contrary to them upon any occasion or temptation whatsoever, and so long as this resolution continues firm and prevails in our practice, we are just in the eye and judgment of this Law of sincerity, though we do not always exert it to the utmost of our possibility. He therefore who hath so submitted his Will to God as to be throughly resolved, without any reserve, to obey him, and not to do any thing that is contrary to his Will, either against knowledge, or through affected ignorance, or inconsideration, hath in this resolution the real being of all Christian vertues in him; and so long as this holds he stands uncondemned in the judgment of the Law of sincerity. But though this resolution includes in it the being and reality of all Christian vertue, yet doth it not include the utmost possibility of it; nor doth it at all follow, that because I am sincerely resolved to conduct my life by the Laws of Piety and Vertue, therefore I must be in all respects as Pious and Vertuous as it is possible for me to be, considering my present state and circumstances. p. 456I may be sincerely resolved, and yet not be always equally diligent and active. I may now be exceeding vigilant and watchful, and what I am now I may always be, if I always exert the utmost of my possibility; yet it may so happen anon, that though I am sincerely resolved still, I may be more remiss, supine, and inadvertent, and in this posture a temptation may surprize me, before I am aware, and hurry me into an action against which I am firmly resolved: And there is no doubt, but even the best of men might have be…n much better than they are, had they always … their possibilities, and applied themse… … their utmost skill and diligence to the methods and Ministries of improvement. Now though not to exert our utmost power in the avoidance of evil, and the improvement of our selves in vertue and goodness, is doubtless a sin, yet it is only a sin against the Law of perfection, the Penalty of which is only deprivation of some degree of our future reward; but so long as we keep up a prevailing resolution in our Wills to govern our … by the Laws of Piety and Vertue, we stand …ear in the eye of the Law of sincerity, the Penalty of which is no less than everlasting Exile from the presence of God into the dark and horrible Regions of endless misery and despair; only this proviso it admits, that if after we have sinned against it we reassume our good Resolution, and heartily repent and amend, we shall be released from the obligation to this dreadful Penalty, and be restored to that happy state of grace and favour, from whence we fell by our transgression. So that the great difference between the Law of p. 457Perfection and the Law of Sincerity is this, that the penalty of the later is much more severe: but the duty of the former much more comprehensive. Having thus given this brief account of our Saviours Legislation and Laws, I proceed to the

II. Of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all, and that is his Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue Mens minds to the Obedience of his Laws, and to govern them by them. For so the Apostle makes the Mission of the Spirit to succeed the Triumphal progress of our Saviour to his Coronation in Heaven, Eph. 4.8. He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto Men; where by the gifts which he gave, we are to understand the Holy Spirit, and in him all those extraordinary Gifts which he poured out upon his Church on the day of Pentecost, for so Acts 2.33. S. Peter makes the effusion of the Spirit by Christ to be the consequence of his advancement to his universal Royalty, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Now the end for which he sent his Spirit, was to supply his room when he went from earth, and in his absence to preside as his Vicegerent in his Kingdom below. Since therefore this blessed Spirit acts as our Saviours Agent, whatsoever he doth, that our Saviour doth by him. So that all those operations he performs in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ, and to the governing of us when we are subdued, are truly the operations of Christ himself. It is he that conquers and governs p. 458us by his Spirit, our hearts are the Territories which Christ invades by him, and his inspirations are the victorious Arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them. Our Wills are the Thrones on which Christ sits, and rules, and governs by him, and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience. But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth, and hath done in order to the subduing Men to Christs Laws, and governing them by them hath been already shewn at large: and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present.

III. And lastly, therefore, another of those Regal Acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his Heavenly Kingdom is, his erecting in it an external Polity and Government. What this Polity is, and what are the functions of it hath been shewn at large, and it is as well by this external Government, as by the internal Ministry of his Spirit, that Christ now rules his Kingdom; for in all just and lawful things the lawful Governours of his Church do act by his Commission and Authority, as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his Person, and the Executors and Administrators of his Power and Dominion. Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their Commission, they act in his stead, and as his Vicegerents; and whatsoever they bind he binds, and whatsoever they loose he looses; their Commands are his, their Decrees and Sentences are his, and all their authoritative Acts carry with them the same force and obligagation as if they had been performed by him in p. 459his own person. For it is he that wills, and speaks, and acts by them, because they Will, and Speak, and Act by his Authority. For so he himself declares to them, Luke 10.16. He that heareth you heareth me, i. e. because I speak by you, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me; because my Authority is in you even as my Fathers is in me; and therefore he who despises mine in you, despises my Fathers in me, whence mine in you is derived. Your Authority is mine, and mine is my Fathers, and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Fathers and mine. And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his Authority was given him by the Father; for he came into the World to seek and to save lost souls, Luk. 19.10. He came not to judge the world, but to save the world, Joh. 12.47. And to call sinners to repentance, Mar. 2.17. And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his Kingdom in his absence; for he set them up as so many Lights to the benighted World, to reduce Men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery, and shew them the way to everlasting happiness: and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification, and not for destruction, 2 Cor. 13.10. and to them he hath committed the care and charge of Souls, whose blood he will one day require at their hands, if they miscarry through their neglect or default, Heb. 13.17. and that he might the better secure these precious beings for whom he shed his blood from miscarrying for ever, he placed p. 458duplicate page p. 459duplicate page p. 460this spiritual Polity in a subordination of Officers, and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior Officers, as well as both accountable to himself. So that whereas had he placed it in co-ordinate hands there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular Cure or Charge of Souls, because then each single Pastor would have been supreme in his particular Cure, and consequently no other Pastor, or Pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account; now each particular Cure of Souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of Pastors; who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the Tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior Pastor, who hath the immediate Charge of it, and is obliged by his Office to teach and instruct it by good Example and Doctrine, and to administer to it the holy Ordinances of Christianity, stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission; next, the Bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior Pastor, and then the Metropolitan for not taking Cognizance of the default of the Bishop. Thus in that excellent form of Government which Christ hath established in his Kingdom he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of Souls; for according to this Oeconomy he hath taken no less than a threefold security, every one of which is as much as a Soul amounts to, that every Soul within every Cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of Salvation, that so none of them might miscarry, p. 461but such as are incorrigibly obstinate. So that now if any Soul within the Dominions of our Saviour perish for want of the means of Salvation, there are no less than three Souls one after another besides it self, accountable to him for its ruin. Having thus shewn what these Regal Acts are which Christ hath once for all performed in his Kingdom, I proceed

II. To declare what those Regal Acts are which he hath always performed, and doth always continue to perform: and these are recucible to four particulars:

First, His pardoning penitent sinners.

Secondly, His punishing obstinate Offenders.

Thirdly, His protecting and defending his faithful Subjects in this life.

Fourthly, his blessing and rewarding them in the life to come.

I. One of the Regal Acts which our Saviour always hath, and always continues to perform, is his pardoning and forgiving penitent sinners, which being one of the Articles of our Creed, I shall endeavour to give an account of it more at large; the Apostle defines sin to be a transgression of the Law, 1 Joh. 3.4. Now the Law obliges us under a certain stated Penalty to do and forbear what it commands and forbids; whenever therefore we transgress the Law, we are thereby obliged to undergo the Penalty it denounces; and this is that which we call the guilt of sin, viz. its obligation to punishment, and it is this guilt which pardon and forgiveness relates to. For to pardon is nothing else but only to release the sinner from the obligation he lies under to suffer p. 462the penalty of the Law. Now the penalty of the Law of God for every known and wilful sin is no less than everlasting perdition; and therefore from this it is that we are released by that pardon and indemnity which the Gospel proposes. So that the pardon or remission of sins, whereof we are now treating, consists in the loosing of sinful men from that obligation to eternal punishment, whereunto they have rendered themselves liable by their wilful disobedience to the Law of God. Since therefore this pardon consists in the release of offenders from the penal Obligation of the Law it must be a Regal Act; because the Obligation of the Law can be dispenced with by no other Authority but that which made it; and therefore since to make the Obligation of the Law is an Act of Regal Authority, to release or dispence with it must necessarily be so also; and accordingly forgiveness of sin is in Scripture attributed to our Saviour as one of his Regal Rights, Acts 5.51. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. So that now it is by Christ immediately that our sins are pardoned, and our Souls released from those Obligations to eternal punishment in which they have involved us: for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, Joh. 5.22. So that now it is by him immediately that the Father judgeth us, i. e. absolves and condemns us; for so Col. 3.13. the Apostle exhorts them to forbear and forgive one another even as Christ forgave them: and Col. 2.13. Christ is said to have forgiven them all trespasses. It is true, forgiveness p. 463of sin is in Scripture frequently attributed to the Father as well as to the Son: So 1 Iohn 1.9. If we confess our sins he (i. e. the Father) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; and Eph. 4.32. Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you. From whence it is plain that forgiveness of sin appertains to God as well as Christ, and that both have their appropriate shares in it; and therefore since it is impossible that the same individual action should proceed from two distinct Agents; in this Act of forgiveness the Father must do something which the Son doth not, and the Son must do something which the Father doth not. They must both of them act an appropriate part in it, and each have a distinct agency from each other. For the fuller explication therefore of this Article I shall endeavour to shew, first, what it is which the Father doth in forgiving sins, and secondly, what the Son doth.

I. What is it that the Father doth in this Act of forgiveness of sin? To which in short I answer, That the Fathers part herein is to make a general grant of pardon to offenders, upon such a consideration as he shall think meet to accept, and with such a limitation and restriction he shall think fit to make; which general Grant is nothing else but those glad tidings of the Gospel, which he proclaimed to the World by Jesus Christ; viz. that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice he would freely forgive all penitent and believing sinners their personal obligation to eternal punishment, and receive p. 464them into grace and favour. So that in forgiving our sins there are these three things peculiar to God the Father: First, His making a general Grant of Pardon to us. Secondly, His making it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice. Thirdly, His making it with those restrictions and limitations of Faith and Repentance.

First, One thing peculiar to God the Father in forgiving sins is his making a general Grant of pardon and forgiveness to sinners. For the Law against which all men had sinned, and by which they were obliged to eternal punishment, was strictly and properly the Law of God the Father, who being the first and supreme person in the Godhead, was consequently always the first and supreme in the divine Dominion. Now the divine Dominion consisting (even as all other Dominions do) of a Legislative and executive power, the Father must be supreme in both, and consequently the Laws of the divine Dominion must be more especially and peculiarly his. And hence it is called, The Will of the Father, Mat. 7.21. so in the Lords Prayer the Divine Law is in a peculiar manner stiled the Will of God the Father: Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven; Matth. 12.50. our Saviour stiles it, the Will of his Father which is in Heaven; and elsewhere the Commandment of his Father, vid. Ioh. 12.5. Mat. 15.3.6. Mar. 7.8, 9. by all which it is evident that the Divine Law against which we have all offended, and by which we are obliged to punishment is appropriately and peculiarly the Will and Commandment of God the Father; and it p. 465being so, the right of exacting or remitting the punishment of this Law must be peculiarly and appropriately inherent in him. For the penalty of the Law is due to him whose Law it is, and it is he alone can loose us from it who bound it upon us; so that it was the Fathers peculiar, as to give the Law, so to indemnifie offenders from the Penalty of it; and accordingly we find that publick Grant of pardon, which through Jesus Christ is made to sinners, is in Scripture every were attributed to the Father; so we are told that it is God who for Christs sake hath forgiven us, Eph. 4.32. and that it is God who hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation though faith in his bloud to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, that he might be just, and the justifier of them that believe in Iesus, Rom. 2.25, 26. that it was God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 2 Cor. 5.19. And in a word, that it is God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1.9. where his being faithful and just, plainly refers to some publick Grant and Promise by which he hath obliged himself to penitent offenders. And indeed the whole new Covenant, in which this publick Grant of remission of sins is contained (vid. Heb. 8.12.) is the act and deed of God the Father; It was he that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice granted this grand Charter of mercy to the World; for seeing it was to the Father that that Sacrifice was offered, in consideration of which the new Covenant was granted (vid. Eph. 4.2. compared with Col. 1.20.) the grant of it must necessarily be from the Father. p. 466And as it was the Father that made this publick grant of Remission to sinners; so

II. It was he that made it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice, for so Christ himself tells us, that it was by commandment which he received from his Father that he laid down his life, Iohn 10.17, 18. and when he was going to offer up himself upon the Cross he tells his Disciples, As the Father gave me Commandment even so do I, arise let us go hence, i. e. to execute that Command which the Father hath given me, to lay down my life for the sheep, Ioh. 10.15. from whence it is evident, that it was the Father who exacted the Death and Sacrifice of Christ in consideration of that publick Grant of forgiveness which he made to the World; for it was through his blood that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, according to the Riches of his (i. e. the Fathers) grace, Eph. 1.7. and that blood of his was an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, Eph. 5.2. So that it was God the Father that did both exact and accept the sacrifice of Christ▪ which as I have shewed at large Sect. 4. was in consideration of his pardoning and forgiving Sinners.

III. And lastly, It was God the Father also that made this Grant of forgiveness to us with these restrictions and limitations of our believing and repenting For as the promises of the Covenant were his, in which remission of sin is proposed to us, so must the conditions of it be also, by which it is limited and restrained. Because it can belong to none but the giver to limit and conditionate his own Gifts and Grants: Now the Conditions of p. 467our forgiveness are faith and repentance, o… …ather the condition of it is such a Faith, such a lively and active belief in Jesus Christ as doth beget in us sincere repentance and renovation of life; for so S. Paul tells us again and again, that it is by faith that we are justified or pardoned, Rom. 3.28. c. 5. v. 1. Gal. 2.16▪ Chap. 3.24. Where by faith its evident he doth not mean any one single act of Faith, of what kind or denomination soever, but faith as it is the pregnant Root and active principle of repentance and newness of life. For it is granted on all hands, that that faith which acquits and justifies us before God must be lively and operative; and indeed unless it be so, it is not distinguishable from persumption, which is only the Carcass or lifeless image and Portraiture of Faith. So that if this be Justifying, it is all one whether you call it justifying faith or justifying presumption; and he that can lay hold on the Righteousness of Christ, though it be with prophane and sacrilegious hands, will be as certainly justified as the most humble and penitent soul. At which rate a man may rest upon Christ without coming to him, and lay hold upon him at the greatest distance from him; he may lean upon his merits in open defiance to his Laws, and embrace and crucifie him together. It being granted therefore, that that Faith which justifies us must be lively and operative; it is from hence most evident that the condition of our Justification is no one single act of Faith, but comprehends in it all that Repentance and new Obedience which is the effect of the life and operation of Faith. For if to make it the condition of our Justification, it be necessary p. 468that our faith should work by Love and be operative and obediential; then that it should be lively and operative is as necessary to our justification as that it should be faith; for where only an accident or mode of a thing is made a conditition with the thing, it is equally a condition with the thing it self. As for instance, if I promise one such a reward upon condition he presents me with such a Book, so bound and of such an Edition, it is equally a condition and as much influential on the mans right to my promise, that it should be so bound and of such an Edition, as that it should be the Book for which I conditioned. And so in any other instance you can bring, either in fact or fiction, and the same reason holds good, whether we take Faith for a condition or an instrument (as some improperly enough call it) for if to be lively and operative is a necessary qualification to make Faith an instrument of our justification, then its liveliness and operation is instrumental too: For that mode of a thing which makes it instrumental is as really instrumental as the thing it self. As for instance, a Knife is an instrument of cutting, but it is its sharpness that makes it to be so, and therefore 'tis as instrumental to cutting that it should be sharp, as that it should be a Knife. And indeed whether we consider either the form or matter of our justification and pardon, it will evidently appear that that faith which justifies us must be such as includes in it Repentance and New Obedience. For as for the form of Justification it is a juridical act founded upon a legal process, in which there is always a Iudge, a Criminal and a Law, and here the Judge is God, p. 469the Criminal, man, the Law, the law of sincerity, or those affirmative and negative commands of the Christian Religion that are established with the threats of eternal condemnation; for so Iames 2.12. the Apostle tells us, that we must be judged by the Law of liberty, i. e. the moral Law, as it is expounded and perfected by our Saviour: for so ver. 8. If ye fulfil the Royal law▪ Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self, ye do well. So that that Law of liberty by which we must be judged …s this Royal Law, and this Royal Law is the moral Law which requires us to love our Neighbour as our selves; now this moral Law is to be considered under a twofold notion, as it is a Law of works, and as it is a Law of grace. As it is a law of works, it exacts perfect and unsinning obedience, and neither promises Grace to inable us to keep it, nor admits repentance, when we have broken it. As it is a Law of grace it exacts only sincere obedience, and both promises grace to inable us thereunto and admits repentance, in case of wilful disobedience. Now considering it under the first notion, it is the same with the law of Nature, and as such, it obliges all men that are in the state of Nature or without the Pale of Christianity, who have neither promise of grace to inable them to obey, nor yet of pardon upon Repentance after they have once disobeyed it. In which forlorn condition they remain till such time as they embrace Christianity and are by Baptism admitted into the Kingdom of Christ, and from thenceforth the obligation of it, as it is a law of works ceaseth and it obliges them only as it is a Law of Grace, i. e. as it is a Law which exacts of them only sincere obedience, and promises p. 470both to assist them to obey, and upon their repentance to pardon their disobedience, so that considering the moral Law, as it is a law of works, it neither justifies nor accounts just any but the perfectly innocent, nor yet indulges pardon to any that have offended upon any condition whatsoever; and therefore the Infidel World who alone are under the obligation of it, are said to be strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope, i. e. no hope founded upon Promise, none but what an absolute and unpromised mercy affords them, Eph. 2.12. And then if we consider it, as it is a law of grace, it justifies or accounts just none but the sincerely obedient, and indulges pardon to no offenders whatsoever, but such as are sincerely penitent; so that we Christians who alone are under the obligation of it can neither be justified by it but upon our sincere obedience, nor when we fail of that be pardoned by it, but upon our unfeigned repentance. Since therefore it is by the moral law, considered as a Law of Grace, that God doth judge us, he can acquit us by it upon no other terms but only our performing of what it requires, i. e. our hearty repentance for our past sins and sincere obedience for the future. For seeing it requires this of us under the penalty of eternal condemnation, we are obliged by it to this penalty, till we have performed what it requires, and to be at the same time acquitted by a law and obliged to the Penalty of it is a contradiction; did this law of grace require of us nothing but faith, and threaten condemnation for nothing but infidelity, then indeed our bare believing in Jesus were sufficient to discharge us from our obligation to its penalty; p. 471but since it also requires of us repentance and sincere obedience under the same Penalty that it requires faith, our faith cannot be sufficient to discharge us from its penalty, unless it be such as includes in it repentance and sincere obedience. In short, the law of grace condemns us as well for impiety, injustice and uncharitableness, as for infidelity; and therefore we cannot be acquitted by it upon forsaking our infidelity, unless we also forsake our impiety, &c. and while we continue in any one wilful sin for which it condemns, it is impossible that at the same time we should be acquitted and pardoned by it; so that unless our faith be such as doth include in it a renuntiation of all wilful sin, or which is the same thing, repentance and sincere obedience, we cannot be acquitted upon it by the Law of Grace.

And then if we consider the matter of our Pardon and Remission, which is nothing but a releasing us from our obligation to punishment, it will from thence also appear, that that faith upon which we obtain our pardon must be such as works in us sincere repentance and obedience. For the punishment to which we are obliged by the Law of grace, consists in the loss of Heaven, as well as in the positive Torments of Hell; and therefore our pardon must include a release from both: but to be released from our obligation of losing Heaven is the same thing as to have a right of enjoying it confer'd upon us: so that the Faith upon which we are pardoned and forgiven is the Faith upon which we are intitled to Heaven as all agree, includes in it repentance and sincere obedience. For these two things are of undoubted certainty, p. 472that every man shall go to Heaven that dies intitled to it, and that no man shall go to Heaven that dieth in impenitence and wilful disobedience. For it is our keeping the Commandments of God that gives us a right to the Tree of life, Rev. 22.14. And our keeping Gods Commandments is that Holiness without which no man shall see God, Heb. 12.14. And accordingly in Scripture the Remission of our sins is attributed to our repentance and obedience as well as to our faith: so Acts 3.19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And in Eph. 1.7. If ye walk in the light as he is in the light you have communion with him, and the blood of Christ cleanseth you from all sin. So also Acts 10.34, 35. God is no respecter of persons, but in every Nation he that fear…th him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him. From whence it is evident, that when the Scripture makes mention of faith only in the matter of our Justification, it is to be understood of faith in the greatest latitude, as comprehending Repentance and sincere obedience, for how can we be justified by faith only and yet be justified by obedience too, unless our obedience be included in our faith: and indeed the Scripture plainly declares that faith it self is not at all available with God, unless it be accompanied with sincere obedience. So Gal. 5.6. In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth, nor Uncircumcision, but faith whick worketh by Love, and what he means by faith working by love, he tells us, Gal. 6.16. Circumcision is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing, but the new Creature, and what he means by the new Creature, p. 473he also tells us, 1 Cor. 7.19. Circumcision is nothing, and Uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the Commandments of God: so that the only thing which avails us with God is faith working by love. Faith working by Love is the new Creature, the new Creature is keeping the Commandments of God; and in Iames 2.26. we are told, that as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith also is dead without works, that is, it is altogether ineffectual. For so if you compare the 14. and 17. Verses of this Chapter, you will find that those two phrases, faith cannot save, and faith is dead, do both signifie the same thing. Since therefore faith it self without obedience is unavailable, when the Scripture makes mention of our being justified by faith, it must necessarily be understood of faith, comprehending Obedience.

And thus you see what God the Fathers part is in remitting our sins, viz. that it consists in granting to us an universal act of pardon, and Indemnity in consideration of our Saviours Sacrifice, and upon Condition of our sincere Repentance and future obedience. And this is the ground-work and foundation of all remission of sins; without which our Saviour himself hath no right to pardon and forgive us; for since the Law against which we have all sinned was peculiarly from God the Father, as he is the fountain of Divinity, and consequently the head of the divine Dominion, it was he peculiarly that was the party offended, and consequently it was he to whom our obligation to punishment was due, and by whom alone it can be released and remitted; and as the grant of Remission was wholly in his will and pleasure; so p. 474was it also to accept the consideration and appoint the Conditions of it. So that now as none can be pardoned but upon his Grant, so neither can his grant be available to any, but upon that consideration which he hath accepted, viz. the precious sacrifice of his own Son, and upon such conditions as he hath appointed, viz. faith working in us sincere repentance and obedience; and accordingly our Saviour, in all that he doth in the part he acts in forgiving sins, proceeds upon, and according to this Grant of his Father: for 'tis in the right and upon the consideration and condition of this Grant that he forgives us, nor can he forgive any by any other right than that which it gives him, or upon any other consideration than that which it hath admitted, or upon any other condition than that which it hath specified and determined. And this brings me to the second Head I proposed, which was to shew what it is that the Son doth in forgiving Sins.

In short therefore, the part which our Saviour bears in it, consider'd as King under God the Father, is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular Sinners upon their faith and repentance. For the Fathers grant is only a general promise that we shall be pardoned for Christs sake, whenever we sincerely believe and repent; but the actual pardoning us consists in the application of this general Promise to us in particular, by which the general promise of pardon is converted into a particular sentence of pardon. For the promise says thus, Whosoever believes and repents shall be pardoned; the particular application of the Promise says thus, p. 475Thou doest believe and repent, and therefore by vertue of that Promise I pardon and forgive thee. And this is the proper part of our blessed Saviour, who having first obtained this Promise of his Father by his sacrifice upon Earth, and then still continuing to obtain of him by his continual intercession in Heaven, Royal Authority to dispense that Promise to us, doth by vertue of that Authority actually pardon us upon our actual repentance. So that as soon as ever we perform the condition of Gods grant of pardon, our Saviour (who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts and perfectly discerns our sincerity) immediately pronounces our sentence of pardon, and by a particular application of that general grant to us, absolves us from our obligation to eternal punishment, and freely receives us into Grace and Favour. For though the completion and publication of our pardon is reserved for the day of judgment, when we shall be absolved from all punishment, (i. e. not only of eternal misery, but also of corporal death and temporal sufferings) in the publick view and audience of the World; yet it is certain that every penitent Believer in Jesus is actually pardoned by him in Heaven, as soon as ever he believes and repents; that is, he is, in foro Christi and before the Tribunal of his Royal Judgment Absolved from the obligation to suffer eternal misery which he lay under during his state of impenitence; and Christ in his own mind, judgment and estimation hath, Judicially thus pronounced concerning him, By vertue of my Fathers grant to all penitent offenders and of that Royal Authority which he hath committed to me, I freely release thee from all that p. 476vast debt of everlasting punishment which thou hast too justly incurr'd by sinning against him. Thus as the Father forgives us vertually by that publick grant of mercy which for Christs sake he hath made to all penitent offenders; so the Son forgives us actually by that Royal Authority which the Father hath given him to make a particular application of that his general grant to us upon our actual repentance; and as it is by the Fathers grant that the Son pardons us, so it is by the Sons application of it that the Father pardons us; and therefore we are said in or by Christ to have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin, Col. 1.14. i. e. to be forgiven for the sake of his blood, in consideration whereof God the Father hath given him power to forgive us; for so he himself tells us, that all power in Heaven and Earth was given him, Matth. 28.18. and there is no doubt but in all power, the power of forgiving sins was included; for so S. Peter tells us, that through his Name, i. e. by his Authority or judicial sentence, Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins, Acts 10.43.

And thus you see what the first Regal act is, which our Saviour hath always performed and will always continue to perform, viz. forgiving of sins.

II. Another of his Regal acts of this kind is, punishing obstinate offenders: For as he mediates for his Father in ruling and governing us, he must be the Minister of his Fathers providence, and being so, whatsoever divine punishments are inflicted upon offenders, are to be look'd upon as the stroaks of his hand and the Ministries of his power, p. 477for he hath the Keys of Death and Hell, i. e. the power of punishing both here and hereafter, Rev. 1.18. and accordingly he threatens the corrupt Churches of Asia, that he would remove their Candlestick, and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth, that he would come upon them as a Thief, and that he would spew them out of his mouth, Rev. 2.5.3.16. and Chap. 3. Vers. 16. all which is a sufficient proof that the punishment of offenders both here and hereafter is committed to him as a branch of that Royal Authority with which he is invested by the Father; in the execution of which Commission he many times Chastens bad men in this life in order to their reformation and amendment; for as many as I love saith he, (i. e. wish well to) I rebuke and chasten, Heb. 3.19. and many times he persecutes them with exterminating judgments, thereby hanging them up in Chains, as it were, as publick examples of his vengeance, to warn and deter the World from treading in their impious footsteps. For so he threatens Iezebel and her followers; I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not; behold, I will cast her into a bed, i. e. into a Bed-rid and irrevocable condition and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation, and I will kill her Children with death, and all the Church shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works, Rev. 2.21, 22, 23. And though for wise and gracious ends he oftentimes spares bad men in this life, and sometimes shines upon them a continued day of prosperity, without any cloud or interruption; yet he always overtakes them p. 478with the fearful storms of his vengeance in the life to come. For no sooner do their souls depart from their bodies, but they are immediately consigned by his warrant into the hands of evil Angels▪ those skilful spiteful, and powerful executioners of his justice, under whose savage Tyranny they indure all the tortures and Agonies that the wrath and power of Devils, together with their own awakened consciences and furious and unsatisfied affections are able to inflict. Of which see Part 1. Ch. 3. For that the souls of bad men are transmitted into a state of wretchedness and misery immediately upon their separation from their bodies is evident from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus, wherein in the first place Dives immediately after his death is said to be in great torment in Hell, and this while his body lay buried in the grave, Luk▪ 16.22, 23. which is a plain argument that in all that interval between death and the resurrection of the body, the souls of bad men abide in a state of torment; for secondly, this torment of Dives's soul in hell was then when his Brethren were living upon earth and under the teaching of Moses and the Prophets ver. 27. and 28, 29, 30, 31. which shews that our Saviour supposes it to be at that very time when he delivered this Parable, and consequently he supposes all bad men who were then dead and whose condition he represents by that of Dives to be then in Hell, and there suffering unspeakable Agonies and Torments: and if so, then it's plain, that when ever impenitent souls leave their bodies they are carried by Devils into some dismal abode and there kept under a perpetual discipline of torment; and in this deplorable p. 479state they remain expecting that fearful day of accounts, when their condition, through their reunion to their bodies and that dread bodily Torment, they must then be condemned to, will be rendered yet far more intolerable.

III. Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always, and always will continue to perform, is his protecting and defending his Kingdom in this World. For thus he promises his faithful Church of Philadelphia, Because thou hast kept the word of my Patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth, Rev. 3.10. By which it is plain, that the power of protecting and defending his Subjects is inherent in Christ as an essential part of his Regal Authority; and this power he continually exercises now he is is heaven; for it was for this end among others that he promises to be with his Church to the end of the World, Mat. 28.20. namely to guard and defend it by his Providence against the outragious attempts of its numerous enemies. For it is for this end that the Father hath put all things in subjection under him, and that he hath left nothing that is not put under him, Heb. 2.7, 8. that so having the Universal Government of all things in his hand he might by his over-ruling Providence render them all subservient to the interest of his Church. For so Eph. 1.21. we are assured that the Father hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be head over all things to his Church, i. e. hath vested him with an universal power over all things, that so he might order and direct them all to the interest and advantage of his Church. And accordingly p. 480now he is in heaven, the defence and preservation of his Church is the great business which he intends upon earth: there he now sits looking down from his Throne with a watchful eye to observe all the motions, and trace out all the dark designs of her enemies, and from thence he stretches forth his Almighty hand to guard and defend her against them, to repel or over-rule their malice, to drive back their venemous Darts upon themselves, or to temper their Poyson into Physick, and extract a healing Balm out of the Stings of those Scorpions. In which how careful and diligent he hath been is abundantly manifest from the glorious success: for considering the vast opposition that hath been made against it even from its infancy, how is it possible it could ever have subsisted had it not been guarded by an invisible hand? No sooner did this light upon a Hill appear in the World but all the four Winds immediately conspired to blow it out, yet, (which is miraculous to consider,) still the harder they blew the brighter it flamed; and though for the first 300 years it was the main and almost constant exercise of the Power and Policy, the Wit and Cruelty both of Devils and Men to suppress and ruine it, yet still it thrived and encreased under the most powerful means of its extirpation. It conquered by suffering, gathered strength by bleeding, and, like a head-strong Floud, still the more it was checked the more it swelled and over-flowed, till at length it filled the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea. Which, if well considered, is an amazing instance of the vigilant and powerful Providence of our Saviour, which hath not only preserved p. 481this burning Bush from consuming, but made it spring and flourish in the flames. And though since those Primitive Persecutions he hath many times for wise and gracious ends let loose the Wolves upon his Flock, and permitted them to worry, and sometimes almost to devour it, yet still he hath kept a strict and steady Reign upon their Power and Malice, and when they have served his ends, hath check'd and stop'd them in their savage career, and when they have thought the trembling Prey their own, hath stretched out his own Almighty Arm, and snatched it from their devouring jaws. So that while they are clubbing all their Power and Policy against it, he that sits in the Heavens laughs them to scorn, the Lord hath them in derision, and doth contemn their impotent malice, which he can manage as he pleases; he can either prevent the mischievous effects of it, or cause them to recoile upon themselves, or make those very persecutions, with which they design to destroy his Church, the means of its enlargement and propagation; and what in his own infallible Wisdom he thinks best, that he hath always done, and will always do for his Church and People: For many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel, or the Church of Christ, now say, many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, yet have they not prevailed against me, the Plowers have plowed upon my back, they have made long furrows, but the Lord is righteous, he hath cut asunder the Cords of the wicked, and in his own due time will confound and turn back those that hate Sion.

p. 482And as he exerciseth a most vigilant Providence over his Church in general, so doth he also over all the faithful and obedient Subjects of it, whose interest is as dear and precious to him as his own bloud; for they are not only the purchase of his bloud, but also the Trophies and Conquests of his Spirit, which makes them his by a double Propriety, and more peculiarly entitles them to his care and protection; they are living Members of his own Body, and as such he feels their pains by a most tender sympathy, and therefore his Providence is as much concerned for their defence, as his Eye-lid is to defend the Apple of his own Eye, Zech. 2.8. and therefore though he exercises a merciful Providence over all men, yet these he incloses out of the Common of the World, and fences about with a peculiar care. These are his Iewels, and he keeps them in his Treasury under the strongest and most inviolable security. He is always watching over them for good, and it is his peculiar and continual concern to protect and defend them, to keep off Temptation from their Souls, and Calamities from their Bodies, and so to over-rule and direct the course of things, as that whatever befals them may concenter in their happiness. For though he many times corrects them with his own hand, and permits them to be oppressed and afflicted by others, yet still he doth it with a most gracious intention, either to cure or prevent some disease in their minds, or to excite and exercise their graces, or to wean them from the love of this vain World, and discipline them for a blessed Eternity; and whatsoever evils happen to them in the course of his Providence, p. 483still he takes care to extract good out of them, and so to contrive and order the whole Scene of Affairs, as that in the issue all things may still work together for good to them that love God, and are called according to his purpose, Rom. 8.28.

IV. And lastly, Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always, and doth always continue to perform, in his blessing and rewarding all his faithful Subjects in the Life to come; for this, as he himself declares, he hath power to do, so Rev. 2.7. To him that overcomes, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God, i. e. I will admit him in a participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven; so also Rev. 3.21. To him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me on my Throne, even as I have overcome, and am sate down with my Father on his Throne; And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular, Be thou faithful to the death, and I will give thee a crown of life, Rev. 2.10. In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects, when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come; and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom. For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies, he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions, and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them; where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood, and p. 484of a vexatious and tumultuous World, they live in continued ease, content, and joy, wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating, loving, and imitating God, and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other, in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure; for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence. So Rev. 14.13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them; and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ, Phil. 1.23. which necessarily implies, that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ; and elsewhere he teaches, that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord, and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.6, 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence: but that they do so is as plain as words can express it, in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief, Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, Luke 23.43. From whence it evidently follows, that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death, Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body. Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars, which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness, where the blessed inhabitants p. 485live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes, being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure, where all their happiness is eternal, and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love, and Praise, and Ioy, and Triumph, where there are no sighs or tears, no intermixtures of sorrow or misery, but every heart is full of joy, and every joy is Quintessence, and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment. But of this blessed state I have given an account at large, Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence; so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded, till the end of the World, but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth, admits them to the joy of their Master, to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to; in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body, expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection, by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited, their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity.

And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed, and doth always continue to perform, I proceed in the

III. And last place, To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him, before he surrenders up his Kingdom; and these are reducible to three Heads:

p. 486First, He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies.

Secondly, He is yet to destroy Death, the last Enemy, by giving a general Resurrection.

Thirdly, He is yet to judge the World.

I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies. For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom, we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished. So Psal. 2.8, 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession, thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel, whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth; nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron, or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel; so also Dan. 7.4. it is foretold of Christ, that there should be given him Dominion, and Glory, and Kingdom, that all People, Nations, and Languages should serve him, and that all Dominion… should serve and obey him, ibid. ver. 27. so also Dan 2.34, 35 44, 45. that the stone cut out without hands, by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ, should become a great Mountain, and fill the whole earth, and that it should break in pieces, and consume all those other Kingdoms. Thus also it is foretold, that the Lord should be King over all the Earth, Mich. 5.4. and that there should be but one Lord, and his name one, Zech. 14.9. and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea, and from the Riv…r to the … of the Earth, Psal. 72.8. and that p. 487all Kings should fall down before him, and all Nations serve him, ibid. ver. 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him, because the Kingdom shall be the Lords, and he shall govern among the Nations. These, and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain, were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them. Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things, wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross, and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer, till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies, and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers of the Earth. For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his, but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it, which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this, that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation, those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour, whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered, slaughtered, and oppressed, and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth, he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth, to shew his mighty power in them, and once more p. 488render them, what they have always been, the Subjects of his miraculous conduct. For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them, such as that was on the day of Pentecost, though far more extensive, aaEzek. 39.28, 29. Isa. 32.13, 14, 15. Isa. 59.20, 21. compared with Rom. 11, 26, 27.Ezek 39:28Ezek 39:29Isa 32:13Isa 32:14Isa 32:15Isa 59:20Isa 59:21Rom 11:26Rom 11:27he will all of a sudden, and in a most surprizing manner, bbIsa. 66.8. Zach. 3.9.Isa 66:8Zech 3:9open the eyes of this blinded Nation, and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him, whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord, and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour ccZach. 12.10.Zech 12:10which like an Heir-loom, hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another, for thus, Rom. 11.25, 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel, foreign, till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, &c. From whence it is plain, that that blindness which then hapned to Israel, and which continues on them to this day, shall one day be removed, viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated, and that then all Israel, (and not a small remnant of them as at first) shall be saved, so also, 2 Cor. 3.14, 16. But their minds are blinded, (meaning the People of Israel) for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away; where he p. 489first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded, and that till now remains so, should turn unto the Lord, and then asserts, that then the vail of ignorance, which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes.

And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land, and repossessed of their ancient native Country, ddJer. 32, 37, to 41. Ezek. 36.24, 25. Chap. 37.21, 22.25. Amos 9.14, 15. Isa. 11.11, 12.Jer 32:37–41Ezek 36:24Ezek 36:25Amos 9:14Amos 9:15Isa 11:11Isa 11:12whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels, and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation, in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm, and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels, and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph eeJoel 3.1, 2.9.14. Mich. 4.11, 12. Isa. 24.21, 22. Zeph. 3.8. Isa. 63.1.6. Isa. 34.1. Isa. 59.16, 17. Zech. 14.13. Hag. 2.22. Zech. 12.2, 3, 4.Joel 3:1Joel 3:2Joel 3:9Joel 3:14Mic 4:11Mic 4:12Isa 24:21Isa 24:22Zeph 3:8Isa 63:1Isa 63:6Isa 34:1Isa 59:16Isa 59:17Zech 14:13Hag 2:22Zech 12:2Zech 12:3Zech 12:4. The fame of which miraculous events, spreading far and wide, even to the utmost ends of the Earth, shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity, and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ ffIsa. 66.16.18, 19, 20. Isa. 60.1.6. Jer. 14.33. Isa. 7.61. Ezek▪ 38.16.21, 22, 23. Rom. 11.12.Isa 66:16Isa 66:18Isa 66:19Isa 66:20Isa 60:1Isa 60:6Jer 14:33Isa 7:61Ezek 38:16Ezek 38:21Ezek 38:22Ezek 38:23Rom 11:12. And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth, Truth and Peace, Charity and p. 490Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth. Now all the World shall be Christendom, and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity. For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry, Schism and Heresie, Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered, and the true Faith, the sincere Piety, the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World ggPsal. 72.7. Isa. 66.12. and Chap. 23.4. Mich▪ 4.3 Jer. 32.39. Zeph 3.8, 9. Ezek. 19.21, 22. Isa. 9.7. and Chap. 2.20. Hab. 2.14.Ps 72:7Isa 66:12Mic 4:3Jer 32:39Zeph 3:8Zeph 3:9Ezek 19:21Ezek 19:22Isa 9:7Hab 2:14. For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews, and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing, that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon, and the Antichrist, and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom, will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution hhRev. 13.7.Rev 13:7, in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful, iiDan. 7.21, 22.Dan 7:21Dan 7:22when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth, who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions (being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles, or convinced of their errors by the powerful p. 491impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are) will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction, whose Cause they have hitherto espoused, and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth kkRev. 17.16, 17.Rev 17:16Rev 17:17, which being effected, the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem, which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all llIsai 60.1, 2, 3, 4, 5.Isa 60:1Isa 60:2Isa 60:3Isa 60:4Isa 60:5, Thus partly by destroying, and partly by converting its Enemies, our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom, and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit, and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages, mmRev. 20.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.Rev 20:1Rev 20:2Rev 20:3Rev 20:4Rev 20:5Rev 20:6till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment, at which time the Devil, who had been hitherto chained up, will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again, and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties nnRev. 20.7, 8, 9▪Rev 20:7Rev 20:8Rev 20:9, when all of a sudden, and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment ooRev. 20.10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.Rev 20:10Rev 20:11Rev 20:12Rev 20:13Rev 20:14Rev 20:15, which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them, and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever.

p. 492II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death, the last Enemy, by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead, which being one of the great Articles of our Creed, I shall insist more largely upon it, and endeavour,

First, To prove the certainty of the Fact; and

Secondly, To explain the manner how it will be performed.

I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact, viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead; which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it; for so 2 Cor. 4.14. we are assured that God will raise us up by Iesus Christ, i. e. by his personal Power and Agency, and accordingly, Iohn 6. 39, 40.44.54. Christ promises us over and over again, that he will raise us up at the last day; and Iohn 11.25▪ he thus declares himself to Martha, I am the Resurrection and the Life, he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live; and Iohn 5.28. he tells us, that the hour is coming in which all that are in the Grave should hear his voice. And of the truth of this he hath given a most sure and certain pledge by his own Resurrection, which not only demonstrates the possibility of the thing, that the dead may rise, but also gives ample assurance that they shall. For that he hath in him a power to raise the dead is evident by his raising himself; and to be sure that Power and Spirit that was in him when he raised himself, is able to raise all those in whom it resides. Whoever therefore hath the Spirit of Christ, that Spirit by which he rose from the dead, p. 493hath the power of the Resurrection in him, which power to be sure will not be always in vain, but one time or other will most certainly be reduced into Act: For so the Apostle assures us, Rom. 8.11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us. And indeed considering that Christ in dying and rising from the dead acted as our Head and Representative, we may justly conclude, that as when he laid down his life, he laid it down for ours; so when he took it up again, he took up ours with it; and consequently that he vertually raised us by the same Spirit whereby he actually raised himself: because he hath not only Power, but also Will, as he is our Head and Representative, to raise us even as he raised himself. So that we are already risen in our causes since our Head and Representative is risen, and hath the same power to raise us as he had to raise himself; and hence he is called, the first-born from the dead; and we the Sons of the Resurrection, Col. 1.18. because our Resurrection is now in the same causes (that is, in the same Will and Power) as his was before he arose. And therefore also he is called the first fruits of them that rise, that is, the pledge and handsel of the general Resurrection; because he is risen with the same Will and Power to raise us, that he had when he arose, to raise himself; and hence we find the Apostle argues from the Resurrection of Christ to the general Resurrection, 1 Cor. 15.12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some p. 494among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead? If we are all agreed that Christ is risen, what reason can any man have to doubt of the general Resurrection? But if there be no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not risen, ver. 13. To say that we shall not rise, is by consequence to deny the resurrection of Christ, because that very same will and power which must have been the cause of Christs resurrection; if he be risen, must be the cause of ours, if ever we rise; and therefore if it be insufficient to raise us, it could never have been sufficient to raise him, and consequently he cannot be risen. If it be objected against this reasoning of the Apostle, that our resurrection will be far more difficult to accomplish than Christs was, because his body was never corrupted, nor were the parts of it ever dispersed, as ours will be, long before the resurrection; and therefore that cause which was sufficient to raise Christ, may not be sufficient to raise us: It may easily be answered, that to the infinite power by which Christ was raised, all possible things are equally easie; and therefore allowing our resurrection to be but possible, it must be every whit as easie to that infinite power by which Christ was raised, to reduce all our scattered atoms into one mass again, and to reorganize them into a humane body and reunite it to its ancient soul, as it was to quicken the yet uncorrupted body of our Saviour. So that all the question is whether the thing be possible, for if it be, it will be every whit as easie to the omnipotent cause of our Saviours resurrection, to raise our bodies as it was to raise his. But, I beseech you, why should it be thought p. 495more impossible for God to raise a dead corrupted body, whose parts are all dispersed and scattered throughout the vast wilderness of matter, and reunite it to its primitive soul, than it was at first to create the matter of it, and then form it into a humane body and animate it with a humane soul? He who at the first creation could separate the confused mass of matter into so many distinct kinds and species of Beings, can doubtless at the general resurrection as easily separate the same matter into its distinct and several individuals. For, what should hinder him who numbers the stars of the Heavens, the sands of the Sea and the hairs of our heads, from keeping an exact account of all our scattered particles, and from knowing what dust belongs to every body, and what body to every soul? Or how can it be difficult to him, whose power is as immense as his knowledg, to recollect all the parts of this curious piece of Clockwork which he both made and took in sunder, and to restore every pin into its proper place, every spring to its due vigour and activity, and every wheel to its primitive figure and motion? If it be farther objected that there is an impossibility in the nature of the thing, for the same dead body after it is corrupted and its parts all disperst, to be reunited and raised to life again; I answer, that since these dispersed parts of our bodies do not perish, but are safely laid up in the Chambers of Nature, however they are scattered or wherever lodged, they are all within the ken of Gods knowledg and within the reach of his power; and so long as they are so, p. 496why should their separation render it impossible for them to be reunited how and when he pleases? If you say, that in that perpetual course of transmutation which the matter of humane bodies runs, it may happen, and sometimes doubtless it doth, that the same particles at several times are incorporated into several bodies; As for instance, when one man eats either the flesh or that which hath the flesh or substance of another in it, and digests it into a part of his own body and substance, in which case how is it possible at the resurrection that the substance or matter of this part should be reunited to them both? To this I answer, that considering that scarce the hundredth part of what we eat is digested into the substance of our bodies, and that all the rest we render back again into the common mass of matter by sensible or insensible evacuations; though we should suppose one man to have eaten up the whole substance of anothers body, yet he retains but one part of an hundred, and what should hinder an omnipotent power from raising the body he hath devoured out of the ninety nine parts which he lets go again? And then considering that in seven years time the whole substance of our body Changes, he must if he live so long evacuate that one part which he retain'd, and so the whole will be at last worn off from the matter and substance of his body. Nay, suppose this Devourer to feed altogether upon mans flesh, as some affirm the Canibals do, and that in the last seven years before his death, he devours one hundred humane bodies weighing two hundred pound a piece; according to this computation the utmost he can p. 497be supposed to digest of the flesh of these hundred bodies into the substance of his own, amounts not to above two pound of each, so that of the two hundred weight of bodily substance whereof these devoured bodies did consist, there will still remain one hundred ninety eight undigested into the substance of the Devourer; which we may easily conceive is sufficient matter out of which to re-produce the same bodies: For we many times lose as much of our substance in a sweat, and a great deal more in a consumption as these devoured bodies do in their being eaten and digested; notwithstanding which our bodies continue numerically the same; But as for the bodies of these Man-eaters there is no doubt but they carry with them a great deal of other substance to their graves besides that of mans flesh; for the liquor which they drink with it, and the bread which they eat with it, and the other accidental nourishments which they receive with it, goes into the substance of their bodies as well as that; and these being at least one half of their nourishment, must constitute at least one half of their bodies. What then should hinder but that at the resurrection the other half of them which consists of mans flesh may be separated from them and restored to those humane bodies they devoured; and if so, then each of them shall recover its whole substance again, and not want so much as one particle of all that matter whereof they were composed when they were eaten; for it is but just that they should be made to refund those unnatural spoils which they barbarously ravished from the bodies of other men. But then you will say, p. 498How shall the body of the Cannibal that eat them be raised, when according to this account it be must deprived of one half of the substance it died withal? I answer, that to this remaining half of his bodily substance there may, without any repugnance to its being raised the same body, be added out of the common mass of matter as much new bodily substance as is sufficient to redintegrate it in all its parts; for the resurrection of the same body, doth not necessarily imply that all the same matter shall be raised, and no other, and no more. For if all shall be raised in the most perfect stature and proportion of humane bodies, as there is no doubt but they shall, then Infants and Dwarfs, and such as die of Consumptions must have new matter added to that which they die withal; and therefore the resurrection of the same body can imply no more than this, that every body shall be raised out of the same matter, so far as it will go; and therefore if this remaining half of the substance of the Canibals body will not go far enough to redintegrate his whole body at the resurrection, there is no doubt but God will add new substance to it, which will no more hinder it from being the same numerical Body, than the reparation of an house with new stones and Timber hinders it from being the same numerical house. For suppose that God by a Miracle should in an instant restore a man to his full Bulk, the substance of whose body is half pined away by a lingring Consumption, this would not at all hinder but that still it would be the same numerical Body. Why then should the Addition of new bodily substance to the remaining half of the matter of the p. 499Canibals body at the resurrection, hinder it from being raised numerically the same.

And this I conceive is sufficient to clear the doctrine of the general Resurrection from all pretence of Repugnancy and Contradiction. But suppose after all that there should be some rare and singular instances wherein it will be impossible in the nature of the thing for the same numerical Body to be raised again; this would no more impeach the truth of a general resurrection of the same bodies; than Enoch's and Elias's not dying, do the truth of the Maxim of the Author to the Hebrews, It is appointed for all men once to die. If therefore in any instance it should be impossible in the nature of the thing for God to raise the same body, it will be sufficient to serve the purpose of rewards and punishments, for God to cloath the same soul in a new body. For it is the soul that individuates the man, and makes him to be the same person though he hath not the same body. We have not the same matter about us when we are ten years old, that we were first cloathed with when we were born, and as he who shall be rewarded or punished ten years hence for a Vertue or a Crime which he acts now will be rewarded or punished in the same body, though not in the same matter; so he who shall be rewarded or punished at the resurrection for the good or evil which he doth in this life, will be rewarded or punished in the same person, though it should not be in the same body. But it being more congruous to the accuracy and exactness of the divine justice that it should be in the same body as well as in the same person, and it being every whit as easie to an infinite power to p. 500restore to our souls the same bodies as to cloath them in new ones (for within the compass of posssibilities all things are equally within the reach of Omnipotence) mens bodies shall be universally rebuilt at the Resurrection out of those old Ruins and Materials, in which they did good or evil in this life; and if there should happen some particular instances wherein such a numerical resurrection should be in it self impossible, these will be only a few exceptions from that general rule, which rather confirm than destroy it. For thus from Scripture we are assured that they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Dan. 12.2. and that all that are in the grave shall hear Christs voice and come forth. John 5.28, 29. that the Sea shall give up the dead which are in it, and that death and Hell, i. e. the grave shall deliver up the dead which are in them, Rev. 20.13. All which expressions according to the literal sense of them (from which without necessary reasons we ought not to depart) do plainly import a resurrection of the same numerical bodies. Our Resurrection therefore being a possible thing, is as easie to an omnipotent Power, as Christ's was, and therefore his resurrection is a most certain pledge of ours; since he rose as our common Head and Representative, and consequently rose with the very same Will and Power to raise us which he had to raise himself.

Having thus proved the Truth of the matter of Fact, viz. that Christ will raise us at the last day; I proceed in the next place to the manner of the Fact, how it is that he will raise us. In treating of which, I shall regulate my self by that account p. 501which the Apostle gives of it, 1 Cor. 1.5. in which he having proved at large the truth of the Resurrection from ver. 12. to the 35th. he comes to answer an Objection concerning the manner of it; but some man will say, how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come? In answer to which he gives a large description of it, and by the similitude of seed, explicates the manner how it shall be performed, till he comes to ver. 42. where he applies the similitude to the matter in hand; so also is the Resurrection of the Dead; and then goes on with a farther enlargement on it to the end of the Chapter. So that this so also refers both to what went before, and to what follows. So also, i. e. so as I have already in part described and shall farther explain in my ensuing Discourse; This so therefore referring to the whole description, implies these five particulars of which the whole consists.

First, So is this mortal body to be the seed and material Principle of our Resurrection.

Secondly, So must this Seed die and be corrupted, before it be quickned and revived.

Thirdly, So is this dead corrupted body to be raised and quickned by the power of God.

Fourthly, So is it to be raised by the Divine Power into the proper and natural form of an humane body.

Fifthly, So is this humane body to be changed and altered in its Resurrection.

I. So is the Resurrection of the dead, i. e. so is this mortal body to be the seed and material principle p. 502of the Resurrection. For this is plainly implied, ver. 36. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die. Intimating, that as the Seed is the material cause of the Ear of Corn which afterwards springs up, so are these mortal bodies which we sow in the Earth, at least the main materials of those immortal ones into which we shall be quickned at the Resurrection. Perhaps as the Seed digests and incorporates into it self the juyces of the Earth, and shoots them up together with its own substance into the Stalk and Ear; so in some particular instances at least, there may be other matter at our Resurrection interwoven with the appropriate substance of our mortal bodies, and together with it spring up into immortal ones. Yet from the Apostles comparison it is apparent that this very mortal body which we sow in the Grave shall be at least the Seed and Embryo which shall receive our Soul at the Resurrection, and by that (supposing other matter be added to it) assimilate and digest it into its own substance. Now though to reproduce the scattered particles of our dissolved flesh, and extricate them out of all those other substances whereinto they have been woven and entangled, may seem to us at first view an impossible performance; yet that it is not so, I have already demonstrated; and if a parcel of Quicksilver after it hath run a tedious course of alteration, shifted it self out of its natural form into that of a vapour, out of a vapour into an insipid water, out of water into a white or red or yellow powder, out of that into a salt, and thence into a malleable Metal, may by a skilful Artist be reduced out of all these various contextures p. 503into its natural form of plain and running Mercury, why should we think it either impossible or difficult for a Being of immense knowledge and power to watch the wandering particles of our corrupted bodies through all their successive alterations, and to retrieve them out of all those substances into which they shall be finally resolved; to take out of one body what belongs to another, and restore to each its own; and finally to incorporate them all together into their natural forms and figures?

II. So is the Resurrection of the dead, i. e. so is this Seed of our mortal body to die and be corrupted, before it shall be raised again. That which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die; intimating, that as the parts of the Seed are separated in the ground, and dissolved into a liquid Jelly before it springs up into a Stalk and Ear; so this mortal body of ours must be corrupted, its parts must be dispersed and dissipated from one another, before it quickens and springs up again at the general Resurrection; and indeed the body must naturally corrupt, when once it is separated from the Soul that enlivens it; and that before it is raised and glorified the Soul should remain for some space separated from it, seems highly necessary. For the nature of Souls is such as requires a gradual and leisurely progression out of one state into another; their faculties are such as cannot in a natural way be improved but by degrees, or qualified in an instant for two extream conditions, without a miracle. But as for this mortal State and that of the Resurrection, they are two such remote and distant extreams, as that our slow paced natures p. 504cannot travel from one to the other under a long space of time; and for a Soul to pass in one instant out of an Earthly into an Heavenly, out of a fleshly into a spiritual, out of a mortal into an immortal body, seems too great a leap for a Being whose nature confines it to a gradual improvement. For how should a Soul which hath been so long immured in mortal flesh, so long accustomed to its sensual pleasures, so cloged and incumbered with its unwieldly organs, so pinioned and hampered by its brutish appetites; How, I say, is it possible in a natural way for such a Soul to be immediately disposed to act and animate an Heavenly Body? And therefore it is requisite that for some time at least it should continue in a separate state, there to inure it self to a heavenly life, and by a continued contemplation, and love, and imitation of God to ripen gradually into the state of the Resurrection, and to contract a perfect aptitude to animate an heavenly body, that so its powers being enlarged and improved by exercise, it may be able to manage that active fiery Chariot, and be prepared to operate by its nimble and vigorous Organs, which till the Soul is rendered more sprightly and active by long and continual exercise, will be perhaps two swift for it to keep pace withal. It is true, the Apostle tells us of some Souls that in an instant shall be fitted for and with these heavenly bodies, 1 Cor. 15.51, 52. Behold I shew you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, i. e. those good men who are living just before the Resurrection shall suffer no separation of their Souls from their Bodies; but p. 505the beggarly vestment of their flesh, while it is upon them, shall in an instant be transformed into a glorious and immortal Robe; which to be sure it would not be, unless in the same instant also their Souls were made fit to wear it. But then it is to be considered that both will be miraculous ▪ And, for ought I know, it will be as great a Miracle immediately to fit an imperfect Soul for a glorified body, as immediately to change a gross and corruptible body into a glorious and immortal one. And therefore though some Souls shall be immediately qualified to operate by glorified bodies, without any intermediate space of separation; yet this being extraordinary and miraculous, is only an exception from the general rule of Providence, which is to leave things to proceed and act according to the regular course of their Natures; and if Souls are so left, as ordinarily to be sure they are, it is highly requisite that they should be allowed some space of separation from their mortal bodies before they are cloathed with their immortal ones; and consequently, that this mortal body should be corrupted and dissolved before it is quickened and glorified.

III. So is the Resurrection of the Dead, that is, so is this dead corrupted body to be raised and quickned by the power of God; so Ver. 37, 38. That which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, perhaps of Wheat, or of some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him; in which he plainly intimates, that as a grain of Wheat sown in the ground is only the Seed or material Principle of the Stalk and Ear that spring p. 506up from it, but God is the principal efficient cause that forms the matter, and enlivens it, and causes it to spring up and ripen; so though these mortal bodies which we sow in the Grave are the Seed and matter out of which our immortal one shall spring, yet it is God that must recollect this matter, reduce it into a body again, and reunite it to its ancient Soul. For this is such a performance as doth require an Almighty Agent; it is he alone can trace our scattered Atoms through all those Generations and Corruptions wherein they have wandered, and retrieve them out of all those other bodies whereinto they have been finally resolved. It is he alone can separate them into the several Masses whereunto they originally appertained, and order, distinguish, and distribute those rude Masses into their various parts, and connect and joyn one part to another. It is he alone that can reorganize those undistinguished heaps into humane bodies, and reunite them to their Primitive Souls. And accordingly we find that this great Article of the Resurrection is in Scripture resolved into the power of God: for so our Saviour attributes the Sadduces denial of the Resurrection to their not knowing the Scripture and the power of God, Mat. 22.29. which plainly implies, that the power of God must be the cause of the Resurrection. So 2 Cor. 1.9. S. Paul tells us, that he was brought into a great extremity, that so he might not trust in himself, but in God that raiseth up the dead; and 1 Tim. 6.13. I charge thee, saith he, before God that quickeneth all things. And indeed to quicken our bodies when they are dead, requires the same power as it did at first to create p. 507and form them. For as at their first Creation they were formed out of the pre-existing matter of the Earth, so at the Resurrection they must be reproduced out of the same matter again; and as at the Creation all those distinct kinds of Beings we behold lay shuffled together in one common Mass, till the fruitful voice of God separated this united Multitude into their distinct Species; so at the Resurrection, after these mortal bodies are crumbled into dust, and that dust is scattered through all that confused Mass again, it is God alone whose powerful voice can command them back again in their proper shapes, and call them out again by their single individuals: so that as our first existence was only a real Eccho to Gods omnipotent Fiat, so will our return into existence be to his Almighty Surge. The Scripture indeed seems to affirm, that the holy Angels will be imployed in this great transaction, though what they are to do in it is not expresly related; only 1 Thes. 4.16. the Apostle seems to intimate that their Office will be to collect the scattered relicks of our mortality; for there he tells us, that the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and the Trump of God, upon which the dead in Christ shall rise first. Which popular description seems to import, that as by a loud voice or a Trumpet it was anciently the custom of the Jews, and other Nations, to summon Assemblies, and particularly by a Trumpet to collect and rally their Armies; so at the Resurrection our Saviour by the Ministry of his Angels, under the conduct of their Archangel, will assemble and rally our scattered Atoms, and then by his p. 508divine power Organize them into humane bodies again, and reunite them to their proper Souls. For so Mat. 24.31. Christ tells us, that his Angels shall with the sound of the Trumpet gather together his Elect from the four Winds. Which if you compare with the above-cited Text, you will find that this sound of the Trumpet by which the Elect are to be gathered is to precede their Resurrection, and consequently, that it is not to gather them when they are raised, but to gather them to be raised; that is, to collect their dispersed dust which hath been blown about upon the Wings of the Wind, in order to their being redintegrated into humane bodies, and reinformed with their Primitive Souls.

IV. So is the Resurrection of the dead, i. e. so are our dead bodies to be raised again into the proper form and kind of humane bodies; and this is implied in ver. 38. but God giveth it a body as it pleaseth him, and unto every Seed his own body, i. e. as to the seed of Wheat which dies in the Winter, God gives in the Spring the Body, or Stalk, and Ear of Wheat; so to this mortal body which we sow in the Grave, God will give at the Resurrection its own proper and specifick form. For the Soul will have the same faculties at the Resurrection that it hath now in this mortal state, and the Body is only in order to the Soul, its parts and members being all purposely contrived into fit instruments for the Soul to work withal. These inward faculties therefore continuing still and for ever the same, it is highly requisite that at the Resurrection they should be refitted with the same corporeal instruments of action: for the Soul is p. 509to the Body what the art is to the thing that is formed by the Art; and therefore as the thing formed is not perfect so long as it is any way disproportionable to the Art which formed it; so neither can the Body be perfect till in all its parts it is every way apportioned unto the faculties of the Soul, and how can the matter of this corrupted body be readapted to the natural faculties of a humane Soul, unless it be raised again into an humane body, and restored to its Primitive figure and proportion? For should it be raised with more or fewer parts than those it now consists of, it must either be defective or superfluous in its parts, or the Soul must have more or fewer faculties to employ them. It is true, after the Resurrection the Scripture plainly tells us, that our Souls shall no longer exercise those their Animal faculties of nourishing and propagation; that the Sons of the Resurrection shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but that they shall be equal to the Angels of God, Mat. 22.30. and indeed since every individual man will then be raised into an immortal state, there will be no need either that they should be nourished themselves, or that they should propagate any more individuals to preserve their kind. But it doth not hence follow, either that the Soul shall be deprived of those Animal faculties, or consequently that the Body shall be raised without the Organs by which those Animal operations are performed: for though our Saviours Body after the Resurrection had no need of nourishment, yet it is plain it was raised again with its natural instruments of eating and drinking, which he once actually used to assure his Disciples of the reality p. 510of his Resurrection; and though now those parts are useless to him, as to that particular animal operation, yet there is no doubt but his Soul still uses them for other unknown purposes peculiar to his glorified state; or if he do not, yet since those parts were necessary to the perfection of a humane body, and consequently, to the redintegration of his humane nature, it was requisite he should be raised with them, that so he might have corporeal Organs adapted to his animal faculties, which it is plain were not extinguished by his Resurrection; and since the Resurrection of our Saviours body is in Scripture represented as the pattern of ours (for he shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, Philip. 3. Vers. 21.) we may hence warrantably conclude that ours shall be raised as his was, compleat in all the parts of an humane Body.

V. And lastly, So is the resurrection of the dead, i. e. so are these humane bodies to be changed and altered by the resurrection. So ver. 37. That which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain; intimating, that as the seed when it is sown is nothing but bare seed, though when it is quickened it springs up into a long stalk and ear, which many times contains in it an hundred grains; even so this mortal Body which is only the naked seed of our Resurrection, shall be very much altered from what it is, and changed into a more compleat and perfect substance. For the more clear and distinct explication of which, we will first consider the Change that will then be made in the bodies of p. 511good men; and secondly, the change that will be made in the bodies of the wicked.

First, We will consider the Change that will then be made in the bodies of good men; which consists of four particulars.

First, They will be changed from base and humble into glorious Bodies.

Secondly, From earthly and fleshly into spiritual and heavenly Bodies.

Thirdly, From weak and passive into active and powerful Bodies.

Fourthly, From mortal and corruptible into immortal and incorruptible Bodies.

I. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from base and humble into bright and glorious ones; so ver. 43. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory, that is, when it is sown in the grave, it is a base and abject thing, not to be indured above ground for its gastly looks, and nauseous stink and putrefaction; but at its resurrection it shall come forth in a bright, and beautiful and venerable form; for so our Saviour assures us, that after their resurrection the righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father, Mat. 13.43. that is, the matter of their bodies shall be refined and exalted into a bright and lucid substance, which shall glitter like the Sun and cast forth rays of glory round about them; and this perhaps is that inheritance of the Saints in light, that is, embodied in light, which the Apostle speaks of Col. 1.12. for when this dull matter comes to be reanimated with a blessed and glorified Soul, it will doubtless derive from it a great deal of beauty and lustre. For if now our Soul when it is overjoyed p. 512can so transfigure our Bodies, fill our eyes with such sprightly flames, overspread our countenances with such an amiable air, and paint our faces with such a serene and florid aspect, what a change will it make in our Resurrection-body, which being incomparably more fine and subtil than this, will be far more pliable to the motions of the Soul? When therefore the happy Soul shall re-enter this softned and liquified matter, ravished with unspeakable joy and content; how will its delightsom emotions change and transfigure it, how will its active joys shine through and overspread it with an amiable Glory? especially when with this natural energy of its glorified Soul, our Saviour himself shall cooperate to change this vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. Though now therefore the matter of our bodies is vile and sordid, and such as seems altogether incapable of such a glorious change; yet according to the best Philosophy there is no specifick difference in matter, and if the vilest and most ignoble matter may by mere motion, not only be Crystallized but transformed into a flaming brightness, as we are sure it may; if in lighting of a Candle that is newly blown out, by applying another to the ascending smoke, this dark and stinking substance may in the twinkling of an eye be changed into a bright and glorious flame, into what a refulgent substance may the matter of this mortal body be changed by the concurrence of an infinite power with the vigorous activity of a glorified Soul?

p. 513II. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and heavenly. So ver. 44. It is sown, saith he, a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body, where those words foreign, which we render a natural body may perhaps be better translated an animal Body, i. e. a body suted and adapted to this animal life which the beasts that perish enjoy in common with us; a body that is sustained by animal operations and recreated with animal pleasures, and which by reason of its gross substance doth continually crave to be supplied with suitable nourishment, and treated with gross and carnal pleasures, which is the very thing that renders it so great a Cumber to the immortal Spirit that animates it. But at the Resurrection it will be improved into a spiritual body, not that it will be converted into a spiritual substance; for the Apostle's own words do assure us that it will still remain a body, but the spirituality of it will consist in this, that being wrought into a purer and finer substance, it will no longer need or crave these animal nourishments and pleasures, but be perectly fitted for and contemper'd to the soul and intirely resigned to its use and service; for it will then be refined from all those animal appetites of eating, drinking and carnality, which do now too often not only render it unserviceable to the soul, but also hurtful and injurious: so that then it will be in intire subjection to the mind, and all its members will be devoted Instruments to the service of Righteousness; so that now there will be no longer any Law in its members to wage war against the Law in the p. 514mind, but the mind will govern, and the body obey without any contest or reluctancy; and as the body will be wholly obedient to the mind, so it will be perfectly adapted to its service; for whereas now by reason of its gross consistency, it is an unwieldy Luggage to the Soul, and doth very much clog and incumber her in her operations; it will then be wrought into so fine and tenuious a substance, as that instead of a clog it will be a wing to the Soul: for its consistence will be subtil as the finest Aether, and active as the purest flame; it will have nothing that is gross or burdensom in it to retard or weary it in its flights, to rebate its vigour or slacken its motion, but it will be all life and spirit and wing, and like a perpetual motion be carried on with unwearied swiftness by its own internal springs, and being freed from all that weight which now renders it so slow and heavy, it will be able to move like a thought, and to keep pace with the most nimble wishes of the Soul; so that what Hierocles saith of his spiritual Body, foreign, i. e. that it is such a body as is every way fitted to the intellectual perfections of the Soul, will be true of this resurrection body, which will be perfectly attempered to a perfect mind, and fashioned into a most convenient Organ for it whereby to exert its purest and most spiritual operations.

III. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from weak and passive into active and powerful Bodies; so ver. 43. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; that is, whereas the body which we sow in the grave is exceeding weak and infirm, p. 515liable to infinite passions and diseases, and can do but little, but suffers much; it shall be raised with a temperament so pure and just, so hail and vigorous that no disease or infirmity shall ever find any place in it, or be able to cramp it in its operations; For besides that, its elementary qualities (if any such remain in it) shall be turned into such an exquisit temper that they shall never jar or disagree with each other, it shall be so spirited and invigorated by the blessed Soul that animates it, that nothing shall be able to impair its health or discompose its Harmony. So that it shall live for ever without decay, move for ever without weariness, fast for ever without hunger, and wake for ever without either need or desire of refreshment. And indeed, considering for what purpose our Bodies shall be raised, they have need to be very strong and vigorous; for they shall be raised on purpose to be the Organs and Instruments of the operations of our glorified Souls, which being exceeding active, as they are spirits, but exceedingly more active as they are glorified spirits will require bodies suitably strong and vigorous, such as can support their joys, express their activities, and keep pace with their raptutous emotions; to do which will require a mighty firmness and vigour of temper. Since therefore at the Resurrection God will fit and adapt our bodies to the utmost activity of our glorified spirits, they must necessarily be supposed to be endued with unspeakable strength and agility, upon which account they are called by the ancient Hebrews, Eagles wings, upon which they suppose our glorified Souls shall be able to fly as fast p. 516and as far as they please, and this I am apt to think is intimated in that passage of S. Paul, 1 Thes. 4.17. And they that are alive, and whose bodies are changed in the state of the resurrection shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, the meaning of which is, not that they shall be snatched up from the Earth by any external cause of Agent, but that their Bodies being changed into pure aetherial flame, they shall of their own accords ascend in them as in so many fiery Chariots to the Throne of their Redeemer in the Clouds: and from thence when the judgment is concluded, shall as nimbly ascend with him through all those spacious Fields of Air and Aether, that lie between that and the eternal Paradise of Blessedness. For that they shall be caught up by Angels, as some imagin, I see no reason to think, since our Saviour himself assures us, that at the Resurrection they shall be foreign, and therefore shall not need their help in this angelified state, either to waft them up into the Air, or from thence into the Heaven of Heavens; and if by their own activity they shall be able to perform so vast a flight as 'tis from the earth into the uppermost Region of the Air, and from thence into the supreme Region of everlasting glory, we may from thence collect what a vast power they will be endued with at their Resurrection. But this is most certain that then they shall be perfectly released from all dolorous passion, and continue in perfect strength and health and vigour for ever. So that whereas now our Bodies are exceeding weak and passive, a kind of walking Hospitals of pains, infirmities p. 517and diseases; the time will come when our soul shall be accommodated with a much more easie and convenient, as well as glorious habitation, wherein it shall for ever forget those dismal Cries, O my Head, my Heart, my Bowels, and enjoy everlasting rest and freedom. Now she is in a travelling condition, and the Inn she lodges at is mean and inconvenient, her Provision is course, her Bed hard, and her Rest continually interrupted with noise and tumult, but when she is once got home to her own House, her house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens she shall there live in perfect ease and pleasure, free from all the annoyances of flesh and blood, from all the disturbances of pain and sickness, and from all the toil and fatigue▪ the noise and hurry of this mortal condition, and with splendid State, delicious fare, soft and quiet repose recompence her self a thousand fold for all her present travel and weariness.

IV. And lastly, The Bodies of good men will be changed from corruptible and mortal into incorruptible and immortal. So ver. 42.53. it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, and this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality, i. e. Whereas this body which we lay down hath in the very constitution of it the seeds of mortality and corruption, at the Resurrection it shall spring up into an incorruptible and immortal substance, perfectly refined from all mortal and corruptible principles; for so our Saviour pronounces of those who shall be accounted worthy to attain to this blessed Resurrection, that they cannot die any more, Luke 20.36. which is a plain argument that our mortal body shall not be p. 518merely varnished and gilded over with an external glory and beauty, but that all inward principles of corruption shall be utterly purged out of its nature, so that it shall not be preserved immortal merely by the force of an external cause, but be so far immortal in it self, as not to have any tendency to death in its nature and constitution: For either it will be so liquid, that should its parts be separated by any external violence, like the divided Aether they will immediately close again, or else so firm and compact that no external violence will be able to divide them; and thus having no alloy of corrupt principles in its nature, no quarrels or discords between contrary qualities, and being perpetually acted by a most happy, sprightly and vivacious soul, which will every moment diffuse a vast plenty of life and vigour throughout all its parts, it will be also secure from all inward tendencies to mortality, and being thus fortified both within and without against all attempts towards a dissolution, what should hinder it from living for ever and flourishing in immortal youth? And thus I have endeavoured to give an account of the happy Changes which good mens Bodies will undergo in the general Resurrection.

But though they shall all of them be raised with unspeakable advantages and improvements, yet it is apparent from this, 1 Cor. 15. that they shall vastly differ in the degrees of their glory; so ver. 41. There is one glory of the Sun, and another glory of the Moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead, i. e. As p. 519the Sun is more glorious than the Moon, the Moon than the stars, and one star than another, so shall our bodies at the Resurrection be arrayed with different degrees of glory; and doubtless these differences of Glory in our raised bodies will arise from those different degrees of perfection to which their respective Souls have arrived; for the more perfect those souls are, the more improved and accomplished bodies they will require, because according as they rise in degrees of perfection, their powers will be enlarged and their faculties rendered more active, and consequently will require bodies more active and powerful. And therefore since at the Resurrection God will accommodate every soul with a body sutable to it in its utmost exaltations and improvements, we may reasonably conclude that the several bodies that are raised shall be more or less glorious, as the several souls to which they appertain are more or less advanced in degrees of perfection. For the fitness and congruity of souls to glorified bodies consists in their moral perfection; and if upon an impossible supposition, a wicked soul should be mistaken for a pious one and thrust into a glorified body, it would not know what to do with, or how to behave it self in it, but like a Swine in a Palace would soon be weary of its habitation and impatiently long to be restored to its beloved stye and mire. For a glorified body is an Instrument proper only for a glorified soul to act and work with; It is purposely framed and composed for contemplation and love for joy and praise and Adoration, and, what should a vicious soul do with such a body to whom those p. 520heavenly exercises it was designed for are unnatural? 'Tis piety and vertue that fits and disposeth a Soul to animate and act in a glorified body; and therefore I am apt to think, that as the animal disposition of our soul doth now co-operate with the divine Providence in the forming its animal body in the womb, so that divine and spiritual disposition which the Soul doth contract before, and improve after its separation from the body will co-operate with the Almighty Power of our Saviour in the forming its new body at the Resurrection; and that as by the Animal Plastick power of our souls, God did first form our Animal bodies, so by this spiritual Plastick power of it which is nothing but its moral perfection, he will hereafter form our spiritual bodies; and if so, then the more of that perfection the Soul arrives to at the Resurrection, the more it will spiritualize and glorifie its body; and so still the more perfect it grows, the more it will improve its glorified body in beauty, lustre and activity, so that as through a transparent Glass we plainly discern the size and colour of the substance contained in it, so perhaps through the still encreasing degrees of the bodies glory, the degree and size of the Souls perfection will appear. But whether this be true or no, which I confess is only my conjecture, thus much is certain, that the bodies of men will be raised with different degrees of glory; and therefore since we are assured that the great end of the last judgment will be to distribute to every one according to his Works, we have sufficient reason to conclude that the bodies will be glorified more or less in proportion to the perfection of their Souls.

p. 521And thus I have endeavoured to give a brief account of those happy changes which good mens bodies must undergo at the Resurrection; I proceed therefore in the next place to shew the woful change that will then also be made in the bodies of wicked men: In which I shall be very brief, because we have but a very short and general account of it in Scripture, where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt, Dan. 12.2. and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation, John 5.28. and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works, and cast into the Lake of fire, Rev. 20.13.15. from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end, but to be punished, to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them, even the vengeance of eternal fire; for that will be their doom, Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment, and sent from Iudgment to Execution; to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom; that is, with an exquisite sense to feel, and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire. For since they must suffer for ever, they must be raised both passive and immortal, with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery, and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it, which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission. Thus shall they be raised with a most p. 522vivacious and everlasting sense of pain, that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying; so St. Cyril Catech. illum. 4. p. 26. foreign, i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins; and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict: and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire, the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire, without being ever consumed by it, for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day, to suffer in that body wherein they sinned, and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment, they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose. And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men, viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones, and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure.

Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform, viz. Raising the dead, I proceed to the

p. 523III. And last, viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith, I shall endeavour

First, To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World.

Secondly, To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it.

Thirdly, To shew the manner of his coming.

Fourthly, To explain the whole process of his judgment.

I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing, viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World, than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture. Thus Acts 17.31. we are told, that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained, and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured, Acts 10.42. And he commanded us to preach unto the People, and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead; So also 2 Tim. 4.1. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his Kingdom. And accordingly we are told, that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ, Rom. 14.10. And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad, 2 Cor. 5.10. And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us, that the Father judgeth no man, that is immediately, but hath given all judgment to his Son; and afterward he gives the reason of it, because he is the Son of p. 524man, Iohn 5.22.27. that is, because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature, and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World; for so Rev. 5.9.12. Worthy is he alone to receive the Book, (of judgment) and to open the Seals thereof, because he was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour, the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the

Second general Head I proposed to treat of, which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment. For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles, for thus the Prophet Ioel, Ioel 1.30, 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens, and in the Earth blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, the Sun shall be turned into darkness, and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord, which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour, Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars of Heaven shall fall, and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, Matt. 24▪ 29, 30. and more particularly, Luke 21.11.25. Great p. 525Earthquakes shall be in divers places, and Famines, and Pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs shall there be from Heaven, and there shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars, and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity, the Sea and the Waves roaring, and then it follows, then shall they see the Son of man coming. It is true, this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem, and was in part accomplished in it; several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World, as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us; and several others of them were exhibited immediately after the Tribulation of those days in that prodigious irruption of Vesuvius in Campania, the woful effects whereof were felt not only in Rome and Italy, but in a great part of Africa, in Syria, Constantinople, and in all the adjoyning Countries, Vid. Dion. Cass. lib. 66.68. but it is apparent that our Saviour here prophesies of the Judgment of Ierusalem, as it was a Type and Representation of the general Judgment; so that though his Prophesie respects Ierusalems doom immediately, yet through this it looks forward to the final Doom of the World, and therefore as in foretelling the former he prefigures the later, so in foretelling the foregoing signs of the former he prefigures the foregoing signs of the later. And since he here intended the signs of Ierusalems dooms-day, only for Types and Figures of those signs which shall forerun the dooms-day of the World, and seeing that Types have always less in them than are in the things which they typifie p. 526and prefigure, there is no doubt but those signs which shall forerun the last judgment will be much more eminent and illustrious, than those of Ierusalems judgment, which were intended only to Typifie and prefigure them, and accordingly St. Ierom tells us of an ancient Tradition of the Jewish Doctors (to which our Saviour in this Prediction seems plainly to refer) that for fifteen days together before the general judgment there shall be transacted upon the Stage of Nature a continued Scene of fearful Signs and Wonders, the Sea shall swell to a prodigious height, and make a fearful noise with its tumbling Waves, the Heavens shall crack day and night with loud and roaring Thunders, the Earth shall groan under hideous Convulsions, and be shaken with quotidian Earthquakes, the Moon shall shed forth purple streams of discoloured light, the Sun shall be cloathed in a dismal darkness, and the Stars shall shrink in their light, and twinkle like expiring Candles in the Socket, the Air shall blaze with Portentous Comets, and the whole frame of nature like a funeral Room shall be all hung round with mourning and with Ensigns of horrour, and when these fatal symptoms appear upon the face of the Universe, then shall the Inhabitants of the earth mourn, and the Sinners in Sion shall be horribly afraid being loudly forewarned by these astonishing Portents of the near approach of their everlasting Doom. Having thus briefly shewn what shall be the Signs of our Saviours coming to Judgment, I proceed to the

III. The Third general, which was to shew the manner and circumstances of his coming; and here p. 527we will first consider the place from whence he is to come; Secondly, the State in which he is to come; Thirdly, the Carriage on which he is to come; Fourthly, the Equipage with which he is to come; Fifthly, the place to which he is to come.

I. The place from which he is to come, which is no other than the Highest Heavens, where he now lives and reigns in his exalted and glorified Humanity; for him must the Heavens receive till the time of the Restitution of all things, Acts 3.21. in that bright Region of eternal day, that Kingdom of Angels and of spirits of just men made perfect, he is to reign in Person till the last and terrible day, and from thence he is to begin his Circuit when he comes to keep his general Assizes upon earth, for he is to be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels, 2 Thess. 1.7. and to descend from Heaven with a shout, 1 Thess. 4.16. so that in the close of those dreadful Alarms which he will give the World by the preceding signs of his coming he will arise from his imperial Seat at his Fathers right hand, and descend in person from those high habitations of inaccessible light, and every eye shall see him as he comes shooting like a Star from his Orb, and the sight of him shall affect the whole World with unspeakable joy or consternation; the righteous when they see him shall lift up their heads and rejoyce, because they know he is their Friend and brings the day of their redemption with him, they shall congratulate his Arrival and welcome him from Heaven with Songs of Triumph and deliverance: but as for the wicked, they shall shreik and lament at the sight of him, as being conscious to themselves that by a p. 528thousand provocations they have render'd him their implacable Enemy; the sense of which will cause them to exclaim in the bitter Agonies of their souls; O yonder comes he whose mercies we have spurned, whose Authority we have despised, whose Laws we have trampled on, and all the methods of whose love we have utterly baffled and defeated; and now forlorn and miserable that we are, how shall we abide his appearance, or whither shall we flee from his presence. O that some Rock would fall upon us, or that some Mountain would be so pitiful as to swallow us up and bury us from his sight for ever. But wo are we! within these few moments the Rocks and Mountains will be gone, the Heavens and Earth will melt away, and nothing will be left besides our selves for his fiery indignation to prey on. Thus shall the sight of the son of man descending from his Throne in the Heavens to judge the World, inspire his friends with unspeakable joy, and strike his enemies with terrour and confusion.

II. We will consider the State in which he is to come, which shall be far different from that in which he came sixteen hundred years ago. Then he came in an humble and despicable condition, clouded with poverty and grief, and oppressed with all the innocent infirmities of humane nature; but at the last day he shall come in his glorified state, cloathed in that Celestial Body which he now wears at the Right hand of God. For so, Acts 1.11. the Angel assures his Disciples, This same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like p. 529manner as you have seen him go into heaven, that is, he shall return to Judgment in that self-same glorified Body wherein you now see him ascend; and what a glorious one that is we may partly learn from that majestick description of it, Rev. 1.13, 14, 15, 16. In the midst of the seven Candlesticks was one like the Son of man, his head and his hair were white as wool as white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his countenance was as the Sun shining in its strength. And partly from his transfiguration on the Mount, which was but a short essay and specimen of his Glorification; for it's said, that his face did shine as the Sun, and that his Raiment was white as the light, white with those beams of Glory which from his transfigured Body shone through all his Apparel, Mat. 17.2. When therefore he descends from Heaven to judg the World, it shall be with this glorified Body, this Body of pure and immaculate splendor, with its hair shining like threds of light, its eyes sparkling with beams of Majesty, and its face displaying a most beautiful lustre, and its whole substance shedding forth from every part a dazling glory round about it; and this I conceive is that which he himself calls his own glory, Luke 9.26. When he (i. e. the Son of man) shall come in his own glory, that is, the glory of that illustrious heavenly Body wherein he is now arrayed; besides which bright and luminous Robe, in which like a meridian Sun he shall visibly shine over all the World; the aforecited Text tells us, that he shall also come in the glory of his Father, by which I conceive is meant that which the Hebrews call the Shechinah, and the Scripture the glory of the Lord, p. 530viz. a body of bright shining fire in which the Lord was especially present, and with which as the Psalmist expresseth it, he covered himself as with a Garment, Psalm 104.2. for in 2 Thess. 1.8. we are told, that he shall be revealed from heaven with flaming fire; and so he descended on the Mount in fire; Exod. 19.18. and that fire is called the Glory of the Lord, Exod. 24.17. That fire therefore in which our Saviour shall be revealed from Heaven, seems to be of the same nature with that fiery Shechinah or visible glory of the Lord in which he descended on Mount Sinai, though doubtless it will be far more glorious, as being designed to adorn a far more glorious solemnity. And this Glory being added to the natural brightness and splendor of his glorified Body will cause him to outshine the Sun, and drown all the lights of heaven in the conquering brightness of his appearance. So that when he comes forth from his aetherial Palace, and appears upon the Eastern heaven, that immense Sphere of visible glory which will then surround him, will in the twinkling of an eye spread and diffuse it self over all the Creation, and cause both the Heavens and the Earth to glitter like a flaming fire.

III. Thirdly, We will consider the Carriage on which he is to come, which as the Scripture tells us shall be a Cloud; so Acts 1.11. the Angels tell his Disciples who stood gazing after him as he was ascending into Heaven, the same Iesus which is taken from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven. Now, if you would know how that was, the 9th Verse will inform you, where it's said, that he was taken p. 531up, and a Cloud received him out of sight, and therefore as he ascended into Heaven on a Cloud, so in like manner he shall from thence descend upon a Cloud also; and accordingly our Saviour himself declares, that we shall see the Son of man coming on the Clouds of Heaven in power and great glory, Mat. 24.30. So also Mat. 26.64. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven; and in this very manner do the Iews expect the coming of their Messias, as appears by that gloss of one of their ancient Masters on Dan. 7.10. si meruerint Iudaei veniet in nubibus Coeli, which Raimund. Pug. fid. thus explains, If ever the Jews deserve that the Messias should come, he shall come gloriously according to the Prophet Daniel, that is, in the Clouds of Heaven. And then he tells us farther, ideo moderni Iudaei dicunt Messiam non venisse quia non viderunt eum venire in nubibus coeli, therefore do the modern Jews say, that the Messias is not yet come because they never saw him coming in the clouds of Heaven; and it seems very probable that the great offence which the high Priest took at our Saviours saying, that they should hereafter see him coming in the clouds of Heaven, Mat. 26.64, 65. was this, that it was a tradition among them that the Messias should so come, and that therefore he look'd upon that saying of our Saviour as a blasphemous pretence to his being the Messias; as much as if he should have said, though I have done enough already to convince you that I am the Messias, yet you shall hereafter see that very sign of my being the Messias upon which you so much depend, and without which you will not p. 532believe, viz. my coming in the clouds of Heaven; which therefore I am apt to think is the sign of the Son of man in Heaven, of which our Saviour speaks, Mat. 24.30. For so not only the Iews do Character their Messias, but also the Heathen their Gods cloathed in a Cloud. Thus Homer. Iliad. lib. 5. represents God coming to Diomedes foreign, with his shoulders wrap'd in a Cloud; and so also Virgil represents Iupiter coming to assist Aeneas, Aen. 7 — Radiis ardentem lucis & auro — ipse manu quatiens ostendit ab aethere nubem, i. e. shewing him a Cloud from Heaven, flaming with rays of light and Gold. So that to appear in Clouds, it seems, was looked upon both by Iews and Gentiles as a divine sign and Character, and accordingly this sign was given by our Saviour to the Iews in that glorious representation of a Captain with his Legions issuing out of the Clouds a little before the destruction of Ierusalem, recorded at large both in Iosephus and Tacitus, and will hereafter be given to the whole World in a far more glorious manner at the opening of the day of Iudgment; for then, as the Psalmist expresses it, he will make the Clouds his Chariots and ride down from the Heavens on them in a triumphal procession, shining with unspeakable Glory and Majesty: So that as when he ascended a bright and Radiant Cloud was prepared to receive and carry him up to the Seat of the blessed; so when he descends there will be a vast sheet of condensed aeth…r in the form of a radiant Cloud (and such it's probable was that on which he ascended) prepared to receive him, and to waft him down from above to the place appointed for the general As…izes, p. 533and this very Cloud or bright aetherial substance, on which he shall come will perhaps be that Throne of Glory in Matth. 25.31. on which he shall sit whilest he is administring judgment to the World; for this substance being not only naturally luminous, but also accidentally illuminated from the Sun of Righteousness whom it bears; will to be sure be sufficiently Glorious to deserve the name of A Throne of Glory.

IV. Fourthly, We will consider the Retinue and Equipage with which he shall come, which as the Scripture tells us will consist of innumerable myriads of Saints and Angels; for immediately upon the notice that he is going down to solemnize the general Judgment, all those blessed spirits of just men made perfect, whom he hath redeemed and glorified from the beginning of the World, shall forsake their mansions of glory to attend him in his progress; for so Enoch prophesied of old, behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment on the ungodly, Jude 14.15. and that by these ten Thousand, he means the whole body of the Church Triumphant, is evident by that passage of S. Paul, 1 Thess. 3.13. where he prays that they might be established in their Christian course till the coming of the Lord Iesus with all his Saints, and indeed, since they are all to re-assume their bodies and to be made partakers of the Glorious Resurrection, it's necessary that they should all come down along with him and return to this earth, where the old matter of those bodies lies, wherein they are to be reinvested; and to this illustrious retinue of glorified Saints shall be joyned the heavenly p. 534hosts of the holy Angels; for so Christ himself tells us, that he shall come in his own glory, and in his Fathers, and of his holy Angels, Luke 9.26. and that he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him, Mat. 25.31. And S. Paul tells us, that he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels, 2 Thess. 1.2. And as the Angels shall come down along with him, so in all probability they shall come in a glorious appearance, cloathed in bright aetherial bodies, in which to adorn the triumphs of that glorious day, they shall be conspicuous to all the Inhabitants of the Earth. Neither shall their coming with him be only for shew and pomp ▪ but the Scripture plainly tells us that they shall minister to him in that great transaction. For at his issuing forth from the heaven of heavens, these mighty hosts of Angels shall march before him with the Archangel in the head of them, who with a mighty voice or sound like that of a Trumpet, shall send forth an awakening summons to all the Inhabitants of the grave to come forth and appear before the Judgment Seat; at which Tremendous voice, which with an all-enlivening power shall be reverberated through all the vault of heaven, and penetrate the most secret repositories of the Earth, the dead shall rise and the living shall be changed and transfigured, and all shall be set before the dread Tribunal to undergo their Trial and receive their doom: For so 1 Thess. 4.16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; and in 1 Cor. 15.52. the resurrection of the dead is made the consequence of p. 535the sounding this Trumpet, for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; And so also Mat. 24.31. our Saviour tells us, that at his coming on the clouds of Heaven, he will send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds; from whence it is evident that the Angels then minister to him to raising the dead, and assembling them to Judgment; and hence that which is called the voice of the Archangel in the above cited 1 Thess. 4.10. is elsewhere called the voice of the Son of God, John 5.25. because as it will be animated by his power, so it will be pronounced by his authority; and as they shall minister to him in raising the dead to be judged, so shall they also in executing his Sentence and Judgment; for so Mat. 13.41, 42. He tells us, the Son of man shall send forth his Angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. From whence it's evident that when he hath pronounced sentence on the workers of iniquity, he will by the ministry of his Angels chase them into that everlasting fire, whereunto he hath doomed and devoted them. Thus when he comes to judg the World all his holy Angels shall come with him, and that not only to contribute to the glory and splendor of his Circuit, but also to minister to him in his Judgment; so that his retinue shall consist of all the Inhabitants of heaven, who shall all come forth together with him and bear him company in this his Triumphant progress through the skies: by which we may easily imagine what an amazing spectacle p. 536his coming down from heaven will be to the Inhabitants of the earth, when they shall see him descend from his Imperial Seat far above the starry Skies with all the Train-bands of heaven about him, the Captain of the Angelical Host in the front of innumerable Angels marching before him, and with his mighty Trump ringing a peal of Thunder through the Universe, and with ten thousand thousands of the Spirits of just men made perfect, following after him with Crowns of glory on their heads, and Songs and Halelujahs in their mo…ths; O blessed Jesu…! how will this glorious and dreadful sight confound thy Enemies, and ravish thy Friends, make those that hate thee tremble and gnash their teeth, and those that love thee lift up their heads and shout for joy!

V. And lastly, We will consider the place to which he is to come, concerning which all that is certain from Scripture is this, that when he comes down from He…ven he will fix his Throne or Judgment Seat in the Air at such a convenient distance from the Earth as shall render him visible to all its Inhabitants. For so 1 Thess. 4.17. it is said of the righteous, that after their being raised or changed they shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air, which is a plain argument that the Lord will sit in judgment on them in the Air, since thither they will be caught up to him after they are raised and judged. Thus in that very Air, which is now the seat of the Devils Empire, shall Christ fix his Throne to manifest to all the World the consummation of his Victory over the Powers of darkness. There shall he sit in Majesty and Glory where now the Devil and his Angels p. 537reign, and in the publick view of the World shall even in their own dominion spoil those Hellish Principalities and Powers, and having chained them at his Chariot Wheels, make a shew of them openly, triumphing over them; there where they now domineer and tyrannize over this wretched World shall he set his foot upon their necks, and from thence shall he tread them down into everlasting darkness and despair. Thus that he may expose himself to the more publick view, and the Devil to the more publick shame and confusion he will choose to keep his general Assizes in the Air. Being therefore arrived into the airy Regions, after a long and glorious progress from the highest heaven, there he shall sit down upon the Throne of his glory (as some think) over against Mount Olivet, the place from whence he ascended, whither all People, Nations and Languages shall be gathered before him to receive their everlasting Doom. And now let us imagine with our selves in what a glorious and tremendous Majesty he will appear to the World from his judgment seat, whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own, his Fathers, and his Angels glory, who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun, and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him, Chap. 7. ver. 9, 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view, cloathed in garments as white as snow, with the hair of his head like the pure wooll, sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame, and its Wheels as burning fire, with a fiery stream issuing out from before him, and a thousand thousands ministring unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him, whilst the Iudgment is set, and the p. 538Books are opened. And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming: from whence I proceed to the

IV. And last general I proposed to treat of, viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment. And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects; viz. the Righteous and the Wicked, about which it is to be exercised, for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come, but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats, the Good from the Bad, and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another, Mat. 25.32, 33. And he, i. e. the Son of Man, shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats, and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand, and the Goats on the left; in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous, who are to be judged first; for so the Scripture assures us, that the dead in Christ are to rise first; and that after they have undergone their Iudgment, they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air, there to meet the Lord, and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked, vid. 1 Thes. 4.15, 16, 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2. In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment, we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted, beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous; in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied, 1. Their Citation or Summons. 2. Their personal p. 539Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence. 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven.

I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons, which, as was observed before, is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel, i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels, and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet. For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet; so by the same sound the Scripture tells us, God will assemble the world of men to judgment, and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet, though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth, I see no reason to doubt; because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai, Exod. 19.16. and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other, it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World, than it was, his coming to give Laws to Israel. But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power, even his holy Spirit, by which he raised himself from the dead, by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up, reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies; for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost, Rom. 8.11. For if the Spirit of him that raised up p. 540Iesus from the dead dwell in us, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us, and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump, those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them, and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body, and animate it with immortal vigour and activity, and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising, those who shall then be living, and have not tasted death, shall by the same Almighty Power be changed, transformed, and glorified in the twinkling of an eye, 1 Cor. 15.51, 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ, Mat. 13.27. For

II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before, viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud, and placed in the Region of the Air, at a convenient distance from the Earth, streaming with light from every part, and casting forth an unspeakable glory, for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory, and is described by S▪ Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne, Rev. 20.11. out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed, Rev. 4.5. which implies, that it will be a Cloud, it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed. And p. 541before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial, and receive a happy Doom. Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble Army of Martyrs, the holy Church throughout all the World, both Militant and Triumphant, meet, and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer; who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him, and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul, and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud; for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10.

III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial; for so the Apostle assures us, We must all appear (i. e. we Righteous as well as others) before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, 2 Cor. 5.10. which plainly implies, that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds; that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them; and more expresly, Rom. 14.12. he tells us, that we must every one of us give an account of himself to God, and if every one, then to be sure the Righteous must as well as the wicked: not that there will be any doubt of the righteousness of the Righteous in the breast of the Judge, to whose all-seeing Eye the darkest secrets of all hearts lie open; but yet for othe… …asons it is highly convenient they should undergo a trial as well as others: As first, for the more solemn and p. 542publick vindication of their wronged innocence, that all that infamy and scandal with which their malicious Enemies have bespattered them may be wiped off before men and Angels, and that being assoiled before all the World they may triumph for ever in a bright and glorious reputation. And secondly, That all those brave and unaffected acts of secret Piety and Charity, to which none but God and themselves were conscious, may be brought into the open light, and to their everlasting renown proclaimed throughout all the vast Assembly of Spirits: for now we shall see all those modest souls unmask'd, whose silent and retired graces do make so little shew and noise in the world, and all their humble pieties and bashful beauties which scarce any Eye ever saw, but Gods, shall be exposed to the publick view and general applause of Saints and Angels. Thirdly, They shall be tried also for the vindication of Gods impartial procedure in proportioning their reward to their vertue; that so the degrees of each mans proficiency in piety and vertue being exposed to the view of the world by an impartial trial, Angels and Men may be convinced that in distributing the different degrees of happiness the Almighty Judge is no way biassed by a fond partiality or respect of persons, but that he proceeds upon immutable Principles of Iustice, and doth exactly adjust and ballance his rewards with the degrees and numbers of our deserts and improvements; that so even those that are set lowest in those blessed Forms and Classes of glorified Spirits may not envy those that are above them, or complain that they are advanced no higher; but every one may chearfully p. 543acknowledge himself to be placed where he ought to be, as being fully convinced that he is only so many degrees inferiour to others in glory, as they are superiour to him in divine graces and perfections. Fourthly and lastly, The Righteous shall undergo this Trial for the more glorious manifestation of the divine mercy and goodness. For which reason I am apt to think that even their sins of which they have dearly and heartily repented shall in this their trial be exposed and brought upon the Stage, that so in the free pardon of such an infinite number of them the whole Congregation of the blessed may behold and admire the infinite extent of the divine mercies, and be thereby the deeper affected with, and more vigorously excited to celebrate with Songs of praise the goodness of their merciful Iudge. For these reasons the Wise man tells us, Eccles. 12.14. that God shall bring every secret thing to judgment whether it be good, or whether it be evil; which Proposition being universal, must extend to the Righteous as well as to the Wicked. But yet though their sores shall be then laid open, it shall be done by a soft and gentle hand, by a serene Conscience, and a smiling Iudge, who without any angry look, or severe reflection, or any other circumstance, but what shall contribute to the joys and triumphs of that day, shall read over all the Items of their guilt, and then cancel them for ever. For

IV. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Sentence. Although to us whose operations are so slow and leisurely by reason of the unwieldiness of these fleshly Organs with which we act, such a particular trial as hath been before described p. 544of such an infinite number of men and women may seem to require an unreasonable length of time, yet if we consider that then both the Iudge, and those who are to be judged shall be array'd in spiritual bodies, in which they will be able to act with unspeakable nimbleness and dispatch, we shall find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction; for the Iudge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction, and they who are to be judged, being by reason of their spirituality in a condition to attend to every ones trial, while they are undergoing their own, I see no reason we have to imagine that they shall be tried successively one after another, and if not, why may we not suppose that we shall all be tried together at the same time, and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one. And that they shall all be tried together is very probable, since it is apparent from Scripture that they shall all be sentenced together, for thus Mat. 25.34. Then shall the King say to those on his right hand, i. e. to them all together, Come ye blessed, &c. Having first by an accurate and impartial Trial manifested their integrity to all the world, he shall arise out of his flaming Throne, and with an audible voice, and smiling Majesty, pronounce their Sentence all together in these, or such like words, Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world, to which welcome Sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful Choir of Halelujahs through Heaven and Earth, Allelujah, Salvation, and Glory, and Power be to the Lord p. 545our God, for true and righteous are his Iudgments' Salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb; for wonderful are thy works, O Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, O thou King of Saints. And now all their business being finished here below, they shall from henceforth be no longer detained in this Vale of tears and misery, but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever. For

V. And lastly, Another thing implyed in this their Iudgment is their Assumption into the Clouds of heaven. For their blessed Lord having thus publickly acquitted and pronounced them blessed, they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it▪ for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the Bar, but from thence will call them up to his Tribunal, there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person and more intimate participation of his glory. At which powerful call and invitation of his, they shall in an instant all take wing together like a mighty flock of pure and innocent Doves, and fly aloft into the air, singing and warbling as they go to meet their Redeemer in the Clouds of Heaven. For so the Apostle in 1 Thes. 4.17. Then (that is, after their Resurrection and Judgment) we which are alive and remain, who never died, but only have been changed and glorified, shall be caught up together with them who shall be raised from the dead into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be ever with the Lord. For to be sure that rapturous love which the sight and sentence of their Saviour hath by this time kindled in their pious breasts, will wing their souls with vehement desire to be with him, and then being p. 546cloath'd with glorified bodies that are as vigorous and active as their Souls; as nimble and expedite as their thoughts and wishes, it will be in their power soon to accomplish their desire, and fly from hence up to the Throne of their Lord.

And now this being the first general meeting of the blessed Jesus and his Church; the first Interview that ever was between the heavenly Bridegroom and his holy Bride, O the dear welcomes, the infinite mutual congratulations that will pass between them! How will they now melt in love and dissolve in mutual flames! now when like long absent Lovers they are safe arrived into each others Arms, never, never to be parted more.

And now this joyful meeting being consummated, they begin to prepare for a most dreadful solemnity, and that is the Iudgment of the Wicked. In order to which the Judge will reassume his Throne, and place his Saints all round about in shining Circles ten thousand thousand together, that so as his Assessors they may bear a part in the ensuing Judgment; for this the Apostle asserts as a notorious principle of our Christian faith; Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World, 1 Cor. 6.2. that is, that they shall not only accuse and condemn the wicked World by the holy example of their lives, but also that they shall give their votes and suffrages to that dreadful sentence which Christ shall pass upon them. And now the Iudge and his Assessors being set, proceed we to the

II. Second Judgment, which is, that of the wicked, in which there are also five particulars included: First, their Citation; Secondly, their p. 547personal Appearance; Thirdly, their Trial; Fourthly, their Sentence; Fifthly, their Execution.

I. Their Citation: For the first Judgment being finished, it's probable a new summons will be given by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel to assemble the wicked World to their Judgment, upon hearing of which all those wicked souls that have left their bodies and been hitherto confined in some dark prison of the Creation shall be forced to leave their dismal habitations, in which they would a thousand times rather chuse to continue for ever, if they might have their own option, than to undergo that fearful Iudgment whereunto they are cited; but being dragged into the open light again by those Devils who have been hitherto their Jailors, they shall every one be forced to put on those old accursed bodies of theirs in which they contracted those crimson guilts which now they must expiate in eternal flames; and now the souls of the dead being shut up in their bodies again like prisoners in a sure Hold, and there secured by an immortal tie from ever making another escape, the bodies of the living shall by a miraculous change be render'd at once so tender and sensible, that the least touch of misery shall pain them, and yet so strong and durable, that the greatest loads of misery shall never be able to sink them; and thus being all of them put into an immortal capacity of suffering, and thereby prepared to undergo the fearful doom which awaits them, they shall from all parts of the World be driven before the Judgment Seat of Christ. For.

II. This Iudgment of the wicked implies also their personal Appearance at our Saviours Tribunal: p. 548for so S. Iohn in his prophetique Vision of the day of Judgment, saw the dead both small and great standing before God, Rev. 20.12. and in Mat. 25.31, 32. we are told, that when the Son of man sits down upon the Throne of his Glory all Nations shall be gathered before him, that is, the impure Goats as well as the innocent Sheep, as he afterwards explains himself. And now good Lord, what a Tragical spectacle will here be! An innumerable number of self-condemned wretches assemble together before the Tribunal of an Almighty and implacable Iudge, quaking and trembling under the dire expectations of a fearful and irrevocable doom, and with weeping eyes, pale looks and gastly countenances aboding the miserable fate that attends them. For thus it is represented, Rev. 1.7. Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him; and well they may, considering how they treated him, and what little reason they have upon that account to expect any favour at his hands; for to be sure the sight of him must give a dreadful Alarm to their consciences, and suggest to them the sad remembrance of the innumerable provocations they have given him. Look up O ye miserable creatures, see yonder is that glorious person whose Authority you have so insolently affronted, whose Name you have so impiously blasphemed, whose Mercies you have so obstinately rejected, behold with what a stern and terrible Majesty he sits upon yonder flaming Throne, from whence he is now just ready to exact of ye a dreadful account for all your past rebellions against him; but O unhappy p. 549and furlorn! see how they droop, and hang their heads, as being both ashamed and afraid to look their terrible Iudge in the face, whose incensed eye sparkles upon them with such an insufferable terror and indignation as they are no longer able to endure, but are forced in the bitterness, anguish and despair that ever humane souls were seized with, to cry out to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them, and to hide them from the face of him that sits upon the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

III. Another particular implied in this judgment of the wicked is their Trial; for so 1 Cor. 4.5. we are told, that in this fearful day of reckoning God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the very counsels of the heart; and this will be no hard matter to effect, considering that he who is to be the Iudge of these guilty Criminals, hath been a constant witness to all their actions, that his All-seeing Eye hath traced them all along through all their secret mysteries and dark Intrigues of Iniquity, and hath kept an exact record of them in the book of his remembrance; so that to convict them of their guilts he will need do no more but only produce his own registers, and expose what he hath there recorded to the view of the World; and there the wretches will see themselves transcribed, and all their abominable actions exactly copied from their first Originals; there they will find all their secret machinations; their dark cheats, their leud imaginations and hypocritical intentions recorded in the most legible Characters, and perceiving themselves thus shamefully unstript and uncased before p. 550the World, their very inwards dissected, and the smallest threds and fibres of their hearts laid open and exposed to the view of men and Angels, their own shame and the intolerable rack of their consciences will force them to confess their Charge, and proclaim themselves guilty before all that vast Congregation of Spirits. But, O the inexpressible horror and confusion these wretched Souls will then be seized with when they shall see themselves thus publickly unmasked and turned inside outwards, and be forced to stand forth like so many loathsom spectacles before God and his Angels without any excuse or retreat for their shame, without any vail to hide their infamy and blushes! when their filthy practices shall be no longer confined to the talk of a Town or a Village, but be proclaimed in the hearing of all the rational World: O now it would be happy for them if as formerly, they could drown the retorts of their conscience in noise and laughter, and forget its cutting repartees which were always uneasie to bear, but impossible to Answer. But alas those jolly days are gone, and now in despite of themselves they must listen with horrour and confusion of face, to what those two great Judges, Iesus and their own Consciences unanimously give in charge against them. Thus he whose piercing Eye doth now penetrate their hearts and ransack every corner of their souls, will in that great day of discoveries bring forth all that secret filth that is there reposited, and expose it for an infamous spectacle to the publick view of men and Angels.

IV. Another particular implied in this judgement of wicked men is their Sentence. Their Trial p. 551being now over, in which their guilt hath been sufficiently evinced and detected to their everlasting infamy and reproach, they will by this time have received the sentence of death within themselves, and stand condemned in the judgment of all the World; the Righteous Iudg, who is too great to be overawed, too just to be bribed, and too much provoked to be intreated, whose Ears are now for ever stopped, and whose Bowels are impenitrably hardened against all further Overtures of mercy, will with a stern look and terrible voice pronounce that dreadful doom upon them, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels, which though it be of a horrible import, will appear so just, considering the horrible things which have been charged and proved against them, that it will be immediately seconded with the unanimous suffrage of all that bright Corona of glorified Saints that sit as Assessors round the Throne, who with one consent will all cry out together, Iust and righteous art thou O Iudge of the World in all thy ways: But, O the fearful shrieks and lamentations that will then be heard from those poor condemned Creatures! For if A Lord have mercy upon thee, A take him Iailor from an earthly Iudge be able to extort so many sighs and tears from a hardened Malefactor, what will A go ye cursed do from the mouth of the Righteous Iudge of the World, and when so many millions of men and women shall be all involved together in the same doom, and all at once lamenting their dismal fate, Lord, what a horrible outcry will they make! Now in the bitter Agonies of their souls they will cry to heaven for mercy, mercy, p. 552but alas poor souls they cry too late; their Iudg was once as importunate with them to have mercy upon themselves, but because when he called they refused, when he stretched forth his hands they regarded not, now when they call he will not answer, when they cry he will not hear, but will laugh at their calamity, as they did at his counsel, and mock when their fear and destruction is come upon them.

V. And lastly, Another particular implied in this Iudgment of the wicked, is the execution of their Sentence. For immediately after their sentence is past by which they stand doomed to everlasting fire, an everlasting fire shall be kindled round about them, a fire which within a few moments shall spread it self over all this lower World, and convert the whole Almosphere about us into a furnace of inquenchable flames; For then all those fiery particles which are every where intermingled with these terrestial Bodies, and have hitherto been kept within their proper limits, shall be disintangled and set free from those more gross and sluggish ones that now bind and fix them, and swarm together like so many sparks into one huge globe of Fire, which from the lower-most centre of the Earth shall spire up and kindle upon all that Airy Heaven above, and with one continued flame fill all the vast expansum; all that fiery matter which is now dispersed up and down within the entrails of the Earth, shall by degrees gather together into Rivers of Fire, which rolling to and fro within, to force their way into the open Air, will perhaps produce those prodigious Earthquakes, of which our Saviour speaks, p. 553by which at length the Earth being cleft and torn, it shall every where vomit out Torrents of Fire from its flaming bowels; and at the same time the Sea shall boil and swell, and roar like water in a seething Pot, till 'tis all evaporated by the strugling flames from below, which having rarified its waters into vapours shall kindle those vapours into flames; and at the same time also the Heavens above shall groan and crack with incessant Thunder, accompanied with thick and fearful flashes of Lightning, which joyning with those vast streams of Fire that will be continually issuing out of the Earth and Sea, will make such a prodigious deluge of flames as will quickly overflow the whole World. For thus we are assured from Scripture, that the Element shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up, 2 Pet. 3.10. So also St. Iohn in his Vision of the day of Judgment, Rev. 20.11. I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them: not that the matter of them shall be annihilated, but the form of them shall be destroyed by their being converted into an everlasting Fire; and in this Fire shall those condemned wretches live and suffer to eternal Ages. Hence it is called the vengeance of eternal fire; and we are told that it will be in flaming fire, that the Lord Jesus will render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not his Gospel, 2 Thess. 1.8. And that this flaming fire shall be the conflagration of the World, that of St. Peter seems plainly to imply, 2 Pet. 3.7. But the heavens and the earth p. 554which are now—are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men; and being reserved unto fire against the day of perdition of ungodly men, we may justly conclude that the fire it is reserved to, will be the Perdition of ungodly men. Thus upon our Saviours pronouncing those dreadful words, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, the persons concerned will immediately perceive the dire effects; for all on a sudden they will see the Clouds from above, and the Earth from beneath casting forth Torrents of fire upon them, which in an instant will set all the World in a Blaze about their ears; At the sight of which all this wretched World will be turned into a mournful Stage of Horrours, in which the miserable actors being seized with inexpressible amazement to see themselves all on a sudden encompassed on every side with flames, will raise a hideous Roar and outcry, millions of burning men and women shrieking together, and their noise shall mingle with the Archangels Trumpet, with the Thunders of the dying and groaning Heaven, and the crack of the dissolving World that is sinking into eternal ruins. In which miserable state of things whither can the poor Creatures fly, or where can they hope to find a Sanctuary? If they go up to the tops of the Mountains; there they are but more openly exposed to the dreadful lightnings of Heaven; if they go down into the holes and caverns of the Rocks; there they will be swallowed up in the burning furnaces of the Earth; if they descend into the deep; there they will soon be overtaken with a storm of fire and brimstone; and whereever p. 555they go the vengeance of God will still pursue them with its everlasting burnings. And thus having no retreat left them, no avenue to escape out of this burning World, here they must remain for ever surrounded with smoak, and fire, and darkness, and wrap'd in fierce and merciless flames, which like a shirt of burning pitch will stick close to, and pierce through and through their passive bodies, and for ever prey upon, but never consume them.

And now the Almighty Judg having seen his dread sentence executed, will arise from his Throne, and from thence return to the Seat of the blessed in a solemn and Glorious Triumph with all his holy myriads of Angels and Saints, who as they follow him through the Air and aether, will with loud Hosanna's and triumphant acclamations celebrate the praises of their Redeemer. Thus shall the Ransomed of the Lord return with him, with Songs to the heavenly Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and everlasting praises in their mouths. For being arrived into those blissful Regions; there in those glorified Bodies which they put on at their Resurrection, they shall live for ever in unspeakable pleasures and delights, and be entertain'd not only with all that happiness which they enjoyed in the state of their separation when they were only blessed Spirits; but also with all the satisfactions and delights that their glorified Bodies can require and enjoy. So that now their blessedness shall be consummate, and all the capacities of their humane nature compounded of body and soul shall be fulfilled with bliss, till they overflow and can contain no p. 556more. But wherein the happiness of their glorified Bodies shall consist, I shall not presume to inquire, the Scripture being silent concerning it. And what the happiness of their souls shall be, hath been shewn at large before, Part 1. c. 3, 4. So that as to that state of eternal life, in which our Saviour shall place his faithful servants in the conclusion of this great Judgment, I need say no more of it in this place.