I Cannot but esteem it as the great favour of Heaven, that in the revolution of a few months, the Divine Providence hath brought me again hither, and called mee to this Publick ser­vice, on the same occasion: I having the happinesse to speak in such a praesence, wherein not the pompe of any elaborate, or quaint Humane Oratory; but the power of solid and [Page 2]sacred Divinity will be best regarded: of which whilest I rest perswaded, I shall humbly crave your Devotions, that the same Hand which gave this opportunity, would adde also a successe to this businesse.

It were a facility (had I a mind to build a large Portall to my narrow house) to entertain your patience, a while, with a discourse of this Book of the Revelation, wherein there are so manyRev 5.7. sealed Mysteries almost, as Words, or Sentences; soMihi tota Apocalypsis valde obscura videtur, & talis, cujus explicatio citra periculum vix queat tentari: fateor me hactenus in nullius scripti Bi­blici lectione minus proficere, quàm in hoc ob­scuro vaticinio. Grascrus. abstruse Aenigma's, as none but a Di­vine Oedipus can unriddle them: Insomuch that some of the greatest, and those too most sanctified Scholars have acknowledged, that they had ratherD. Rainolds of Oxford, Di­vis 4. against Hart. c. 8. learn, than teach it: However some others, who to themselves have seemed as the sons ofNum. 13.33 Anak, of tall Imaginations, have yet proved, in the issue, but likeLuk. 19.3. Zacheus, little in the sta­ture of sound Judgment; and whilst they have gone about to give other men eyes to see John's. Visions more clearly, they have been overtaken, unawares, by their ownJob 20.8. Dreams, and many of them outlived the date of their weak, yet bold, and daring Interpretations: I cannot but appland the modesty of Cajeian, (none of the meanest among the Schoolemen) who, after he had Paraphrased the Epistles, and Acts of the Apostles, professed, thus, Apocalypsin fateor me nescire exponere juxta sensum literalem, Hee was posed about the Literall sense of this Scripture, more meet for his Wonder, than his Exposition: And good reason, for it consisting of many Prophesies of things to come, and those too clothed with Allegories, and clad in Metaphors, [...] (to speak withSophocles in Antig. Nescia mens ho­minum fati, sor­tisque futurae. Virgil. Sophocles) who could directly tell the sense, till the event was seen? that being the best Interpreter of dark prae­dictions.

Neverthelesse, sith, as it is in our English Proverb, that Bones bring Meat to town, that is, Difficulties bring Comforts; as, in Sampson's Riddle, Judg. 14.14. Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse, that of the Ancient being true, Paseit apertis, excrect obscurts, as the Lord is pleased to delight us with the clearer, so to exer­cise us with the obscurer parts of Holy Writ; and as the [Page 3]Doctor of the Gentiles assures us, Rom. 15.4. Whatsoever was written, was written for our Learning: there being like­wise some rills and brooks for the Lambe to wade in, as well as deeps for the Elephant to swim in: Give me leave, I beseech you, (sith not of curiosity to feed fancy, but of a zealous disquisition to discover verity, I attempt it) to withdraw the Curtain, and to set open the Windowes of this Text, that so the2 Cor. 4 6. light of divine truth, in a bright serenity, may2 Per. 1 19. shine in upon your Minds, and Hearts, to illuminate the one, and to inflame the other, for the best advantage of the whole soul.

Under which form of words we have, me thinks, accor­ding to St. John's Vision, The Grand Assises, held upon the Day of the last generall Judgment, described in variety of circumstances, which as the carving, or enamelling of some curious Watch, doe exceedingly illustrate and adorn the same.

And as in some solemne businesse of great importance there are usually some antecedaneous introductories to raise expectation, and win the greater veneration thereto: so here, we have something observable by way of praepa­ration; and something also by way of action, or dispatch: The Praeparation consists of the supposalls foregoing, Men were dead, and those dead men againe risen, and brought out of the prison of the grave, and set to the Bar: Death; and the Resurrection from Death praecede the Judgment, I saw the dead, great and small, stand before God: The matter of Action, or Dispatch, is the Judgment it self following this Death, and Resurrection, The dead were judged, according to their works.

The carriage, or managing of this Judgement is, [...], much what after the similitude ofƲt judicii species notior fieret Homini­bus, judicandi forma ex his, quae inter Ho­mines geruntur, assumpta est. Anselm. Com­ment. in Rom. 14. Humane Judicatures here upon earth; save onely with this odds, or difference: That in this Grand Assises in my Text, the Judges themselves must then stand forth before the God of all Judges, even before the most dreadfull Tribunall [Page 4]of the onely Potentate, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

For, howsoever it be the style of Magistrates in the Scripture, to bee called Gods, Psal. 82.6. namely, [...], in regard of the Dignity of their of­fice; yet, though they be sons of the most High, they must die like Men; they being, asAgapetus in Paraen. ad Iustin. Agapetus told Justinian, [...], in the substance, or nature of their Bodies, composed of the same brittle materialls with other men; though (as I said on the last like occasion) they be Gods with Men, yet are they but Men with God: so that all subordinate thrones must then be cast down, Dan. 7.9. all Commissions given up, and a strict account bee taken both of themselves, and of their stewardship, even before Him, who by Daniel (who was the John of the Old, as John was the Daniel of the New Testament) is described under the title of The Ancient of Dayes, sitting upon his throne [Im­periall and Paramount,] whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels like burning fire; A fiery stream issued, and came forth from before him; Thousand thousands ministred unto him, and Ten thousand times Ten thousand stood before Him, The Judgment was set, and the Books were opened: So Daniel.

Now, this great Judicature is, in this Text, described after this manner.

• 1. By the Judicatory, or Seat of Judgment, with its Epithets, or Adjuncts, ver. 11. I saw a throne, and that a great, and a white throne.
• 2. By the Judge sitting on that throne, who is God himself, set forth under expressions of Majestick terror; from whose face the Earth, and the Heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
• 3. By the persons to be judged, and that impartially, The Dead, small, and great.
• 4. The Arraignment of all those persons, They stand before God.
• [Page 5]5. The Indictment, The Books were opened.
• 6. The Evidence, The things written in those Books.
• 7. The Sentence, They were Judged.
• 8. The Rule, ordering that Sentence, According to their Works.
• 9. The means of the Discovery of all this to S. John. and by him unto us, and that was by revelation, or spe­ciall vision; so himself acquaints us, [...], I saw, saith he, twice; this vision (as sometime Pharaoh's dream, Gen. 41.32.) was [doubled,] to shew the certainty and assu­rance of what he thus had seen: I saw a great, white Throne—and, I saw the dead, great and small stand before God, &c.

And these (at least as to my weak observation they oc­curre) are the proper, and genuine parts of this Scripture; the present measures of my Sermon, and your Christian patience: Each of them being so important as they are do so invite your attentions, that I need not to stand courting your ears at all to obtain them: And so I addresse my self to my businesse, and that after this order, First, be­ginning with the Divinity, and the explication of the Text; and then proceeding unto the Morality, or the effectuall application of the whole: Please to favour me with your patience, whilest I am (by Gods blessing) in the dispatch of my Sermon, I shall be as contracted, as this deep matter, and your waighty affairs ensuing will give leave.

But before I come directly to the severall parts, I must of necessity say a few words of the supposals foregoing this last and Grand Assises; and those are Death, and the Resurrection; Men were Dead, and those Dead men again risen, (for surely not deadmen, as dead, but as risen) were presented to the Barre, and there stood before God: (Wherefore the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead, and of eternall Judgement are conjoyned, Heb. 6.2.) I saw the Dead, great and small stand before God.

Mors a Morsu, saithS. August. l. 1. Hypagnost. contr. Pelag. circamed. Austine; No sooner had the serpent fastened the venome of his teeth on the Protaplasts, or our first Parents, and his temptation bit them; but they bite [Page 6]the forbiddenGen. 3.6. apple, and death immediately bit them again; And so in in Adam all dye, saith the great1 Cor. 15.22. Apo­stle, in as much as he was not Ʋnus but Ʋniversitas, as the Schoolemen expresse it, not considerable as a single man, by himself alone, but as a publique person, representing the Universality of all mankinde, the Nature whereof be­ing contaminated in the first Fall, that infection runs still as tainted bloud in the veins of Posterity to this day; so that now, [...], saith Damascen, The whole sublunary Creature is become subject to mutation, and asPhil [...], de Mundo. Philo saith, [...], to Generation succeedeth a dis­solution: Had man indeed stood in the honour of his first Creation, and not blotted the eximious pulchritude, and beauty of thatGen. 1.26. Image, in which he was first stamped, he had needed, as no Jesus to redeem his soul, so no Aesculapius, or Physician to cure his body, He should have had temperamentum ad pondus, as the Philosophers speak, so equall a temperature in the exact symmetry of parts, that no qualities in the Elements, of which he is compounded, should have contended for such a conquest, as should have routed him into his grave; For howsoever the Schoolemen (more curious, oft-times, to raise doubts, than judicious to assoyle them) had a conceit, that if the first Adam had never fallen; yet the second Adam, (the Lord Christ) had come in the flesh, ad decus & ornamentum generis humani, for the Honour, and ornament of the Humane nature; yet that is but the play of some wanton wits, it is not the plea of any solid judgement; sith it disap­points, at least misapprehends the proper end of Christs coming in the Flesh, which was, to suffer for, and to1 Tim. 1.15. save sinners, even such as by what Names, or Titles soever they are distinguished above ground, like to the severall Chessemen as they stand in the game, under seve­rall notions, on the table, yet being shuffled all together into one common bagge, they have no distinction in the dust at all: But inMat. 27.33. Golgotha (as saith the Hebrew Pro­verb) are skuls of all fizes, as well great as small: [...], saith Agapetus, for all have reason to say to Corruption, Thou art myJob 17.14. Fa­ther, [Page 7]and to the Worms, Thou art my Mother, and my Si­ster: some Great ones, perhaps, like Teeth, may here dwell as in the mouth of Honour, eat up or oppresse a man and hisMic. 2.2. heritage, as the Prophet speaks, grinding the face of the poor; or as Sapor King of Persia write Brother to the Sun and Moon; or as the twelve Caesars divide the twelve moneths between them, washing their steps inJob 29.6. Butter, housing themselves like snails, in their gol­den shels, and painting the earth as they passe with their silver slime, and on the Theatre of this world act their parts so, as they can blast with their breath, thunder-strike with their frown, and crush with their singer; but the Interlude will end anon, and then they must all get them along down to Death's tiring House, as well as others, as well Alexander as Dametas, fair Nereus as de­formed Thersites; there is no remedy, they must unstrip, they must uncase, and be all uncloathed, they must ex­change their Canopies of state for costins, their Ivory couches for graves, their Palaces for charnell houses, their Tapestry for shrowds, and all their embroidered Mantles for coverlets of dust; Sic in non Hominem vertitur omnis Homo; Dust at the first was mans Composition, and into dust at the last will be his resolution, Gen. 3.19. Homo ab Man is named in He­brew [...] ab [...] Adam, of Ada­mab, the earth, or, the red earth. Humo; and whilest even the best men carry about them aRom. 7.24. Bo­dy of death, they must unavoidably (for the abolishing of the remainders of Corruption, the Law in their mem­bers) expect the death of the body, for the wages of Sin is Death, Rom. 6.23. They say there stands a Globe of the world at one end of a great Library, and the Sceleton of a man at the other end; which may not unfitly be thus moralized, though a man were Lord of all that he sees in the Map of the world, yet hee must dye, and become himself a map of morttlity; even provant for worms to revell with in the grave: It's true indeed whatStitius lib. 9. Theb. Statius utters in his losty verse, ‘Mille modis Lethi miseros mors una fatigat.’

Though there be many wayes to one, and the sameSolomon, Eccles. 12.5. cals the grave [...] Domum seculi the House of age. long home, yet we must all meet together at last in [Page 8]the sameJob 30.23. House, and in the chambers of death must be our dwelling: that Grammarian who can decline a Noune in every Case, yet cannot decline Death in any Case: In short, this being a Doctrine which more needs application, than proof, sith, asIn ortu ad­hue suo, ad fi­nem nativitas proper at. S. Cy­prian. contr. Demetrian. Tract. 1. one saith, Naseimur morituri, we are no sooner born, but instantly we begin to dye; as M [...]ses had no sooner wrote his Book of Ge­nesis, but soon after his Book of Exodus; we dye from in­fancy into childhood, from childhood into youth, from youth into age, and from age into old age, and perhaps into dotage, and at length into the grave: surely, it were well, if every one of us could (as one observes) out of the Acrostick Letters in the four degrees, or steps of mans Age, to wit, Puerit a, Juventus, Virilitas, Senectus, experi­mentally make up Pius; that piety might be the golden thread to run through all; that we would dye before we do dye, so that when we do dye, we may not dye; that is, that we would dye daily untoRom. 6.7. 1 Pet. 2.24. sinne by continuall mortification of all our vile, and corrupt affections, be­fore we do dye into our graves, by a naturall dissolution, so that when we do dye a naturall death, we may not dye the death eternall; which death eternall doth not consist in the annihilation, or utter abolition of the Body and Soul in regard of their beeing, or subsistence, as the Epi­cures might sancy, 1 Cor. 15.32. but only of the cessation of their well-beeing, in regard of the everlasting separati­on of both from the gracious and glorious2 Thes. 1.9. presence of Almighty God, and withall of the plunging of both into the sense of torments in both unto all eternity, even for ever and ever: By this occasion, sith we are sure we must dyeHeb. 9.27. once, and but once, as the day hath but one starre, but it is the Sun, the Lyonesse but one young one, but it is a Lyon; so we having but one death, it had need be a good one: We perhaps securely contem­plate our Naturall complexions, having milk in our breasts, andJob 21.24. marrow in our bones, blithe, and buxom at the present, may be apt to say to the sum­mons hereof, as sometimes Felix did to S. Paul rea­soning of righteousnesse, temperance, and judgement to [Page 9]come, Act. 24.25. [...], Goe, thy way for this time, till a more convenient season; whereas, it may be, in respect of the Lords Divine Praescience, according to which from aeternity every mans dayes areJob 14.5, 14. appointed, it may be this night, before we know whatProv. 27.1. Jam. 4 14. to mor­row may bring forth, ourLuk. 12.20. souls may be taken from us: But yet, if we consummate, and finish a good life before Death seise on us, so that the thought of ourDeut. 32.29. Eccles. 7.36. end be still at the end of our thoughts; it will not be to the godly in insidiis, as a snare, but alwayes in januis, under expe­ctation as at our doors: the stroke of Death can never be too sudden, when to a mortified soul it's alwayes under expectation; Thus, qui moritur, non moritur, quando moritur, as S.August. lib. 65. quaest. qu 32. Austine made his riddle, so prepared, he doth not dye, when he doth dye.

Yea, he so dyeth, that he both is, and shall be sure to live, and rise again: and so shall all others of all sorts whatsoever: None ever but aLuk. 10.27. Sadduce, or men in­fected with the same leaven, denyed it: those dry bones in Ezekitl, chap. 37. which being made to live again, ha­ving breath, and sinewes, and flesh drawn over with skin, did immediately indeed represent new vigour to be short­ly put into the dead hopes of the Jewes; but yet by ma­ny, or most Divines taken notice of likewise asPeter Mar­tyr. loc. Com. Class. 1. p. 82. num. 24. a Type of the Resurrection: foredenoted, say some, in Aaron's rod, which being pluck't up by the roots, wither­ed and dry,Numb. 17.8. budded afresh; soRabanus Maurus Com­ment. in Ierem. cap. 1. fol. 7. Rabanus Maurus; hanselled it was also in those raised under the Old Testa­ment, as the2 King. 4.36. Shunamites son. and the man2 King. 13.21. who touched the bones of Elisha, &c. and some others raised by Christ, under the New Testament, asJoh. 11.44. Lazarus, the widowsLuk. 7.15. son of Naim, theMar. 5.42. daughter of Jairus, those Candidates of immortality, as one cals them; and in expresse texts, there is enough in both Testaments to evince it; both theCant. 4.5. breasts of the Spouse yeeld us milk, which we may thenceIsa. 66.11. suck out, and be satisfied with as with the breasts of consolation: so Isa. 26.19. Thy dead men shall live, and the earth shall cast out the dead; the almost whole fifteenth chapter to the Corinthians is spent [Page 10]on the same subject: yea, some Christian Philosophers have attempted to draw as much for the thing it self from grounds of regulated reason; even from the very desire that the separated soul hath to be reunited again to the body; for, confider the foul, not as absolutely in it self, a spirituall, immortall substance: but respe­ctively, and with relation to the body, as it was forma in­formans, or, as byAristot. lib. de Anima. Aristotle, under that notion, it's cal­led, [...], that specificall form, or first act which gave individuation to that body, which in toto composito, in conjunction with it self, denominates the reasonable creature Man: now, in this respective consideration, the soul, under separation from the body, which it did inform, during that state, subsists in an im­perfect kinde of being: Now, as all things naturally de­sire to be preserved in being, so also in the most per­fect kinde of being, sutable to the end of their first Creation; so the soul desires naturally a reunion again with that body which it did inform, ratione Termini, in re­gard of the Term, or end of that desire; although indeed ratione modi, in regard of the manner, and means, how this should be accomplished, this is supernaturall, and requires a divine power to effectuate: The summe is, (for I must hasten to my main intention) thus all both Saints, and Castawayes shall be raised up, at the last day, the one sort by the Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8.11. for Christ him­self being theEph. 4.15. Head of the Church, quod praecessit in Capite, sequetur in Corpore, He being the First-fruits of them that sleep in him, 1 Cor. 15.20. Cumeadem sit ratio primitia­rum, & tetius cumuli, as Beza glosseth it, there being the same reason of the whole lump as of theDeut. 26. First-fruits, in point of Consecration, allResurrexit Christus, ut re­surrecturum se, non dubitet Christianiae. S. August. ser. 162. de Temp. members of Christs Mysticall Body must, and shall be raised also from their dormitories, and beds of rest to take possession of their Glory: and the other sort by the power of Christ, (be­ing Lord both of the dead, and living, Rom. 14.9.) shall be summoned likewise from their graves, as Ma­lefactors are startled from their dungeons to beJoh. 5.29. brought forth to their Executions: Both these sorts [Page 11]like to the Letter ofLitera Py­thagorae discri­mine secta bi­c [...] Humanae vitae speciem preferre vide­tur. Pythagoras, (the letter Y) having two ends divided at the top, they are raised up, but un­to severall ends, according to what we read most oppo­sitely to this purpose, Dan. 12.2. Job. 5.28, 29. (with which saying I shall now close up all that I have now to say of these two supposals, or praecedaneous praeparatives to my main businesse) Marvell not at this, saith our Saviour; for the Hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice; and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the Resurrection of Life, and they that have done evill, unto the Resurrection of Con­demnation. And thus farre of what was observable by way of praeparation to this great Assises: wee now come to the matter it self of Action, or of Dispatch therein.

In my discourse of which I shall follow the order wherein the words are here set down by S. John, and then, the first particular, that as Abraham in his Tent, stands here in theGen. 18,1. door of the Text, to invite your observation, is the means of Discovery, by which S. John came to have the knowledge of all this, and that was by Revelation, or by speciall vision; for he saith, [...], I saw: where we must take notice by the way, that he doth expresse himself, more Prophetico, af­ter the manner of the Prophets, in the Praetertence, spea­king by way of anticipation, of a thing as it were al­ready past, though it was wholly future, and to come, to shew the certainty thereof, assuredly to come to passe, as if it had been actually past already, and over.

But the point that we have here offered to our con­sideration is this; viz. Quaere. Whether in these dayes, Visions be extraordinarily vouchsafed, and so may be expected as means of imparting to us what the minde of God is in the affairs of life, and salvation to the Church of God?

Answ. The better to clear my passage to a direct resolution of this Quaere, it shall not be amisse on this occasion, (but succinctly) to present you as in a Man, the seve­rall [Page 12]wayes of extraordinary revelations mentioned in the Scripture, concerning the will of God, or the issues, and events of things.

These were eitherVid. Pet. Martyr. loc. Commun. sect. 6. p. 8. Oracles, or Signes, or Urim, or Lots, or Prophets, or Dreams, or Visi­ons.

Oracles were, when byAct. 7.38. [...]. lively voyce God was pleased to inform his servants of his will, as in the San­ctuary from betwixt the two Cherubims, Exed. 25.22. God was pleased, in the exigents of his Church to re­veal his will unto his people, by the High Priest; in this manner spake He to Abraham, to Moses, to Samuel, and to other eminent and eximious Saints recorded for Heaven's favourites, in holy writ.

Omina, or Signes, by which men might understand his will; as in the instance ofGen. 22. Abraham's offer­ing up his only son, in aHeb. 11.19. type of Christs owne ob­lation of himself,Heb. 10.14. & Heb. 9.28. once for all; in Moses typicall lifting up theNum. 21.9. Ioh. 3.14. brazen serpent in the wildernesse; in Gideons Iudg. 6.37. fleece; in Jeremiah's, and Ezekiel's using ofIer. 27.2. yokes, andEzek. 7 23. chains, and such like visible re­praesentations of what should, under certain terms expres­sed, ensue.

Urim, whereof we read, Exod. 28.30. Numb. 27.21. 1 Sam. 28.6. a stone, or stones in the Breast-plate of the High Priest, which (as some out ofIosephus Antiq. l. 3. c. 9. Josephus, and Suidas conceive) if it became shining, it boded victory, or good successe, if of a bloudy colour, warre, and if black, death.

Lots were sometimes used to determine doubtful issues, or elections, Prev. 16.33. as in the choyce of Matthias the Apostle, Act. 1.26.

That of the Prophets is knowen, who sometimes inNumb. 12.6. Dreams had by the Lord represented to their fancies, or mindes what he would have beleeved, or done, or ex­pected.

And the last way was byGen. 1.15. Psal. 89.19. Prov. 29.18. Isa. 1.1. Visions, when the Lord, either to the understanding, or to the imagination, or elseAct. 10.11. visibly to the fight was pleased to exhibit [Page 13]the representation, or semblance of what he purposed to effect; which kind of Revelation Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachary, and here St. John were acquainted with.

Now, as concerning all the former sort in use during the dispensations under the Old Testament, I suppose the question is out of question with us all about their cessation: Quaest. Wee are to enquire, whether such like Visions, (or else immediate instincts, or Enthusiasmes) may be expected, or will be afforded to ordinary Christians, under these days of Gospel-dispensations.

Answ. To which I answer, that Howsoever we may not tie the Lord to his ordinary means, for we know, hee can work above, yea without them; as there wasGen. 1.2. light before the Sun and Moon were made; yet we have reasons many to perswade us, that the Lord now deals not by Visions, or Revelations extraordinary; and whosoever doe pre­tend such directions, it's to be feared, they are but vain, delusive apparitions, or dangerous, and Satanicall im­postures.

My reasons are these. 1. Because the Lord hath now made perfect theGal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16. Rule of Faith, and Life, and given us an absolute Canon of Doctrine, to which there may no­thing be added, nor from which the least Iota be detracted, 2 Tim. 3.15, 16. So that to instruct us in a matter of faith, or morall practise, Visions are all now unnecessary.

2. For particular Events, and accidents of the Church of God, which were the usuall matter of Visions and Re­velations, he hath given us reason to think, that he will no longer instruct his Church by that means extraordi­nary, because the charge runs so precisely, to adde no­thing to the words of the Prophesie of St. John's Book, under penalty of having addition made to our plagues, Rev. 22.18. He would intimate in that charge, that by that Prophesie hee hath fully instructed his Church in all things convenient for it to know, unto the end of the world.

3. Even then, when was place for Visions and Revela­tions, the Rule was, toIsa. 8.20. Act. 17.11. examine all by the Word of God; so that if any thing came under colour of Divine [Page 14]Revelation, obtruded upon the Church of God, that held not currant at that Touchstone, it was, as a probation (in Gods permission) of his people, Deut. 13.13. So, in it self, and in the issue, a fanaticallIsa. 66.4.2 Thess. 2.11. delusion, like to some Meteor, or Comet, fed onely by unwholesome ex­halations, which speedily vanish without heat or light; it was no say of the trueMal. 4.2. Rev. 12.1. Sun Christ Jesus, in whosePsal. 36 9 light alone it is, that the Saints of God doe see the solid light of the Truth; Wherefore, saith the Prophet, Isa. 8.20. To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to thisQuae libeo le­gis non comi­nem us, ca nec nosse debemus. Hilar.Word, it is because there is no light in them.

And yet those grand Impostors of Rome, to this day, boast of I know not what lumen Propheticum, continued in their Church; and for most of their paradoxes in the questions of Purgatory, Prayer for the Dead, Invocation of Saints, &c. when other arguments drawn from dark, Allegoricall texts, or Apocryphall books faile them, at length, they come to Visions, and Apparitions of Soules, that have appeared to the living, and testified, some, their tortures, some, their deliverances, by prayers, and suffra­ges of the Living: others pretending the lively voyee of the blessed Virgin from Heaven, as that, Benede me scripfisti, Thoma, applauding what Thomas had written of her: at another time, speaking through her image, or statue in the Temple, giving the Good morrow to St. Bernard, who yet to confute the imposture, gave answer, that shee had for­gotten St. Paul's rule, It was not lawfull for a woman to speak in the 1 Cor. 14.34 Church: But I forbear to offend your patience with these vanities; I only touched at them in my way, the more to fasten on all Gods holy people (truly such) the persua­sion, to keep themselves praecisely to the written Word in­spired by, and joined with the Spirit of all truth. Isa. 59.21. even that [sure] Word, 2 Pet. 1.19. as St. Peter, that Word of Truth, as St. Paul calls it, 2 Tim. 2.15. Gal. 2.5.

This of St. John was an Apostolicall, Personall privi­ledge, (not to be drawn into common imitation, or into ordinary expectation) Hee being immediately acquainted of this secret of the manner of the last Judgment, by Vi­sion [Page 15]extraordinary: It is not privilegium, but pravilegium, not a warrantable favour to be expected, but a praesumptu­ous tempting of God to be avoyded; if ordinary Christi­ans, with sleighting, or omission of the Word written, do for their direction, expect Visions now, after the prophesie of St. John's Book is finished.

And thus much, if not too much, of the means, by which St. John first came to have to him revealed, for the generall information of the Church of God, this carriage of the Grand Assises: It was by Vision; so we read in the Text, [...], I saw.

And so I hasten to the sight it self, or to what he did see, and that is here described, first, to be the Judicatory, or Seat of Judgement it self, with its Epithets, or Adjuncts, I saw a throne, and that a great, and a white throne.

A Throne, is a Seat of majesty, and glory; as when So­lomon would be seen in his might, ascends his royall1 King. 10.19, 20. throne, supported by twelve Lyons, the emblemes of power, and of undaunted courage: Now, whether St. John saw anyVid. Geyard. e. 5. [...]om. 6. sect. 58. created Seat, visibly in some shining clouds, in the which Christ shall come, any materiall Throne, or rather such a semblance of majesty presented to him, is no point of curious disquisition: under this expression of a Throne, or of the Throne of his glory, mentioned here, and in St. Matthew, ch. 19.28. & 25.31. I apprehend is meant theDieteric. In Festo Convers. Pauli, p. 180, 181. glory, the mighty power, and justice of the Lord Christ; in the manisestation of himself as the2 Tim. 4.1. Judge of Quick and Dead, in his glorious appearing, as St. Paul calls it, Tit. 2.13. or in the praesence of his glory, as St. Jude, v. 24 It hath the Epithet of Great, to denote his Majesty; and of White, to declare his Purity, and thePsal. 51.4. Rom. 3.4. clearnesse of his just proceedings Venit Christus S. August. l. 3. c. 8. de Symb. ad Ca­tech. occulte judicandus, veniet & manifeste judieaturus, 2 Thess. 1.7. or thus, Great, to shew his Severity, White, to denote his Lenity, even in the middest of that Severity; and both these exercised, when Actually [upon] his throne, namely, when Seated, when the Judgment, as Daniel speaks, wasDan. 7.10. set, com­monstrating thereby the wise deliberation observed in this finall Judicature: I might speak to each of these, and as [Page 16]the Disciples, byLuk. 6.1. rubbing of these eares, come to the solid grain, by discoursing on them find out the veryPsa. 63.5. marrow and sweetnesse therein contained: First, for the severity of this Judge, it's to the life resembled by Daniel, ch. 7.9, 10. when he saith, that his throne was like the fiery flame, a fiery siream issued, and came forth from before, him, and so in his wrath God is said to be a consuming fire, Heb. 12. ult. and the Psalmist, to expresse it, in the Actuall execution, compares it to the Hills melting like wax at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth, Psal. 97.5. To this purpose tends that expression, in the person of the Lord Christ, Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before my face, Luk. 19.27. Nor is it more then equall, that those, who in the fury and rage of their impetuous corruptionsPsal. 2 3. teare the bonds of Christ's injuncti­ons in sunder, (at least in their attempts), should when he is advanced, and got into his throne, bind them fast inPsa. 149.8. chains, yea and though they were Nobles themselves, in links of iron; the meaning is, to crush them as Christ, an anointedPsal. 2.6. King; who refused him for a Jesus, a re­deeming Saviour.

And yet, if yee peruse Rev. 4.3. yee shall there read, that howsoever He who sate upon the throne, was to look upon, like a Jasper, and a Sardinstone, which sparkled with radiant, blazing, and dazeling colours, or coruscations; yet even then he had a rainbow round about that throne, in sight like unto an Emerald; theGen. 9.13. rainbow was a sign of the Covenant of favour, after the great deluge of the old world; and the Emerald being green, and fresh, delighteth the eyesight: Whereto tendeth all this? but to shew a strong propensity to mercy even in theHab. 3.2. middest of severity; yea, the very damned in hell find this, for though a greater judgement could not befall them Extensive, in regard of Continnance, for it's Everlasting; yet Intensive, he could lay more upon them then they suffer: It's an old word in Orthodox Divi­nity, God rewardeth Ultra condignum, punisheth citra con­dignum, Ezra 9.13. Christ is said in the Revelation, 1.13. to wear his girdle about his paps, or breast; we, about [Page 17]our loynes; we, about our loynsLuk. 12.35. the seat of Concu­piscence, to curb that; Christ, about his breast, these at of Anger, to restrain it, to wit, in point of Execution; the motion of anger in Christs bosome was like the stir­ring of pure water in a crystall glasse, without all disor­derlyHis girding about the paps and breasts sig­nifieth, that there is no de­fect, or aberra­tion in any mo­tion, or affectiō in our Saviour Christ; but eve­ry thought, and inclination of his heart is kept in order by the fulnesse of the Spirit. Mr. Ed Leigh Annot. ib perturbation, such as is in the defiled, muddy, and polluted breasts of sinful men; indeed, the Lord is so pro­pense to snewThere is a sweet expressiō in ludg. 10.6. His soule was [grieved] for the misery of [...] he doth not afflict [willing­ly] nor grieve the children of men, Lam 3.33 In all their af­fliction hee is afflicted, Isa. 63.9. Atque de­let quoties cogi­tur esse serox: Therefore in the Psalms wee read that God as he had a red to Correct, so withall a staffe to Support, Psal. 23.4. the acts of benignity rather, than the con­trary of extreme rigour, that even when he is proceeding to the very act of Execution, his very Heart is turned within him, and his repentings are kindled together, ma­king many expostulations both with the sinner, and with his own mercy, How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? &c. Hos. 11.8. Justice and Mercy strive, as it were, which shall first manifest it self; Justice like Zarah, one of Tamars twins, Gen. 38.28. puts out the hand, on which is bound a scarlet thread of a blou­dy colour; but it draws back the hand again, till Mercy like to Pharez breaketh forth before it, and carries the pri­ority, ver. 29, 30. But I must hasten, yee see here in the Text, as the Throne was Great, to strike terror into the hearts, even of the mightyest Potentates upon earth; so also it was White, the colour, as of Clearnesse, and Innocence; so, of Lenity, Kindnesse, and of Indul­gence.

And, (which must not be passed over) both these exer­cised, when actually upon his Throne, Seated there; not, in any posture of haste, as on any sudden to passe sentence, before due pawsing, examination, or conviction; Hee first sits down, and ponders the whole cause; As much as this was intimated in the Lords proceeding with Sodom, Gen. 18.21. the enormities whereof, though they were exceeding clamorous, and cryed to heaven for judgment; yet before the execution of fire and brimstome upon them, he is said, first, to goe down, and see whether all things answered that loud and lewd report of their unnaturall and most prodigious crimes: I saw (saith St. John) a great while throne; Great, for Terror, and Severity; White, for Lenity, and Moderation; a Throne, for Counsel, and sage Deliberation.

And so I come to the next particular, which the Text in order presents us with, and that is the Judge fitting on his throne, who is here said to be God himself, set forth under expressions of Majestick terror, from whose face the earth and the heaven flee away, and there was found no place for them.

God himself then is the Judge, seated upon his throne; so is his style, Heb. 12.23. God the Judge of all, even Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Tri­nity; which howsoever distinguished in regard of Personal subsistence, and peculiar appropriations of operations, yet are still but One, and the same in Essence, and divine Be­ing; even as if you take water, and ice, and snow, though in Apprehension distinct things, yet put together into one vessell, and dissolved, all prove but one water: or, asGregor. Nys­sen Catech. 15. Gregory Nyssen makes the observation, in Abraham, Gen. 18.2, 3. who though, as it's said, He saw three men from his tent dore, yet hee called all but [my] Lord, in the fingular; as for the device of the Rabbins, that these three Men were three Archangels, Michael, who foretold the birth of Abraham's Son; Raphael, who healed him of his wound received in his Circumcision; and Gabriel, who rescued Lot out of Sodom; this conceit we may reckon among those which St. Paul calleth [...], foolish and unlearned questions, 2 Tim. 2.23. the mystery of the Text is to represent the Trinity of Persons, in the Unity of the divine Essence: so Isa. 33.22. The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, this three­fold repetition of the word Jehovah, implyeth the mystery of the Holy Trinity, asIoh. Gerard. loc. Com. tom. 9. c. 3. sect. 26. tract. de Ex­tremojudicio. Gerard apprehends it: To the Father judgment is given, Psal. 9.8. The Lord hath prepared his throne for judgment, and he shall judge the world in righte­ousnesse; & Joh. 8.50. There is one that judgeth, saith Christ of his Father; compare we 1 Pet. 1.17. To the Son it is ascribed, Act. 10.42. 1 Cor. 4.4. 2 Tim. 4.1.8. to the Holy Ghost, Isa. 4.4. called the Spirit of Judgment: The ground of this is that known Maxime in Divinity, Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa, look as the Essence of the three Persons is aequall, individed, and the same, so [Page 19]is the power, and work one, in relation to the Crea­ture.

And yet, howsoever this be orthodox truth, that the whole Trinity doe judge, in regard of their [...], or consubstantiality, Authoritatively; neverthelesse, the whole execution of this Judgment, [...], in regard of Dispensation, is committed unto the Son; the Father, and the Spirit judge, but by the Son; so Dan. 7.13, 14. Act. 17.31. He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse, by that Man whom he hath ordained, So Rom. 2.16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; in which respect, the Judgment Seat is said to be Christ's, Rom. 4.10. 2 Cor. 5.10. And this is also an Ar­ticle of our Creed.

The reasons of it are principally these two.

• 1. First, because the proceedings of the last Judgement being to be Visible, it seemed good to the blessed Trinity, to appoint the managing thereof to the man Christ Jesus, that so the Judge might be seen in Majesty; hence it's said, Joh. 5.27. He hath given him Authority to [execute] judgment also, [because] He is the Son of many [...], as
  Pelargus in lo [...]. p. 62.
  Pelargus expounds it, that is, accor­ding to his Humanity; for, this particle [...], because, in this place, is not Aitiologicall, Causall, for the Humane na­ture is not the Cause, of which that Judiciary power doth depend; but it is [...], Demonstrative, shew­ing the Nature, in respect of which that power is said to be communicated unto Christ, the second Person: Now, the Godhead being invisible, 1 Tim. 1.17. & 6.16. it is said truly, Matth. 24.30. They shall [see] the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven, with power and great glory; and Zach. 12.10. compared with Rev. 1.7. They shall [looke] on him, whom they have pierced; so likewise Act. 1.11. This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner, as you have [see] him goe into Heaven.
• 2. Secondly, because it is a part of the recompense of his Humiliation, I am sure an especiall part of his Regall authority, by vertue whereof all the enemies of his Spi­rituall [Page 20]Kingdome shall be forced to submit to the aequity of his Sentence, Rom. 14.11. Every knee shall how to him, and at his Name, Phil. 2.10. that is, all Creatures shall yeeld him homage, and bee forced to acknowledge his power, scepter and soveraignty: The Apostles indeed, Matt. 19.28. are said to judge the world, by their solid Doctrine, and eminent Example, convincing them of their error, and ungracious courses; and all the Saints in generall like­wise, 1 Cor. 6.2. shall judge even the Angels; however, not by Originall, and Supreme authority; yet, as
  Ephe. 2.6.
  Assessors with the Lord Christ, as it were upon the same Bench, by approbation, applauding the
  Rev. 19.1.
  Justice of him, who being, as Abraham styles him, Gen. 18.25. the Judge of all the earth, cannot but doe right.

Now, for the majesty under which he is here descri­bed, in these words; From whose face the earth and the Heaven flee away, and there was found no place for them; many are the conjectures for the sense; some understanding it of the abo­lishing, and utter annihilation of the whole frame of this present Universe, being totally dissolved, and melted by the fire of Conflagration at that day: some moderne Ex­positors incline to this, for that they read, Rev. 21.2. I saw a new Heaven, and a new Earth; for the first Heaven, and the first Earth were passed away, and there was no more Sea: thoughS. August. de Civ. cap. 14. & 16. Ambros. Primas. Bede, Arethas, Ribera, ad loc. P. Lom­bard. l. 4. Dist. 47. D. others, with as much judgement, apprehend it only to be an [...], not a [...], a mutation, or alteration, in respect of qualities, and the pre­sent species, or corrupt form, not of the actuall destru­ction of their Essence, or Beeing; a change of them into a melioration, not an abolition by annihilation; and they expound it by that in the Psalmist, Psal. 102.25, 26. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the Hea­vens are the work of thy hands, they shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: As a Vesture] Now, you know the substance of the Body may remain the same, though the Vesture that covers it be ex­changed from an old [1 Cor. 7.31. [...]. fashion], to a new: Now as a Diamond is not so well cut as by a Diamond, no more is [Page 21]the Scripture interpreted comparably, as by it self: And to the same purpose is that, we read in 2 Pet. 3.13. where is mention made of new Heavers, and a new Earth, after those that now are, vers. 7. being reserved unto fire, are purged by it: Which fire at the last day, asBonaven­tur. ad 4 sent. D. 48. qu. 1. Bonaven­ture Durand. in 4. sent. D. 47. qu. 3., Durandus, and Schooltmen are of opinion, shall not, (even as the waters were not in the old deluge) be anew created, as a new materiall Element; But, it shall be only Ignitio quaedam elementi purgandi, A certain fiery in­flammation, even as iron is made hot by a vehement heat, not by receiving any new substantiall form of fire into its self; By vertue of which Ignition, the old drosse which sin had contracted over the face of the Creation, shall be defaecated, and repurged, and a new, fresh face, or beauty re­stored to it.

And yet, notwithstanding all this, under the favour of more deep judgements, me thinks, by this flying away of the Heaven and Earth from before the face of this great Judge, is, as by a Periphrasis expressed, in effect, no more but this; namely, how the whole Creation shall be over­whelmed, after a sort, and vanish, as it were, at the glo­rious Presence, and clarity of the Lord Christ: They shall see theMat 24.30. Bellarm. l. 2. cap. 28. de I­mag. so Mal­donat. Co [...]el. a Lap. sign of the Son of man, by which the Papists generally underrstand the ensign of the Crosse, by which he got the victory over all his Enenties; others, someSee the ela­borate Anno­tations colle­cted by Mr. Ed­ward Leigh, a choice Lin­guist, of vari­ous learning, and of great industry, on Mat. 24.30. bright signall testimony of his dreadfull, and majestick approach to judgement, when the powers of heaven shall beSee Heb. 12.26, 27. shaken, the earth tremble, the mountains be over­turned:2 Thess. 1.7.8. the starres shall fall from Heaven, though not really (for if one starre be bigger then the whole globe of Earth, as Astronomers acquaint us, what shall receive them all, in their fall?) but seemingly, as it were frighted from their stations; and the Sun shall lose its light, though not in regard of its innate Being, yet in regard of the more glorious splendor of Christs appearance; even as S. Paul comparing the Gospell with the Law, the Spirit with the Letter, saith, 2 Cor. 3.10. Even that which was made glo­rious, bad no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that ex­celleth: In a word, as the Psalmist hath it, Psal. 98.7. The [Page 22]sea shall roar, and the fulnesse thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein, before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth; with righteousnesse shall he judge the world, and the people with equity; yea, and that impartially, even without respect of persons.

Which leads me to the next particular, that here the Text in order presents us with, and that is the considera­tion of the persons, thus impartially to be arraigned, be­fore this formidable, and majestick Judge: and these are small, and great; I saw the dead, small and great stand before God.

Small and Great] that is, as well young, as old, as Ribera: poor and rich, soDionysius Carthusianus l. 2. c. 5. de qua­tuor Novissi­mis. Dionysius Carthusianus, Kings and Caesars, as well as Subjects, and Pesants; in which re­gard, we may say as the Psalmist, Psal. 49.1, 2. Hear this all ye People, give ear all ye Inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together; even men of low degree, and men of high degree, Psal. 62.9. all the Heathen round about, Joel 3.12. all nations, Mat. 25.32. All must ap­pear before the Judgement seat of Christ, 2 Cor. 5.10. Christians and Pagans; yea, the righteous, as the wicked, Eccles. 3.17. Rom. 14.12. Whether2 Tim. 4, 1. quick, that is, whom the last day shall finde alive, or by a1 Cor. 15.51. change, aequivalently dead, and revived again; or else having in­deed been dead, are raised up again, even all the world, Psal. 98.9.

There is no respect of persons with God, Rom. 2.11. 1 Pet. 1.17.

Some curiosities there are coyned in the Mint of quaint heads, (as they would be accounted) about this universa­lity of appearance in Judgement: As, in what age, or stature, Infants, and others very young shall arise from the dead; and they have taken the boldnesse to determine, that it shall be about that Age, wherein Christ was in his fulnesse upon earth, to wit, about 33; misapplying to this purpose that Text, Eph. 4.13 They shall all come, [Page 23] [...], to the measure of the stature of the Fulnesse of Christ; or of the Age (as the originall bears it) of the Fulnesse of Christ; whereas that place (if in my poor un­derstanding, I misapprehend not) is more genuinely meant of that spirituall proficiency, which under the power of the Ordinance, by the work of the Ministery, must by be Be­leevers improved to the highest degree: Another con­ceit of the Pontificians is, that Infants dying unbaptized appear not in Judgement, and their fancy is thus drawn out; Then, there shall be made a distribution into Sheep, and Goats; but such being unbaptized cannot be reckoned among the Sheep, by reason of their sin origi­nall, nor among the Goats, for the want of actuall sin; whereas yet the Text saith, that S. John saw [...], as well as [...], small and little, as well as great and growen: Be­sides, that opinion is founded on a false supposall, to wit, of the absolute necessity of the work done in Bap­tisme; so, as if, without the externall application of the water in the Signe, there were an impossibility of sharing in the thing fignified; against the orthodox Judgements of the Reformation, according to the Scriptures. Another tiffany dispute is this, How Solomon saith, Eccles. 3.17. That the righteous, as well as the wicked shall be judged; whereas it is said, that the Saints themselves shall be Judges of the world, as ye heard but now? To which the Resolution may be this, that the very Saints them­selves, as well as others, shall in respect ofGerard. presentati­on be first presented before the Tribunall of Christ; but having received theRom. 2.5. Declarative sentence of their ab­solution, of Come ye Blessed, they then meet the Lord in the aire; partly, by the assistance (happily) of Angels, and partly, by the agility of their own glorifyed bodies, being caught up to be Assessors with Christ, in the splen­did Clouds of his glorious appearance, as the Judge of all men, 1 Thess. 4.17.

But to speak my mind freely, I am, in suchƲbi de re obscurissima disputatur, non adjuvantibus Divinarum Scripturarum certis, claris (que) documentis, co­hibere se debet Humana prae­sumptio, nihil faciens in alte­ram partem de­clinando. S. Au­gust. lib. 2. de Peccat. merit. cap. ult. abstruse mysteries as these, of opinion, that it's safer to offend of too much modesty (if at least, that be an offence) then of too much audacity, and praesumption to determine: [Page 24] Quo modo at (que) or dine il­lud sit suturum magis tunc do­cebit [experien­tia] quam nunc valet consequi ad perfectum Hominum in­telligentia. S. August. lib. 20. de civ. Dei, cap. 30. Experience must, and will be, in this, the surest Umpire, in that great, and glorious Day of Revelation: In the mean time, in this grave assembly, I shall not pre­sent fine-spun opinions, as ornaments to be worn only in the ear; rather think it my duty to enforce the evi­dence of my Text; which is clearly, to convince us, that all, and every, small and great, shall impartially, and with­out respect of persons be presented before this awfull, and majestick Judge of all the earth; For so saith expresly S. John in the Text, I saw the dead small and great stand before God.

Which now brings me next in order to that part, which I styled the Arraignment of all persons, of what rank and condition soever they be, noted from this expression, They stand before God.

[...], that is, as the word imports, as be­fore the face of God; so that, whatsoever cunning Artifice there may be, to contrive Maeanders, or crafty fetches of wit, or machinations to conceal the hidden and forbid­den things of darknesse; saying with those in thePsal. 10.11. Psalm: Tush, the Lord shall not see; yet then all those pavilions, all those mantles of Darknesse shall bee to no purpose at all, nor of any more advantage to hide them from the al-seeing eye of this piercing, soul-searching Judge, then were thoseGen. 3.7. fig-leaves to cover Adam's first nakednesse, or that bush in Paradise, to shelter him from the voyce, or wrath of Heaven: [...] [ [...]], saith the great Apostle, 2 Cor. 5.10. Wee must all appear, or [be made manifest] as the word imports, before the Judgment Seat of Christ: In this great Harvest day of the Lord, the Angells, as Gods Rea­pers, shall from all the four corners of the world gather up all Nations, and then, as it is Matth. 25.32. Before him shall be gathered all Nations, all must come forth, as St. John expresseth it, Joh. 5.29. When the Lord cometh, saith Paul, 1 Cor. 4, 5 he both will bring to light the hidden things of dark­nesse, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: And again, Rom. 2.16. God shall judge the [secrets] of men by Jesus Christ; neither is there any Creature, that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked, and open unto the eyes of [Page 25]him, with whom we have to doe, Heb. 4.13. [...], 'tis in that Text by a Metaphor borrowed from Anatomists, who, to discover howPsal. 139.15. curiously the Lord had wrought all the parts of Nature within a man, are wont to dissect him even from the neck, per spinam dorsi, down through the very chine bone, and so the very inmost cels, and closets, every nerve, and vein, and artery, and vessell is discovered, and laid open to the eye, and view of the disse­ctor: Even so is the whole man, in his closest thoughts, ima­ginations, and intentions to the Lord the Judge: and the extent of this reacheth as well to the good, as to the bad, Eccles. 12.14.

Godly men are, in this life, under a threefold cloud, hidden, Psal 83.3. and as it were unobserved, because ob­scured: The first is a cloud of Hypocrisie: it's an old word, Mundus universus exercet Histrioniam; as Players upon the Stage come on disguised under the habits of severall Per­sons, they being nothing lesse indeed, then what they seem to be in shew; and yet, till they be all unmasqued, are mista­ken for what they only seem to be; by which occasion, tin­sell often passeth for silver, and copper for gold, Hypocrisie for sincerity, a wooden leg with a silken stocking, a dung­hill covered with snow, are taken for sound, and fair, till the sun discover the quite contrary: or, as Maginus writes, in his Geography, of the river Jordan, which ari­seth at the foot of the mountain Libanus from a double head, the one being called Jor, and the other Dan, which glideth along in a sweet, and silver stream, pleasant to behold, but it emptieth it self at last, in mare mortuum, in­to the dead sea; so these hollow professors seem toIsa. 12.3. draw water, and to be refreshed from the Word and Sacraments, as from the two springs of Jor and Dan, and swim along in a stream of complacency to all beholders, not to be detected till, in the upshot, andSee 1 Cor. 4.5. end of all, (which will be their tryall) they empty themselves out into the dead sea of Apostasie: and indeed usually it proves true, whosoever begins in Hypocrisie ends in Apostasie: But yet till the Scene is over, and the Act done, during the time of the stage, it had need be a Lyncean eye to discriminate a [Page 26]true Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, from an opposite in dis­guise. And sith it hath so pleased the Lord of the field to suffer tares to grow together with the wheat, untill the Harvest, the nettle, and the myrtle, the hemlock, and the rose in the same garden, good fish and bad to be in the same Net, clean and unclean beasts in the same Arke, Si­mon Magus, and Simon Peter in the same Church among vi­sible Professors, till the lastMat. 3 12. fan make a finallMat. 25.23. sepa­ration, the godly will be here under a cloud, by Hy­pocrisie.

The second is a cloud of Sin and Corruption, which like aJosh. 15.63. & 23.13. Jebusite in Canaan will not out of their coasts, that Hydra of originall evill will still be repullulating; as in the womb of Rebecca, so in the wils of the best men, Carnall Esau's oftenGen. 25.22. struggle with Spirituall Jacob's; and, to speak withTertullian. l. 1. c. 5. contr. Nationes. Tertullian in his African style, Caelum ipsum nulla serenitas tam colata purgat, ut non alicujus nubeculae flocculo resignetur, In the clearest serenity of the Firmament, some speckling cloud may be discovered, as a mole was in the very face of Venus, or a foyle nigh set to some pre­cious Diamond; some blots, oft-times, in the face of the Church, as in the face of the Moon, to which she is resembled, Cant. 6.10. Yea, many times, when we would wind up our thoughts to the sweetest meditation upon God, they do like the pegs of an instrument, slip down between our fingers, and prove untunable; Now it falling out so, that theGal. 6.1. slips of the Saints, though but of infirmity, being more both watched, and observed, then their firmest standing, these set them often under a cloud, and they become obscured.

The third and last is a cloud of sorrowes, and afflictions, to which they are appointed, Act. 14.22 A Christians life is not like the Hill Olympus, [...], wholly clear, without Clouds; Christianus is quasi Crucianus, as one saith, it comes from Crux, as well as Christus; nor can there be a truer inscription, wherewith to incircle so despised a coyn as the Church is, then that in Can. 2.2. As a Lilly among Thornes, so is my Love among the Daughters, sure to be torn by Adversity: she is like to the bush of Moses, preserved from [Page 27] Exod. 3.2. consuming, yet seldome out of the flames of Tryall by sufferings; or, as the Arke of Noah, though saved from finking, yet tossed in a sea, andGen. 7.17. upon the bil­lowes of sorrow: and during that state, she is often be­clouded under showres, and stormes.

But now, when the day shall come, wherein men make their generall appearance, before this great Tribunall, in the Text; then shall all these clouds be removed, [...], Mat. 13.43. Then, shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun, in the Kingdome of their Fa­ther: They shall not only come [to] Judgement, but be able also to stand [in] Judgement; yea, to lift up their heads with joy, and with alacrity stand before the Sonne of man, Luk. 21.28, 36. But, as for the ungodly, it is not so with them, They shall not stand in the judgement, Psal. 1.5. but, when the last shril Trump shall blow, and the Dead arise, they shall, though all in vain, endeavour to hide their heads for horrour, calling for rocks and mountains toRev. 6.16. cover them from the presence of the Judge, who then shall set all their sins (though never so secret) in orderPsal. 50.51. before their faces; even then, when they shall be drag'd from the pri­son of their graves, shackled in the chains of guilt, and so arraigned, and set to the Barre of Justice, to stand before God.

And so I passe from what I termed the Arraignment, to that, which in the order of Judicature, is called the Indictment, which here stands entred upon record, The Books were opened.

I saw the Dead, small and great, stand before God, and the Books were opened.

I hasten.

By these Books thus here, and in Dan. 7.10. said to be opened, we may not apprehend anySi hic liber carnaliter co­gitetur, quis ejus magnitu­dinem, aut lon­gitudinem va­leat aestimare? &c. S. August. de Civ. Dei c. 4. materiall Volumes presented before the Lord, with a Catalogue of the Names, or actions of all men to be Judged, as if the Lord did stand in need of any such Information; Loe, saith the Prophet, Psal. 139.5. Thou O Lord, hast beset me behind and before, searched me, and known my thoughts, words, and actions; Psal. 11.4. The Lords Throne is in Heaven, his eyes behold, his [Page 28]eye-lids, try the children of men: to the same purpose, Job 34.21.Hesiod. lib 1. [...]. [...], as the Poet hath it; [...], said an old Poet Philemon, mentioned byIustin. Martyr. lib. de M [...]narchia Dei. Justin Martyr; the Platonists therefore called him [...], the inspector of all things; and some Criticks in the Greek tongue are of an appre­hension, that [...], signifying God, is derived [...], of a word which denoteth an Ʋniversall seeing, or behol­ding of things: This searcher of all mens hearts doth aloneHooker l. 3. p. 82. Eccles. Polit. Intuitively know who are his, saith learned Hooker; The Lord Christ knoweth all things, saith Peter, Job. 21.17. & 2.25. to the same purpose are those many other Texts, Jer. 17.10. & 23.24. 1 King. 8.39. Psal Cor & renes in occulto latitant: signifi­catur ergo Deum abscondita co­gitationum no­strarum scire. 7.9. Job 42.2, 3. But these Books are only [...], ascribed to the Lord, by way of dignation, or gracious condescen­sion, God speaking after the manner of men, that men might the better conceive of the things of God; and the meaning of them is, that all things thought, or said, or done by men, stand all as it were upon record, and are all exactly remembred by the Lord, and brought likewise afresh unto the memories of all men, Psal. 50.21. Setting them all in order before their eyes; so that Austin thinks thereby, quae­dam vis est intelligenda divina, a certain power of God is understood, by means, or by virtue whereof all the deeds of men are in a wonderfull serenity recalled to the re­membrance, ut accuset, vel excuset scientia conscientiam, that, according as they prove to be, science may either accuse, or else excuse conscience: And they are all called Books, in the plurall number, not, in respect of the mind, or of the knowledge of God, which is a most pure, and simple act; but, in respect of the variety of the objects, or diversity of the things therein inscribed.

And yet Divines both for order, and distinction sake, have given severall Titles to these my sticall, and spirituall Books.

1 The first is the Book of Nature, or of Providence, where­of Psal. 139.16. In thy Book are all my members written.

2 The second is of Gods Remembrance, Mal. 3.16. Psal. 56.8.

3. The Book of Mans Conscience, which is Volumen grande, as one calleth it, a large volume, wherein all things are written by the style of Verity, and for the amending of which Book all other Books were invented; soS. Ambros. ad Psal. 1. S. Am­brose, What are these Books opened, saith hee, but Consci­ence? Non atramento scripti, sed vestigiis delictorum, & flagiti­orum inquinamento? not written with Inke, but stamped with the Impression of black Sinnes, and most ugly Offences.

4. The Book of Life, Phil. 4.3. Rev. 3.5. by which is understood Catalogus Savandorum, the Catalogue of the Elect, whom God in Christ hath chosen from all Eter­nity unto Salvation; who though they now be unknown, yet shall then be more manifestly declared.

5. To which some adde, fiftly, the Books of the Scrip­tures, the Two Testaments.

All of these Books shall be, perhaps, at that day brought forth, bound up together in one volume, which being unclasped shall discover all matters, how they have been transacted, managed and done in the body, 1 Tim. 5.25, 26. Some mens sins are open before-hand, going before to Judgment, and some men they follow after; likewise also the good works of some are manifest before-hand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid; that is, some evil deeds are punished in this world, to give notice that there is an eye of Providence that observes them here; and some likewise are reserved for hereafter, to shew that there is a Judgment to come: The good works likewise of some follow them, Rev. 14.13. that is, the reward of their good works shall be imparted hereafter: In summe, The generall resolve in this matter is, that by these Books opened are mainly meant the Consciences of all men; the office of which is toRom. 2.14, 15. accuse, or to excuse, according to theDr. Field l. 4. c. 33. of the Church. privity that the soul hath to things good or ill, known to none, but to God, and it self: the Conscience being, as it were, Gods Register Book, wherein all the sins of the Impeni­tent, and Unregenerate, or Castawayes, with all their se­verall circumstances of aggravation, are kept under their guilt uncancelled, unstruck-out: It's true indeed, that Actus [Page 30]transit, but Reatus permanet, the act of Sin was transient, and momentany, not so the guilt; no, that is written with aJer. 17.1. pen of Iron, and with the point of a Diamond, and graven (as it were in characters indeleble) upon the table of their heart, Jer. 17.1. And this is the Act of Con­science, to be its own Testimony, yea, a thousand wit­nesses against it self: Hence was that saying ofLactant. l. 6. c. 24. Lactan­tius, Quid prodest non habere Conscium, habenti Conscientiam? It is a true word of the Apostle, God is greater then our Con­science, 1 Joh. 3.20. and surely none but He: Yet under that great God, the Supreme power on earth, (within a man) is the Conscience: In this Microcosme of Man, (saith a devoutB. H. Soliq. 51. edit. 1651. Divine) there is a Court of Judicature erected, wherein, next under God, the Conscience sits as the Chief Justice, from which there is no appeal; if that condemne us, or our actions, in vain shall all the world besides acquit us, and if that clear us, all other doom on earth is frivolous, and ineffectuall: O the agonies of a guilty bosome unacquitted within it self! like Pashur, it's aJer. 20.4. & Psal. 73.19. terror to it self: yea, very Ethniques many experimen­ting sometimes the stroke but of Naturall Conscience, were wont to set it forth by their Erinnes, or Hellish Fu­ries pursuing the flagitious with flaming firebrands, tor­menting with all extremity; the noyse of a leafLev. 26.36. shaken startles them, being afraid, alas! where no feare is; For Wickednesse (saith Wisdome, ch. 17.11.) condemned by her own witnesse is very timorous, and being pressed with Conscience, alwaies forecasteth grievous things, that fear being nothing else but a betraying of the succours, which Reason offereth: Guil­tinesse can never think it self secure; if there were no Fiends to torment it, like a Bosome-devil, it would like tremblingDan. 5.6. Belshazzar, and as Cain theGen. 4.15. marked vagabond, ever torture it self; There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked, Isa. 57.21. Aut si pax, bello pax ea dete­rior; yea, the wicked are like the troubled Sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire, and dirt: all the winds in the world, from without, cannot make a mountain shake, but the imprisoned vapors that are within: Truly spake one, once, All the world for a clear Conscience! wonder we [Page 31]at the wish? A wounded Spirit, saith Solomon, who can bear? Prov. 18.14. On the other side again; I say, on the other side, (For, weMar. 1.17. Fishers of men must have our Cork, as well as our Lead; our Cork, to boye up penitent soules from finking in the mighty waters of Despair, as well as our Lead to sink them into hell, who persevere incorri­gible) O the tranquillity of a spotlesse breast! when these Books are opened, and the characters of guilt are found to bee expunged, no sin at allPsal. 32.1. imputed to so blessed a soul: Beloved Christians, there is but one remedy of the forementioned malady, but one principall Receipt to eat out, or to fret away that canker which sin hath brought into the spirit, or rather to wash away the spots whichTit. 1.15. defile the Conscience, and that is in Heb. 9.14. the blood of sprinkling, even the precious blood of the Lamb1 Pet. 1.19. without spot, even the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, 1 Joh. 1.7. even that blood which Heb. 12.24. spea­keth better things then the blood of Abel, the one cryed to Heaven for Judgment, but the Lord Christ's for Mercy; one line, or as it were but one red strake of his bloud drawn through that Book, cleareth and acquitteth all: Let such an one be arraigned, let him be indicted, yea, per­haps by the grand Accuser of the Brethren, Rev. 12.10. accused before God, day and night; yet bring him to the Test, and the proofe will bee all, According to the Evidence.

And so I proceed in order, to the next particular, which after the Indictment, I styled the Evidence, the things written in the Books; The Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books.

In all regular, or legall Judicatures, before the Sen­tence, there goes Conviction, and that grounded upon some clear Evidence, according to some rule of Law, which directs, and orders Justice in that respect: Now, that which directs the businesse in the Text, is no other then the Word of God, the observation, or the violation of the commands whereof, clears, or charges the Consci­ence, to receive the Sentence of Absolution, or of Con­demnation, according to the Evidence: Doe not thinke, [Page 32]saith our Saviour, (the Judge in my Text) that I will ac­cuse you to the Father, there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom yee trust, Joh 5.45. by Moes hee meanes the Writings of Moses, ver. 47. Again, Joh. 12.48. Hee that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words; hath one what judgeth him, the Word that I have spoken, the sam shall judge him at the last day: Compare Jam. 2.12. and it is there­fore said to be Organically, or Instrumentally, A discerner ef the thoughts, and of the intents of the heart, Heb. 4.12. & Rom. 2.16. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospell, that is, in a generall acception of the Word, according to the whole systeme of Doctrine preached by Christ, his Prophets, and Apostles, epitomi­zed into the Gospel: The righteous shall be judged, spe­cially, (saithGerard. sect. 70. ubi supra. one) according to the termes of the Gospel, and bee absolved; the wicked, out of the Law, (collustrated by the light of the Gospel) thereby being convinced of sin and infidelity, and be condemned; and indeed, Divines are of opinion, that there shall not bee in the last day any other norma, or rule to order, or to direct the Judgement, then what is already passed before in the Ministry of the Word: The Conscience isJoh. 10.23. Matth. 18.18 bound or loosed Before, as the Keyes are rightly apply­ed: The Sentence of the Judge at the last day, is not a new making of Salvation, or Damnation; but onely a solemne, and publick testification, propalation, or defi­nitive ratihabition of what was before passed in the par­ticular Judgment by the Word, or instantly after Death, Heb. 9.27. Wherefore the last day is styled the [Revelation] namely, publick, of the righteous judgement of God, that is, of that particular, righteous Judgement, passed upon discussion, between God and the Conscience, before, Rom. 2.5. thus we read the sentence of the word to be this, Tri­bulation, and anguish upon every soule of man that doth evill, but glory, honor, and peace to every one that worketh good, Rom. 2.9, 10. & 2 Thess. 1.6, 7. all which, in the aequivalent, is declared, and more openly ratified in the Come yee Blessed; and in the Goe yee Cursed, at the last day; each of these, according to the Evidence, out of what is written in the Bookes.

Upon this occasion, I have read of one much retired, and given to devotion, who being asked, what book he was most of all seen in, and accustomed to read, made answer, That he read especially one, and that was a book of three leaves, a red lease, a black lease, and a white leafe; in the red lease he read the Passion of Christ; in the black lease, the Punishment of the Damned; and in the white lease, the joyes of the Blessed; by perusall, and meditation of which three leaves, he more profited, then if he had evolved all the Philosophers in the world.

And thus, at length, we are come to the Judgment, or Sentence-giving it self, in the next words, [...], The Dead were judged.

This Doctrine of the Judgment to come was never more need­full to be preached then now among us, upon whom the1 Cor. 10.11. ends of the world are come; all the lees and dregs of former times seeming to be about to settle, in this last, and corrupt age; wherein, alas! whilest Atheisme, like theJon. 4.7. worm in Jonah's gourd, hath eaten out the sap of Religion, and almost damp'd the very life, and power of godlinesse, wee meet with those [...] from [...] quod significat ludo pueriliter [...], veluti puer, puerorum more; such as make children play of the Terrors of the Lord. M. L. [...], those scoffers, of whom S. Pe­ter makes mention, 2 Pet. 2.3, 4. also Jude, v. 18. walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? vainly, and scoffingly puttingJam. 1.22. [...]. paralogismes, or deceivings upon themselves, sophistically reasoning from the delay of the time to a Nullity of the thing it selfe, and because Sentence is not executed speedily against their evill works, therefore, as Solomon long agoe observed, Eccles. 8.11. the heart of the sons of men are fully set in them to doe evill; and so believe the Doctrine of the Judgment to come to be but fabulous, together with the torments of Hell that follow after it, upon all such mockers: To whom I shall onely now say thus much, Vae quibus haec experienda sunt prius, quam credenda, asGranatense tom. 2. Conc. d. Temp. Conc. 1. Granatensis expresseth it, Woe bee to those besotted, and impenitent miscreants, whose sad experience may anticipate their Credulity in this, and prevent their Faith! O how well had Felix (that corrupt Governor) answered his name, and been happy, if as the reasoning about this truth made his con­science [Page 34]to tremble, he had instantly reformed his practice, and shun'd the danger of it, Act. 24.25.

But, for the attestation of this Doctrine, the Firmament is not more bespangled with starres, then the Scriptures are stored throughout with proofes thereof: Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied hereof, saith Jude, v. 13, 14. Behold, the Lord cometh with Ten thousand of his Saints, to execute Judgement upon all, both for their deeds and speeches: From whence St. Jude had that Prophesie, whether by undoubted tradition, as Paul is said to have received the names of Jannes and Jambres, the Magicians that withstood Moses, 2 Tim. 3.8. or by someVid. Scalig. in notis ad Eu­seb. p. 244. &c. book written of the transla­tion of Enoch, extant in that Apostles dayes, but since intercepted by time; (though I am praecisely ofS. August. lib. 18. de Civ. Dei, cap. 38. Au­stin's opinion, that however some records might be lost, which did pertinere ad ubertatem Cognitionis, appertain to the plenty of Knowledge; yet the Church hath been so faith­full a Keeper of the sacred Canon, that nothing is escaped her custody, which doth belong ad Authoritatem Religionis, to the Authority of Religion) It's most likely S. Jude might receive it, by Apostolicall and immediate Revela­tion: some praeludiums whereof were seen in the de­struction of the old world byGen. 7. 2 Pet. 3.6. Water, and of the Cities of Sodome and Gomorrah byGen. 19. 2 Pet. 2.6. & S. Jud. ver. 7. Fire; the two colours in the Rainbow figure it; the caerulean colour minds us of the watery Deluge past, and the flame colour, of the2 Pet. 3.10. fiery Conflagration to come.

It would be a large, if not a tedious taske for mee to enumerate all those Texts, which in Moses, in the Psalms, in the Prophets, and almost in each page of the New Testa­ment make mention hereof, and prove the Doctrine: Two places (which I have also named already) may be in stead of all, Act. 17.31. 2 Cor. 5.10. and the manner of it is expressed in the 24, and 25. Chapters of S. Matthew: But yet to say something of it. 1. This may be proved from what hath been already seen in those particular Judgments inflicted, in the course of Gods providence upon impe­nitent sinners inwardly, and outwardly, as upon Cain, Ahitophel, Judas, Herod, whom God was pleased to make [Page 35]visible Examples here, and thereby also to give intima­tion of what, in the last day of wrath, is like to bee in­flicted on such, as committing like sins are [reserved] with the apostate and damned Angels to the day of Judg­ment to bee punished, 2 Pet. 2.9. 2. Besides this, the justice of God, and the truth of his promise, in regard of the righteous requires it, whose afflicted estate in this life shall be recompensed with a glorious one hereafter, and all their persecutors have shame and consusion poured upon their faces forever, 2 Thess. 1.5. 3. That there may bee a publick acknowledgment of the Lord Christs Domini­on, purchased by his passion to himselfe, over men, and Angels, so that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confesse unto him, and own his Soveraign power, Rom. 14.9, 10, 11. 4. Equity requires it, that though the soule and body be separated in death, yet having sinned or obeyed together, they should accordingly be tormented or rejoyce together unto all eternity. In a word, some of the wiser Heathen have discoursed of a future reward, upon tryal of mens actions, after death, making mention of Pluto, Minos, Rhadamanthus, &c. as grim Judges, sup­posing the flakes of Aetna, to smel of the sulphur of Hell: and moreover, what they also speak of the Elysian fields, implies an apprehension of some future estate of Happinesse in another world. What need I adde more to this proof, sith it is an expresse Article of our Creed, that Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead? proved also, 2 Tim. 4.1. & 1 Pet. 4, 5. Heb. 6.2.

Now, (which I thought not amisse to mention, on this occasion) howsoever our Saviour interdicted his Disci­ples the curious in quisition after the times, and seasons, Act. 1.7. sith the Father hath put [that] in his own power; yet there have been found some, in all ages, very adven­turous, who (asBullinger lib. 2. advers. Anabap. c. 1. Bullinger writes of some Enthusiasts) have presumed to define a set time for this generall Assises: though the Scripture indeed mention a set day determined by God for the same, as Act. 17.31. 2 Pet. 2.9. and as St. John acquaints us, Rev. 1.10. that, as there is Dies Do­minica, the Lords day; so St. Paul, 1 Thess. 5.2. that there [Page 36]is Diēs Domini, the day of the Lord, or the day of God, 2 Pet. 3.12. In the one, it is for us to give him, here, the Glory of his Publick service; in the other, himself will give us that beleeve, then, and there, his Glory for our reward. Though this be said in the generall, yet of the very Day, andMar. 13.32. Hour before-hand, no man, no not the Son of man (as man) himself knoweth, at least, thinks it not fit to acquaint us with so much.

There is, asPet. Galatin. lib. 4. c. 20. Petrus Galatinus well styleth it, a Thal­mudisticall tradition, but no true Propheticall prediction, (and yet it is mentioned almost by all, who treat on this subject) of one Elias, who undertook to foretell that the world should last just 6000 years, 2000 before the giving of the Law, 2000 under the Law, and 2000 under the Gospel; gathering it, they say, from David, Psal. 90.4. & from Peter, 2 Pet. 3.8. that a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years, and so allowing one day of the week for a thousand years, by way of a resembling computation, the time is made up; and the seventh day, as it was some­times a day of a Spirituall (but of a Temporary) rest, so then it should be an everlasting and glorious rest to all true Belcevers: and the same, say men of that apprehension, was after a sort presigured in the Translation of Enoch; for the six persons, who were before him dying after the usuall manner of dying, Enoch being the seventh, as S. Jude saith, dyed not after the ordinary way, but was translated, as it were in a figure hereof, extraordinarily, by God himselfe, Gen. 5.24.

Thus have these men spunne a thread upon the wheel of their owne imaginations, not uttered an opinion upon sufficient warrant from Gods Word: for this cannot bee proved to bee the Prophesie of1 King. 17.1. Elijah the Tishbite, who prophesied under King Ahab, about the Three thousand and fortyeth yeare of the World, and Nine hundred and odde yeares before Christ, as someVid. Gerard. ubi supra, tom. 9. sect. 77. ca. 7. Chronologers compute it; but of one Elias, a Jewish Rabbi, about some Two hundred years before Christ: But (by the way a little) if this conceit should be Au­thentick, and hold right, then that other opinion of the [Page 37] Chiliasts, or Millenaries, first mentioned by oneEuscb. lib. 3. Ecclesiast. Hist. cap uli. Nice­phor. Hist. c. 20. & Hieronym, in Catalogo Scrip­tor. in vita Pa­piae. vid. Ribc­ram Comment. in Apocal. c. 20. v. 6. p. 380, 381. &c. Papias of Hierapolis, (as Irenaeus reports it) but much exploded in that age, yet of late taken up again by many, who have found more leisure to raise doubts, then (under that odde affectation of Singularity) declared any satisfactory re­solves unto them hereabout; that opinion I say, must va­nish: They pretend, that Christ shall come personally, and visibly to reign a thousand years upon earth, before the Day of the last generall Judgement: and all those who dyed Patriarchs, or Prophets, or Apostles, Martyrs, or Confessors, or any eminent Saints, and Israelites, and ChristiansJoh. 1.47. indeed, shall then be raised up from the dead to reign with him; and this they think is understood by the first Resurrection, Rev. 20.6. Thus an Error; or, in a mo­dest expression, a Mistake confutes a Praesumption; for if Christ must reign a thousand years visibly upon earth, be­fore the day of Judgement, and that first Resurrection be­ing not yet past, then, of necessity, the world must con­tinue above 6000 years, for that we are now within 400 years expiration of those 6000, and yet that bodily Resur­rection is not come to passe.

But, as to this latter opinion, besides the known maxime in Divinity, Scriptura symbolica non est argumentativa; many sound, orthodox Divines do conceive it to have in it too worldly, and too carnall an apprehension of the Nature of Christs Kingdome, sith Himself hath said it, that it was not of this world, Job. 18.36. in the outwardAct. 25.23. [...]. phantasies and pomp thereof; but Christs Kingdome is within, Rom. 14.17. in the inner man, spirituall and my­sticall: And it is no new thing in the Scriptures to call our New birth in grace a Resurrection, by arising spiritual­ly out of the graves of our Naturall corruptions to a life of Holinesse, even so it's understood, Col. 3.1. Besides, this were to make some addition to the Articles of our Creed, which neither mentions, nor implies three visi­ble Comings of the Lord Christ; but only two, the one at his first appearance in the Flesh to be Judged, and the other in Glory to Judge the world; even so the Holy Ghost expresly by his Divine Apostle, Heb. 9.18. He [Page 38]shall to them that look for him appear [...], [the second] time, without sin, unto salvation: Christ comes butD. Taylor. twice Corporally, once to merit salvation, and again, to per­fect it.

But I must contract this discourse, and all I have to adde more under this Head is a double advise; The one, not to search beyond a praecept after a Revelation unre­vealed, Noluit Deus prsdicari, quod videbat non utiliter seiri, saithS. August. Epist. 80. ad Helychaum. Austin, God would not have it known, beeause He saw it more profitable unknown: Neo tamen negatum est ad Detrimentum, quod ignoratum tribuit inerementum, asHilar. l. 9 de Trin. Hil­lary: If God had foreseen it advantageous for us, He would undoubtedly have revealed it unto us, Deut. 29.29. But this He hath assured us of, that there is such a day, and that it shall come as a thief in the night, suddenly, 2 Pet. 3.10. and S. James is expresse, chap. 5.8, 9. That the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and (in most of theRead Mat. 24 & 2 Thess. 2 3. praecursory signes there­of) it's evident, that the Judge standeth before the door, as it were, now ready to sound the last Trump, som­moning all to the last generall Tribunall. Well then, what others give to a curious indagation of the time, let us (by casting off thoughts of security) bestow upon a serious, and hourly praeparation against that time, and hour, whensoever it shall be, or how long soever that day shall continue, (which some have also unsatisfactori­ly, if not praesumptuously discoursed upon) or whereso­ever it shall be, whether in the vale of Jehoshaphat, or in the Centre of the earth; let us, I say, leaving these unre­vealed,Deut. 29.29. secret things to God, get into the Arke before the floud come, that we may be safe, when it doth come: Praeveniendus est Dies, qui praevenire consuevit, saith a Father in a kinde of Prophecy, praevent that day by a sedulous2 Pet. 3.12. expectation, which may otherwise praevent us, and come upon us as atLuk 21.34. unawares,Latet ulti­mus Dies, ut ch­serventur omnes Dies. S. August. l. 50. Hom. 13. thinking every day to be it. The Rabbins have a Proverb, Qui colligit in vespere sabbati vescetur in Sabbato, Who so gathers his Manna be­fore the Sabbath come, in the Eve, shall be fed with the same Manna, in the morrow, when the Sabbath is come: to which purpose give me leave I beseech you, to offer to [Page 39]your considerations aVide li­brum, cui Titu. lus est Destru­ [...]orium vitio­rum, a quodam no nine Carpen­tero conscrip­tum, sub. 41.6. story of a religious King, some­times of Hungaria, who took a resolution to retire him­self, and so to take an exact survey of himself, and of his actions, how he should give up the lastLuk. 16.2. account of himself, and of his great stewardship, both as a Christi­an, and as a King, in thatAct. 2.20. Rev. 6 17. great day, when after that generall Audit, he must be no longer Steward: The Nobles about his CourtAmos 6.3, 4, 5, 6. chanting it to the noyse of the violl, drinking wine in bowls, inventing to themselves instrumen's of musick, anoynting themselves with the chief oyntments, and stretching themselves upon Ivory couches, these put far from them the thought of this great day: (in like sort as many of our supine Christians every where, who have it often in their lips, upon any mis-accident, Alas! they thought no more of it, then of their Dying Day; no nor or Dooms­day neither; an ill-beseeming expression!) I say these jo­viall gallants about the Court would needs by a vehe­ment instigation stirre up the Duke the Kings brother to adventure to the Kings closet, to interrupt, or to re­move the sullen fits of his melancholy, to perswade him to minde his greatnesse, to take the liberty of his plea­sures, and forget sorrowes: To this advise the King, for that instant, makes him no returns of answer, or of reply: but soon after makes an edict, and gives it abroad, that at whose door a Trumpet should sound, that man should immediately be put to death: accordingly it sounded at his Brothers lodgings, and the Serjeants apprehend him for execution; at which unexpected surprisall being startled, he makes his way to the King, becomes prostrate at his feet, implores pardon, and mercy: under that pro­stration, and posture, then, (and not till then) the King speaks to him, and said, Ah my brother, are you so afraid of my Trumpet, who can butLuk. 12.4. take the body, or afflict the outward man; and shall not I tremble, and be afraid under the apprehension of that great Day, and of that dreadfull Tribunall of the supreme Potentate, the Lord of Lords, and the 1 Tim. 6.15. King of Kings, when I shall be summoned thither by the last, and terribleThess. 4.16. Trumpe of the Archangell? Which saying was enough to have appalled his ranting [Page 40]brother, yea to have put bowels into a rock, and have taught marble the art of relenting: I presume the appli­cation to be easie: Wherefore, to end this part, it shall be not my admonition only, but my prayer also, that every one of us may alwayes bear in remembrance that not more known, then serious saying of S. Hiecome, Sive comedam, sivebibam, sive aliud quid agam, semper videtur tuba illa terribilis insonare auribus meis, Surgite mortui, & venite ad judicium, that is, Whether I eat, or drink, or whatsoever else I am about, me thinks that terrible Trumpet soundeth this saying in mine ears, Arise ye Dead, and come to Judge­ment: which the learnedVossius disputat. Theo­log. p. 234 edit. 1628. Vossius hath, for memory sake, turned into this Distich,

And thus, at length, I am come to the last observable (at least according to my division) in this Text, and that is the Regulation of the finall sentence it self, whether of Absolution, or of Condemnation; and this is expressed in the last words, According to their Works.

The Quaere here is, whether Thoughts; and Words, and Omissions come not into account with the Lord, at the last Day? The Quaestion is out of quaestion, un­doubtedly they shall all, however the denomination here be given to the more noted part: For the Thoughts it's clear, 1 Cor. 4.5. Mal. 3.16. Eccles. 12.14. Psal. 50.21. For the Words, Mat. 12.36. S. Jud. v. 14. For sins of Omis­sion it's evident from the form of the sentence, Mat. 25.42, &c. You did not feed me, &c. And for all other Works, 2 Cor. 5.10. Even for whatsoever men have done in the Body: yet with this difference or oddes, to the godly, and to the wicked; to the godly it shall be secundum, non propter opera; not [for] their Works, as if the merit of them did deserve a recompence of blisse, as a meritorious cause of salvation; for all [that] merit, is in Christ their Head, and mediator: and indeed, of all their most accomplished works of the greatest Saints it may be said, as Andrew did of the five Loaves, and two Fishes, [...]; Alas! Lord, [Page 41] Joh. 6 9. It was the say­ing of Luther, Cave non tan­turn a peccatis, sed etiam a bo nis operibus. see Isa. 64 6. Vae etiam lau­dabili justitiae lominum, si re­mota inisericer­dia discutins eam, S. Austin. what are these [...] if laid in the ballance they would be found too lighty and thy Justice would infinitely praepon­derate; but Christ with theRev. 8.3. incense of his merits hath perfumed the performances of the Saints unto an ac­ceptation with God: the faith of the Righteous layes them as John in theJoh. 13 23 bosome of Christ, and their good Works as S.Mat. 26.58. Peter followRev. 14.13. after them, as the evi­dence, and manifestation of their Faith: But with the wicked, and impenitent reprobate the case is otherwise, because the sentence is pronounced upon them, propter opera, for their wicked, and sinfull Works. Nor will this seem strange, if we shall consider what it is; that makes sins culpable of damnation; what our weak services ca­pable of heavenly glory: we shall discover great oddes, mens sins are culpable of death by their own Nature be­ing committed against an endlesse Majesty, that cannot be satisfied but by a punishment commen surate and proporti­onal to his infinite Justice: but good Works become capable of their reward, 1 By the graoious promise of God, (pro­mittendo se fecit debitorom, saithAugus. de verbu Apost. ser. 16. Austin) who by pro­mise only hath made himself a debtor. 2 By the merit of Christ, that hath purchased unto us a cover of their blemishes, and that they might be capable of aeternall glo­ry. Now, for the sins of the obstinate, incorrigible, and impenitent, the Lord hath received no satisfaction in the bloud of Christ, which theyHeb. 10.29. trampled under feet; so that they lye still under the guilt of all their sins, and of all the severall aggravatlons of the same, together with all the wrath, and formidable curses, which the Lord hath in store for all ungodly miscreants, who by the abuse of Gods patience, and their own impenitent hearts have so treasured up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous Judgement of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, Rom. 2.5, 6.

To conclude this part; in a just dispensation of the several rewards of both; the greatHeb. 12.23. Judge of all adorned with majesty, attended with the glorious retinew ofHeb. 12.22. innu­merable Angels, and glorifiedDan. 7.10. S. Jud. v. 14. Saints, seated upon his royall glorious throne, withMat. 25.31. Mat. 24.30. power, great glory, shall [Page 42]call the one Sheep, and the other Goats, and making a fi­nall, and everlastingMat. 25.31, 32. separation between them shall say unto the one, Come ye blessed, inherit the Kingdome praepared for you, from the beginning of the world; and to the other, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire; and these shall go away into ever­lasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternall.

The sum of all I find to be epitomized into these four Latine verses:

So that this sentence is like to that pillar of the cloud which was darknesse to the Egyptians, but light to the Is­raelites, Exod. 14.20. The word, or sentence of Life, or Death eternall it is but short; yet curt and sharp to the Re­probate, or Castawayes; but short, and sweet to all Gods Elect, and Christs redeemed precious Holy ones.

Ʋse. And thus, (my beloved Hearers) after my weak measure, though not (as I fully desired) after the expectation happi­ly of such an auditory, I have dispatch'd the Divinity, or Explication of the Text: It remains, now, that under the same favour of your continued patience, I descend to the morality, or the effectuall Application of the same: Thus much I shall assure you all, that I have it in my wishes, that my remaining words may fall like Manna upon every ear, and heart; for [that] they say, had a taste, which eve­ry man did like, or wish for; I know its difficult to please all, yet it shall not be my aime (justly) to displease any, only, my main intention is, to2 Tim. 2.15. approve my self to God, theHeb. 12.23. Judge of all, in the discharge of my consci­ence.

And now, if any look that I should, in the first place, as­sume the boldnesse to advise, or admonish these learned, and reverend Judges, who like Castor and Pollux appearing [to­gether] promise good to the Common-wealth, as that A­sterisme [Page 43]doth to the Mariners at Sea; I shall disappoint that expectation, sith their great abilities, and their cordiall both aims and endeavours to do Justice [for Justice sake] are so well known to the chiefest seats of Judicature, and to this Nation already: I shall therefore in stead of ex­horting them, take this occasion to perswade all you that hear me this day, to be enlarged towards God in thank­fulnesse, that by his propitious providence, he hath furnish­ed the seats of publique Justice with so accomplished Ma­gistrates as these are: seeing therefore that by you we en­joy greatAct. 24.2, 3. quietnesse, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this Nation by your providence; we accept it alwayes, and in all places, (Honourable Lords) with all thankfulnesse.

My Admonitions must be directed unto all such, who enjoy the benefit, and blessing of government, which in the just administration thereof is a Terrour to the wicked, lawlesse, and ungodly; and an encouragement to those that be good, Rom. 12.3, 4. Yea, aXenophon [...]. Xenophon expresseth it, [...], Those who are good men, by behol­ding the dishonour cast upon vicious persons (by the Ju­stice of the Magistrate) for their unlawfull deeds, and their illegall perpetrations, do by sarre more chearfully follow, and embrace vertue; and not only so, but exemplary Ju­stice upon some proves a common terrour unto all; When a scorner is smitten, the simple will beware, saith the wise man, Prov. 19.25. or, as Moses expresseth it, When any praesumptu­ous sinner was punished, all Israel must hear, and fear, and do no more praesumptuously, Deut. 17.12.13.

To all the people in generall, then, let me say as Elisha the Prophet did by the mouth of Gehazi his servant to the Shu­namitish woman, 2 Kin. 4.13. Behold thou hast been carefull for us with all this care; What is to be done for thee? So say I, Behold our Governors have been carefull for you with all the care they can take, that you may every one dwell safely under your own1 King. 4.25. Zech. 3.10. Vines, and Fig-trees, in peace and quietnesse; that there may be noPsal. 144.12, 13, 14. leading into captivity, nor com­plaining in your streets, but that your sons may grow [Page 44]up as Plants, and your daughters as the polished corners of the Temple, that your sheep may bring forth thou­sands, and ten thousands in your streets, &c. If ye aske me then, What is to be done for the Magistrates? I answer, They must be spoken for: If ye desire to know, to whom? I answer, To the King of Heaven, even to that1 Tim. 6.15. King of Kings, of whose Kingdome there can beDan. 7.14 Luk. 1.33. no end. If ye demand further, How this King of Heaven must be spoken to for them? I answer, or rather the great Apostle for me, 1 Tim. 2.1, 2. In supplications, and Prayers, and inter­cessions: If you would know, for what? that same Text resolves you; namely, that we may lead a quiet, and peaceable life, in all godlinesse, and honesty; intimating hereby, that men in lawfull authority are, (or should be) the prime supporters both of Religion; and morall Ho­nesty, and therefore being subject to many temptations, and undergoing many difficulties, they stand in need of many, and those too the most fervent Prayers of all those good people, who expect protection, support, encourage­ment from them: Yea, if men did seriously ponder but the weight of the Magistrates office, they would double the zeal of their devotions for them: some of the Rabbins went so high in their expressions this way, as to say, qui funguntur magistratu non veniunt in judicium, as Paulus Paulus Fagius. sent­tenanor. 3. Ben Syra. Fagius acquaints us to have been the sentence of Rabbi Ben Syra, that is, such as conscientiously undergoe the office of Magistracy, were exempted from the Judgement to come; as if their pre­sent vigilancy, care, study, travell, and other laborious­nesse, which they underwent for the good, and weal of Community, had been so great, that it had after a sort, excused them, for all things else: but we will take no­tice of this as an hyperbolicall expression, and an excessive speech in the Rabbi: Yet, neverthelesse, we read in Scrip­ture that Moses (however then theNum. 12.3. meekest man upon earth) being in the office of a Governor, found cause to call it a [Num. 11.11. confer, Exod. 18.22. Burthen] yea, and to call out too for someNum. 11.14. help to stand under it: Pray we then to the God of wisdomeIsa. 28.6. to be for a spirit of Judgement to them that sit in Judgement, to inspireourPsal. 105.22. Senators with a spirit [Page 45]of wisdome, and counsell, to direct all their consultations so, as they may in the issue tend to the glory of God, the credit of the Gospell, the discovery,2 King. 20 19. and suppression of Blasphemy, Haeresie, Atheisme, with the Authors of it, and for the establishing ofZech. 8.19. Truth, with publick Peace, in the Nation.

Secondly, To the Magistrates there is due Honour belonging, to bee (besides in the inward awfull thoughts of their power) manifested in Reverentiall speeches, and Externall homage; you must nor revile the Gods; or as it is in your margine the Judges, nor curse the Ruler of the people; it was the charge of Moses a Prophet, Exod. 22.28. Wherefore, when Paul had overshot himselfe, in a sudden passion, that way, and given the nickname of a Whited wall to the High Priest (then his Judge), hee, upon advertisement thereof, gave himself a check for it, upon the consideration of that very text, Act. 23.5. Moses a chief Governour is styled by Joshua [My Lord] Moses, Num. 11.28. and the people in taken of civill homage, and observance, [bow the knee] to Joseph, when a Gover­nor in Aegypt, Gen. 41.43. And moreover (which for some reasons, I will not omit to note on this occasion) for the greater gracefulnesse of their Office and Persons, they have been, in all Ages, arrayed in robes of Majesty, and honour before the people; chiefly when placed in the Seat of Judicature, and under the actuall execution of their so honorable Function; which may be gathered from 1 King. 22.10. Matth. 6.29.

Render then honor to the Magistrate, to whom it is so many wayes due, Rom. 13.7. and it's well observed by Chrysostome, that the Apostle saith not simply, [...], Give, as if the thing were Arbitrary; but [...],See Matt. 22.21. & Luk. 20.25. render it, as of Duty, in all obedience to Authority.

Thirdly, there is due to the publick MagistratesMatt. 17.25. Rom. 13.7. Tri­bute, and Custome, appertaining to them for all their pub­lick care, providence, protection; [...], they attending continually upon this very same thing, car­rying publick spirits in their publick places, being conten­ted [Page 46]not only to spend, but to be2 Cor. 12.15. spent for the good of the Community the words in the originall Greek, [...], and [...], put for Tribute, and Custome, in a generality of use are oft-times confounded, and indifferently put to signifie any kind of payment made to the Governors; yet critically say some learned Authors, Tribute is of that which ariseth out of what is grown within the land, [...], from being carryed, or brought into the Exchequer, or Treasury appointed: Custome is that which is paid for what is, according to Contracts in Traffique, imported or expor­ted, into, or out of a Nation, [...], soStrabo. lib. 17. Strabo calls such things [...], and so the La­tine word vectigal hath its name ex vectura: But before so learned an Auditory, I may not waste time about words:Bodinus, l. 6. c. 2. de Republ. Bodinus reckons up divers kinds of both; the determi­nation of the manner, or of the measure of either, whether ordinary, or extraordinary, is left to the prudence and piety of lawfull Superiours, according as the state of im­portant affaires, the faculty and ability of the people, or the necessity of Subsidiary supplies, for the support, honor, and safety of a Common-wealth may require: Now, an obedient people may assure themselves, that aequall, just, and godly Governors, will not turn Judg­ment into gall, Amos 6.12. but remember, that God, (forChr. 19 6. whom they judge) is pleased to style themIsa. 44.28. Numb. 27.17. Shep­heards, whose office is not toMic. 3 3. Ezek. 45. flay off the skin from off the backs of the flock, but to shear the sheep so for their own use, that withall the wool may grow again for the warmth of the flock it self; even as it's reported to have been the saying of Tiberius, A good Shepheard should tondere pecus, non deglubere, asSueton in [...]. Suetonius records it: Oppression (saith Solomon) maketh even a wise manEccles. 7.7. mad, yea, and it may make a good manExod. 2.23. Psal. 12.5. sigh: But when (as I noted in my former Sermon) these things are expected, and imposed, after the old Charter of England, salvo contenemento, in a tender moderation, Tribute must be rendred to whom it is due; our Saviour himself paid it, Matth. 17.25. and such payment was in use even in the days of King Solomon, 1 King. 4.6.

In summe, who doe, or should, carefully guard your Religion, your Possessions, but Governors? Who pro­tect you by land, and fense you by sea, but they? And what can you bethink to purchase a solid peace on the land? or to fortifie your wooden walls at sea? And if Governours lay out themselves for the good of Com­munity, so that themselves shall become a generall, and a publick good; it will be a great Ingratitude in those who reap the comfort, not to yeeld such all lawfull as­sistance.

And thus having shewn the duties of the people at large, in their relation to Governors, and to Government: It onely remains, that I adde but a few words more, suita­ble to the present season, and occasion of this meeting.

And here I might begin my advice to Mr. HighMr. Iohn Trott of Laverstake Esq Sheriff: but why should I goe about to paint a Diamond, or to enamell a pearle? whose modesty whilest it declined Ho­nor, it overtook him: He hath set a faire Copy for his Successors in that Office, and Authority, to write after: I shall onely desire him to continue doing as hee doth doe, and then both hisCant. 1.3 Name, and his Actions shall bee as an Oyntment poured forth to persume Po­sterity as with some fragrant odour, that may provoke Imitation.

I might next direct my Exhortation to the Gentlemen of the Grand Inquest, upon whose Information,Advice to the Grand Jury. and Presentments depends almost the main transaction of the present proceedings in Judicature, for theGal. 5.12. cutting off of incorrigible Malefactors, and the reformation of all disorders, and illegall irregularities; If you would bee esteemed as the Eyes of your whole Countrey, you had need to see clearly; but if in any particulars you would defire to be of Lyncean, and discerning eyes indeed, Let me desire you to have speciall regard to the Violators of Gods sacred, and precious1 Cor. 11.2. Ordinances, in the promoting whereof, as you shall advance the glory of God, and therein your own felicity, so (as I am assu­redly perswaded) extremely gratifie these learned, and [Page 48]religious Judges, to whom nothing is more dean, then the promotion of Gods1 Sam. 2.30. Honor: one thing, above many others, that I might mind you of, is the Disco­very of those Artifriall, and Grand Impostors, or Church-cheaters, the Jesuites, by whose cunning in sinn­ations, (under the severall habits, or shapes, as well of Mechanicks, as otherwise) it's more than probable, that all the combustions, at the present, in the Christian world are raised, and not a little in Great Britany; if you have your owne soules, the prosperity, and welfare of the Church, and State of England, use your best indeavours to detect, and to present those Stygian, and Infernall Emissaries, for their mature extirpation; Take heed, and doe it.

And as for you Jurors of another order,Advice to the Petty-Jury and Witnesses. and all those who are in any kind of Causes to give Evidence; I hope none of you are become Antinomians, to reject,Psal. 119.126. or evacuate the Morall law of God, if not, then bee mindfull of the Third Commandement, wherein you cannot but take notice, how upon no terms, the Lord hath protested to hold himExod. 20.7. guiltiesse, who by rash, orZech. 8.17. false Oaths shalt dare to take his Name in vain, or contest his dreadfull Omniscence to an injustice: against all1 Tim. 1.10. [perjured] persons the Law stands in full force, and vigor, 1 Tim. 1.10. The very Heathens had their [...], Perjury-revenging Gods, to whose vin­dictive powers they left the Violators of their Deities, as if themselves were at a losse how to proportion a punish­ment to so foul a crime: And grave men are of opinion, that in taking Oaths men are to look to the sense of the Imposer, otherwise they doe [...], swear falsely; and if they performe not what is sworn by them, they doe [...], forswear and perjure themselves: It's sad, when amongst Christians that Apophthegme in Plutarch stall be made use of, in good earnest, [...], that Children are to be con­sened with Rattles, and Men with Oaths: But I hopeHeb. 6.9. Better things of you.

I had prepared also some more viands for some otherThe Law­yers. guests, but finding them not present, it's possible their sto­machs are not up so early, or, perhaps, with some of them durum potabile may go down sweeter, then the gold of the Sanctuary, to which Gods word is resembled Psal. 19.10.

To my reverend Brethren of the Ministry,To the Cler­gie. I shal not pre­sume to say much, only to the learned, and godly among them be a short Remembrancer of persisting in the great and important Labour ofCol 4.17. Fulfilling their Ministry, in which regard I wish from my heart, that we might be all as so many ColossianCor. 4.17. Archippusses: Times have been, when with too many sound Preaching hath been esteemed, but a sound of Preaching; and whereas S Paul professed of himself, and of his fellow-labourers, We 2 Cor 4.5 preach not our selves, but Christ Jesus and him 1 Cor 3.11 Gal. 6.14. Crucified, the saying might have been inverted, we our selves preach not; and yet, (upon what pretence who knowes?) like some Anticks in old buildings they with Issachar Gen. 49.14. couched down, and bended the shoulders, as if the whole stresse of Ecclesiasti­call building had layn upon their shoulders.

Let us have not only ourExod. 28.33. Bels, but also ourExod. 28.34 Pomegranates, our Bels to tole, and call men into the Temple of piety, but our Pomegranates as emblemes of our fruitfull conversations; and as Aaron the Priest had the names of the twelve Tribes engraven upon hisExod. 28.21. Breastplate, thereby to intimate the dear, and hearty affection, that, as one thatHeb. 13.17. watched for their souls, he should bear to them all; so let us have all the people com­mitted to our charge, in our1 Thess. 2.8. hearts, as if our very1 Thess. 3.8. life, and welfare were bound up in their spirituall1 Thess. 4.1. Proficiency: The Schoolemen are somewhat divided in opinion about Theology, or Divinity, whether it be a Science? and if so, of what kinde? Thomas makes Theologiam, speculativam; Scotus, practicam; Hales, affectivam; but, as when three starres are in conjunction, there usually followeth some admirable effect, so where there is a concurrence of all these, they make up an accomplished Divine: Well then, let us lift up our voices likeIsa. 58.1. Trumpets, as the Pro­phet speaks; and why like Trumpets? are there not other [Page 50]sounds as loud? Loe, thePsal. 29.3. Thunder of the Lord giveth out aPs. 77.17, 18. voice, and that a mighty voice; yea, the SeaPs. 93.7. roars, and makes a very loud noise; yet not like Thunder, nor like the Sea, which both are louder, but lift up we our voices like Trumpets, because in sounding of Trum­pets, the Hand is used, as well as the Mouth, to intimate, that a preacher must take heed to1 Tim 4.16. Read Ho ker lib. 5. Eccles. polit. sect. 81. per tot. himself in matter of Action, as well as to his Doctrine, in matter of Elocution; as Noah is observed to have taught the old world as well by hisHeb. 11.7. hand, in building the Arke, as by his lips in forewarning their destruction, and both conjoyned gave him the denomination of a Preacher of Righteousnesse, 2 Pet. 2.5. Verbum sapientibus; and I crave pardon for this boldnesse.

To end this Discourse, and lest I be furtherAct. 24.4. tedious unto you: To all this people in generall, let me say, as S. Jan. 2.12. So speak ye; and so do, as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty: ye have heard the certainty, and impar­tiality of all your Dissolutions, and the same likewise of all your Resurrections: ye have heard moreover of Books, and Registers wherein stand recorded all your thoughts, words, and actions whatsoever done in the Body, and according to what is written in those Books, ye must all be Judged at the last day: so then, be exhorted all of you, from the highest to the lowest, to labour to keep these Books, these lasting Records clear; and remember, that here Heaven is either won, or lost; after death men are, say Schoolemen, Extra statum merendi, & demerendi, out of a condition to pro­cure any thing by acting, as who are then in a state, or condition to receive their severall2 Cor. 5.10. rewards, whether of good, or ill, according as they have done before in the body: wherefore as our Saviour, Let us work the works of God, whilest it is Day, Joh 9.4. that is, as Chrysostome ex­pounds it, [...], during the continuance of the Day of this Life: Take notice that your Time, and your Day isPs. 39 4, 5. short, your account large, and the Judge before whom thisRom. 14.12. Account is to be given up,Mat. 25.24. strict, and2 Tim 4.8. just, and no1 Pet. 1.17. Respecter of persons at all.

In one word, to close up all; act vigorously for God, [Page 51]for his Christ, for his Gospell, and that as well in the Prae­cepts, and Duties thereof, as in the Priviledges, and Pro­mises of the same; be as well resolved to have Christ for a Lord to rule thee, as for a Jesus to savethee: In summe, as I said in the conclusion of my last Sermon, in this very place, on the same occasion; So live, and strive for holinesse, as if thou hadst no mean of salvation but that; I mean, in re­gard of zealous earnestnesse, and Christian endevours: And yet so rest, and relye upon the merits of Jesus Christ, as if, in point of self-desert (which is nothing) thou hadst no holinesse at all: This, this alone is the way, by grace to arrive at glory.

Amen, Amen. Soli Deo Gloria.