A44673:193
A discourse concerning the Redeemer's dominion over the invisible world, and the entrance thereinto
A discourse concerning the Redeemer's dominion over the invisible world, and the entrance thereinto by death some part whereof was preached on occasion of the death of John Hoghton Esq, eldest son of Sir Charles Hoghton of Hoghton-Tower in the county of Lancaster, Baronet / by John Howe ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1699
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. That all the active, Services, and usefulness, we are capable of in this World, is but transitory, and lies within the compass of this temporary State of things, which must have an end. Whereas the business of the other World, belongs to our final and eternal State, which shall never be at an end. The most extraordinary qualifications for service on Earth, must hereafter, if not by the cessation of the active Powers and Principles themselves, as Tongues, Prophecies, and such knowledge as is uncommon, and, by peculiar vouchsafement, afforded but to a few, for the help of many.
•hese endowments designed for the Propagation of the Christian Faith, and for the stopping Mouths of gainsayers, must in the use and exercise, at least, by the cessation of the objects, and occasions, ⟨p. 157⟩fail, and cease, and vanish away, 1 Cor. 13.8. The like may be said of courage and fortitude to contend against prevailing wickedness; skill, ability, with external advantages, to promote the impugned interest of Christ, and Christian Religion; of all these there will be no further use in that other World. They are all to be considered as means to the end. But how absurd were it to reckon the means of greater importance than the end it self? The whole present constitution of Christs Kingdom on Earth, is but preparatory and introductive to the Celestial Kingdom. And how absurd were it to prefer this Temporary Kingdom to the Eternal one, and present serviceableness to this, to perpetual service in the other?
'Tis true, that service to God and our Redeemer in this present state, is necessary in its own kind, highly acceptable to God, and justly much valued by good Men. And we ought our selves willingly to submit to serve God in a meaner capacity in this World, while it is his pleasure we shall do so, especially if God should have given any signification of his mind, concerning our abode in the Flesh, some longer time, as 'tis likely he had done to the Apostle Paul,