Temple of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us And that it is the Soul the Apostle hath here in his Eye in this Discourse of his in my Text as that which he intends the Subject here wrought upon appears if we consult the Well-head of his Discourse about the Soul which is the 16. ver of the 4. Chap. Our inward Man says he is renewed c. there is your wrought upon here whilst the outward the Body perisheth Which Soul in being call'd the inward Man connotates at once both Grace and the Soul conjunct together and distinct from the Body as well as from Sin and Corruption Elsewhere it is declared the subject first and originally wrought on Eph. 4. 23. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Look round about the Text and what is the Vs wrought on plainly this Inward Man by the Coherence afore and after Ask yet 1. If our earthly Tabernacle that is our Body be dissolved we have c. that is This inner Man our Souls have for the Body is supposed dissolved So likewise ver 4. We in this Tabernacle that is our Souls in these Bodies More expresly after ver 8. our very Souls not only whilst in our Bodies but when separated from our Bodies have the We given them We are willing to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The We present with the Lord and absent from the Body is nor can be no other than a separate Soul in its estate of Widowhood And so here ver 5. Hath wrought Vs the Soul bears the Person carries away the Grace with it Add to this the Time here specified in Observa quôd non in futuro dicit Parabit â—s Non demumparabitur ubi jam induendum est c. Musc in locum the Text in which we are wrought upon It is but this Life and during the term thereof Hath wrought us says the Apostle not in the future Who shall work us for it That hath wrought referring to the work of Conversion at the first Who hath made us meet to be partakers c. Col. 1. 12. and who doth continue still to work us the Peterperfect being often put by the Apostle for the Present God renewing the inner Man Day by Day Chap. 4. 16. So working upon it in order to this self-same thing continually Unto which Words there these here have an evident aspect yet so as that time of working is but during this Life For it is whilst the outward Man is mouldring and that by Afflictions which during this moment work an eternal weight of Glory ver 17. and that is expresly said to be but this present time Rom. 8. So then there is no Parabit in that other World But as Solomon says of Man There is no work after this Life No remembrance Eccl. 9. 10. says David namely which Psal 6. 5. hath any influence into a Man's Eternity So there is no working upon us in order thereunto after Death God hath done his Do hath wrought and Man hath finished his course as Paul of himself and in this Chapter of my Text ver 10. Every Man receiveth the things done in his Body be they good or evil Those things that are done in this Body only therefore only what in this Life he hath wrought And for this he hath wrought us says the Text. §. These things premised I come to the Argument to be raised out of them to prove the Point in hand First that Grace or Holiness because they are immediately wrought in the Soul that therefore when the Body dies the Soul shall be taken up into Life That this is a meet and congruous Ordination of God the Scripture it self owns and seems so to pitch the reason of it in Rom. 8. 10 11. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you He gives an account of what is to become hereafter both of the Bodies and Souls of them in whom Christ is 1. First for the Body that is condemned to die The Body is dead because of Sin By Body I understand the same which he in the 11th Verse terms the mortal Body to be raised up which says he is dead that is appointed to die as one sentenced to Death you term a dead Man And this because of Sin It was meet that that first threatning of dying should have some effect to evidence the Truth of God therein Only God is favourable in his Ordination in this that he arresteth but the Body the less principal Debtor but that to be sure shall pay for it It is appointed to all Men once to die even for Men that are in Christ as this place of the Romans hath it Then 2. follows what remains the Soul of such an one when the Body dies But says he speaking by way of exception and contrary fate too The Spirit is Life because of Righteousness The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body this when the Body dies is Life He says not Living only or immortal but is swallowed up into Life And why because of Righteousness which is Christ's Image and so preserves and by God's ordination upon dying elevates the Soul which is the immediate and original Subject of it which is the Point in hand For this thing it is God hath wrought it But then because the Query would be Shall this Body for ever remain dead because of this first Sin and bear this Punishment for ever No Therefore 3. he adds He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies So at last and then bringing both Body and Soul together unto compleat Glory And the congruity of Reason that is for this appointment is observable something like to that 1 Cor. 15. As by Man came Death so by Man came also the Resurrection from the Dead For that Sin that condemned us to this Death we had from the first Adam by bodily Generation as the channel or means of conveying it who was as other Father of our Flesh The Arrest therefore goes forth against the Body which we had from that Adam because of that Sin conveyed by means of our Bodies for tho I must not say the Body defiles the Soul or of it self is the immediate Subject of Sin yet the original Means or Channel through which it comes down and is derived unto us is the Generation of our Bodies The Body therefore congruously pays for this and the Death thereof is a Means to let Sin out of the World as the propagating it was a means to bring Sin in But an holy Soul or Spirit which is the Off-spring of God having now true Holiness and Righteousness from the second Adam communicated to it
Graces set in opposition unto our Outward Man the Body with its Appurtenances which he saith daily perisheth that is is in a mouldring and decaying condition Chap. 5. ver 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens In this first verse of this fifth Chapter he meets with this Supposition But what if this outward Man or earthly Tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pull'd down what then shall become of this inner Man And he resolves it thus That if it be dissolved we have an House a Building of God in the Heavens And what is the We but this inner Man he had spoken of renewed Souls which dwell now in the Body as in a Tabernacle as the Inmates that can subsist without it And it is as if he had said If this inward Man be destituted of one House we have another God that in this Life was so careful over this inner Man to renew it every day hath made another more ample provision against this great Change It is but its removing from one House to a better which God hath built As your selves to speak in your own Language if Wars should beset you and your Country-House were plundered and pull'd down you would comfort your selves with this I have yet a City-House to retire unto Neither is the terming the Glory of Heaven and that as it is bestowed upon a separate Soul an House alien from the Scripture-Phrase Luke 16. 9. That when you fail they may receive you into everlasting Habitations Death is a Failing 't is your City-Phrase also when a Man proves Bankrupt a Statute of Bankrupts comes forth then upon your old House Statutum est omnibus semel mori and upon all you have and then it is a receiving or entertaining that otherwise desolate Soul into everlasting Habitations that is into an House eternal in the Heavens as the Text. Nor yet is the Phrase of terming Heaven a City-House remote neither for Heb. 11. 13. Abraham and the Patriarchs died in Faith Mark that In Faith or Expectation of what He had told us ver 10. He looked for a City whose Builder is God What is a City but an Aggregation and Heap of Houses and Inhabitants Multitudes had died afore Abraham and gone to Heaven from Adam Abel Seth downwards and God promiseth him Peace at his Death and a being gathered to those Fathers Gen. 15. 15. There was then a City built and already replenish'd with Inhabitants and amongst others an House provided for him that is his Soul built of God and ready furnished against this Removal Verse 2. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven In this Verse he utters the working of the Affections of Christians towards their being cloathed upon with this House and so in order to this enjoiment of it their desiring even to be dissolved which Paul also utters of himself Phil. 1. Now if the first Verse speaks of the Glory of a separate Soul when he calls it an House this second verse must intend the same Verse 3. If so be that being cloathed we shall not be found naked In this Verse he gives an wholesom Caution by the way and withal insinuates why he used the word cloathed upon in the fore-going Verse thus speaking of the Glory of such a separate Soul even because it is absolutely necessary that all our Souls be found cloathed first and renewed with Grace and Holiness and not be found naked at our Deaths that is not devoid of Grace and so exposed to Shame and Wrath as Rev. 16. 15. Verse 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life The fourth Verse gives a genuine and sincere Account why a Christian doth thus groan and that after dissolution it self in order to this Glory which he sets out with an accurate distinction of their desires of dissolution in difference from like desires in all other Men First Negatively not for that being burthened we desire to be uncloathed or dissolved that is simply for ease of those Burthens nor out of a despising of our Bodies we now wear as their Heathen Wise-men and Philosophers did and others do No. But secondly Positively For this as the top-ground of that Desire That we would be cloathed upon with that House spoken of Verse 1. and that still taken in the Sence spoken of in the second Verse to the end that this mortal animal Life which the Soul tho immortal in it self now leads in the Body full of Sins clogg'd with a Body of Death and Miseries each of which hath a Death in it and so it lives but a dying Life that this Life may be exchanged yea swallowed up by that which is Life indeed the only true Life the knowing God as we are known and enjoying him All which as to our Souls is truly performed at our Dissolution although the final swallowing up the Mortality of our Bodies also doth yet remain to be accomplished which will be done at the latter day at that Change both of Body and Soul tho in respect of the Body it will be compleated as then more fully This Interpretation and the suting of all the Phrases used in this 4th Verse to hold good of this Exchange at Death I cannot through straitness of time give an account of now I have lately and very largely done it elsewhere This for the Coherence I hasten to my Text. TEXT Verse 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit THe Current of the four former Verses running thus steadily along in this Chanel the Stream in this Verse continues still the same There is one word in this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this self-same thing God hath wrought us which serves us as a Clue of Thread drawn through the Windings of the former Verses to shew us that one and the same Individual Glory hath been carried on all along and still is in this Verse also So then we see where we are What this self-same thing should be ask the first Verse and it will tell you it is that House eternal in the Heavens a Building of God prepared by him against the time that this earthly House is dissolved Ask the second Verse it is the same House we groan to be cloathed upon with when the other is pulled down Ask the fourth Verse and more plainly It is that Life which succeeds this mortal Life the Soul now lives in this Body and swallows up all the Infirmities thereof And then here it follows Even for this self-same thing c. So then if the Glory of the separate Soul be the Subject of any of these Verses then of all and so of this Verse
and God's Wrath. Again ver 10. destroyed of the Destroyer Who was the Destroyer then Angels So Heb. 11. 28. And what Destruction or Destroyer under the Gospel is it that is typified out by these even God Himself who as by Christ is said to kill the Soul and destroy Body and Soul in Hell So ere the Apostle took off his Pen from prosecuting that Argument in the very same Chapter he in full effect says as much in setting afore them how it was God's Power and Wrath instead of those other Destroyers with which Sinners have now to do ver 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousie are you stronger than he I might confirm this Notion from other Types 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. This fore-laid To approach nearer to our purpose in hand there are two things further to be done 1. as touching the Type it self what kind of Fire that was which devoured them And the manner of their Deaths The Fire was another manner of Fire than this our Elementary common Fire This was Fire from Heaven and therefore said to be a Fire from the Lord that devoured them it was such a Fire as blasts of Lightning are which strike and blast and shrivel the Spirits of a Living Body in an instant which is evident by the manner of their Deaths The Hebrew Doctors say of it that it was a Fire which burnt their Souls not their Bodies their meaning is their Bodies were not consumed or devoured by it for Lev. 10. 5. 't is said They carried their Bodies and Coats into the Tent as untouch'd It was therefore such a Fire as Lightning is from Heaven which useth to strike and lick up Mens Spirits in an instant when yet in the mean time it consumes not breaks not so much as Skin or Flesh which our Elementary Fire preys first and most upon It was therefore a far subtiller Fire then Culinary or Kitchin Fire which suitably served as the fittest and nearest Type of this fiery Indignation and of the vengeance which it executes And this was but the Shadow The second is What the substance answering to these Types should be This I shall set out by two things 1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery Indignation It is the immortal Souls of Men these are the Fewel which this Fire doth prey upon As to the truth of the thing it self I need not insist on it But the Analogy of that as the Shadow and this as typified thereby that is the matter afore me Let it be considered that the Death and Destruction of the immortal Soul in Man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by such a devouring as Moses word is or licking up the vital and animal Spirits that run in the Body when yet the Body it self remains unburnt Thereby demonstrating that it was such a Fire as struck immediately at that which is the Fountain of Life it self in the Body and at that which is the Bond the Vinculum the Tye of Union between Soul and Body for such are those Spirits And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the Body There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of Nature to have born a resemblance so near to shadow forth the Immortal Soul as those spirits running in Man's Blood and Arteries do which some affirm to be the very Animal and Vital Soul in Man Sure I am they are as the Oyl whereby Life is preserved and fed and in the Blood is the Life says Moses our best Interpreter in this Neither doth this Shadow hold a Similitude in this particular only but in another like case as evidently The pouring forth of the Blood of the Beasts that were Sacrificed under the Old Law was particularly ordained to signify Christ his pouring forth his Soul unto Death as Esay speaks As well as in general that the Sacrifice of those Beasts did typifie forth Christ's Sacrifice in the whole of it And this was as near a Representation of that Particular as could any way be made by what was corporeal in Beasts or else in the whole Creation for a Sacrifice of Mankind or the Blood of Men God liked not to be made to him in his Worship could possibly have been found to pourtray it forth The second thing is that the substance shadowed forth by that Fire was no other than the Indignation or Wrath of the great God Himself which is termed Fiery Indignation here For Proof of which I insist not that some Shim thereof this Shadow it self doth cast in Moses his saying again and again in Terminis that a Fire from the Lord c. which hath a great Emphasis and Resemblance of this in it But for proof I ask First Where shall we find or how Omnes ignes hujus Mundi sunt ut ignis Pictus ad ignem 〈◊〉 shall we imagine any created Fire so to exceed that Fire from Heaven recorded in that Story and so far exceeding it as the Substance doth a Shadow or such as should melt down Immortal Souls You may sooner invent or imagine a Fire so much comparatively hotter than that of the Sun it self which is the contract of Fire and Light and so much exceeding it as should be able to shrivel up this Sun into a burnt black Coal as to imagine any such created Fire so transcending this of Lightning from Heaven as shall thus devour reasonable Souls and Immortal Spirits that in the substance of them as being Spirits do bear the image of God In what Furnace will you think to find such a Fire No where but in the Bosom of him who hath here said Vengeance is mine even of God himself 2. To confirm this What created Fire can be conceived more subtile or powerful than the Angels themselves are conceived to be whom as Heb. 1. 7. out of the Psalms the Apostle compareth to Flames of Fire that is in our European Language to Lightning Now then I ask when Christ says Mat. 25. 41. Go into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shewing that Man's Punishment shall be from the same hand that the Punishment of those evil Angels is what Fire can be supposed such that can work on Angelical Natures who themselves have Power over Fire of Fire of Lightning from Heaven as in Jobs case was seen None other but that which as the Apostle resolves us if we will rest in it That our God is a consuming Rev. 14. Fire Heb. 12. ult So that considering the State and Condition of the Devil I cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive Speech of Luthers Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium damnatorum It is the Wrath of God that is the Hell of the Devil and of all the damned For there can be no other Fire in which the Devils can be tormented Outward washings may as soon reach Conscience as Heb. 9. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 21. as such created
of a contrary vertue or effect he compares the Curse of God on his Soul unto a spiritual Oyl of a piercing penetrating Violence that strikes in as Quicksilver into the Bones and Nervous Parts and fills them with unsufferable Torments He compareth also this Curse and the Effects of it unto such painful Diseases as are caused by sharp Corroding Waters in the Bowels as of the Gout in the Bowels which when it possesseth those Inwards is mortal and intolerable The Apostle's Allusion elsewhere is correspondent to both these of the Psalmist when he says The Word of God through the Power of the Spirit is a savour of Death unto Death in some Mens Hearts as of Life unto Life in others 2 Cor. 2. 16. The meaning whereof is that look as venemous and sulphurous Vapours and Damps in Mines and Caverns arising out of the Earth do strike up such scents or smells as often kill by extinguishing the Spirits of those that descend into them Such exhalations of Hell and Wrath doth the Spirit of God by the Word preached exhale and draw forth and cause to ascend in some Mens Consciences which gives them the very scent of Hell it self They are the Savour or Odour of Death afore-hand unto Death and Damnation and so are Vapours of the same kind out of the same Matter that is laid up in the Mine or Treasury it self as those out of the Earth use to be The second thing requisite to be added for the compleating the Demonstration is That such immediate Impressions of Divine Wrath in this Life are sure and certain Evidences I say not as to what Persons but of what kind of Torment it is which in the fulness of it befalleth Men in Hell and that both do proceed from the same immediate Cause This needs not much probation for the Instances afore given carry their own evidence with them of this thing to any intelligent Reader And this general Reason for it will readily occur to any ones Thoughts that surely God will not punish them in Hell with a Punishment of lesser sort or kind for we speak not now of comparisons of Degrees than what his Dispensation reacheth forth unto some Men in this Life For that is the proper day and time and season of Wrath and of the fierceness of his Wrath in which the Fruits of their own doings are every way in their full Ripeness and Maturity to be returned to them and these inflictions in this Life are but the Buds and the Blooms that preceed yet both from the same Root and Cause Now to be punish'd by God's Wrath but mediately through the force only of created Instruments c. as of material Fire or the like if that were all the Punishment there this were certainly by a lower kind or sort than to be punish'd immediately from the Wrath of God it self As will abundantly appear in the second Section when I shall set out the dreadfulness of such a Punishment But let us particularly weigh the Instances themselves as we have singly and apart delivered them 1. Those Dispensations to wicked and bad Men as Judas c. 2. The same as they are exemplified in good and holy Men as Heman c. And either of them will afford an Argument for the proof of this Proposition in Hand 1. These direful Impressions of God's immediate Wrath when they do befal wicked Men what are they to them Not only Pledges or Fore-runners of that Punishment to come for such all sorts of Afflictions are unto wicked Men. But further these are Spices and Grudgings and lesser intermitting Fits of those future fiery burning and continued Calentures and Feavers yea Earnest-Penies of Hell and so of the same kind with what in full Men shall there receive As we use to say and speak of those glorious Joys which some Saints aforehand have the priviledge to partake of that they are pure drops of those Rivers of Pleasure flowing immediately from the same Fountain of Life So we may as confidently say of those breakings forth of Wrath upon wicked Mens Souls here that they are the sippings of that Cup of Wrath without mixture as the Revelation Rev. 14. 10. distinguisheth it from those in this Life whereof the Wicked must drink the Dregs though it be Eternity unto the bottom And therefore we may make a true and warrantable measure of what all such Men are to look for in Hell by what some few of them do partake of here And the Argument is strong every way from the one of these unto the other For as Heaven and Hell are Parallel in a way of contraries as out of Rom. 9. 22 23. hath been shewn So those unspeakable glorious Joys and these contrary extraordinary Horrors and Anguishes on the other hand do hold Parallel also in being in their several kinds Prelibations and Tastes of what is to come in the other World And in this very posture and tendency doth the Apostle set these two Dispensations together in this Life in a Parallel way as in Rom. 9. he doth the other whilst in the same Scripture 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. He compares those Joys common in those times in them that are saved to the breakings forth at the opening of the Gospel as of a Box of Spiknard of a sweet Odour or Savour of Life unto Life namely of the Life to come afore-hand sensing their Souls with some of those Perfumes that are fetcht from that Country and only grow there and on the contrary such also he declares those precursory Savours or Odours of Death in their kind to be which do arise from the threatnings of the same Word in Horrors upon many that perish which he pronounceth to be the very Evaporations of that Lake of Fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 14 which is the second Death in stiling them the Odour or Savour of Death unto Death so speaks he These Men often smell the scent of Hell in their Consciences and the Spirits of it do strike up into their Souls The very Ashes and Smoak of that Vesuvius or Aetna of Hell I allude unto the last Words of Deut. 32. 22. do fall upon them which lighting upon Men in this Life do as those Ashes of the Furnace Exod. 9. 8 9 10. miraculously did they cause sores and blains upon Mens Consciences And however if the Apostle did therewithal intend the more common Dispensations by the Word and so both the ordinary and extraordinary of which we now speak Yet still take and compare those extraordinary Joys in the one as a Savour of Life with the extraordinary Horrors that are the Savour of Death unto the other and in their Proportion there is still the like reason of both as to the matter in hand and an alike persignificancy in either of those two eternal Estates Again that each of these are alike by and from God and by his more immediate Hand dispensed This I take from that Phil. 1. 28. and submit the
of it For I argue asking this Question What is able to fill the Soul of Man with good or evil The Soul which was created in so large a Capacity as to be filled with God and with none but God himself He only is able to fill the vast corners of it with either Creatures like it self may afflict and torment it much especially whilst in the Body so much as to cause it to desire Death and a being out of the Body but the Soul they are never able to destroy The Soul is a Castle so strong built as it can bear the Assaults of all its fellow-Creatures and sustain it self and not sink into Destruction Nothing can destroy the well-being of the Soul but God's Power For it is said They may kill the Body but God only can kill the Soul And else according to that Argument of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body only c. they were to be feared as God himself is if they could kill the Soul as God can do For Christ says God is therefore to be feared and only to be feared because he can destroy both Body and Soul And he redoubleth it with an Emphasis Fear him yea I say unto you Fear him Luke 12. 5. Indeed one Evangelist says Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell which expresseth no more but an act of Authority to sentence and cast into Hell as the Judge doth into Prison Yet the other Evangelist puts it upon this because he is able to kill the Soul and that only he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell He says not barely to cast into Hell as by way of Authority but adds kills and destroys in Hell when they are cast thither For God is both Judg and Avenger And therefore if it be Destruction 't is evident He only can and must do the execution And therefore in the Text 2 Thes 1. 8 9. their being punished with everlasting Destruction is attributed to the glory of his Power These are some of the Reasons of this great Point CHAP. VII A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other Divine Truths I Shall in the last place cast in some Harmonies or Congruities and Correspondencies which this holds and makes up with other Divine Truths And in such Harmonies and Concords there is much of Reason at least to confirm if not demonstrate Truths in Divinity 1. To begin where I left Hereby it comes to pass that as the Souls of Men and other Spirits were immediately made and created by God who is therefore in a peculiar respect and with an opposite distinction to the Fathers of our Bodies said to be the Father of Spirits and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh So that their last termination or end should be into and by his immediate Hands also This makes up a congruous and suitable Dispensation That look as they receive their first Being from him likewise they should return to him as Ecclesiastes speaks as to their sole and immediate Author and Creator and so receive from him as a Father of Spirits their Portion at his immediat Hands And Man 's ultimate end either way is called their Portion Psal 11. 6. Mat. 24. 51. whether it be in blessedness as their Inheritance out of his Love or Misery as the wages of their Sin And thus hereby God himself is made the end and the beginning or terminus the Alpha and Omega of Souls to whom be Glory for ever 2. Thereby also there comes to pass an answerableness and a proportion held between the two conditions of Heaven and Hell Which the Apostle seems to make the ultimate aim and determination of God's Counsels Unto which all in this World are but preparations as he calls them Thus Rom. 9. 22 23. for the shewing forth of his own immediate Glory What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory And thirdly also It is said that after that Christ the Judg of All hath delivered up his Administration and Kingdom unto his Father then God should become all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. not in respect of Being that is not as if the Being of all things shall return into God again as some have wickedly dreamed Or that God's blessed Being and the Creatures should become one that can never be 'T is a contradiction to say a Creature made out of nothing should come to be of it self and such God in his Being is But all in all in respect of immediate Dispensation And so look as to the Vessels of Mercy he will then be all in all so that they shall not need the light of the Sun and the Moon c. that is the comfort of any Creature though all created Excellencies in the Spirit and quintesence of them shall be there why should it not be also meant that the same God which makes up a Parallel seeing Mens Sins deserve it shall be all in all in Hell too in a contrary way to the other 4. And the rather this may be thought because when God shall have caused this visible World to pass away the Earth and the Heavens we now behold as some judicious Divines have inclined to think from Job 14. 12. and other Scriptures either by turning them into nothing or into their first Chaos And so there being none that is of this old World left but pure Heaven and Hell which are as two spiritual Places or Worlds and therein these two sorts of Creatures rational either those who are wholly Spirits as Angels good and bad or the Spirits of Men whose Bodies are raised Spiritual and so fitted for that other kind of World both of which are capable of Happiness or Wo from him That then these two sorts of intelligent Natures God and they being left thus alone the bruitish part of the World being done away should have to do with him for ever immediately either in a way of Wrath or Blessedness And so God shall be all in all in either Worlds and this to be the final ending and Catastrophe of all But these I urge not but only mention THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN in HELL SECT II. The dreadfulness thereof argued from all and each of the Particulars treated of in the former Section HEB. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THe second thing at first propounded to be handled was the dreadfulness of this Punishment It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God Which being an inference from the foregoing words and not a simple affirmation only do come in with an amazing kind of implication wherein the Apostle leaveth it to our own Thoughts to conceive
speak of Glass that they may endure this Fire All the Terrors of Conscience here are as is said of the Joys of the Saints but the earnest-Pennies Farthing-Tokens in comparison to that great immensely vast Treasure of Wrath to come you have heard the Scriptures speak of All here is but the Shadow of Death and yet if that can wither Mens Souls so what will the blackness of darkness do as the Apostle speaks of this The utmost threatned here is that The Anger of the Lord shall smoke against a Man Deut. 29. It is but Smoke but in Hell it breaks forth into raging Flames * Luke 16. 24. of the fiercest Fires that fill every Corner and break out at all the Windows of the Soul §. VII The last Head of Demonstrations That it is a falling into the Hands of the Living God and what that further super adds to the dreadfulness of this Punishment THe fifth and last Head which represents the dreadfulness of all this unto an infinity is that it is a falling into the Hands of the living God The living God The former exaggerations have been raised from falling into the Hands of the Great Powerful Just and Avenging God but this further of the Living God Which of all other Attributes the Apostle hath singled forth to set out the dreadfulness of it by and is therefore most of all to be heeded by us as having as much weight in it to the thing in Hand as any of the other The Living God notes out not only God's Activity and how the whole of his Life and Being is engaged and active in this Punishment as was noticed But further both that 1. He shall execute this to Eternity and 2. That during that whole space of Eternity he will permanently continue to inflict it His being the Living God notes out 1. Eternity 2. With a continuation of acting all that while And so his being the Living God both threatens and effecteth 1. an eternal and 2. a continual Death in those that are the Subjects thereof And to imply so much it is that he hath that Denomination specially and so eminently given him here when this Punishment is spoken of First consider thy Soul is an immortal Soul as to the duration of it and that this Great God is the Living God And Sin in thee and the Injury of it to God is an eternal Stain which Hell Fire cannot eat out or satisfy God for but in an Eternity of time And therefore whilst God lives and thou livest he will inflict it on thee That 's one meaning Again God's Life as it is in himself a continual Act so in its being attributed to him with respect to this Punishment it imports his continued acting therein without cessation or intermission For he doth it as the Living God Job whilst he endured the Terrors of the Almighty complains they were so uncessant that God suffered him not to take Breath Job 9. 18. he followed his Stroaks so thick with one Breach as he there speaks upon another You have both these set forth in one and the same Scripture Rev. 14. 10 11. He shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest Day nor Night First they have no rest Day nor Night That shews they have no intermission And then that the smoak of their Torment ascends up for ever shews the Eternity Yea and further to strike out dull Hearts with the sense of this Eternity if one ever be not enough another is added For ever and ever Which Eternity as you know our Saviour is still careful to indigitate when he speaks of Hell in love and warning unto Mens Souls that they might be moved by the moment thereof to endeavour to escape it Now it being thus this infinitely superadds unto all the former The former Heads have given Demonstration to us wherein the substance of this great Punishment consists And then comes in this as the fatal and final rowling Stone upon the Grave or Sepulchre of Souls And with the Grave Hell is oft parrallel'd Or these two imports thereof are as two Mill-Stones hung about the Necks of those that are plunged into this Lake to sink them down for ever For these two things mentioned do work in the Spirits of those that undergoe it Perfect Fear and perfect Despair The Effects of both which make up a perfection of Misery in such a State 1. Perfect Despair Hope was given to reasonable and intelligent Natures and in peculiar unto them to be as a breathing hole in time of Misery to keep up Life in such an one whereby to sustain it self And the reasonable Soul being in its duration Eternal and having an Eternity of time to run through and sail over hath this Priviledge denied to Beasts to take a prospect or fore-sight of time that is yet to come and if it can spy out any space or spot of time in which it shall have happiness or ease or out-live its Misery it will not utterly die yea it will harden it self against present Misery with this Thought that however it shall not always be thus with me But on the contrary here by reason of this ability of fore-sight it comes to pass that a wretched Soul in Hell viewing and turning over all the Leaves of Time to Eternity both finds that it shall not out-live that Misery nor yet can it find one space or moment of Time of Freedom and Intermission having for ever to do with him who is the Living God And then it dies and dies again and sinks into a Gulph of Despair for the future as well as it is swallowed up with present sense of Wrath. 2. Perfect Fear Which these likewise cause and keep up within that Soul and that continually of all their Misery that is yet to come And the nature of Fear is to out-strip a Man's Misery and to take them up afore they come as Hopes use to do our Comforts So as by reason thereof it comes to pass that the Soul is not only tormented by what it at present feels but with the thought of all that is to come which still further strikes that Soul through and through So as this Thought that it will be with me thus for ever and ever makes it compleatly miserable Yea hereby the Soul doth come all along in every instant to endure and be possessed in Fears and Dreadful Apprehensions of all that Woe that in Eternity is yet to come as well as that at present THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN in HELL God's WRATH the immediate CAUSE SECT III. Some Uses Corollaries Meditations A COROLLARY IF God in his Wrath be the immediate Inflicter of that Punishment for Sin then certainly he is not the Lib. 1. de Praedest ad Monymum
circa medium Author of Sin Fulgentius among other highly-evincing demonstrations of it casts in this Iniquitatis cujus est Vltor non est Autor God is not the Author of Sin whereof he is the Avenger Which Maxim is founded upon an high Principle of Reason and Equity God puts the whole of this matter so far off from himself that he lays all both Sin and Punishment wholly upon Man so as although the Punishment it self be from his own just Wrath that is provoked to inflict it yet even thereof he thus speaks Do they provoke me to Anger 't is true they do but do they not provoke themselves to the Confusion of their own Faces So as he ascribes his own Wrath that inflicts that Punishment whollly to themselves returns even that upon themselves As if he had said I am angry indeed c. 't is true yet they are more the provoking Causes of that Anger than my self They spight but themselves when they sin against me Like unto which is that Speech also Rom. 2. 4 5. Thou treasurest up Wrath unto thy self Thou to thy Self although it be God's Wrath in his Breast that is treasured up yet the treasuring of it up is aseribed unto themselves God will send his Son Jesus Christ on purpose to clear all such imaginable Suspicions and Suppositions that Men or Devils can cast upon him for condemning of Men or executing this Punishment himself Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him His work at that Day is to convince yea and to convince is named first as well as to execute Judgment And it is certain that in order thereto he will speak all Fairness Equity Justice and Reason 't were not Conviction else and he will have all his Saints and Angels about him as Judges and Witnesses He will have all the World to hear it and how equal it is for him to execute so sore a Vengeance And as he will convince them of their Deeds to be ungodly and deserving it so of their hard Speeches and that whatever his Decrees were they themselves were ungodly and their Deeds ungodly and ungodlily committed Mark but how he doth ungodly them And he will convince them and stop their Mouths for ever Christ sent him in the Parable speechless to Hell Mat. 22. 12. And this is one great Service the Man Christ Jesus is to do for God at the latter day And if he should not do this satisfyingly and clear all these things he must shut up his Books and come off the Bench and proceed no further either to Sentence or Execution A MEDITATION LEt our Meditation upon what hath been delivered be what Moses hath prompted to us and let us make the same use thereof which he also did The 90th Psalm was penned by Moses as the Title shews A Prayer of Moses the Man of God and it was composed by him in his latter days after he had seen in forty years an whole Generation in a Nation of Men removed out of this World and their Carcases fallen in the Wilderness a Spectacle so sad as perhaps not any one Man in the World hath seen or Age afforded but at the Flood afore or since in so short a compass of time His Song is a Funeral Elegy or Meditation of Death made upon that whole Generation verse 3. Thou turnest Man to Destruction and sayest Return ye Children of Men. And verses 5 6. Thou carriest them away as with a Flood In the morning they are like Grass which groweth up in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth And God from that time began also to stint and limit Man's years to that measure which it hath held to unto this day Vers 10. The Days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away Our Souls fly away like Birds when the Shell is broke and then Hell follows as the Revelation speaks as in reality so in Rev. 6. 8. Moses's Discourse And that was it which was the matter of deepest and saddest thoughts in this Meditation unto him of any other Verse 11. it follows Who knoweth the Power of thine Anger Even according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. Which he utters 1. By way of Lamentation He sighing forth a most doleful complaint against the Security and Stupor he observed in that Generation of Men in his times both in those that had already died in their Sins as well as of that new Generation that had come up in their room who still lived in their Sins O! says he Who of them knoweth the Power of thine Anger namely of that Wrath which followeth after Death and seizeth upon Mens Souls for ever that is who considers it or regards it till it take hold upon them He utters it 2. In a way of Astonishment out of the apprehension he had of the greatness of that Wrath Who hath known the Power of thine Anger that is who who hath or can take it in according to the greatness of it Which he endeavours to set forth as applying himself to our own apprehensions in this wise Even according to thy Fear so is thy Wrath. Where those words thy Fear are taken objective and so is all one and the Fear of thee And so the meaning is that according to whatever proportion our Souls can take in in fears of thee and of thine Anger so great is thy Wrath it self You have Souls that are able to comprehend vast Fears and Terrors they are as extensive in their Fears as in their Desires which are stretched beyond what this World or the Creatures can afford them to an Infinity The Soul of Man is a dark Cell which when it begets Fears once strange and fearful Apparitions rise up in it which far exceed the ordinary proportion of worldly Evils which yet also our Fears usually make greater than they prove to be But here as to that Punishment which is the effect of God's own immediate Wrath let the Soul enlarge it self says he and widen its apprehension to the utmost fear what you can imagine yet still God's Wrath and the Punishment it inflicts are not only proportionable but infinitely exceeding all you can fear or imagine Who knoweth the Power of thine Anger It passeth knowledg Now the Use Moses makes of all this Doctrine of Death and Wrath in the next following verse 12. is this So teach us to number our Days that we may apply our Hearts to VVisdom This he spake to God in behalf of that present Generation that then survived and by spreading afore them
it self out fairly to its full length yet some last but a very little while and those of the greatest size cannot long Oh but how many intervening Casualties are there that afore do put it out The Candle of the Wicked shall be put out and Destruction cometh upon them Job 21. 17. that is ab extrinseco from without How many Thieves in the Candle or fatal Accidents do Men meet with that unawares consume it Immoderate Sorrows and Cares swale it Intemperance like too much Oyl poured thereon to feed it choaketh and extinguisheth it Too much Intention of Mind turns the Flame downwards upon it self and so it evaporates Often another Mans Breath in seasons of Malignity which fall out more or less every year blows and puffs it out A Friends Breath comes in with an infectious Vapour and throws his Soul out who visits him Yea an unskilful or else a mistaking hand of a Physician who undertakes to snuff and brighten it unwarily clean snuffs the Candle out Yea Men strong and vigorous go to the Grave in a moment as in the same 21. chapter of Job ver 13. Yea as Psal 55. 15. they go quick to Hell it is an allusion to Corah Dathan c. Numb 16. 30 33. of whom 't is said twice They went alive to Hell Many die so suddenly that they are in Hell in a trice and as it were ere quite dead And truly the most of Men live in this World like silly Sheep in a Pasture as David's Similitude is Psal 4. 9. 14. They are See Ainsw put into Hell like Sheep so some It notes out their Security in respect of that slaughter which comes upon them This Man dies then that then another and they regard it not even as the Sheep do not when the Butcher as his Pleasure is takes out first one then another and carries them to the Shambles whilst the rest feed on and know not that themselves are a fatting to the day of Slaughter also Let us consider also what millions of Transgressions are we guilty of in one Day Oh then what in thy whole Life And what a reckoning will the Sins of thy whole Life come to when every Commandment shall bring in their Bills and that thou hast to do with a God who 1. hath all thy Sins before him Isa 65. 6. Behold it is written afore me but I will recompence c. 2. That will never forget any one of them Amos 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn Surely I will never forget any of their Works 3. With a God who will bate thee nothing Every Transgression shall receive a just recompence of reward He spared not his own Son Rom. 8. and will not thee unless by regeneration thou hast a Portion in his Son Think with thy self what a case thou art in if thou must answer Justice for all and every one of these DAVID's Meditation Psal XLIX The most of these things hitherto by way of Use spoken by me are no other than what David himself spends one whole Psalm together upon it is Psal 49. and styles it The Meditation of his Heart vers 3. which caused me to entitle that former about what it is to dye a Meditation rather than an Vse as I had done that of Moses also Psal 90. This of David's I shall here add to set the deeper seal and weight upon all that hath been treated He begins the Psalm and shews the moment of these matters though in view but ordinary with as solemn a Preface and Proclamation calling upon attention and heed hereto as any where we find in Scriptures 1. In the first verse he summons all the World into a Ring about him Hear ye this all the People give Ear all the Inhabitants of the World And 2. particulariseth forth his Auditors into all sorts of Conditions vers 2. Both low and high rich and poor together For why what he was to utter to them did as much concern the one as it did the other and behoved them all alike to look to as being that which especially concerned them in respect unto their Being in the other World how different soever their Condition was in this And 3. he cries up the matter it self as the greatest Wisdom vers 3. and a deep mysterious Parable and dark saying vers 4. My Mouth shall speak of Wisdom and the Meditation of my Heart shall be of Vnderstanding I will incline mine Ear unto a Parable I will open my dark saying upon the Harp Now what should this matter be It was to declare two things which take up that whole Psalm The first how in the style of a Be it known to all Men for we have seen he publisheth it to all he aloud declares I for my part am not afraid to die and go into that other World Which confidence of his he greatens by this Supposition superadded That if when he should come to die all the Sins of his whole Life were presented afore his view yet notwithstanding he should not be afraid thus ver 5. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil when the Iniquities of my heels shall compass me about A strange confidence which yet he found reason for from God For he challengeth all or any thing to bring in reason to the contrary let them all say Wherefore should I fear And yet his other Psalms as well as his Story tell us what an infinite number of Sins were upon his score and how sensible he was thereof And that this bold Speech of his relates specially to the day of Death or days wherein he might have cause to fear it though I will exclude no other times of Trouble that were yet to come before in this Life to be intended by him which Interpreters wholly carry it unto that this is his scope I shall make appeal to the whole drift of what follows throughout the Psalm which concerns the state of wicked Men in their Death which I shall by and by shew But specially I argue it from the reference and correspondency this Speech hath with and to vers 15. God will redeem my Soul from the Power of the Grave for he shall receive me Selah There you have the reason or ground of this his Confidence which he had at first uttered in ver 5. perfectly expressed as that which he opposed unto all Therefore 's or Wherefore's to the contrary yea though they should be fetch'd from his very Sins that might if any thing make him afraid But there in that resolve of his ver 15. he centers and landeth this which he had so confidently uttered in ver 5. And all the rest of his discourse that comes between is apparently about the opposite condition of wicked Men As that they must die and what their estate is in and after Death all which was but to illustrate this Confidence of his He plainly in this ver 5. puts himself into the supposition as if he were then to die and as if Death
the King of terrors Job 18. 19. were setting down his siege about him and that all the Iniquities of his heels or ways which are Deaths strongest Forces The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 5 6. were as an Army formed up encompassing him round which out of Psal 40. 12. I have shewed to have been his case and the very Metaphor he there also useth But now David was so steeled as though he placed himself thus aforehand in the full view and face of all these single and alone in the midst of them he yet outdares them all as the Apostle did Rom. 8. ult strengthned with this for the Lord will receive my Soul which Phrase of Speech to be the same that a dying Saint useth you all know And this part of his Speech v. 5. might have come in as comfortable an Use as any other of that former Doctrine the innumerable number of Sins but that this other part that now follows doth properly belong unto what hath been now last insisted on and so I rather placed both here The second thing is The opposite state of wicked Men in their Lives and in relation to their dying and also at and after Death by which he both illustrates and expounds his meaning in ver 5. to be to utter his own blessed condition at his Death v. 15. and to that purpose it is he further dilates upon the death of wicked Men in the rest of the Psalm And which is indeed a kind of Summary of what in the former Meditation I have prest During their Lives they trust in their Wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches v. 6. and yet they see as the word is v. 10. that they cannot redeem their own or others precious Souls from bodily Death or obtain of God by a Ransom that they should live for ever For he sees the wise Man die like as the Fool and so leave their Wealth to others Thus in v. 7 8 9 10. That which therefore miserable Wretches they relieve themselves with against this is Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their Dwelling-places to all Generations They call their Lands after their own Names and their Posterity approve their Sayings v. 13. Tho when he dies he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him c. And whither goes he when he dies His Soul so 't is in the Original and varied in the Margin shall go to the Generation of his Fathers to the Company of those Giants of the Old World from whom Hell hath its Name so oft in the Proverbs And where are they all The Spirits in Prison So the Apostle resolves us speaking of the Men of the old World 1 Pet. 3. 19. And they shall never see Light or comfort more says the Psalmist But as for me says David v. 15. God shall receive me into the bosom of his Love and Bliss And then again upon their dying They are laid as Sheep in the Grave Death shall feed on them and prey upon them The first Death upon their bodies in the Grave the second Death upon their Souls And their Beauty shall consume in the Grave so as at the morning as there of the Resurrection the greatest Personages that have had such a Gleam of Glory to attend them whilst they lived accompanied perhaps also with dominion over others shall then rise such ugly shabby Death-eaten and Hell-eaten Creatures as we use to say Moth-eaten all their Beauty being preyed upon that 's his word and consumed And such shall they appear in Judgment where the upright whom they despised shall have dominion over them ver 14. But says David God shall redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave For he shall receive me Selah And for the further illustration of all this and how it relates unto Death I shall only cast in a manifest parallel between what David here had meditated about the condition of wicked Men at Death with what our Lord himself hath seconded it withal in expressions fully herewith agreeing treating of wicked mens dying also Luke 12. 16. unto ver 21. 'T is the Parable of that rich Man whose Soul was taken away that night 1. Says David Their inward thought is c. ver 11. And says Christ He thought within himself so ver 17. 2. Whilst he lived he blessed himself so David ver 18. namely in those his inward Thoughts about his Goods and Posterity And the like speaks Christ to be the inward speech and applauding himself of his rich Man He says to his Soul Soul thou hast many Goods laid up for many years take thine ease and be merry Again 3. of this Man Christ says Thou Fool this night c. ver 20. And David of his This their way is their Folly ver 10. 4. And finally the reason of that their Folly which both Christ and David give do center in one and the same This Night thy Soul shall be required thee then whose shall these things thou hast provided be Thus Christ ver 20. and David correspondently His Soul shall go c. They shall never see light ver 19. and he shall carry nothing away but leave his Wealth to others verses 10 17. But still withal let us remember what David's conclusion is concerning himself at his Death and which he placeth in the midst as the center of his Discourse which hath all this other about wicked Men round about it to the end to magnify the Mercy thereof to himself But God shall redeem my Soul and shall receive me Selah The Mercy of both which the last Use of all that next follows doth concern and so shuts up this Discourse USE Let all Believers from hence learn how to set a due and full value upon that Salvation which they profess to expect and which God hath designed to give them Our great and gracious God the more to bind and oblige the redeemed of the Sons of Men unto himself hath twisted their Salvation of a double Cord of Love 1. A privitive one seen in what they are snatcht out of which is termed a being saved from Wrath Rom. 5. A delivering from Wrath 1 Thess 1. 10. An escaping the Damnation of Hell Mat. 23. 33. A not so much as entring into Condemnation John 5. 24. 2. The other a positive part The Glory to be revealed the greatness of which no Tongue can utter or Heart conceive That Blessedness or Glory conferred on the elect Angels and that favour shewn them hath not this privative part of Salvation to greaten it further then as by way of prevention in that God upheld them from falling into the Merit or Desert of it Whereas we Men are all become guilty afore God were actually under Wrath Children of Wrath even as others one as well as another Ephes 2. And the weight of this he in that Scripture would have them put
redeemeth thy Life from Destruction there is Salvation from Sin and Hell the privative part Who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies over and above deliverance and satisfieth thy mouth with good things there you see also is the positive part You might observe the very same in this 49. Psalm Thou shalt redeem me c. and Thou shalt receive me By all that hath been spoken although you are saved from it yet look down into Hell a little as it hath been set out to you And think with your selves Hath God delivered me from so great a Death and given me such a deliverance as this from a death so dreadful and eternal also How would the Devils and Spirits in Prison prize an escape and deliverance from Wrath present and to come if they could be supposed capable thereof yea if they had no more A Nobleman or Favourite that hath run into great and high Treasons to have but meer Life given him how would he value it though he never saw the Court more nor were never restored unto his Estate and Dignities had he but wherewithal to live If a Man were in danger to be drowned and a Rope were thrown him and a Crown and bidden take his choice with promise Thou shalt be King of all the World if thou come to shore safe with the Crown on thy Head of the two he would in this case take hold of the Rope and refuse the Crown And why because it is Salvation and his Life But for a Man to be both wasted safe to shore and then arriving there to have this Crown besides how great Salvation would this be valued stupendous Grace and Love These things the Saints should consider chiefly unto two ends and purposes 1. To be thankful to God and Christ 2. To comfort their own Souls I. To be thankful both to God and Christ 1. To God the Father It was his part to contrive the whole design of our Salvation to the end to set forth his Love to us And the Scripture spreads afore us the Love of the Father herein upon this double consideration 1. That he appointed us not to Wrath which otherwise we should have in the issue and execution by reason of Sin fallen under 2. That he ordained us to Salvation You have an express Scripture for both these setting forth the Love of God the Father hereby 1 Thess 5. 9. God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation Here are first two parts of the Mercy vouchsafed 1. Deliverance from Wrath. 2. Salvation Then the Love of the Father in his not appointing us to Wrath and so not to leave us under it as well as appointing us to Salvation and both as appointments of God the one as well as the other And then in the second Epistle chap. 2. ver 13. he provokes them unto thankfulness for this But we are bound to give thanks always unto God for you who hath from the beginning chosen you unto Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth which he speaks with reference to what was done to others ver 12. compared Let me speak to you then in the Apostles Language Oh what thanks are your selves then bound if the Apostle gave them for others to give unto God for your selves to whom God hath given Faith and Holiness upon both these respects 2. To Jesus Christ for that hand which he had in this our Deliverance from Wrath thus expresly 1 Thess 1. ult Ye wait for his Son from Heaven even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Here again you have these two parts of Salvation set together 1. His coming from Heaven which they waited for with hopes of his carrying them thither as he tells them chap. 4. ver 17. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then 2. which the Apostle adds with an Emphasis even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Take in that too says he and forget it not to endear your Jesus to you and for ever know him by this Character It is that Jesus who delivered you from the VVrath to come It was the Fathers work indeed to appoint and ordain this Deliverance and us unto the benefit of it through Faith but it was our Jesus his Son's work to effect and accomplish it 't was his Soul that paid for all And the manner or way how he delivered us from this Wrath heightens this his Love yet more for he delivered us from it by being made himself a Curse for us Gal. 3. 23. The second thing I propounded was To comfort your Souls in the consideration of this Salvation and Deliverance Thus Christ Psal 16. 9 10. for his deliverance Therefore my Heart is glad my Flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell thou wilt shew me the path of Life c. And David in the 49. Psalm which led on to this doth comfort himself also ver 15. when of wicked Men he had said Like Sheep they are put into Hell as some read it Death shall feed on them He then for his own particular comforts himself with this But God shall redeem my Soul from the power of Hell for he shall receive me And the Apostle to the Thessalonians epist 1. chap. 5. having ver 9. set before them as was afore opened that God had not appointed them to Wrath but to obtain Salvation he subjoins ver 11. Wherefore comfort your selves together FINIS An Immediate STATE OF GLORY FOR THE Spirits of Just Men upon Dissolution DEMONSTRATED BY THO. GOODWIN D. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. 2 COR. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit THere is no Point of more moment to All nor of greater Comfort to Saints than what shall become of their Souls when they die 'T is our next Stage and things that are next use more to affect us And besides it is the beginning and a taking possession of our Eternity That these words should aim at this self-same thing cannot be discerned without consulting the fore-going part of the Apostle's Discourse and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the Coherence having pitched upon what this fifth Verse contributes unto this Argument which alone will require more than this time allotted having also very largely gone through the Exposition of the foregoing verses elsewhere and I now go but on where I left last But yet to make way for the understanding the Scope of my Text take The Coherence in brief thus In the 16th Verse of the fore-going Chapter where the Well-head of his Discourse is to be found he shews the extraordinary Care God hath of our inward Man to renew it day by day where Inward Man is strictly the Soul with its
also And to be sure it cannot be that extraordinary way of entrance into Glory by such a sudden Change both of Soul and Body into Glory at once without dissolution should be the self-same thing here aimed at For it was not the Lot of any of those Primitive Christians of whom the Holy-Ghost here speaks this He hath wrought us for this thing that they should be in that manner changed and so enter into Glory but the contrary For they all and all Saints since for these 1600 years have put off their Tabernacles by Death as Peter did and speaks of himself 2 Pet. 1. 14. and therefore the Scripture or Holy Ghost foreseeing as the Phrase is Gal. 3. 8. this change would be their fate would not have uttered this of them God hath wrought us for this whom he knew God had not designed thereunto Neither is it that those groaning desires spoken of in the foregoing verses 2 3 4. is that self-same thing here as some would for indeed as Musculus well If the Apostle had said He that hath wrought this thing in us c. that Expression might have carried it to such a Sense But he saith He that wrought us for the self-same thing And so 't is not that desire of Glory in us is spoken of But us our selves and Souls as wrought for that Glory If it be asked what is the special proper scope of these words as touching this Glory of the Soul The answer in general It is to give the rational part of this Point or demonstrative Reasons to evidence to Believers That indeed God hath thus ordained and prepared such a Glory afore the Resurrection And it is as if the Apostle had said Look into your own Souls and consider God's dealings with you hitherto viz. First the operation of his hands For what other is the meaning or mystery says he of all that God is daily so at work with you in this Life What else is the end of all the workings of Grace in you and of God that is the Worker This is his very design He that hath wrought us that is our Souls for this very thing is God Besides the evidence the work gives there is also over and above the earnest of the Spirit given to your Souls now whilst in your Bodies in Joy full of Glories of the same kind as Earnests are of what fulness of Glory they are both capable of then and shall be filled with when severed from your Bodies Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit §. We Preachers have it in use as to allege Proofs of Scripture for the Points or Subjects we handle So to give Reasons or Demonstrations of them And so doth our Apostle here of this great Point he had been treating of and such Reasons or Demonstrations run often upon Harmony and Congruity of one Divine Thing or Truth kissing another Also upon Becomingnesses or Meetnesses that is what it becometh the great God to do For instance In giving an account why God in bringing many Sons to Glory did choose to effect it by Christ's Death rather than any other way It became him says he Heb. 2. 10. For whom are all things and by whom are all things c. And so in the point of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by Man came Death by Man came also the resurrection of the dead that is it was congruous harmonious it should thus be the one answering correspondently to the other The like congruity will be found couched here in God's bringing Souls to Glory afore that Resurrection Now there are two sorts of harmonious Reasons couched in the fore-part of these Words He that wrought us for this is God I. That it is Finis operis opérantis The End of the Work it self upon us and of God as an Efficient working for an End God hath wrought on us for this very thing II. It is Opus Dignum Deo Authore A Work as he is the great God and as a thing worthy and becoming of God as the Author of it He that hath wrought us for this thing is God There is a third point to be superadded and that is It is the Interest of all three Persons Which how clearly evidenced out of the Text will appear when I have dispatched these former Doctrines I. Doctrine That it is a strong Argument that God hath provided a Glory for separate Souls hereafter That He hath wrought us and wrought on us a Work of Grace in this Life Ere the Reason of this will appear I must first open three things natural to the words which will serve as materials out of which to make forth that Argument First that the thing here said to be wrought is Grace or Holiness which is a preparation unto Glory 1. Grace is the Work And so Phil. 1. 6. termed The good Work A frame of Spirit created to good works Eph. 2. 10. We are his Workmanship created unto good Works The Text here says Who hath wrought us There similarly We are his Workmanship And 2. Secondly this Work is a preparation to Glory For for one thing to be first wrought in order to another is a preparation thereunto Now saith the Text He hath wrought us for this thing and Rom. 9. 23. it is in terminis The Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared to Glory which was by working Holiness for it follows ver 24. Even us whom he hath called Likewise Col. 1. 12. Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Meet by making us Saints So then Had prepared Hath made meet is all one with Who hath wrought us for this thing Here The second what is the principal Subject wrought upon or prepared and made meet for Glory 'T is certainly the Soul in Analogy to the Phrase here We use to say when we speak of our Conversion Since my Soul was wrought on And though the Body is said to be sanctified 1 Thess 5. 23. yet the immediate Subject is the Soul and that primitively originally the Body by derivation from the Soul And hence it is the Soul when a Man dies carries with it all the Grace by inherency All Flesh is Grass which withers that is the Body with all the appurtenances saith Peter 1 Pet. 1. 24. But you having purified your Souls being born again of incorruptible Seed our Bodies are made of corruptible Seed which is the opposition there by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever And this is the Word he says he means which by the Gospel is preached every day unto you ver 25. and by preaching is engrafted in your Souls purifying your Souls ver 22. In no other Subject doth that Word as preached for ever abide For the Body rots and in the Grave hath not an inherent but a relative Holiness such as the Episcopal Brethren would have to be in Churches consecrated by them because once it was the
and abiding in it and being not only the immediate Subject thereof but further the first and original Subject from and by which it is derived unto the Body the Womb into which that immortal Seed was first cast and in which the inward Man is formed and in respect of a constant abiding in which it is that Seed is termed incorruptible Hence therefore says God of this Soul It is Life It shall live when this Body dies There is nothing of Christ's Image but is ordained to abide for ever Charity never fails His Righteousness 1 Cor. 13. 8 2 Cor. 9. 9. endures for ever and therefore is ordained to conserve and elevate unto Life the Subject it is in and that is the Soul This as a Foundation of the substantial parts of this first Reason out of this one Scripture thus directly and explicitly holding this forth §. I come 2. to the Argumentation it self which ariseth out of these things laid together 1. That the Soul is the immediate Subject of Grace 2. The first and primitive Susceptive thereof 3. And it self is alone and immediatly capable of Glory which Grace is a preparation to And 4. that God afore our Deaths hath wrought all of Grace he intends to work in preparation to Glory Out of all these a strong Argument doth arise That such a Soul upon Death shall be admitted unto Glory and not be put to stay till the time of the Resurrection when both Soul and Body shall be joined again together And that this holdeth a just and meet conveniency upon each or at least all these grounds when put together First consider the Soul as the immediate Subject of this working and preparation for Glory Hence therefore this will at least arise That the Inherency or Abiding of this Grace wrought in this Soul depends not upon its conjunction with the Body but so as it remains as an everlasting and perpetual Conserver of that Grace stampt on it yea and carries it all with it self as a rich Treasure innate unto it wherever it goes when separate from the Body I say it either hath in it or appertaining unto it all that hath been wrought for it either in it or by it Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord And their Works do follow them They go to Heaven with them and after them And in what Subject else is it that the Seed 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. of God remains incorruptible or the Word of God abides for ever Or how else comes that Saying to be performed 1 John 2. 17. He that doth the Will of God endures for ever Having therefore all these Riches by it and as complete as here it shall be meet it is it should partake the benefit thereof and live upon them now when it is single and alone and in its Widow's condition And it is an opportune season that by a Glory given it for that Holiness this should now appear That it was the Soul which was the sole intrinsick and immediate Receptive of all this Holiness This is the first Add also Secondly It s being the first and primitive Subject of Holiness from vhich it is derivatively in the Body Meet it was this Soul should not be deferred till Magis conveniens videtur ut animae inquibus per prius fuit culpa meritum prius etiam vel puniantur vel praemientur Aquinas cont Gent. lib. 4. cap. 19 § 3. the Appurtenance of it be united to it but be served first and admitted into that Glory ordained and by having it self first possession given of that Inheritance the Body might in its season be admitted derivatively thereinto from it after that renewed Union with it by the Resurrection Reason good that look as in Priority Grace the preparation unto Glory was wrought so in that Order of Priority Glory it self should be communicated And therefore seeing its Fate is to abide a while alone therefore first to enjoy and drink both the Juice and Fruit of that Vine it is the Root of And 3. it being in it self when separate as immediatly capable of this Glory as when it shall be again united to the Body For what is the Essential of Glory the Substance of that Life that swallows up all but as we said on v. 4. God's immediate Presence and our knowing him face to face as we are known Now of this the Apostle doth in these 6 7 and 8 Verses expresly inform us That the separate Soul is not only capable thereof but that it then begins to enjoy it Therefore says he we are always confident knowing that whilst we are in the Body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by Faith not by Sight We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Where to be present with the Lord and to live by Sight is expresly made the Privilege of a Soul absent from the Body which can mean no other State than that of the Soul between the Death of the Body and the Resurrection For whilst it is present in the Body afore Death it is absent from the Lord and when it shall be present with the Lord after the Resurrection it shall not then be any more absent from the Body This Conjunction therefore of absent from the Body and present with the Lord falls out in no State else but only in that Interim or space of time between Let us withal view this Place in the Light by bringing the one to the other which that Passage 1 Cor. 13. 12. doth cast upon it For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known To see as in a Glass darkly there is to walk by Faith here But to see face to face and to know God as we are known so there is all one and to attain to sight and be in Christ's presence here And to be sure the Body is in no estate whatever capable of knowing God as we are known of him None durst ever affirm that For besides that the Spiritual Knowledg of God is proper to an intellectual Nature Further so to know God as God knows us and so to be elevated to the Similitude of God's Understanding is not communicable to the Body We may as well dare to affirm God himself to be a Body as that our Bodies are capable of ever being raised up thus to know God Hence therefore whether the Soul be out of the Body as after Death or so in the Body as it shall be after the Resurrection yet still it is the Soul that is immediately alone capable of that Sight and Knowledg of God And therefore seeing it depends not on the Body it is as well capable of it afore the Resurrection without the Body as after the Resurrection in the Body Only this must be added That whilst indeed the Soul is
body a lonesome soul That during that state it should not be the subject of this Salvation and so intended here when more properly and literally if ever it is the salvation of the Soul And it would be yet more strange that the phrase salvation of the Soul should be wholy restrained unto that estate of the Soul when remitted to the body at Resurrection and onely unto that And that word the soul should serve onely synecdochically as a part put to signifie the whole man as then it is to be raised up but especially it were strangest of all if it should be confined and limited in this place of Peter wherein this salvation of the soul is set forth for the comfort of such as were to lay down their tabernacles of their bodies for Christ as this Peter speaks of himself in the next Epistle and whose faith was then to cease with their lives whose expectations therefore he would in this case certainly pitch upon that salvation of the soul next which is this of the soul separate To confirm all which That which further invited me to this place was this phrase The end of your Faith especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto such Christians who in these times were as he foretells ch 4. ver 4. shortly to be martyred and at present were sorely tried v. 7. of this Chapter and in the last verse of the fourth he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls when they die to be kept by God And so understood in a proper and literal sence this salvation of their souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith First in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in as Death is said to be the end of life So noting forth that when Faith ends this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it The end of a thing signifies the immediate event issue period thereof As of wicked men it is said whose end is destruction Phil. 3. Heb. 10. last v. Apostacy and unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition And on the contrary there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the Soul And both note out the final event onsequent of each and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith when men continue and go on to believe until their faith arrive at and attaineth this Salvation of the Soul To this sence also Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life And the Apostle Peter having in the foregoing verses celebrated the fruits and workings of their faith in this life as in supporting them gloriously under the sorest trials v. 7. and then sometimes filling their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious v. 8. he here at last concludeth with what will be the end or issue of it in that other life when faith it self shall cease and what it is that then they shall receive Receiving after all this the end of your faith the salvation of your souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present by a frequent and usual Enallage of time being put for the future for ye shall receive or being about to receive to shew the certainty of it that when Faith shall end you may be sure on 't even of that Salvation that great Salvation so spoken of by the Prophets v. 10. of your souls which as it hath no end to be put unto it as Faith hath so no interruption or space of time to come between during which your souls should not be actually saved A salvation of your souls singly whilst through death they shall so exist as well as of the same souls primarily and more eminently when both soul and body shall be reunited 2. The end of your Faith that is of your aims and expectations in your Faith the end importing the aim or expectation which is also proper and a literal sence of that word And upon this account also the salvation of the soul when they should die that being the very next thing their eyes must needs be upon is therefore here intended And 3. The end of your faith that is as being that for which the great God who keeps us by his power through faith unto salvation v. 5. hath wrought this faith in you Accordingly we find it termed the work of faith 1 Thes 1. 3. Which when God hath fully wrought and brought to that degree he aimed at in this life or to use the Apostles own expression of it 2 Thes 1. 11. when God hath fulfilled the work of faith with power he then crowneth it with this Salvation of the Soul without end As James speaks of Patience when it hath had its perfect Work chap. 1. 4. compared with verse 12. And so speaks my Text for this self-same thing he hath wrought us And therefore when this Faith shall cease which he wrought for this he will attain his end without delay and you says he shall attain your end also and Faith thus ceasing if this salvation of the soul did not succenturiate and recruit it anew the end of this Faith were wholly and altogether present destructive losse unto the soul in its well-being until the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The End signifies the perfection and consummation of any thing as Christ is said to be the End of the Law Rom. 10. 4. and so the meaning is That your faith which is but an imperfect knowing God shall then when it ceaseth be swallowed up of sight which is all one with that salvation here tanquam perfectibile a perfection as that which is imperfect is said to be by that which is perfect 1 Cor. 13. 10. Thus much for the literal and proper import of the word End Now then If we take the word End in its proper meaning and the word Soul likewise in its native proper meaning also which sence in Reason should be first served when the scope will bear it then it makes for that purpose more fitly which we have had in hand §. That nothing may be wanting in this last place cited to make up all the Particulars in the foregoing Sections insisted on So it is that the Apostle Peter doth further plainly insinuate That this Salvation here consisteth in the Sight and Vision of Christ which was one Particular afore-mentioned accompanied with Joy unspeakable and glorious The Coherence if observed makes this forth clearly For whereas in the Verse immediately foregoing he had commended their present State of Faith by this Whom now though you see not yet believing rejoice with Joy unspeakable and glorious That Now you see not in this Life is set in opposition and carries a promise with it of a time to come wherein they should see even as Christ said to his Disciples Joh. 13. 33. 36. compared Whither I go I Now say to you ye cannot come but thou shalt
follow me AFTERWARDS So here NOW believing which is the Principle at the present which you live upon you see him not but when the end of your faith shall come you shall then see him and in this it is consisteth the salvation of your soul So that still it carries on what I have afore spoken unto That when Faith ceaseth Sight cometh yea perfects and swallows it up as was said even now out of 1 Cor. 12 13. And let me add this That the Apostle on purpose doth bring the mention of this supereminent fruit of faith Even now when we see not that believing ye yet rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious On purpose I say to make way for the raising up their thoughts apprehensions how infinitely transcending that salvation of their souls must be when Faith ending they attain to Sight to see him face to face whom their souls have loved It is implicitly as if he had said unto them Oh! think with your selves what Joy what Glory that must needs be which exceedeth and surpasseth this that now accompanies your faith in an answerable proportion as much as sight of Christ's presence and face to face must be supposed to excel the knowledge of him by faith which sees him but as absent darkly And further give me leave to improve this Notion You may take this assured evidence That your souls shall then see and enjoy God when your faith shall CEASE which will be when once your souls shall come to be separate from your bodies by death In that even now in this life it is your Souls and Spirits that are the immediate receptives or partakers and subjects of such glorious Joys The soul enjoys them though in the body yet without the help or concurrence of the body or the phantasms of it yea such Raptures do pass understanding that is the common way of understanding which by the use and help of the body or images in the fancy the Mind exerciseth in other things and which do concur with the understanding ordinarily in faith But this joy falls into and is illapsed within the soul it self immediately yea the weakness of your bodies and bodily spirits will not permit you to have so much of this joy as otherwise the soul is now capable of by faith And therefore by this experimental taste aforehand in your own souls you may be ascertained That your souls when separate from your bodies by death as well as when united again unto their bodies shall enjoy this great Salvation And thus much for the first Point raised out of the words which did undertake an Argumentation for a separate soul's Glory and Happiness 1. From the Condition of the Soul as the immediate subject of Grace wrought in it 2. From God's Ordination of the Work wrought To raise the soul up to life whilst Sin should bring Dissolution upon the Body 3. From the Scope of the Worker God himself who as an Efficient will accomplish the End when his Work for that end is finish'd And all these as comprehended in what the very first view and front of the words of my Text hold out God hath wrought us for the self-same thing §. But lo a greater matter is here It is not simply said God hath wrought us for this but He that hath wrought us for this thing is God Thereby calling upon us to consider How great an Hand or Efficient is here even God who hath discovered in a transcendent manner his Glory in the ordaining and contriving of this Work unto this great end Take it not therefore as a bare Demonstration given from God's working Vs to this end such as is common to other Agents as hath been said But further a Celebration of the Greatness and Glory of God in his having contrived this with so high an Hand like unto the Great God And is as if he had said There is a Design in this worthy of God He hath shewn himself in this to be the Great God indeed He that hath wrought us for this is God When God's ordinary Works are spoken of it sufficeth himself to say God did thus or this But when God's Works of Wonder then often you find such an illustrious Note of Reflection upon and pointing at Him to have done as God And it is ordinary among Men when you would commend the known Worth of the Artist to say He that wrought this is such a Man so to commend the Workmanship And thus both when the Holy-Ghost speaks of this Glory it self which is the End for which here his stile is Wbose Maker and Builder is God Heb. 11. 10. And in like equipage here of Preparation to that End he saith He that hath wrought us for this thing is God In this very Chapter 2 Cor. 5. to go no further when the great Work of Salvation in the whole of it is spoken of he prefaceth thus to it All things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself c. That is in this Transaction he hath appeared like that God of whom all things else are and so more eminently in this than in all or at least any other Work What there is said of Salvation in the whole is here of that particular Salvation of a separate Soul You have the like Emphasis put Heb. 2. 10. of bringing many Sons to Glory It became him says the Text. Now put all together and the result is The Second Point That to have provided a Glory for separate Souls of Just Men wrought upon in this Life is a Dispensation becoming the Great God yea and that there is an Artifice and Contrivement therein worthy of God and like unto himself such as he hath shewed in other his Works of Wonder There are two Branches of this Doctrine which I set otherwise out thus 1. That it is a thing becoming the Great God thus to deal with such a separate Soul having been wrought upon 2. That God hath designed and brings forth therein a glorious Artifice and Contrivement such as argue him a God Wise in Counsel and Wonderful in Working I. First Branch of this second Doctrine That it becomes God The Account of this Becomingness is best made forth by comparing and bringing together into an Interview both the inward and outward Condition of such a Soul and then the Relations which God bears to it such as should thereupon move him through his good pleasure thus to deal with it You know I at first undertook chiefly Reasons of Congruity or Becomingness and such always consist of two parts and when the one answereth and suiteth to the other then the Harmony of such a Reason is made up Let Us therefore consider 1. What is on the Soul's part 2. What is on God's part §. I. On the Soul's part Therein two things 1. The Species the Kind and intrinsecal Rank of Being which this Creature we call the Soul thus wrought upon stands in afore God 2. The outward Condition or Case this
Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
which he had on Earth then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven But this only in general shews what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition §. But I having undertaken to proceed by way of congruity I must further more particularly shew how in a correspondency to this inward and outward state of this Soul he shews himself God and how meet and becoming a thing it is for God to receive it into Glory upon the consideration of many Relations which he professedly beareth to such a Soul 1. God is a Spirit and thereupon in a special manner as Wisd 11. 26. The Lord is a lover of Souls above all his other Creation So it is there Thou art merciful to all because they are thine O Lord thou lover of Souls God is a Spirit when therefore this naked and withal sublimated Spirit by its being born again by his own Spirit and so assimulated to God himself a pure Spark now freed and severed from its Dust and Ashes flying up or is carried rather by Spirits the Angles out of their like spiritual Love to Luke 26. 22. Heb. 1. ult it as a Spirit unto that great Spirit that element of Spirits it will surely find union and coalition with him and be taken up unto him for if as Christ speaks John 4. 23. God being a Spirit therefore seeks for such as worship in Spirit and Truth that is he loves delights in such as a Man doth in a Companion or Friend who suits him And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him and have such a grand occasion and indeed the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him in such a manner and upon such a change as this as they never did before these Spirits also having been the Seat the inner Temple of all this spiritual Worship and sanctifying of him in this World surely God who sought such afore will now take them into his Bosom and Glory We also read Isa 57. 16 17. of the regard he bears to Persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration that they are Souls and Spirit and so thereby allied to him the lofty One. Hear how in this case he utters himself The Spirit would fail afore me says he and the Souls which I have made He speaks of their very Souls properly and respectively considered And them it is which he considering and it moves him unto pity for he speaks of that in Man whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator The Spirit which I have made says he and it is one of the eminent Titles he takes into his Coat The framer of the Spirit of Man within him Zech. 1. 12. as in many other places This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in Man which is the subject sensible of his immediate Wrath. I will not contend for ever nor Child of Light walking in Darkness will I be always Wrath. This I have observed in what is publick of mine Now what moves him to remove his Wrath from such an one The Spirit would fail says he Now doth God thus profess to have a regard to them in this Life and that upon this account that they are Spirits lest they should fail or faint and shall we not think that when indeed otherwise they do fail as after Death you have heard even now Christ himself expresseth they would and would upon all these considerations before-mentioned sink into utter desolation unless they were received into everlasting Habitations as Christ there also speaks Do we think that God will not now entertain them The time is now come the full time to have pity on them 2. God at this season forgets not but full well remembers his Relation of being Their Creatour both by the new and also first Creation the new reviving and ingratiating the remembrance of the first The Souls which I have made said he in Esa But in St. Peter this is more express and mentioned as that which indeed moves God and should be accordingly a support to our Faith to take care of our Souls when we come to die even upon this account that he is the faithful Creatour of them 1 Pet. 4. last Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the Keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator He speaks this specially unto such as were continually exposed unto persecution unto death for Christ in those Primitive times which therefore v. 12. he terms the fiery trial and ver 17. forewarns them of a time of judgment was begun and going on upon the of house God such as they had not yet felt who yet Heb. 10. 32 33 34. had suffered reproach and spoyling of their Goods as Peter writes to the same Jews hereupon Peter pertinently instructs them to commit the keeping of their Souls unto God At death you know it is that when Mens bodies are destroyed and so the season when their Souls to be separated therefrom should be committed to God's care as our Darling as our Translation or lovely Soul when separate Psal 22. See Ainsw as others as Christ in David speaks Ps 22. And Peter had in his eye Christ's example and pointed them thereunto who at his death committed his separate Soul or Spirit into the hands of God Luk. 23. 46. and the word commit is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same in both these places onely there is this difference that whereas Christ sayes Father I commit Peter substitutes another title of God's there being more than one Relation moving God and strengthening our Faith to this even of faithful Creatour And I understand not the first Creation onely or chiefly here meant by Peter but the second Creation chiefly which brings into repute and acceptation with God the first again together with its own and so God is thereupon engaged to be faithful in his care and provision for such Souls according to his promises And faithfulness doth always respect and refer unto Promises and my reason why thus I understand it is because I find God's faithfulnesse still annexed unto his calling of us that is converting us which is all one with this new Creation Faithful is he that hath called you that is made you new Creatures 1 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Thes 5. 24. And I find that David also urges it upon God as a motive as in other Psalms So Ps 138. 8. Forsake not the works of thine own hands that is this double workmanship of thine of the first and then superadded unto that of the second creation which he urgeth thereby to move him to perfect the work begun and to be merciful unto him for ever in the former part of that verse 3. God professeth himself the Father of Spirits which relation though it speaks his being the Creatour of them at the
of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant Reward which respected the Life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of God's unto us unto two Inferences drawn from Abraham's Instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christ's Inference from thence That therefore Abraham's Soul lives and Abraham both Soul and Body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's Collection from the same Promise is That God had provided in the mean time for Abraham's Soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the Story and Case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver 8 9. whereupon ver 13. it is said That these all died in Faith not having received the Promises being Strangers in the Land yea not having a foot of Land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their Faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose Maker and Builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his Faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their Faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from God's having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his Reward and his Friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the Story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Countrey that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their death The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their God did import and carry this with it That he had provided this Estate for them at their death even an heavenly and that otherwise as the Apostle glosseth upon it he had not come up unto the amplitude of nor filled full this covenanted Engagement and Profession of His being their God Will you have it in plain English as we speak if he had not made this provision for their Souls he would have been ashamed to have been called their God thus deeply doth this oblige him That he is our God and Father which is the point in hand And judge of this in the light of all that Reason we have hitherto carried along and again let this inference of the Apostle mutually serve to confirm us in all that Reason For poor Abraham to be driven out of his own Country by God who called him to his foot and said no more but as a Master to his Servant Take your Cloke and follow me who must presently without more ado trig and foot it after his Master as Isa 41. 2. and then to live a stranger in the Land of Promise upon the faith that God would be his God which faith in him was also to cease when he came to die If this God in this case should not have taken care to answer his faith in some greater way in stead of the possession of Canaan and that after upon his being turned out of that Country too which he sojourned in during this life if God had not provided another House or Country or City for his Soul that was to live to bring it into when it should be deprived of all in this World The Apostle tell us God in this case would have been ashamed to have been called his God which now having provided so abundantly for him upon dying there is superabundant cause to say God is not ashamed for that is a diminutive imploying That he infinitely exceedeth that their expectation could be supposed to be Let us but view the force of this inference of the Apostle's and so of all the reasonings hitherto read But according to man or what is found amongst men and God will be sure infinitely to surpass men in his ways of favour Take an ordinary friend if his freind be turn'd out of house and home plundred banished driven out of all as the Steward in that parable Luk. 16. was and comes to his Friend at midnight as in that other Parable Luk. 11. 5 6. will not his friends entertain him into their houses as ver 9 of Luk. 16. yea and rise at midnight to do it as ver 5 6. in that Parable of Luk. 11. Shall profession of friendship engage and oblige men to do this and shall not God's professing himself to be our God Father Friend engage his heart much more Nay will he not so entertain them as shall exceed all wonderment What need I say more than this Wherefore He is not ashamed to be called their God He will therefore give you an entertainment that shall be worthy of his being your God The fifth and last Consideration is That these separate Souls having done and finish'd all their work that in order to Glory God hath appointed them for ever to do they now at death appear afore him as a Judge and Rewarder And that is the fifth Relation moving God to bestow at this season such a Glory on them How that then the Soul returns to God you have heard again and again out of Eccl. 12. 7. and that it is upon the account of his being the Judge thereof at the end of their work in this life The Chaldee Paraphrase hath long since glossed upon it It returns to God that it may stand in Judgment afore him In this life it came unto God by Faith as the Apostle speaks believing that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently Heb. 11. 6. seek him and now at the end of its Faith it comes unto God for the Reward of its Faith as some interpret that 1 Pet. 1. 9. which we so largely have insisted on This is certain That in that Promise to Abraham to be his God he intended and included his being to him an exceeding
but the Perishings of this outward Man as also All things and dispensations else that do befal us they are secretly at work too all that while so set to work by God who works the inner Man daily unto such a measure of Grace and these to work and by his Ordination procure a proportionable Weight for God works all these things in Weight and Measure our light Affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory as shall in a comely and in the exactest manner answer and suit that curious Workmanship on the inward-man and it is observable that the same Word for working is used in that verse that is used in my Text but yet these are but outwardly a work as inferiour Artificers or Instruments Therefore 3. He further declares verse 1. of this Chapter that God himself is at work about this Glory who as the Master-workman that hath the draught and platform of all afore him drawn by his own designing he viewing the inward work on us the outward work of means and dispensations and knows afore-hand what degree of holiness to bring us ultimately unto he according unto these as patterns is a framing a Building for us in Heaven exactly suited to the working of all the other which building he prepares and makes ready for this inner Man to entertain it when the body is dissolved If our earthly House were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands of either Men or Means or of our own Graces but of God But every Soul hath a State of Glory proportioned to all these ready built for it against this time even as Statues in Stone are framed and carved to be set up in such a curious Arch framed for them by the Builder Now then 4. Add but the Words of my Text which is the close of this his discourse And it opens all the Scene He that wrought us for this self-same thing is God The Apostle's Conclusion answers his beginning he began in chap. 4. ver 16. and the circle ends in my Text. And this is God who is wise in working and wonderful in counsel §. But there is a third point yet remains Doctrine III. That it is the interest and engagement of all Three Persons to see to it that a righteous separate Soul be brought to Glory at dissolution And this carries it yet higher even to the highest and gives the most superabundant security and assurance of this thing that can be given and superadds above all the former But you will ask me How I fetch this out of my Text Thus 1. You see here are Two Persons expresly named God the Father namely and the Spirit That 's a Rule that where the name God and then some besides other of the Two Persons Christ or the Spirit are mentioned therewith as distinct There God is put personally not essentially only to express the Father Now here the Spirit or holy Ghost is mentioned distinct from God For it is said That this God hath given the Spirit which also Christ so often speaketh of the Father as I need not insist on it 2. It is another Rule that in any Scripture where Two Persons are mentioned as concurring in any thing or matter There the other Third Person also must be understood to have his special share therein also as when he wisheth Grace and Peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ 'T is certain the holy Ghost is as specially understood as indeed we find him in that Apostolical Blessing as distinctly spoken of as the Father or Christ Thus it must be here Christ must be taken in who also in John is so often said to give the Spirit when the Father gives him as it is said here he hath For this same thing But 3. You have even Christ also not far off interested in this self-same thing in the next verse and ver 8. Absence from the Lord whilst in the body ver 6. and present with the Lord when separate from the body ver 8. This Lord is Christ the Phrase of the New Testament concerning Christ runs in this stile To be with Christ This day with me To be where I am and see my Glory So Christ To be with Christ is best of all and we shall be ever with the Lord. So Paul Use I. Doth God work Us for this thing ere he brings us to it What hath God wrought hitherto upon Thee or Thee in order to this end 'T is a blunt question but the Text puts it in my mouth How many Souls are there living in the profession of Christianity that know not what this means to have a work wrought on them anew upon them over and above what moral Honesty which was Nature's portion and the common profession of Christianity adds thereunto by custom and meer Education An honest Turk professing also and observing the Principles of his Religion upon the ground of his Education onely and a Religon every Man must have will as soon go to Heaven as Thou for all thy Religion is founded but upon the like Foundation that his is I tell thee that Christian Religion is not a thing so cheap nor Salvation by Christ at so low a rate Thou must have a Work upon thy Soul suited unto all the Truths thus professed in the power and efficacy of them They must enter thy Soul by a spiritual Faith and Frame and mould it anew to a likeness to them Carry home therefore the Caveat our Apostle hath put in ver 3. If so be that being clothed we be not founded naked of Grace and Holiness wrought and Christ's Righteousness by spiritual efficacious Faith applied Faith in earnest bowing the Soul to be obedient unto Christ as heartily and as honestly as it expects Salvation by Christ as without which thou wilt never be saved This is our Religion and when at death thy Soul thy poor lonesome Soul being stript of all things in this World even the Body and all shall come afore the great God and Jesus Christ what will the enquiry be as Mat. 22. 11. When the King came in to see the Guests he saw a Man had not the Wedding-garment he spied him out And the Man was speechless ver 12. Take him and bind him says he and cast him into utter darkness ver 13. The other that were clothed were admitted unto the Marriage and as the Psalmist the words of which are here alluded unto She was brought unto the King the very Title which in both these places is given to Christ see ver 11. in Rayment of Needle-work and this clothing is of God's working and so my Text falls in with both There is no admission unto Christ without it This the first Vse Use II. Hath God began to work this good work in thee he will perfect it whereof the Text gives this assurance that he hath wrought it for this thing that is for this end and God will not lose his