able to receive them to keep and preserve them as also to dispose of them into a state of Rest and Blessedness are required of us THE Soul is now parting with all things here below and that for ever None of all the things which it hath seen heard or enjoyed by its outward senses can be prevailed with to stay with it one hour or to take one step with it in the Voyage wherein it is ingaged It must alone by it self lanch into eternity It is entring an Invisible World which it knows no more of than it hath received by Faith None hath come from the dead to inform us of the State of the other World Yea God seems on purpose so to conceal it from us that we should have no evidence of it at least as unto the manner of things in it but what is given unto Faith by Divine Revelation Hence those who died and were raised again from the dead unto any continuance among men as Lazarus probably knew nothing of the Invisible State Their Souls were preserved by the Power of God in their Being but bound up as unto present Operations This made a great Emperor cry out on the approach of Death O animula tremula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca horrida squalida c. O poor trembling wandring Soul into what places of darkness and defilement art thou going HOW is it like to be after the few moments which under the pangs of Death we have to continue in this World Is it an Annihilation that lies at the door is Death the Destruction of our whole Being so as that after it we shall be no more So some would have the state of things to be Is it a state of subsistence in a wandring condition up and down the World under the Influence of other more powerful Spirits that rule in the Air visiting Tombs and Solitary places and sometimes making appearances of themselves by the Impressions of those more powerful Spirits as some imagine from the story concerning Samuel and the Witch of Endor and as it is commonly received in the Papacy out of a compliance with their Imagination of Purgatory Or is it a state of universal misery and wo a state incapable of comfort or joy Let them pretend what they please who can understand no comfort or joy in this Life but what they receive by their Sences they can look for nothing else And whatever be the state of this Invisible World the Soul can undertake nothing of its own conduct after its departure from the Body It knows that it must be absolutely at the disposal of another WHEREFORE no man can comfortably venture on and into this condition but in the exercise of that Faith which enables him to resign and give up his departing Soul into the Hand of of God who alone is able to receive it and to dispose it into a Condition of Rest and Blessedness So speaks the Apostle I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day HEREIN as in all other Graces is our Lord Jesus Christ our great example He resigned his departing Spirit into the hands of his Father to be owned and preserved by him in its state of Separation Father into thy hands I commit my spirit Luk. 23. 46 as did the Psalmist his Type in an alike condition Psal. 31. 5. But the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ herein the object and exercise of it what he believed and trusted unto in this Resignation of his Spirit into the Hand of God is at large expressed in the sixteenth Psalm I have saith he set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore He left his Soul in the hand of God in full assurance that it should suffer no evil in its state of Separation but should be brought again with his Body into a blessed Resurrection and eternal Glory So Stephen resigned his Soul departing under violence into the hands of Christ himself When he died he said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit THIS is the last Victorious act of Faith wherein its conquest over its last enemy Death it self doth consist Herein the Soul says in and unto it self Thou art now taking leave of Time unto eternity all things about thee are departing as shades and will immediately disappear The things which thou art entring into are yet invisible Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor will they enter into the heart of man fully to conceive Now therefore with quietness and confidence give up thy self unto the Sovereign Power Grace Truth and Faithfulness of God and thou shalt find assured rest and peace BUT Jesus Christ it is who doth immediately receive the Souls of them who believe in him So we see in the instance of Stephen And what can be a greater encouragement to resign them into his hands than a daily Contemplation of his Glory in his Person his Power his Exaltation his Office and Grace Who that believes in him that belongs unto him can fear to commit his departing Spirit unto his Love Power and Care Even we also shall hereby in our dying moments see by Faith Heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us This added unto the Love which all Believers have unto the Lord Jesus which is enflamed by Contemplation of his Glory and their desires to be with him where he is it will strengthen and confirm our minds in the Resignation of our departing Souls into his hand SECONDLY It is required in us unto the same end that we be ready and wiling to part with the flesh wherewith we are cloathed with all things that are useful and desirable thereunto The Alliance the Relation the Friendship the Union that are between the Soul and the Body are the greatest the nearest the firmest that are or can be among meer created Beings There is nothing like it nothing equal unto it The Union of Three persons in the one single Divine Nature and the Union of two Natures in one person of Christ are infinite ineffable and exempted from all comparison But among created Beings the Union of these two essential parts of the same Nature in one Person is most excellent Nor is any thing equal to it or like it found in any other Creatures Those who among them have most of life have either no Bodies as Angels or no Souls but what perish with them as all Brute creatures below ANGELS being pure immaterial Spirits have nothing in them nothing belonging
unto their essence that can dye Beasts have nothing in them that can live when their Bodies dye The Soul of a Beast cannot be preserved in a separate Condition no not by an act of Almighty Power for it is not and that which is not cannot live It is nothing but the Body it self in an act of its material Powers ONLY the Nature of Man in all the Works of God is capable of this Convulsion The essential parts of it are separable by Death the one continuing to exist and act its especial Powers in a separate state or condition The Powers of the whole entire nature acting in Soul and Body in conjunction are all scattered and lost by Death But the Powers of one Essential part of the same Nature that is of the Soul are preserved after Death in a more perfect acting and exercise than before This is peculiar unto human nature as a mean partaking of Heaven and Earth of the perfection of Angels above and of the imperfection of the Beasts below Only there is this difference in these things Our participation of the heavenly spiritual perfections of the Angelical Nature is for eternity our participation of the imperfections of the animate creatures here below is but for a season For God hath designed our Bodies unto such a glorious refinement at the Resurrection as that they shall have no more Alliance unto that brutish nature which perisheth for ever For we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto Angels or Equal to them Our bodies shall no more be capable of those Acts and Operations which are now common to us with other living creatures here below THIS is the preeminence of the nature of Man as the wise Man declares For unto that Objection of Atheistical Epicureans As the one dieth so dieth the other they have all one breath so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast and all go into one place all are of the dust and all turn to the dust again He granteth that as unto their Bodies it is for a season in them we have a present participation of their nature But saith he here lieth the Difference Who knoweth the spirit of a Man that goeth upward and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward unto the earth Unless we know this unless we consider the different state of the spirit of Men and Beasts we cannot be delivered from this Atheism but the thoughts hereof will set us at liberty from it They dye in like munner and their bodies go equally to the dust for a season but the Beast hath no spirit no soul but what dies with the body and goes to the dust If they had their bodies also must be raised again unto a conjunction with them Otherwise Death would produce a new race of creatures unto Eternity But man hath an immortal Soul saith he an heavenly Spirit which when the Body goes into the dust for a season ascends to Heaven where the guilt of sin and the curse of the Law interpose not from whence it is there to exist and to act all its Native powers in a state of blessedness BUT as I said by reason of this peculiar intimate Union and Relation between the Soul and Body there is in the whole Nature a fixed Aversation from a Dissolution The Soul and Body are naturally and necessarily unwilling to fall into a state of Separation wherein the one shall cease to be what it was and the other knows not clearly how it shall subsist The Body claspeth about the Soul and the Soul receiveth strange Impressions from its embraces the entire nature existing in the Union of them both being unalterably averse unto a Dissolution WHEREFORE unless we can overcome this inclination we can never dye comfortably or chearfully We would indeed rather chuse to be cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life that the cloathing of Glory might come on our whole Nature Soul and Body without Dissolution But if this may not be yet then do believers so conquer this Inclination by Faith and Views of the Glory of Christ as to attain a desire of this Dissolution So the Apostle testifies of himself I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better than to abide here Phil. 1. 23. saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not an ordinary desire not that which worketh in me now and then but a constant habitual Inclination working in â—â—â—â—ment Acts and Desires And what doth he so desire It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to depart say we out of this Body from this Tabernacle to leave it for a season But it is such a departure as consists in the Dissolution of the present state of his Being that it should not be what it is But how is it possible that a man should attain such an Inclination unto such a Readiness for such a vehement desire of a Dissolution It is from a View by Faith of Christ and his Glory whence the Soul is satisfied that to be with him is incomparably better than in its present state and condition HE therefore that would dye comfortably must be able to say within himself and to himself Dye then thou frail and sinful flesh Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return I yield thee up unto the righteous doom of the holy One. Yet therein also I give thee into the hand of the great Refiner who will hide thee in thy Grave and by thy consumption purifie thee from all thy Corruption and Disposition to evil And otherwise this will not be After a long sincere Endeavour for the Mortification of all sin I find it will never be absolutely perfect but by this Reduction into the dust Thou shalt no more be a residence for the least remainder of sin unto Eternity nor any clog unto my Soul in its actings on God Rest therefore in hope For God in his appointed season when he shall have a desire unto the work of his hands will call unto thee and thou shalt answer him out of the dust Then shall he by an act of his Almighty Power not only restore thee unto thy pristine Glory as at the first Creation when thou wast the pure Workmanship of his hands but enrich and adorn thee with inconceivable Priviledges and Advantages Be not then afraid away with all Reluctancy go into the Dust rest in Hope for thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days THAT which will enable us hereunto in an eminent manner is that View and Consideration of the Glory of Christ which is the subject of the ensuing Meditations For be who is now possessed of all that Glory underwent this Dissolution of Nature as truly and really as ever we shall do THIRDLY There is required hereunto a Readiness to comply with the Times and Seasons wherein God would have us depart and leave this World Many think they shall be willing to dye when their time is come but they have many
secured We were created in a Covenant Relation unto God Our Nature was related unto him in a way of Friendship of Likeness and Complacency But the Bond of this Relation and Union was quickly broken by our Apostasy from him Hereon our whole Nature became to be at the utmost Moral distance from God and Enmity against him which is the depth of Misery But God in Infinite Wisdom and Grace did design once more to recover it and take it again near unto himself And he would do it in such a way as should render it utterly impossible that there should ever be a Separation between him and it any more Heaven and Earth may pass away but there shall never be a Dissolution of the Union between God and our Nature any more He did it therefore by assuming it into a substantial Union with himself in the Person of the Son Hereby the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in it Bodily or Substantially and Eternally Hereby is its Relation unto God eternally secured And among all the Mysterious Excellencies which relate hereunto there are two which continually present themselves unto our consideration 1. THAT this Nature of ours is capable of this glorious Exaltation and Subsistence in God No Creature could conceive how Omnipotent Wisdom Power and Goodness could actuate themselves unto the Production of this Effect The Mystery hereof is the Object of the Admiration of Angels and will be so of the whole Church unto all Eternity What is revealed concerning the Glory way and manner of it in the Scripture I have declared in my Treatise concerning the Mystery of Godliness or the Person of Christ. What mind can Conceive what Tongue can Express who can sufficiently Admire the Wisdom Goodness and Condescention of God herein And whereas he hath proposed unto us this glorious Object of our Faith and Meditation how vile and foolish are we if we spend our thoughts about other things in a neglect of it 2. THIS is also an ineffable Pledge of the Love of God into our Nature For although he will not take it in any other Instance save that of the Man Christ Jesus into this Relation with himself by vertue of personal Union Yet therein he hath given a glorious Pledge of his Love unto and Valuation of that Nature For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham And this kindness intends unto our Persons as Participant of that Nature For he designed this Glory unto the Man Christ Jesus that he might be the first-born of the New Creation that we might be made conformable unto him according to our measure and as the Members of that Body whereof he is the Head we are Participant in this Glory 3. IT is he in whom our Nature hath been carried successfully and victoriously through all the Oppositions that it is liable unto and even Death it self But the Glory hereof I shall speak unto distinctly in its proper place which follows and therefore shall here pass it by 4. HE it is who in himself hath given us a Pledge of the capacity of our Nature to inhabit those blessed Regions of Light which are far above these aspectable Heavens Here we dwell in Tabernacles of Clay that are crushed before the Moth such as cannot be raised so as to abide one foot breadth above the Earth we tread upon The heavenly Luminaries which we can behold appear too great and glorious for our Cohabitation We are as Grashoppers in our own eyes in comparison of those Gigantick Beings and they seem to dwell in places which would immediately swallow up and extinguish our Natures How then shall we entertain an Apprehension of being carried and exalted above them all to have an everlasting subsistence in places incomprehensibly more glorious than the Orbs wherein they reside What capacity is there in our Nature of such an Habitation But hereof the Lord Christ hath given us a Pledge in himself Our Nature in him is passed through these Aspectable Heavens and is exalted far above them It s eternal Habitation is in the blessed Regions of Light and Glory and he hath promised that where he is there we shall be and that for ever OTHER Encouragements there are innumerable to stir us up unto diligence in the discharge of the Duty here proposed namely a continual Contemplation of the Glory of Christ in his Person Office and Grace Some of them the Principal of them which I have any Acquaintance with are represented in the ensuing Discourse I shall therefore here add the peculiar Advantage which we may obtain in the diligent discharge of this Duty Which is that it will carry us chearfully comfortably and victoriously through Life and Death and all that we have to conflict withal in either of them AND let it be remembred that I do here suppose what is written on this Subject in the ensuing Discourse as being designed to prepare the minds of the Readers for the due Improvement of it AS unto this present Life it is well known what it is unto the most of them who concern themselves in these things Temptations Afflictions Changes Sorrows Dangers Fears Sickness and Pains do fill up no small part of it And in the other hand all our Earthly Relishes Refreshments and Comforts are uncertain transitory and unsatisfactory all things of each sort being embittered by the Remainders of sin Hence every thing wherein we are concerned hath the Root of Trouble and Sorrow in it Some labour under Wants Poverty and Straits all their days and some have very few hours free from Pains and Sickness And all these things with others of an alike Nature are heightened at present by the Calamitous Season wherein our lot is fallen All things almost in all Nations are filled with Confusiens Disorders Dangers Distresses and Troubles Wars and Rumors of Wars do abound With Tokens of farther approaching Judgments Distress of Nations with perplexities mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth There is in many places no Peace unto him that goeth out nor to him that cometh in but great Vexations are on the Inhabitants of the World Nation is destroyed of Nation and City of City for God doth vex them with all Adversity And in the mean time Vexation with the ungodly deeds of wicked men doth greatly further the Troubles of Life the sufferings of many also for the Testimony of their Consciences are deplorable with the Divisions and Animosities that abound amongst all sorts of Christians BUT the Shortness the Vanity the Miseries of humane Life have been the subject of the complaints of all sorts of considering Persons Heathens as well as Christians nor is it my present business to insist upon them My enquiry is only after the Relief which we may obtain against all these evils that we faint not under them that we may have the victory over them THIS in general is declared
and Power are in like manner in sundry places represented unto us And as one Star differeth from another in Glory so it was one way whereby God represented the Glory of Christ in Types and Shadows under the Old Testament and another wherein it is declared in the New Illustrious Testimonies upon all these things are planted up and down in the Scripture which we may collect as choice flowers in the Paradise of God for the Object of our Faith and Sight thereby SO the Spouse in the Canticles considered every part of the Person and Grace of Christ distinctly by it self and from them all concludes that he is altogether lovely Chap. 5. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. So ought we to do in our study of the Scripture to find out the Revelation of the Glory of Christ which is made therein as did the Prophets of old as unto what they themselves received by immediate Inspiration They searched diligently what the spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified-before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should ensue 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. But this seeing of Christ by parts in the Revelation of him is one cause why we see him here but in part SOME suppose that by Chopping and Painting and Gilding they can make an Image of Christ that shall perfectly represent him to their Sences and carnal Affections from head to foot But they feed on ashes and have a lie in their right hand Jesus Christ is evidently crucified before our eyes in the Scripture Gal. 3. 1. So also is he evidently exalted and glorified therein And it is the Wisdom of Faith to gather into one those parcelled Descriptions that are given of him that they may be the Object of its View and Contemplation IN the Vision which we shall have above the whole Glory of Christ will be at once and always represented unto us and we shall be enabled in one act of the Light of Glory to comprehend it Here indeed we are at a loss our minds and understandings fail us in their Contemplations It will not yet enter into our hearts to conceive what is the beauty what is the Glory of this compleat Representation of Christ unto us To have at once all the Glory of what he is what he was in his outward State and Condition what he did and suffered what he is Exalted unto his Love and Condescention his Mystical Union with the Church and the Communication of himself unto it with the Recapitulation of all things in Him and the Glory of God even the Father in his Wisdom Righteousness Grace Love Goodness Power shining forth eternally in him in what he is hath done and doth all presented unto us in one view all comprehended by us at once is that which at present we cannot conceive We can long for it pant after it and have some foretasts of it namely of that State and Season wherein our whole Souls in all their powers and faculties shall constantly inseparably eternally cleave by Love unto whole Christ in the sight of the Glory of his Person and Grace until they are watered dissolved and inebriated in the Waters of Life and the Rivers of Pleasure that are above for evermore So must we speak of the things which we admire which we adore which we love which we long for which we have some foretasts of in sweetness ineffable which yet we cannot comprehend THESE are some few of those things whence ariseth the difference between that view which we have here of the Glory of Christ and that which is reserved for Heaven namely such as are taken from the difference between the means or instruments of the one and the other Faith and Sight IN the last place the great difference between them consists in and is manifested by their effects Hereof I shall give some few instances and close this discourse 1. THE Vision which we shall have of the Glory of Christ in Heaven and of the Glory of the immense God in him is perfectly and absolutely transforming It doth change us wholly into the Image of Christ. When we shall see him we shall be as he is we shall be like him because we shall see him 1 Joh. 3. 2. But although the closing perfecting act of this Transformation be an act of sight or the sight of Glory yet there are many things towards it or degrees in it which we may here take notice of in our way 1. THE Soul upon its Departure from the Body is immediately freed fom all the Weakness Disability Darkness Uncertainties and Fears which were impressed on it from the Flesh wherewith it was in the strictest Union The Image of the first Adam as fallen is then abolished Yea it is not only freed from all irregular sinful Distempers cleaving to our Nature as corrupted but from all those sinless Grievances and Infirmities which belong unto the Original Constitution of it This necessarily ensues on the Dissolution of the Person in order unto a blessed State The first entrance by Mortality into Immortallity is a step towards Glory The ease which a blessed Soul finds in a deliverance from this Encumbrance is a Door of entrance into eternal Rest. Such a change is made in that which in it self is the Center of all Evil namely Death that it is made a means of freeing us from all the Remainders of what is evil FOR this doth not follow absolutely on the Nature of the thing it self A meer Dissolution of our Natures can bring no Advantage with it especially as it is a part of the Curse But it is from the Sanctification of it by the Death of Christ. Hereby that which was Gods Ordinance for the Infliction of Judgment becomes an effectual Means for the Communication of Mercy 1 Cor. 5. 22. Chap. 15. 54. It is by vertue of the Death of Christ alone that the Souls of Believers are freed by Death from all impressions of Sin Infirmity and Evils which they have had from the Flesh which were their Burden under which they groaned all their Days No Man knows in any measure the Excellency of this Priviledge and the Dawnings of Glory which are in it who hath not been wearied and even worn out through long conflicting with the Body of Death The Soul hereon being freed from all Annoyances all Impressions from the Flesh is expedite and enlarged unto the Exercise of all its gracious Faculties as we shall see immediately WITH wicked Men it is not so Death unto them is a Curse and the Curse is the Means of the Conveyance of all Evil and not Deliverance from any Wherein they have been warmed and refreshed by the Influences of the Flesh they shall be deprived of it But their Souls in their separate State are perpetually harrased with the disquieting Passions which have been impressed on their Minds by their corrupt fleshly Lusts. In vain do such Persons look for Relief by Death If there be any thing