{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Aristotle But the soul only comes from abroad from a Divine principle for so saith the Scripture God breathed into Adam the spirit of life and that which in operation does not communicate with the body shall have no part in its corruption Thus far they were right but when they descended to particulars they fell into error That the rewards of vertue were to be hereafter that they were sure of that the soul was to survive the calamities of this world and the death of the body that they were sure of and upon this account they did bravely and vertuously and yet they that thought best amongst them believed that the souls departed should be reinvested with other bodies according to the dispositions and capacities of this life Thus Orpheus who sang well should transmigrate into a Swan and the soul of Thamyris who had as good a voice as he should wander till it were confined to the body of a Nightingal Ajax to a Lion Agamemnon to an Eagle Tyrant princes into wolvs and Hawks the lascivious into Asses and Goats the Drunkards into Swine the Crafty Statesmen into bees and pismires and Thersites to an Ape This fancy of theirs prevailed much amongst the common people and the uninstructed amongst the Jews for when Christ appeared so glorious in miracle Herod presently fancied him to be the soul of Iohn the Baptist in another body and the common people said he was Elias or Ieremias or one of the old Prophets And true it is that although God was pleased in all times to communicate to mankind notices of the other world sufficient to encourage vertues and to contest against the rencontres of the world yet he was ever sparing in telling the secrets of it and when St. Paul had his rapture into Heaven he saw fine things and heard strange words but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} words that he could not speak and secrets that he could not understand and secrets that he could not communicate For as a man staring upon the broad eye of the Sun at his noon of Solstice feels his heat and dwells in light and loses the sight of his eyes and perceives nothing distinctly but the Organ is confounded and the faculty amazed with too big a beauty So was S. Paul in his extasy he saw that he could see nothing to be told below and he perceived the glories were too big for flesh and blood and that the beauties of separate souls were not to be understood by the soul in Conjunction and therefore after all the fine things that he saw we only know what we knew before viz. that the soul can live when the body is dead that it can subsist without the body that there are very great glories reserved for them that serve God that they who die in Christ shall live with him that the body is a prison and the soul is in fetters while we are alive and that when the body dies the soul springs and leaps from her prison and enters into the first liberty of the sons of God Now much of this did rely upon the same argument upon which the wise Gentiles of old concluded the immortality of the soul even because we are here very miserable and very poor we are sick and we are afflicted we do well and are disgraced we speak well and we are derided we tell truths and few believe us but the proud are exalted and the wicked are delivered and evil men reign over us and the covetous snatch our little bundles of money from us and the Fiscus gathers our rents and every where the wisest and the best men are oppressed but therefore because it is thus and thus it is not well we hope for some great good thing hereafter For if in this life only we had hope then we Christians all we to whom persecution is allotted for our portion we who must be patient under the Crosse and receive injuries and say nothing but prayers we certainly were of all men the most miserable Well then in this life we see plainly that our portion is not here we have hopes but not here only we shall goe into another place where we shall have more hopes our faith shall have more evidence it shall be of things seen afar off and our hopes shall be of more certainty and perspicuity and next to possession we shall have very much good and be very sure of much more Here then are three propositions to be considered 1. The Servants of God in this world are very miserable were it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter 2. Though this be a place of hopes yet we have not our hopes only here If in this life only we had hopes saith the Apostle meaning that in another life also we have hopes not only metonymically taking hopes for the things we hope for but properly and for the acts objects and causes of hope In the state of separation the godly shall have the vast joyes of a certain intuitive hope according to their several proportions and capacities 3. The consummation and perfection of their felicity when all their miseries shall be changed into glories is in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead which is the main thing which S. Paul here intends 1. The servants of God in this life are calamitous and afflicted they must live under the Crosse He that will be my Disciple let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me said our Glorious Lord and Master And we see this Prophetic precept for it is both a Prophecy and a Commandment and therefore shall be obeyed whether we will or no but I say we see it verified by the experience of every day For here the violent oppress the meek and they that are charitable shall receive injuries The Apostles who preach'd Christ crucified were themselves persecuted and put to violent deaths and Christianity it selfe for three hundred years was the publick hatred and yet then it was that men loved God best and suffered more for him then they did most good and least of evill In this world men thrive by villany and lying and deceiving is accounted just and to be rich is to be wise and tyranny is honourable and though little thefts and petty mischiefs are interrupted by the laws yet if a mischief become publick and great acted by Princes and effected by armies and robberies be done by whole fleets it is vertue and it is glory it fills the mouths of fools that wonder and imployes the pens of witty men that eat the bread of flattery How many thousand bottles of tears and how many millions of sighs does God every day record while the oppressed and the poor pray unto him worship him speak great things of his holy Name study to please him beg for helps that they may become gracious in his eyes and are so and yet never
it is the comfort of that joy which makes them blessed who die in the love of God and the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus And now to the proposition it selfe In the state of separation the souls departed perceive the blessing and comfort of their labours they are alive after death and after death immediately they finde great refreshments Iustorum animae in manu Dei sunt non tanget illos tormentum mortis Wisd. 3. The torments of death shall not touch the souls of the righteous because they are in the hands of God And fifteen hundred years after the death of Moses we finde him talking with our Blessed Lord in his transfiguration upon the Mount Tabor and as Moses was then so are all the Saints immediately after death praesentes apud Dominum they are present with the Lord and to be so is not a state of death and yet of this it is that S. Paul affirms it to be much better then to be alive And this was the undoubted sentence of the Jews before Christ and since and therefore our Blessed Saviour told the converted thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise Now without peradventure he spake so as he was to be understood meaning by Paradise that which the Schools and Pulpits of the Rabbins did usually speak of it By Paradise till the time of Esdras it is certain the Jews only meant that Blessed Garden in which God once placed Adam and Eve but in the time of Esdras and so downward when they spake distinctly of things to happen after this life and began to signifie their new discoveries and modern Philosophy by Names they called the state of souls expecting the resurrection of their bodies by the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the garden of Eden Hence came that forme of comprecation and blessing to the soul of an Israelite Sit anima ejus in horto Eden Let his soul be in the garden of Eden and in their solemn prayers at the time of their death they were wont to say let his soule rest and let his sleep be in peace untill the Comforter shall come open the gates of Paradise unto him expresly distinguishing Paradise from the state of the Resurrection And so it is evident in the entercourse on the Crosse between Christ and the converted thief That day both were to be in Paradise but Christ himself was not then ascended into heaven and therefore Paradise was no part of that region where Christ now and hereafter the Saints shall reign in glory For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} did by use and custome signifie any place of beauty and pleasure So the LXX read Eccles. 2. 5. I made me gardens and orchards I made me a Paradise so it is in the Greek and Cicero having found this strange word in Zenophon renders it by agrum conseptum ac diligentèr consitum a field well hedg'd and set with flowers and fruits Vivarium Gellius renders it a place to keep birds and beasts alive for pleasure Pollux sayes this word was Persian by its original yet because by traduction it became Hebrew we may best learn the meaning of it from the Jews who used it most often and whose sense we better understand Their meaning therefore was this that as Paradise or the Garden of Eden was a place of great beauty pleasure and tranquillity so the state of separate souls was a state of peace and excellent delights So Philo allegorically does expound Paradise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For the trees that grow in Paradise are not like ours but they bring forth knowledge and life and immortality It is therefore more then probable that when the converted thief heard our Blessed Saviour speak of Paradise or Gan Eden he who was a Jew and heard that on that day he should be there understood the meaning to be that he should be there where all the good Jews did believe the souls of Abraham Isaac and Iacob to be placed As if Christ had said Though you only ask to be remembred when I come into my Kingdome not only that shall be performed in time but even to day thou shalt have great refreshment and this the Hellenist Jews called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the rest of Paradise and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the comfort of Paradise the word being also warranted from that concerning Lazarus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} He is comforted But this we learn more perfectly from the raptures of S. Paul He knew a man meaning himself rapt up into the third heaven And I knew such a man how that he was caught up into Paradise 2 Cor. 2. 3. The raptures visions were distinct for S. Paul being a Jew and speaking after the manner of his Nation makes Paradise a distinct thing from the third Heaven For the Jews deny any orbes to be in Heaven but they make three regions only the one of clouds the second of starrs and the third of Angels To this third or supreme Heaven was S. Paul wrapt but he was also born to Paradise to another place distinct and separate by time and station For by Paradise his Countreymen never understood the Third Heaven but there also it was that he heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unspeakable words great glorifications of God huge excellencies such which he might not or could not utter here below The effect of these considerations is this that although the Saints are not yet admitted to the blessings consequent to a happy resurrection yet they have the intermedial entertainments of a present and a great joy To this purpose are those words to be understood To him that overcomes will I give to eate of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Revel. 2. 7. that is if I may have leave to expound these words to mean what the Jews did about that time understand by such words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Tree of life does signifie the principle of peace and holiness of wisdome and comforts for ever Philo expounding it calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The worship of God the greatest of all vertues by which the soul is made to live for ever as if by eating of this tree of life in the Paradise of God they did mean that they who die well shall immediately be feasted with the deliciousness of a holy Conscience which the spirit of God expresses by saying They shall walke up and down in white garments and their works shall follow them their tree of life shall germinate they shall then feel the comforts of having done good works a sweet remembrance and a holy peace shall caresse and feast them and there they shall walk
without scandal but he knew he had not lived without error but as God had assisted him to avoid the reproach of great crimes so he doubted not but he should finde pardon for the less and indeed I could not but observe that he had in all the time of his sickness a very quiet conscience which is to me an excellent demonstration of the state of his life and of his state of grace and pardon For though he seemed to have a conscience tender and nice if any evil thing had touched it yet I could not but apprehend that his peace was a just peace the mercy of God and the price and effect of the bloud of Jesus He was so joyfull so thankfull so pleased in the Ministeries of the Church that it gave in evidence where his soul was most delighted what it did apprehend the quickest where it did use to dwell and what it did most passionately love He discoursed much of the mercies of God to him repeated the blessings of his life the accidents and instruments of his trouble he loved the cause of his trouble and pardoned them that neither loved it nor him When he had spent great portions of his time of sickness in the service of God and in expectation of the sentence of his life or death at last he understood the still voice of God and that he was to goe where his soul loved to be he still increased his devotion and being admonished as his strength failed him to supply his usual forms and his want of strength and words by short exercise of vertues of faith and patience and the love of God he did it so willingly so well so readily making his eyes his hands and his tongue as long as he could the interpreters of his minde that as long as he was alive we would see what his soul was doing He doubted not of the truth of the promises nor of the goodness of God nor the satisfaction of Christ and the merits of his death nor the fruit of his resurrection nor the prevalency of his intercession nor yet doubted of his own part in them but expected his portion in the regions of blessedness with those who loved God and served him heartily and faithfully in their generations He had so great a patience in his sickness and was so afraid lest he should sin at last that his piety out-did his nature and though the body cannot feel but by the soul yet his soul seemed so little concerned in the passions of the body that I neither observed nor heard of him that he in all his sickness so much as complained with any semblance of impatience He so continued to pray so delighted in hearing Psalms sung which I wish were made as fit to sing by their numbers as they are by their weight that so very much of his time was spent in them that it was very likely when his Lord came he would finde him so doing and he did so for in the midst of prayers he went away and got to Heaven as soon as they and saw them as we hope presented to the throne of grace he went along with them himself and was his own messenger to heaven where although he possibly might prevent his last prayers yet he would not prevent Gods early mercy which as we humbly hope gave him pardon for his sins ease of his pain joy after his sorrow certainty for his fears heaven for earth innocence and impeccability instead of his infirmity Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides Nudaque veritas Quando ullum inveniet parem Faith and justice modesty and pure righteousness made him equal to the worthiest examples he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a good man loving and humble meek and patient he would be sure to be the last in contention and the first at a peace he would injure no man but yet if any man was displeased with him he would speak first and offer words of kindness If any did dispute concerning priority he knew how to get it even by yeelding and compliance walking profitably with his neighbours and humbly with his God and having lived a life of piety he died in a full age an honourable old age in the midst of his friends and in the midst of prayer And although the events of the other world are hidden to us below that we might live in faith and walke in hope and die in charity yet we have great reason to bless God for his mercies to this our Brother and endeavour to comport our selves with a strict religion and a severe repentance with an exemplar patience an exemplar piety with the structures of a holy life and the solemnities of a religious death that we also may as our consident and humble hope is this our Brother doth by the conduct of Angels pass into the hands and bosome of Jesus there to expect the most mercifull sentence of the right hand Come ye blessed Children of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen Lord Jesus Amen Grant this Eternal God for Iesus Christ his sake to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honour service and dominion love and obedience be confessed due and ever paid by all Angels and all men and all the creatures this day henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS