perfect in the Kingdom of God THAT the Spirits of just Men at the time of their separation from their Bodies do not utterly fall in their beings nor that they are so prejudiced and wounded by death that they cannot exert their own proper Acts in the absence of the Body hath been already cleared in the foregoing parts of this Treatise and will be more fully cleared from this Text. But the true level and aim of this discourse is at an higher mark viz the far more excellent free and noble life the Souls of the just begin to live immediately after their Bodies are dropt off from them by death at which time they begin to live like themselves a pleasant free and divine life So much at least is included in the Apostle Epithete in my Text Spirits of the just made perfect and suitable thereto are his words in 1 Cor. 13.10.12 When that which is pâ—rfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 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 I am known These two Adverbs Now and Then distinguish the twofold state of gracious Souls and shew what it is whilst they are confined in the Body and what it shall be from the time of their emancipation and freedom from that clogg of mortality Now we are imperfect but then that which is perfect takes place and that which is imperfect is done away as the imperfect twilight is done away by the opening of the perfect day And it deserves a serious animadversion that this perfect State doth not succeed the imperfect one after a long interval as long as betwixt the dissolution and Resurrection of the Body but the imperfect state of the Soul is immediately done away by the coming of the perfect one The glass is laid by as useless when we come to see face to face and eye to eye The Waters will prove very deep here too deep for any line of mine to fathom there is a cloud always overshadowing the world to come a gloom and haziness upon that state fain we would with our weak and feeble beam of imperfect knowledge penetrate this cloud and dispel this gloom and haziness but cannot we think seriously and close to this great and awful subject but our thoughts cannot pierce through it we re-inforce those thoughts by a salley or thick succession of fresh thoughts and yet all will not do our thoughts return to us either in confusion or without the expected success For alas how little is it that we know or can know of our own Souls now whilst they are embodied much less of their unbodied state The Apostle tells us 1 Cor 2.9 That eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And another Apostle adds it doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 John 3.1 Yet all this is no discouragement to the search and regular enquiry into the future state for though reason cannot penetrate these mysteries yet God hath revealed them to us though not perfectly by his Spirit And though we know not particularly and circumstantially what we shall be yet this we know that we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And it is our priviledge and happiness that we are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect i.e. to a clearer knowledge of that state than was ordinarily attainable by Believers under former dispensations These things premised I will proceed to open my apprehensions of the separate state of the Spirits of just men made perfect in twelve Propositions whereby as by so many steps we may orderly advance as far as safely and warrantably we may into the knowledge of this great Mystery clearing what afterwards shall remain obscure in the solution of several Questions relating to this Subject and then apply the whole in several Uses of this great point and the first Proposition is this PROP. I. THere is a'twofold Separation of the Soul from the Body viz one Mental the other Real Or 1. Intellectual by the mind only 2. Physical by the stroke of death Separatio per intellectum fit cum duo revera conjuncta separatim contipimus Conimbr de Anima p. 595. 1. Of Intellectual or mental Separation I am first to speak in this Proposition and it is nothing else but an act of the understanding or mind conceiving or considering the Soul and Body as separated and parted each from other whilst yet they are united in a personal oneness by the breath of life This mental Separation may and ought to be frequently and seriously made before death make the real and actual Separation and the more frequently and seriously we do it the less of horror and distraction will attend that real and fatal stroke when ever it shall be given For hereby we learn to bear it gradually and by gentle essays to acquaint our shoulders with the burden of it Separation is a word that hath much of horror in the very sound and useth to have much more in the sense and feeling of it else it would not deserve that title Iob 8.14 The King of Terrors or the most terrible of all terribles but acquaintance and familiarity abates that horror and that two ways especially 1. As it is preventive of much guilt 2. As it gains a more inward knowledge of its Nature 1. The serious and fixed thoughts of the parting hour is preventive of much guilt and the greatest part of the horrour of death rises out of the guilt of sin The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Augustine saith Nothing more recals a man from sin Nihil sie revocat à pâ—ccato quam frequens mortis meditatio August than the frequent meditation of death I dare not say it is the strongest of all curbs to keep us back from sin but I am sure it is a very strong one Let a Soul but seriously meditate what a change death will make shortly upon his person and condition and the natural effects of such a meditation Qui considerat qâ—alis eâ—it in morte semper pavidus erit in operatione atque inde in oculis sui Condiâ—oris vivet Nihil quod transit appetit pene mortuum se considerat quia se moriturum non ignorat Greg. Mor. 12. through the blessing of God upon it will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this World which draw men into so much guilt a conscientious fear of sin and an awakened care of duty It was once demanded of a very holy man who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in Prayer and searching his own heart why he so macerated his own Body by such frequent and long continued Duties His answer was O I must dye I must dye Nothing could separate
in se Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo Horribilis mors est Fateor sed proxima vita est Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat Praesto est de Satana peccato morte triumphans Christus ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra Which may be thus translated Cold death my heart invades my life doth flie O Christ my everlasting life draw nigh Why quiver'st thou my soul within my Breast Thine Angel's come to lead thee to thy rest Quit chearfully this drooping house of clay God will restore it in the appointed day Has't sinn'd I know it let not that be urg'd For Christ thy sins with his own blood hath purg'd Is death affrighting True but yet withal Consider Christ through death to life doth call He triumphs over Satan sin and Death Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath Much in the same chearful frame was the heart of dying Bullinger when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his reâ—â—val Si Deo visum fuerit mea opera ulterius in Ecclesia ministerio uti ipse vires suffiâ—iet libens illi parebo sin me voluerit quod opto ex hac vita evocare paratus sum illius voluntati obsequi ac nihil est quod jâ—cundius possit mihi contingere quam ex hoc misero corruptissimo seculo ad Christum Servatorem mâ—um migrare idem ibid. Why said he If God will make any farther use of my labours in the Ministry he will renew my strength and I will gladly serve him But if he please as I desire he would to call me hence I am ready to obey his Will and nothing more pleasant can befal me than to leave this sinful and miserable World to go to my Saviour Christ. O that all who are out of the danger of death were thus got out of the dread of death too Let them only tremble and be convuls'd at the thoughts and sight of death whose Souls must fall into the hands of a sin-revenging God by the stroke of death who are to breathe out their last hope with their last breath Death is yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 your Friend your Priviledge your passage to Heaven 't is your ignorance of it which breeds your fears about it Inference II. GAther from hence the absolute indispensable necessity of your Vnion with Christ before your dissolution by death Wo to that Soul which shall be separated from its Body before it be united with Christ none but the Spirits of just men are made perfect at death Righteous Souls are the only qualified Subjects of blessedness 'T is true every Soul hath a natural capacity of happiness but gracious Souls only have an actual meetness for glory The Scriptures tell us in round and plain words that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 that except we be regenerate and born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 You make the greatest adventure that ever was made by man indeed an adventure infinitely too great for any man to make when you shoot the Gulph of vast eternity upon terms of hazard and uncertainty What thinkest thou Reader darest thou adventure thy Soul and eternal happiness upon it that the work of Regeneration and Sanctification that very same work of Grace which the Spirit of God hangs all thy hopes of Heaven upon in these Scriptures is truly wrought by him in thy Soul Consider it well pause upon it again and again before thou go forth Should a mistake be committed here and nothing is more easie or common all the World over than such mistakes thou art irrecoverably gone This venture can be made but once and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards thou hast not another Soul to adventure nor a second adventure to make of this Well might the Apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure That can never be made too sure which is so invaluable in its worth and to be but once adventured Inference III. HOw prejudicial is it to dying men to be then encumbered diverted and distracted about earthly concernments when the time of their departure is at hand The business and imployment of dying persons is of so vast importance and weight that every moment of their time need to be carefully saved and applied to this their present and most important concern How well soever you have improved the time of life believe it you will find work enough upon your hands at death dying hours will be found to be busie and laborious hours even to the most painful serious and industrious Souls whose life hath been mostly spent in preparations for death Leave not the proper business of other days to that day for that day will have business enough of its own Sufficient for that day are the labours thereof Let a few Considerations be pondered to clear and confirm this Inference Consideration I. The business and imployment of dying persons is of the most serious awful and solemn nature and importance it is their last preparatory work on earth to their immediate appearance before God their Judge Heb. 9.27 It is their shooting the Gulph into eternity and leaving this World and all their acquaintance and interests therein for ever Isai. 28.11 It is therefore a Work by it self to die a Work requiring the most intense deep and undisturbed exercises of all the Abilities and Graces of the inner man and all little enough Consideration II. Timâ— is exceeding precious with dying men the last sand is ready to fall and therefore not to be wasted as it was wont to be When we had a fair prospect of many years before us we made little account of an hour or day but now one of those hours which we so carelessly lavished away is of more value than all this World to us especially if the whole weight of eternity should hang upon it as often times it doth then the loss of that portion of time is the loss of Soul Body and hope for evermore Consideration III. Much of that little precious time of departing Souls will be unavoidably taken up and imployed about the inexcusable pressing calls and necessities of distressed nature all that you can do for your Souls must then be done only by fits and snatches in the midst of many disturbances and frequent interruptions So that it is rarely found that a dying man can pursue a serious Meditation with calm and fixed thoughts for besides the pains and faintings of the Body the Abilities of the mind usually fail Here also they fall into a sad Dilemma if they do not with utmost intention of mind fix their hearts and thoughts on Christ they lose their comfort if godly and their Souls if ungodly and if they do Friends and Physicians assure them they will destroy their Bodies These are the straits of men bordering close upon eternity they must hastily
Πνευματολογια· A TREATISE Of the Soul of Man WHEREIN The Divine Original excellent and immortal Nature of the Soul are opened its Love and Inclination to the Body with the necessity of its separation from it considered and improved The Existence Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after death asserted discussed and variously applyed Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls both Philosophical and Theological stated and determined The Invaluable preciousness of humane Souls and the various Artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy them discovered And the great Duty and interest of all men seasonably and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father Son and Spirit for the Salvation of their Souls argued and pressed By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Iesus Christ late of Dartmouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylides Quid de Turcis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisque omnibus nunc temporis Barbaris Nationibus dicâm Nemo tam Barbarus aut impius est qui non sentiat post mortem superesse loca in quibus animae aut pro malefactis puâ—iantur aut coronentur deliciisque perfruantur pro benefactis Zanch. de Animae immortalitate p. 653. London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1685. To the much honoured his dear Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell and Mr. Edward Crispe of London Merchants and the rest of my worthy Friends in London Ratcliffe Shadwell and Lymehouse Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends AMong all the Creatures in this lower World none deserves to be stiled great Nihil interra magnum praeter hominem nihil in homine praeter mentem Favorin Eâ—coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juvenal Nulla scientia melior illa qua homo novit scripsum relinque ergo caetera teipsum discute per te curre in te confiste à te incipiat cogitatio tua in te finiatur but Man and in Man nothing is found worthy of that Epithet but his Soul The study and knowledge of the Soul was therefore always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time All Ages have magnified these two words know thy self as an Oracle descending from Heaven No knowledge saith Bernard is better than that whereby we know our selves leave other matters therefore and search thy self run through thy self make a stand in thy self let thy thoughts as it were circulate begin and end in thy self Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things thy self being neglected The study and knowledge of Iesus Christ must still be allow'd to be most excellent and necessary But yet the Worth of Necessity of Christ is unknown to Men till the value wants and dangers of their own Souls be first discovered to them The disaffectedness and aversation of men to the study of their own Souls is the more to be admired not only because of the weight and necessity of it but the alluring pleasure and sweetness that is found therein What * Quid jucundius quam scire quid simus quid fuerimus quid â—rimus cum his etiam divina atque suprema illa post obitum Mundique vicissitudines Cardan speaks is experimentally felt by many that scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the Soul of man than to know what he is what he may and shall be and what those Divine and Supream things are which he is to enjoy after death and the Vicissitudes of this present World For we are Creatures conscious to our selves of an immortal Nature and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh and is therefore ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of and designations for a better life than that it now lives in the Body and that we shall not cease to bee when we cease to breathe And certainly my Friends Discourses of the Soul and its immortality of Heaven and of Hell the next and only receptacles of unbodied Spirits were never more seasonable and necessary than in this Atheistical age of the World wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridicul'd and hissed out of the company of many As if those old condemned Hereticks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the Soul as well as Body had been again revived in our days And as the Atheism of some so the tepidity and unconcerned carelessness of the most needs and calls for such potent Remedies as Discourses of this kind do plentifully afford I dare appeal to your charitable Judgments whether the Conversations and Discourses of the Many do indeed look like a serious pursuit of Heaven and a flight from Hell Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent Subject and many earnest desires I have had as I believe all thinking persons must needs have to know what I shall be when I breathe not But when I had engaged my Meditations about it two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein Namely I. The difficulty of the Subject I had chosen And II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it I. As for the Subject such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature and such the knotty Controversies in which it is involv'd that it much better deserves that inscription than Minerva's Temple at Saum did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never did any Mortal reveal me plainly Animam praesentem mentis acie vix aut ne vix quidem assequimur sed qualis sit futura quomodo indagabimus Laboranthic maxima ingenia caligo conatus etiam generosos non rarò eludit Jos. Stern de Morte cap. 20. It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own Souls now in the state of composition and what then can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of Separation The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise even the greatest Witts and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts Many great Scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery have laboured in this field usque ad sudorem pallorem even to sweat and paleness and done little more but intangle themselves and the Subject more than before This cannot but discourage new attempts And yet without some knowledge of the hability and subjective capacity of our Souls to enjoy the good of the World to come even in a state of absence from the Body a principal relief must be cut off from them under the great and manifold tryals they are to encounter in this evil World As for my self I assure you I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this Burthen and have often enough since I undertook it of that
to your inquisitive and searching minds 'T is possible they may be censured by some as undeterminable and unprofitable Curiosities but as I hate a presumptious intrusion into unrevealed Secrets so I think it a weakness to be discouraged in the search of truth so far as it is fit to trace it by such damping and causeless Censures Nor am I sensible I have in any thing transgressed the bounds of Christian Sobriety to gratifie the Palate of a nice and delicate Reader I have also here set before the Reader an Idea or representation of the state and case of damned Souls that if it be the Will of God a seasonable discovery of Hell may be the means of some mens recovery out of the danger of it and closed up the whole with a Demonstration of the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the several dangerous snares and artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy and cast them away for ever This is the design and general scope of the whole and of the principal parts of this Treatise and Oh that God would grant me my hearts desire on your behalf in the perusal of it Even that it may prove a sanctified instrument in his hand both to prepare you for and bring you in love with the unbodied life to make you look with pleasure into your Graves and die by consent of Will as well as necessity of Nature I remember Dr. Staughton in a Sermon preached before King Iames relates a strange Story of a little Child in a Shipwrack fast asleep upon its Mothers lap as she sate upon a piece of the Wrack amidst the Waves the Child being awaked with the noise asked the Mother what those things were she told it they were drowning Waves to swallow them up the Child with a pretty smiling Countenance beg'd a stroke from its Mother to beat away those naughty Waves and chid them as if they had been its Play-mates Death will shortly Shipwrack your Bodies your Souls will sit upon your lips ready to expire as they upon the Wrack ready to go down Would it not be a comfortable and most becoming frame of mind to sit there with as little dread as this little One did among the terrible Waves Surely if our Faith had but first united us with Christ and then loosed our hearts off from this inchanting and ensnaring World we might make a fair step towards this most desireable temper but unbelief and earthly mindedness make us loth to venture I blush to think what bold adventures those men made who upon the Contemplation of the Properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of sight of Land under its conduct and direction and securely trusted both their Lives and Estates to it when all the eyes of Heaven were vail'd from them amid'st the dark Waters and thick Clouds of the Sky when I either start or at least give an unwilling shrug when I think of adventuring out of sight of this World under the more sure and steady direction and conduct of Faith and the Promises To cure these evils in my own and the Readers heart these things are written and in much respect and love tendered to your hands as a Testimony of my Gratitude and deep sense of the many Obligations you have put me under That the Blessings of the Spirit may accompany these Discourses to your Souls afford you some assistance in your last and difficult work of putting them off at death with a becoming chearfulness saying in that hour Can I not see God till this Flesh be laid aside in the Grave Must I die before I can live like my self Then die my Body and go to thy dust that I may be with Christ. With this design and with these hearty Wishes dear and honoured Cousin and worthy Friends I put these Discourses into your hands and remain Your Most obliged Kinsman and Servant Io. Flavell THE PREFACE AMong many other Largesses and rich Endowments bestowed by the Creators bounty upon the Soul of Man the * Demonstravimus à communâ— omnium jam inde à condito orbe gentium ac populâ—rum prâ—sertim bâ—nâ—rum literatorum Consensione animam humanam incorruptibilem immortalem esse â—oque corrupto corpore ipâ—um â—anere superstitem ut in sempiternum aut pro benefactuà Deo coronetur aut pro malefactâ—â—s puniatur Zanch. de Aâ—lmarum immortalâ—tate p. 653. Sentiments and impressions of the World to come and the ability of reflection and self-intuition are peculiar invaluable and heavenly gifts By the former we have a very great Evidence of our own immortality and designation for nobler employments and enjoyments than this imbodied state admits and by the latter we may discern the agreeableness or disagreeableness of our hearts and therein the validity of our title to that expected blessedness But these heavenly gifts are neglected and abused all the World over Degenerate Souls are every where fallen into so deep an Oblivion of their excellent Original Spiritual and Immortal nature and alliance to the Father of Spirits That to use the upbraiding expression of a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyr. Diss. 41. Philosopher they seem to be buried in their Bodies as so many silly Worms that lurk in their holes and are loth to peep forth and look abroad So powerfully do the Cares and Pleasures of this World charm all except a small remnant of regenerate Souls that nothing but some smart stroke of Calamity or the terrible Messengers of death can startle them and even these are not always able to do it and when they do all the effect is but a transient glance at another and an unwilling shrug to leave this World and so to sleep again And thus the Impressions and Sentiments of the World to come which are the natural growth and Off-spring of the Soul are either stifled and supprest as in Atheists or born down by impetuous masterly lusts as in Sensualists And for its self-reflecting and considering Power it seems in many to be a power received in vain It is with most Souls as it is with the Eye which sees not it self though it see all other Objects There be those that have almost finished the course of a long life wherein a great part of their time hath lain upon their hands as a cheap and useless Commodity 〈◊〉 Dei est ista vita mortalis ubi homo vanitati similis factus est dies ejus velut umbra praetereunt Aug. de Civâ—â— lib. 21. c. 24. which they knew not what to do with who yet never spent one solemn entire hour in discourse with their own Souls What serious heart doth not melt into Compassion over the deluded Multitude who are mockt with Dreams and perpetually busied about Trifles Who are after so many frustrated attempts both of their own and all past Ages eagerly pursuing the fleeing shadows who torture and rack their brains to find out the Natures and Qualities
Divine Original created and inspired immediately by the Lord. Doct. II. That the souls and bodies of men are linkt or knit together by the feeble band of the breath of their nostrils In the prosecution of these two Propositions many things will come to our hands of great use in Religion which I shall labour to lay as clearly and orderly in the Readers understanding and press as warmly upon his heart as I can And first of the first Doct. III. Doct. I. That the Soul of man is of Divine Original created and inspired immediately by the Lord. In this first Proposition two Things are to be distinctly pondered viz. I. The Nature of the Soul II. The Original of the Soul Or what it is and from whence it came I. The First thing which arrests our thoughts and requires their immoration and exercise is the Nature of the Soul or what kind of Being it is Those that are most curiously inquisitive into all other Beings 1 The Nature of the Soul and put Nature upon the rack to make her confess her secrets are in the mean time found shamefully slight and negligent in the study of themselves Few there are that can prevail with themselves to sit down and think close to such questions as these are What manner of being is this Soul of mine Whence came it Why was it infused into this Body And where must it abide when Death hath dislodg'd it out of this frail Tabernacle There is a natural aversation in Man to such exercises of thoughts as these although in the whole Universe of Beings in this lower World a more noble or desirable Creature is not to be found * Qui igitur de Anima unquam disputarunt ii certè non de re inani quae nihil praeter nomen habeat sed de re gravissima maximique momenti quâ nihil sub coelo praestantius disputâsse judicandi sunt Zancâ— de Anima lib. 2. page 555. The Soul is the most wonderful and astonishing piece of Divine workmanship 'T is no Hyperbole to call it the Breath of God the Beauty of Man the Wonder of Angels and the Envy of Devils One Soul is of more value than all the Bodies in the World The Nature of it is so Spiritual and sublime that it cannot be perfectly known by the most acute and penetrating understanding assisted in the search by all the aids Philosophy can contribute It is not my design in this Discourse to treat of the several Faculties and Powers of the Soul or to give you the Rise Natures or Numbers of its Affections and Passions but I shall confine my Discourse to its general Nature and Original And seeing none can so well discover the Nature of it as he who is the Author of it as * Si quid de Anima examinandum est ad Dei regulas dirigat certè nulâ—um alium potiorem animae Demonstratorem quà m Auctorem c. Tertul. de Anima Tertullian speaks I therefore justly expect the best light from his Word though I will not neglect any other aid he is pleased elsewhere to afford * Dum vivisicat Corpus anima est dum vult animus dumscit mens dum recolit memoria dum rectum judicat ratio dum spirat Spiritus Isidor Eâ—ym v. The Soul is variously denominated from its several Powers and Offices as the Sea from the several Shores it washes I will not spend time about the several Names by which it is known to us in Scripture but give you that description of it with which my understanding is most satisfied which take thus The Description of the Soul The Soul of Man is a vital spiritual and immortal Substance endowed with an Vnderstanding Will and various Affections created with an Inclination to the Body and infused thereinto by the Lord. IN this Description we have the two general parts into which I distributed this Discourse viz. it s general Nature and Divine Original The Nature of the Soul is expressed to us in these following terms 1 A Substance 1. It is a Substance That is to say not a quality or an accident inhering in another Being or subject as whiteness doth in the Snow but a Being * Anima est Ens per se i. e. non est in aliquo per modum partis aut forma à quo in suo esse dependeat Colleg. Conimbr in lib. 11. by it self Qualities and Accidents have no Existence of their own but require another Being or subject to their Existence but the Soul of Man is a Substantial Being of it self which will evidently appear upon the following Grounds 1. Because it is in a strict and proper sense created by God He formeth or createth the Spirit in Man Zech. 12.1 To him we are advised to commit it as to a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 The substantial Nature of the Soul is implyed in the very Notion of its Creation for * Quicquid à Deo propriè Câ—eatum est suâ—stantia est accidentia enim noâ— dicuntur creari sed concreari Polâ—ni Syntag. p. 319. whatsoever is created is a Substance an Ens per se. Accidents are not said to be created but concreated the Crasis of humours and results of matter are not substances created but things rising in a natural way from created Substances They flow from and as to their very Essence depend upon praeexistent matter but the Soul was created out of nothing and infused into the body after it was formed and organized which evidenceth its substantial Nature 2. This evidenceth the Soul to be a Substance that it can and doth exist and subsist by it self alone when separated from the body by Death Luk. 23.43 To day shalt thou i. e. thy Soul be with me in Paradise and Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the Soul Were the Soul but an Accident a Quality a Result he that kills the Body must needs kill the Soul too As he that casts a Snow-ball into the fire must needs destroy the whiteness with the Snow Accidents fail and perish with their Subjects but seeing it's plain in these and many other Scriptures the Soul doth not fail with the body nothing can be more plain and evident than that it is of a substantial Nature When the Spaniards came first among the poor Indians they thought the Horse and his Rider to be one Creature as many ignorant ones think the Soul and Body of Man to be nothing but Breath and Body whereas indeed they are two distinct Creatures as vastly different in their Natures as the Rider and his Horse or the Bird and his Cage While the Man is on Horseback he moves according to the motion of the Horse and whilst the Bird is incaged he eats and drinks and sleeps and hops and sings in his Cage But if the Horse fail and dye under his Rider or the Cage be broken the Man can go on
its nature as all material and compounded Beings have It hath nothing within it tending to dissolution No jarring Elements no contrary qualities are found in Spirits as there are in other Creatures of a mixed nature Physicians and Philosophers have disputed and contended eagerly about the true causes of natural Death * Litigamus de via interim ad termiminum rapimar and whilst they have been contending about the way they have come to the end The ingress of the Soul is obscure and its egress not clear But this seems to be the thing in which they generally centre that the expence and destruction of the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de loâ—g brev vit Dum flammat micat calidum nativum corporis nostri in humido primigenio ejâ—s humidi substantia consumitur non â—liter quà ◠in lampade oâ—tum à flamma exhauritur Heurnius Aphor 1. Tam diu durat vigor vitae quam diu stat calidum nativum donec ad morteâ— fuerit deventum Et quantum à calido humido receditur tantus ad mortem fit accâ—ssus J. Bapt. Montanus Ortus nostri primordia caloris humoris nativi habent summum complementum c. Fernelius liber de spir cal natural moisture or radical balsam as others call it which is as the Oyl that maintains natural heat or the Bridle that restrains that flame of life from departing as others express it this is the cause of natural Death Others * Vergente aetate inaequalis admâ—dum sit reparatio aliae partes reparantur satis faeliciter sed aliae aegrè in pejus uâ— ab eo tempore corpora humana subiri incipiunt tormentum illud McZenâ—ii ut viva in amâ—lexu moâ—tâ—orum immoriantur Verulam in adita Hist. vitae mortis assign the unequal reparation of the parts of the body as the cause of death But be it one or other 't is evident the Soul which consists neither of contrariant qualities nor of dissimilar parts must be above the reach and stroke of Death For if the Soul dye it must be either from some seeds and principles of Death and Corruption within it self or by some destructive power without it self In it self you see there is no seed or principle of death and if it be destroyed by a power without it self it must be either by the stroke of some Creature or from the hand of God that first formed and created it But the hand and power of no Creature can destroy it creature power reaches no farther than the body Matth. 10.28 they cannot kill the Soul And though the Almighty power of God that created it out of nothing can as easily reduce it to nothing yet he will never do so For besides the Designation for Eternity which is discernible in its very nature as before was observed and which speaks the intention of God to perpetuate it the threatnings of Eternal Wrath and promises of everlasting life respectively made to the souls of Men as they shall be found in Christ or out of Christ puts it beyond all doubt that they shall never dye as will be more fully evidenced in the following Discourse Well then I hope so far our way is clear in the search of the nature of the Soul that it is a Substance a Spiritual Substance and being so it is also an immortal Substance No doubt remains with me as to either of these Let us then proceed to the consideration of its faculties and powers by which it may be yet more fully known and we shall find that V. It is a vital 5 Endued with Understanding spiritual and immortal Substance endued with an understanding This is the noble leading faculty of the Soul we are not distinguished from Brutes by our senses but by our understanding As grace sets one man above another so understanding sets the meanest man above the best of Brutes Strange and wonderful things are performed by the natural instinct and sagacity of Beasts but yet what is said of one is true of them all God hath not imparted understanding to them Job 39.17 This is a Jewel which adorns none but rational Creatures Men and Angels It is a Faculty of the reasonable Soul What the Understanding is by which a man apprehends and judgeth all intelligible things The Object of it is every Being so far as it is true in it self and apprehensible by Man It hath a twofold use in the life of man viz. 1. To Distinguish truth from errour and falshood by this candle of the Lord lighted up in the Soul of man he may discern betwixt duty and sin good and evil 't is the eye of the Soul by which it seeth the way in which we should go and the dangerous precipices that are on either side It is the souls Taster and discerns wholesome food from baneful poyson Iob 12 11. Dâ—th not the 〈◊〉 i.e. the understanding by the ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat It brings all things as it were in the lump before it and then sorts them and orderly ranks them into their proper Classes of lawful and unlawful necessary and indifferent expedient and inexpedient that the Soul may not be damnified by mistaking one for another And this judgement of Discretion every man must be allowed for himself No man is obliged to shut the eyes of his own Understanding and follow another man blindfold 2. To direct and guide us in our practice This faculty is by Philosophers rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading faculty because the will follows its practical dictates It sits at helm and guides the course of the Soul Not impelling or rigorously inforcing its dictates upon the will for the Will cannot be so imposed upon but by giving it a directive light or pointing as it were with its finger at what it ought to chuse and what to refuse To this Faculty belong two other excellent and wonderful powers of the Soul viz. 1. Thoughts 2. Conscience * What a Thought is 1. The power or ability of Cogitation Thoughts are properly the actings and agitations of the mind or any actual operation of the understanding They are the musings of the mind which are acted in the speculative part of the understanding It is observable that the â—â—â—roâ—a cogitatio est mentis agitatio Paâ—or vel actio mentis zanch. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum puncto sinistro locutus est oâ—e aut corde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est sermocinari intra se i. e. apud se in aâ—imis suis. Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suach which is used for meditation or thinking signifies both to think and to speak in the mind When the understanding or mind revolves and meditates the things that come into it that very Meditation is an inward speaking or a hidden word in the heart Deut. 15.9 Beware lest there be a thought in thy wicked heart as some render it In the
acceptably there was a necessity of the remission of sin and then he might obey God perfectly But that not sufficing he acknowledged another grace viz. the example of Christ which doth both secure our rule and encourage our practice And last of all his followers owned some kind of internal grace but they made that to consist in some illumination of the understanding or moral perswasion by probable arguments to excite the will and this not absolutely necessary but only for facilitation as an Horse to a journey which otherwise a man might go a-foot Others grant the secret influences of Gods grace but make the Will of man a co-ordinate cause with God namely that God doth propound the Object hold forth inducing considerations give some remote power and assistance but still there is an indifferency in the Will of man to accept or refuse as liketh him best Thus have they been forced to quit and change their ground but still the pride of nature will not let men see the necessity of divine efficacious influences upon the Will and the consistency thereof with natural Liberty Imperium 1. Dâ—spoticâ—m 2. Politicum 2. It s dignity consists in its Dominion as well as in its liberty The Will hath an Empire and Scepter belonging to it Yea a double Empire for it rules 1. Over the Body imperio despâ—tico by way of absolute Command 2. Over the other powers and passions of the Soul imperio politico by way of suasion 1. The Will like an absolute Soveraign * Homo noâ— agit ex necessitate naturae sed liberè sc. modo rationali hoc est modo imperii Ad imperium requiritur dictamen ultimum intellectus prâ—ctici stante efficâ—ciâ— imperii voluntas liberè movâ—tur Cumel de volun p. 50. reigns over the body i.e. its external members by way of absolute command It saith as the Centurion did I am in authority and God hath put the many members of the body in subjection to me I say to one Move and it moves to another Stop and it stops and to a third Do this and it doth it The obsequious members like so many Servants have their eyes waiting on the imperial Commands of the Will and it is admirable to behold with what dispatch and speed they execute its Commands as if their obedient motions were rather concomitant than subsequent acts to the Wills mandates Let it but command to have the windows of the body open or shut and it s done in a moment in the twink of an eye And so for the rest of the external senses and members they pay it most ready Obedience Yet when I say the Will hath a despotical and absolute Soveraignty over the members it must be understood with a double limitation First They are only at its beck for use and service it can use them whilst well and rightly disposed but it cannot perpetuate them or restore them when indisposed If the Soul will the health and life of the body never so intensely and vehemently it cannot keep off Death one moment the longer from it And Secondly Its Soveraignty no way intrenches upon not interferes with the Dominion of Providence over the members of the body and the various motions of them God hath reserved a Soveraign negative voice to himself whatever Decrees the Will passes Ieroboam stretches out his hand against the man of God to smite him but God puts a remora in the very instant to the loco-motive faculty that though he would never so fain he could not pull in his hand again to him 1 Kings 13.4 The Will commands the service of the tongue and chargeth it to deliver faithfully such or such words in which it may be the ruine of good men may be imported and when it comes to do its office the tongue faulters and contrary to the command of the Will drops some word that discovers and defeats the design of the Will according to that in Iob 12.20 He removeth away the speech of the trusty This is its Despotical and Soveraign power over the external members of the body 2. It hath a political power over the faculties and passions of the Soul not by way of absolute command but by way of suasion and insinuation Thus it can oft times perswade the understanding and thoughts to lay by this or that subject and apply themselves to to the study of another It can bridle and restrain the Affections and Passions but yet it hath no absolute command over the inner as it hath over the outward man Its weakness and inability to govern the inner man appears in two things more especially remarkable viz. 1. It cannot with all its power and skill command and fetch off the thoughts from some subjects which are set on at some times with extraordinary weight upon the Soul However the thoughts may obsequiously follow its beck at some times yea for the most part yet there are Cases and Seasons in which its authority and perswasions cannot disengage one thought as 1. when God hath to do with the Soul in the work of Conversion When he convinceth of sin and danger and sets a mans evils in order before his eyes These are terrible representations and fain would the carnal will disengage the thoughts from such sad subjects and strives by all manner of perswasions and diversions so to do but all to no purpose Psal. 51. v. 3. My sin is ever before me The thoughts are fixt and there is no removing of them It may give them a little interruption but they return with the more impetuous violence And instead of gaining them off they at last or rather God by them gains over the Will also 2. When Satan hath to do with the Soul in the way of Temptation and hellish Suggestion Look as the Carnal will opposed it self to the thoughts in the former case to no purpose so the sanctified Will opposes it self to them in this case oft-times with as little effect or success as he that opposeth his weak breath to the strong Current of a mighty River Well were it if the Sanctified Will were now the master of the Phantasie and could controul the thoughts of the heart but like a mad horse the Phansie takes the Bit in its Teeth and runs whither it pleaseth the Will cannot govern it Think quite anothâ—â— way saith the Will turn thy thoughts to other things but much the near the Soul turneth a deaf ear to its Counsels 2. It cannot quiet and compose a raging Conscience and reduce it at its pleasure to Rest and Peace This is the peculiar work of God He only that stills the stormy Seas can quiet the distressed and tempestuous Soul The impotence of the will in this case is known to all that have been in those deeps of trouble And this is the misery of the Devil and the damned that though they would never so fain yet they cannot get rid of those tormenting impressions made upon them by
created without inclination to a body as Angels are but loves and inclines to it though it can both live and act without it when it is parted from it at death The proof of this Assertion and the Reasons why God created it with such an inclination will in their proper place be more fully spoken to in the following Discourse All that I shall add is that in this as well as in some other respects our souls are made a little lower than the Angels but when they are uncloathed of the body and have received it again in a new Edition a Spiritual body then they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal unto Angels in the way and manner of life and action Thus I have as briefly as I can dispatcht the first thing propounded viz. The Nature of the Soul in the explication of these seven particulars It is a Substance a Vital Spiritual and immortal Substance a Substance endued with Vnderstanding Will Affections and an Inclination to the body And now we are come to the II. Branch viz. It s Original and Infusion 2 The Souls Original and Descent I. As to its Original I have described it to be immediately from God in the way of Creation An honour done to no other living Creature except Angels The world hath been troubled with a great many extravagant and wild notions about the Original of the Soul of man a certain Mark and Argument of its Apostasie from God * Solinus resert de quodam quod accepto vâ—lâ—ere in occipitio ad tantam devenit ignorantiam ut nesciret se habuisse nomen Augustodun de Philosoph Mundi lib. 4. c. 24. Solinus writes of one who by a wound in the hinder part of his head fell into such a degree of Ignorance and Oblivion that he forgot his own name and could not tell whether he had any name at all But O! What a stunning blow did man receive by the Fall that he should forget the very Author of his Being and rather claim alliance and derive the Being of his Soul from any thing than God though it bears the very Marks and Characters of its divine Author and Father upon it The principal errours about the Origin of the Soul for that wild notion of Epicuruâ— hath been laid so flat by the pens of many learned men that it is a vanity to strike one blow more at it may be reduced to these three heads 1. First some affirm it to be by way of †Datur agens Physicum quod aliud esse non potest quam parens qui â—i seminis animam è materiae sinu eliciat Traduction or natural generation from the Parents to the Child This opinion is very ancient Tertullian and divers of the Western Fathers closed with it as judging it the best expedient to solve the difficulties of the souls taint and defilement with Original sin But Antiquity is no pass-port for errours The gray hairs of opinions as one well notes are then honourable when they are found in the way of truth Dr. Brown tells us he should rather incline to the Creation Religio Medici â— 36 than the Traduction of the Soul though either opinion saith he will consist well enough with Religion did not one Objection haunt him and this is a Conclusion from the equivocal and monstrous productions by unnatural Copulations As of a Man and Beast for if the Soul of man saith he be not transmitted and transfused in the Seed why are not those productions meerly Beasts but have also an impression and tincture of reason in as high a measure as it can evidence it self in those improper Organs Which way the Doctors judgment had inclined in this Controversie had been of no great consideration to the determination of it Though it is pity we should lose his consent and company for the sake of such a beastly Objection as this which haunts his mind for if there be any such creatures that seem to have a tincture of reason it is but a tincture and a seeming not a real tincture neither which many other Brutes have The Dr. is too well acquainted with Philosophy and a man of too much reason to allow himself to think that such a production as he speaks of hath two Natures and essential Forms in one body as of a Man and a Horse He knows that every entity hath but one specifical Essence and can have no more except he will place one and the same thing under diverse Species in the predicament of substance And as there cannot be two distinct forms so neither can there be a mixtion of them in the Centaure or monstrous Birth For ex duobus entibus per se non fit unum â—ns per se. But he confesseth this Objection was bred among the Weeds and Tares of his own Brain a rank soil no doubt and I am pretty confident he had weeded it out in his latter years for I find this notion of Centaures that is half Horses half Men put into its proper place among his Vulgar Errours Book 1. chap. 4. And so I suppose that rubb being out of the way he returned again to us 2. A Second opinion was that they were procreated by Angels and that which gave the ground such as it is to this Opinion or Fancy is the similitude or resemblance which is found betwixt Angels and the Souls of Men. * Perfectum est qâ—od aliud sibi siâ—ile producit sed immatâ—iales substantiae â—ulto perfectiores sunt quam corporatae ergo cum â—ic alias sibi secundum speciem similes effâ—â—iant potiori ratione poterunt Angeli substantiam aliquam incorpoream inferio is natarae procreare id est Animam humanam D. Dionys. cap. 4. de divinis nominibus But this fancy needs not any industry to overthrow it for though it be certain there is a similitude and resemblance betwixt Angels and Souls both being immaterial and spiritual Substances yet Angels neither propagate by generation nor is it in their power to create the least Fly or Worm in the world much less the Soul of man the highest noblest and most excellent Being Great power they have but no creating power that is Gods incommunicable property and procreate our souls they did not for they are spirits yet spirits of another species 3. A Third sort there are who deny not that Souls are created Substances The coëtaneous creation of Souls rejected and proceeded from God but affirm withal that he created them simul semel together and at once as the Angels were and that not one by one as men are born into the world Of this opinion was Plato who thought all * Plato in Timaâ—o finxit Deum omnes animas hâ—meras ante corpora simul â—easse in coâ—paribus stellis coâ—stitnisse tum eas coelestium rerum tâ—dio teâ—renarum amâ—re captas ut tanti scelâ—ris panas luâ—rtâ—t in corpora tanqâ—â—m in carcerem conjectas
because there 's nothing in sight that hath a tendency to their deliverance no prepared matter for their Salvation why let them consider who it was that created the Heavens and the Earth yea and their Souls also which are so perplexed with doubts out of nothing the same God that did this can also create Deliverance for his people though there be no praeexistent matter to work it out of Râ—solâ—it Soâ—omon utramque â—ominis partem in suâ— prima principia Ut ergo corpus in terram unde sâ—mptum est resolvâ—t ita etiam si anima ex â—â—ablâ—â—tia câ—lâ—â—ti vel ex anima ut â—lato ait mâ—â—di esset facta in eam resolâ—isset Solomon 〈…〉 simpâ—iciteâ— de ipsa dicit eaâ— reditâ—ram ad Deâ—m qui dedâ—t illam docet eam è nihito in quod resolvi non possâ—t creaâ—am esse Zanch. Add to this that excellent place of Solomon in Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Where he shews us what becomes of Man and how each part of which he consists is bestowed and disposed of after his Dissolution by Death And thus he states it These two constitutive parts of Man are a Soul and a Body These two parts have two distinct Originals The Body as to its material cause is Dust the Soul in its nature is a Spirit and as to its Origin it proceeded from the Father of Spirits 't is his own creature in an immediate way He gave it He gave it the being it hath by Creation and gave it to us i.e. to our bodies by Inspiration Now qualis Genesis talis Analysis When death dissolves the union which is betwixt them each part returns to that from whence it came dust to dust and the Spirit to God that gave it The Body is expressed by its material cause dust the Soul only by its efficient cause as the gift of God because it had no material cause at all nor was made out of any praeexistent matter as the Body was And therefore Solomon here speaks of God as if he had only to do with the Soul leaving the Body to its material and instrumental causes with whom he concurrs by a general influence 'T is God not Man alone or God by Man that hath given us these bodies but 't is not Man but God alone who hath given us these souls He therefore passeth by the Body and speaks of the Soul as the gift of God because that part of Man and that only flows immediately from God and at death returns to him that gave it All these expressions The Father of Spirits the former of the spirit in Man the Giver of the Spirit how agreeable are they to each other and all of them to the point under hand that the Soul flows from God by immediate Creation You see it hath no principle out of which according to the order of nature it did arise as the body had and therefore it hath no principle into which according to the order of nature it can be returned as the body hath but returns to God its efficient cause if reconciled to a Father not only by Creation but Adoption if unreconciled as a creature guilty of unnatural Rebellion against the God that formed it to be judged II. God created and infused it into the body with an inherent inclination and affection to it Anima quae est corporis organici perfectio corpus necessariâ—â— est non est enim forma separata i e. propriè forma est itaque materiam requirit usque adâ—o ut anima à corpore sâ—jâ—â—cta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tamen inclinationem retine â—t suam quam corporis resurrectio coâ—seâ—uitur The nature of the Soul and Body are vastly different there is no affinity or similitude betwixt them but it is in this case as in that of Marriage Two persons of vastly different Educations Constitutions and Inclinations coming under Gods Ordinance into the nearest relation to each other find their affections knit and endeared by their relation to a degree beyond that which results from the union of blood So it is here Whence this affection rises in what acts it is discovered and for what reason implanted will be at large discovered in a distinct branch of the following Discourse to which it is assigned Mean while I find my self concerned to vindicate what hath been here asserted from the Arguments which are urged against the immediate Creation and infusion of the Soul and in defence of the opinion of its Traduction from the Parents To conceal or dissemble these Arguments and Objections Cameronis praelect in Matth. p. 121. would be but a betraying of the truth I have here asserted and give occasion for some jealousie that they are unanswerable To come then to an issue and first It is urged Object 1. that it is manifest in it self and generally yielded that the souls of all other creatures come by generation and therefore its probable that humane souls flow in the same Chanel also There is a specifick difference betwixt rational souls Sol. and the souls of all other creatures and therefore no force at all in the consequence A material form may rise out of matter but a Spiritual rational Being as the Soul of Man is cannot so rise being much more noble and excellent than Matter is What Animal is there in the world out of whose Soul the acts of reason spring and flow as they do out of humane Souls Are they capable of inventing or which is much less of learning the Arts and Sciences Can they correct their senses and demonstrate a Star to be far greater than the whole Earth which to the eye seems no bigger than the rowel of a Spurr Do they foreknow the Positions and Combinations of the Planets and the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon many years before they suffer them And if they cannot perform these acts of reason as it is sure they cannot how much less can they know fear love or delight in God and long for the enjoyment of him These things do plainly evince humane Souls to be of another species and therefore of an higher Original than the souls of Brutes If all have one common nature and Original why are they not all capable of performing the same rational and Religious Acts Object 2. But though it should be granted that the Soul of the first Man was by immediate Creation and Inspiration from God yet it follows not that the souls of all his posterity must be so too God might create him with a power of begeting other souls after his own Image The first tree was created with its seed in it self to propagate its kind and so might the first Man Sol. 1. Trees Animals and such like were not created immediately out of nothing as the Soul of Man was but the Earth was the praeexistent matter out of which they
many souls become foolish forgetful injudicious c. by their union with ill disposed Bodies Nothing is more sensibly plain and evident than that â—â—ere is a reciprocal Communication betwixt the Soul and Body The Body doth as really though we know not how affect the Soul with its dispositions as the Soul influences it with life and motion The more excellent any form is the more intimate is its union and conjunction with the matter The Soul of man hath therefore a more intimate and perfect union with the Body than light hath with the Air Which is made by some the best Emblem and Similitude to shadow forth this union But the union betwixt them is too intimate to be conceived by the help of any such Similitudes That this infection is by way of Physical agency as a rusty Scabbard infects and defiles a bright Sword when sheathed therein I will not confidently affirm as some do It may be by way of Natural Concomitancy as Estius will have it or to speak as Dr. Reynolds modestly and as becomes men that are conscious of darkness and weakness by way of ineffable resultancy and emanation 3. In summ Original Sin consists in two things viz. 1. In the privation of that original rectitude which ought to be in us 2. In that habitual Concupiscence which carrieth nature to inordinate motions This Privation and inordinate inclination make up that original corruption the rise whereof we are searching for and to bring us as near it as we can come without a daring intrusion into unrevealed Secrets our solid Divines proceed by these steps in answering this Objection 1. If it be demanded how it comes to pass that an Infant becomes guilty if Adam's sin The answer is because he is a child of Adam by natural generation 2. But why is he deprived of that Original rectitude in which Adam was created They answer because Adam lost it by his sin and therefore could not transmit what he had lost to his posterity 3. But how comes he to be inclined to that which is evil Their answer is because he wants that original rectitude For whosoever wants original rectitude naturally inclines to that which is evil And so the propension of Nature to that which is evil seems to be by way of Concomitancy with the defect or want of original righteousness And thus I have given some account of the Nature and Original of the Soul of Man though alas My dim eyes see but little of its excellency and glory Yet by what hath been said it appears the Masterpiece of all God's works of Creation in this lower World But because I suspect the Description I have given of it will be obscure and cloudy to vulgar Readers of a plain and low capacity by reason of divers Philosophical terms which I have been forced to make use of and reckoning my self a debtor to the weak and unlearned as well as others I will endeavour to strip this Description of the Soul for their sakes out of those artificial terms which darken it to them and present it once more in the most plain and intelligible Epitome I am capable to give it in that so the weaker understanding may be able to form a true notion of the Nature and Original of the Soul in this manner This Soul of mine is a true and real Being The Soul a Substance Not a fancy a conceit a very nothing It hath a proper and true Being in it self whether I conceit it or not Nor indeed can I conceive of it but by it It is not such a thing as whiteness is in Snow a meer accident which depends upon the Snow in which it is for the Being it hath and must perish as soon as the Snow is dissolved my Soul doth not so depend upon my Body or any other fellow creature for its Being but is as truly a Substance as my Body is though not of so gross and material a kind and nature My Soul can and will subsist and remain what it is when my Body is separated from it but my Body cannot subsist and remain what it now is when my Soul is separated from it So that I find my Soul to be the most substantial and noble part of me it is not my Body but my Soul which makes me a man And if this depart all the rest of me is but a dead log a lump of inanimate Clay a heap of vile dust and corruption From this independent subsistence it hath in it self and the dependence its properties and affections have upon it I truly apprehend and call it a Substance But yet when I call it a Substance but a Spiritual Substance I must not conceive of it as a gross material palpable substance such as my Body is which I can see and feel No there are spiritual substances as well as gross visible material Substances An Angel is a Spiritual Substance a real creature and yet imperceptible by my sight or touch such a substance is my Soul Spiritual substances are as real and much more excellent than bodily substances are I can neither see hear nor feel it but I both see hear and feel by it My Soul is also a vital Substance A Vitaâ— Substanâ—â— It is a principle of life to my Body It hath a life in it self and quickens my body therewith My Soul is the spring of all the actions and motions of life which I perform It hath been an errour taken in from my childhood That sense is performed in the outward Organs or members of my Body as Touching in the Hand seeing in the Eye Hearing in the Ear c. in them I say and not only by them As if nothing were required to make Sense but an Object and an Organ No no it is not my Eye that seeth nor my Ear that heareth nor my Hand that toucheth but my Soul in and by them performs all this Let but an Apoplex hinder the operations of my Soul in the Brain and of how little use are my Eyes Ears Hands or Feet to me My life is originally in my Soul and secondarily by way of Communication in my Body So that I find my Soul to be a vital as well as a spiritual Substance An Immortal Substance And Being both a vital and Spiritual Substance I must needs conclude it to be an immortal Substance For in such a pure spiritual nature as my Soul is there can be found no seeds or principles of Death Where there is no composition there will be no dissolution My Body indeed having so many jarring humours mixed elements and contrary qualities in it must needs fail and dye at last But my Soul was formed for immortality by the simplicity and spirituality of its nature No sword can pierce it from without nor opposition can destroy it from within Man cannot and God will not endued with Vnderstanding Will and Affections And being an immortal Spirit fitted and framed to live for ever
I find that God hath answerably endued and furnished it with an Vnderstanding Will and Affections whereby it is capable of being wrought upon by the spirit in the way of Grace and Sanctification in this world in order to the enjoyment of God its chief happiness in the world to come By this its Understanding I am distinguished from and advanced above all other creatures in this World I can apprehend distinguish and judge of all other intelligible Beings By my Understanding I discern truth from falsehood good from evil It shews me what is fit for me to chuse and what to refuse To this faculty or power of Understanding my thoughts and conscience do belong The former to my speculative the latter to my practical Understanding My thoughts are all formed in my mind or Understanding in innumerable multitudes and variety By it I can think of things present or absent visible or invisible of God or my self of this or the world to come To my Understanding also belongs my Conscience a noble Divine and awfull power By which I summon and judge my self as at a solemn Tribunal bind and loose condemn and acquit my self and actions but still with an eye and respect to the judgment of God Hence are my best comforts and worst terrors This Understanding of mine is the director and guide of my Will That is as the Counsellor This as the Prince It freely chuseth and refuseth as my Understanding directs and suggests to it The members of my Body and passions of my Soul are under its Dominion The former are under its absolute command the latter under its suasions and insinuations though not absolutely and always with effect and success And both my Understanding and Will I find to have great influence upon my Affections These Passions and Affections of my Soul are of great use and dignity I find them as manifold as there are considerations of good and evil They are the strong and sensible motions of my Soul according to my apprehensions of good and evil By them my Soul is capable of union with the highest good By love and delight I am capable of enjoying God and resting in him as the Centre of my Soul This noble Understanding Thoughts Conscience Will Passions and Affections are the principal faculties acts and powers of this my high and heaven-born Soul And being thus richly endowed and furnished I find it could never rise out of matter created and infused with an inclination to the Body or come into my Body by way of natural generation the Souls of Brutes that rise that way are destitute of Understanding Reason Conscience and such other excellent faculties and powers as I find in mine own Soul They cannot know or love or delight in God or set their affections on things spiritual invisible and eternal as my Soul is capable to do it was therefore created and infused immediately into this body of mine by the Father of Spirits and that with a strong inclination and tender affection to my flesh without which it would be remiss and careless in performing its several Duties and Offices to it during the time of its abode therein Fearfully and wonderfully therefore am I made and designed for nobler ends and uses than for a few daies to eat and drink and sleep and talk and dye My Soul is of more value than ten thousand Worlds What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul USE FRom the several parts and branches of this Description of the Soul we may gather the choice Fruits which naturally grow upon them in the following Inferences and Deductions of truth and duty For we may say of them all what the Historian doth of Palestine that there is nihil infructuosum nihil sterile No Branch or Shrub is barren or unfruitful Let us then search it Branch by Branch and Inference I. I The Soul a substantial Being Tanta praerogativa manifeâ—â—e testâ—tur ipsius animam penes quam â—atio principatus est non esse materialem caducam sed sâ—perioris cujusdam atque eminentis naturae à conditione reliquarum animarum longeÌ„ distantem Coâ—imb Disp. de Anima separ p. 584. FRom the substantial Nature of the Soul which we have proved to be a Being distinct from the Body and subsisting by it self we are informed That great is the difference betwixt the death of a Man and the death of all other creatures in the world Their souls depend on and perish with their bodies but ours neither result from them nor perish with them My Body is not a Body when my Soul hath forsaken it but my Soul will remain a Soul when this body is crumbled into dust Men may live like beasts a meer sensual life yea in some sense they may dye like beasts a stupid death but in this there will be found a vast difference Death kills both parts of the Beasts destroyes matter and form it toucheth only one part of Man it destroyeth the Body and only dislodgeth the Soul but cannot destroy it In some things Solomon shews the Agreement betwixt our death and theirs Eccles. 3.19 20 21. That which befallâ—th the Sons of Men befalleth the Beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dyeth so dyeth the other all go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again We breathe the same common air they breathe we feel the same pains of death they feel our bodies are resolved into the same earth theirs are O! but in this is the difference The spirit of Man goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast goeth downward to the Earth Their spirits go two ways at their dissolution The one to the Earth the other to God that gave it as he speaks cap. 12.7 Though our Respiration and Expiration have some Agreement yet great is the odd in the consequences of death to the one and other They have no pleasures nor pains besides those they enjoy or feel now but so have we and those eternal and unspeakable too The Soul of Man like the bird in the shell is still growing and ripening in sin or grace Conâ—â—â—tuâ— fuit discretum et reâ—â—itque unde veneraâ— terra deo sâ—m spiritus sa sâ—m Epichâ— till at last the shell breaks by death and the Soul flees away to the place it is prepared for and where it must abide for ever The body which is but it's shell perisheth but the Soul lives when it is fallen away How doth this consideration expose and aggravate the folly and madness of the sensual world who herd themselves with beasts though they have souls so near of kin to Angels The Princes and Nobles of the World abhorr to associate themselves with Mechanicks in their shops or to take a place among the sottish rabble upon an Ale-bench They know and keep their distance and Decorum as still carrying with them a sense of Honour and abhorring to act beneath it But we equalize our high and
noble Souls in the manner of life with the Beasts that perish Our Tables differ little from the Crib at which they feed or our Houses from the Stalls and Stables in which they lie down to rest in respect of any Divine worship or Heavenly communication that is to be heard there Happy had it been for such men if so they live and dye that their souls had been of no higher Extraction or larger Capacity or longer Duration than that of a Beast for then as their comforts so also their miseries had ended at death And such they will one day wish they had been A Separate Soul immediately capable of Blessedness Inference II. THe Soul of Man being a Substance and not depending in its Being on the Body or any other fellow creature There can be no reason on the Souls account why its blessedness should be delayed till the Resurrection of the Body 'T is a great mistake and 't is well 't is so that the Soul is capable only of social Glory or a Blessedness in partnership with the Body And that it can neither exert its own powers nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the body The opinion of a sleeping interval took its riâ—e from this errour as it is usual for one mistake to beget another they conceived the Soul to be so dependent upon the Body at least in all its operations that when death rends it from the Body it must needs be left as in a swoon or sleep unable to exert its proper powers or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of separation But certainly its substantial Nature being considered it will be found that what perfection soever the body recieves from the Soul and how necessary soever its dependence upon it is * Anima rationâ—â—iâ— nihil 〈…〉 possâ—tâ—r 〈◊〉 Coâ—imâ—r Disp. 2. Art 3. The Soul receives not its perfection from the Body nor doth it necessarily depend on it in its principal operations but it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it Yea I doubt not but it enjoys it self in a much more sweet and perfect liberty than ever it did or could whilst it was clogged and fettered with a body of flesh Doubtless * Proculdubio cum â—i mortis expâ—imitur de câ—â—â—â—â—tione caâ—nâ—s ipsa eâ—pressiâ—ne colatu 〈…〉 to de oâ—panâ—o coâ—pore â—umpit in apertâ—m ad mâ—ram pâ—â—am sua◠〈◊〉 statim semetipsam in expeditione substantiae recognoscit ut de somno emergens ab imaginibas ad veritates Tertul. in lib. de Anima saith Tertullian when it is separated and as it were strained by death it comes out of darkness into its own pure perfect light and quickly finds it self a substantial Being able to act freely in that light Before the eyes of the dead body are closed I doubt not but the believing Soul with open eyes beholdeth the face of Jesus Christ Luk. 23.43 Philip. 1.23 but this will also be further spoken to hereafter II Immediately Created Inference III. THe Souls of men being created immediately out of nothing and not seminally traduced it follows That all souls by nature are of equal value and dignity One Soul is not more excellent honourable or precious than another But all by nature equally precious The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust is in its own nature of equal dignity and value with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne And this appears to be so 1. First because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain viz. the creating power of God They were not made better or worse finer or courser matter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing at all The same Almighty power was put forth to the forming of one as of another All Souls are mine saith he that created them Ezek. 18 4. The Soul of the Child as well as the Father the Soul of the Beggar as well as the King Those that had no praeexistent matter but received their beings from the same efficient cause must needs be equal in their original nature and value The bodies of men which are formed out of matter do greatly differ from one another some are moulded as we say è meliori luto out of better and finer Clay some are more exact elegant vigorous and beautiful than others but Souls having no matter of which they consist are not so differenced 2. Secondly All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God They need no other powers faculties or capacities than they are by nature endued with if these be but sanctified and devoted to God to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face We pass through the fields and take up an Egg which lies under a clod and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter yea but in that Egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious Lark as it may be at the same time we see mounting Heavenward and singing delicious notes above So 't is here Those poor despised souls that are now lodged in crazy despicable bodies on Earth have in their Natures a capacity for the same imployments and enjoyments with those in Heaven They have no higher Original than these have and these have the same capacity and hability with them They are Beings improvable by grace to the highest perfections attainable by any Creature If thou be never so mean base and despicable a creature in other respects yet hast thou a Soul which hath the same alliance to the Father of Spirits the same capacity to enjoy him in glory that the most excellent and renowned Saints ever had 3. Thirdly All Souls are rated and valued in Gods book and account at one and the same price and therefore by nature are of equal worth and dignity Under the Law the Rich and the Poor were to give the same Ransom Exod. 30.15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel The Redemption of Souls by the Blood of Christ costs one and the same price The poorest and most despised Soul that believes in Jesus is as much indebted to him for the Ransom of his Soul as the greatest and most illustrious person in the World Moses Abraham Paul c. did not cost Christ one farthing more than poor Lazarus or the meanest among all the Saints did The Righteousness of Christ is unto all and upon all that believe and there is no difference Rom. 3.22 But yet we must not understand this Parity of humane Souls universally or in all respects Though being of one species or common nature they are all equal and those of them that are purchased by the blood of Christ are all purchased at one rate Yet there are divers other respects and
refrigeratur Alsted Theolog. Nat. p. mihi 614. heart and exhaling the fumes thereof The heart hath continual need of such a vent and refreshment and therefore the Lungs like a pair of Bellows must be kept continually going Longer than breath is going the heart is dying That which stops the one suffocates the other And here we may with admiration contemplate the wonders by which our lives are continued These Lungs are the most frail and tender part of the body and kept in continual motion and agitation yet are made serviceable for Seventy or Eighty years together which is the wonder of Providence Were a piece of Brass Iron or Steel kept in continual and incessant use it would not indure half the time In a word The * Quia Coâ—â—foâ—â—â—itae offiâ—â—na spirituum operosiâ—sima ita ut peâ—petuo motu pendulum agititur utique etiam vehementer incalescit ita ut si calor iste per respirationem non restingueretur necesse fuerit calidam â—â—midum nativum nimiae aestuatione opprimi suffocari Pulmones â—ant nihil aliud quà m folles quidam naturales qui sefe dilatando aëâ—em attrabunt inque cor effundurt ita ut cor perpetuo aestuans aëre refrigeretur qui aër ubi intra coâ—dis meatus incaluit iterum à corde effunditur in pulmones qui sese contrabendo foras emittâ—â—t Keckerâ— phys p. 142. heart that noble part of the Body is the shop wherein the spirits are laboured and prepared which therefore is in continual motion and heat and so needs continual cooling and refreshing We can live no longer than it labours it can labour no longer than it is refreshed and cooled by respiration God hath therefore prepared the Lungs for this service which being of a thin porous and spungy substance can easily be dilated and contracted By dilating themselves they attract and suck in the air into themselves first duely to prepare and temper it and then communicate it to the heart for its refreshment which being quickly heated in the heart is again breathed out by the Lungs by contracting themselves again This double motion of inspiration and expiration we call Respiration and this Respiration is the bond that holds our Souls and bodies together And indeed this is but a feeble bond a very slender and weak thread which holds our Souls and Bodies in union What more volatile evanid and uncertain than a puff of breath The nostrils are the outer door of the body our breath is continually in our nostrils and how soon may that depart which is day and night at the door as if it were still taking its leave of us Our breath is always going and what is still going will be gone at last How small a difference is there betwixt Respiration and Expiration A breathing and a breathless lump of clay Breath cannot continue long and life cannot stay a moment behind it Psal. 104.29 Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust Life is breath given and Death is breath taken away The breath of Man is like a written sentence in which there are diverse Comma's or short pauses after which speedily follows a full stop and there 's an end of it 〈…〉 ita p. menes 〈◊〉 â—otu 〈◊〉 attraâ—â—â—t expellâ—â—t Alsted â—hcol Mat. â— 623 Some conceive Solomon points at the continual motion of the Lungs in that figurative and elegant description of the death of man Eccles. 12.6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel be broken at the Cistern The double motion of the Lungs he seems here to compare to the double motion of the buckets in a Well the turn of the wheel sends one down and draws the other up But as we use to say proverbially the Bucket or Pitcher that goes so often to the Cistern or Well is broken at last So must we say of these they will fail at last One sitting by the bedside of a dying Person sighed out this compassionate expression Ah! quid sâ—â—uâ— His sick friend hearing it replied Pulvis 〈◊〉 fumus dust a shadow a puff of wind The wind without us is fickâ—â— and inconstant to a proverb and so is that within us too Many grudge at the shortness of life but considering the feebleness of this Bond we have more cause to wonder at the slowness of death For let us but seriously consider the frailty of our breath on a double account viz. 1. In respect of our breathing instruments viz. 2. Or of breaths-stopping accidents 1. Great is the frailty of our breathing instruments What is flesh but weakness Even the most solid and substantial it is as the fading grass Isa. 40.6 But our * Est enim substantia pulmonâ—m caro laxa spoâ—giosa aërea similis coagulatae spumae sanguinis Alsted ibid. Lungs are the most lax spongy and tender of all flesh if that which is so airy light and spumous deserve the name of flesh And as it is the most frail of all flesh so it is in continual motion labouring night and day without rest or intermission and that which wants alternate rest cannot be durable We see motion wears out the wheels of a watch though made of Brass but our strength as Iob speaks is not the strength of stones nor our bones the most solid much less our Lungs the most frail and feeble parts of Brass Beside 2. There are a multitude of breath-stopping accidents which may and daily do beat the last breath out of mens nostrils before any decay of nature cause it to expire Many mortal diseases are incident to these frail and tender parts Phthisicks Intenerations Ulcers easily barr the passage of our breath there yâ—a and slighter accidents which immediately touch not that part are sufficient to stop our breath and dislodge our souls A Flie a Gnâ—t the stone of a Raisin a Crumb of bread have often done it There is not a pore in the body but is a door large enough to let in death nor a creature so despicably small but is strong enough if God commissionate it to serve a Writ of Ejection upon the Soul the multitudes of diseases are so many lighted Candles put to this slender thread of our breath besides the infinite diversity of external accidents by which multitudes daily perish So that there are as great and and astonishing wonders in our preservation as in out Creation Inference I. HOw admirable then is the Mystery of Providence in the daily continuation of the breath of our Nostrils That our breath is yet in our Nostrils is only from hence that he who breathed it into them at first is our life and the length of our days as it is Deut. 30.20 It is because our breath is in his hand Dan. 5.23 not in our own or in our enemies hand Till he take it away none shall be able to do it Psal.
first Seal opened Ver. 2. gives the Church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the Victories Successes and Triumphs of Christ notwithstanding the Rage Subtilty and power of all its Enemies He shall ride on Conquering and to Conquer and his Arrows shall be sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies whereby the People shall fall under him And this chearing Prospect was no more than was needful For Seal 2. The second Seal opened ver 3. and 4. represents the first bloudy Persecution of the Church under Nero whom Tertullian calls Dedicator damnationis nostrae Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. He that first condemned Christians to the Slaughter And the Persecution under him is set forth by the Type of a red Horse and a great Sword in the hand of him that rode thereon His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a Lion 2 Tim. 4.17 Paul Peter Bartholomew Barnabas Mark are all said to dye by his cruel hand and so fierce was his rage against the Christians that at that time as Eusebius saith * Adeo ut videret repletas humanis corporibus civitates jacentes mortuos simul cum parvulis senes foeminarumque absque ulla sexûs reverentia in publico rejesta Cadavera a man might then see Cities lie full of dead Bodies the old and young Men and Women cast out naked without any reverence of Persons or Sex in the open street Tacit. lib. 15. Annal. And when the day failed Christians saith Tacitus were burnt in the night instead of Torches to give them light in the Streets Seal 3. The third Seal opened v. 5.6 sets forth the calamities which should befal the Church by Famine Yet not so much a literal as a figurative Famine as a grave and learned Commentator * Durham in Loc. expounds it like that mentioned Amos 8.11 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan The former directing the Persecution especially against Ministers in which many bright Lamps were extinguished The latter expresly condemned all Christian Meetings and Assemblies by a Law The Type by which this Persecution was set forth is a black Horse A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor Saints when they eat the bread of their Souls as it were by weight for he that sate on him had a pair of ballances in his hand Then did Iohn hear this sad voice A measure of wheat for a Penny and three measures of Barley for a penny That quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man a live for a day And a Roman Penny was the ordinary wages given for a days work to a labourer The meaning is that in those days all the Spiritual food men should get to keep their Souls alive from day to day with all their travel and labour should be but sufficient for that end The fourth Seal opened Seal 4. ver 7.8 represents a much more sad and doleful state of the Church for under it are found all the former sufferings with some new kinds of trouble superadded Under this Seal death rides upon the pale Horse and Hell or the Grave follows him 'T is conceived to point at the presecution under Dioclesian when the Church was mowed down as a Meadow The fifth Seal is opened in my Text Seal 5. under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant Iohn the state and condition of those precious Souls which had been torn and separated from their Bodies by the bloudy hands of Tyrants for his name sake under all the former persecutions The design whereof is to support and encourage all that were to come after in the same bloudy path I saw under the Altar c. in which we have an account I. Of what Iohn saw II. Of what he heard I. First we have an account of what he saw I saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Souls in this place are not put for the Bloud or the dead Carcasses of the Saints who were slain as some have groundlessly imagined but are to be understood properly and strictly for those Spiritual and immortal substances which once had a vital Union with their Bodies but were now separated from them by a violent death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima proimmortali Spiritâ— hominis capituâ— sicuti Matt. 10.28 hoâ— sensu dicit hîc Iohannes se vidisse animas c. Marlorat in loc yet still retained a love and inclination to them even in the state of Separation and are therefore here brought in complaining of their shedding of their blood and destruction of their Bodies These Souls even of all that dyed for Christ from Abel to that time Iohn saw that is in Spirit for these immaterial substances are not perceptible by the gross external senses Animâ— Coâ—â—oribus exutae invisibileâ— sunt occulis corpoâ—â—is vidit ergo â—as Iohannes Spiritu Paraus in loc He had the priviledge and favour of a Spiritual representation of them being therein extraordinarily assisted as Paul was when his Soul was rapt into the third Heaven and heard things unutterable 2 Cor. 12.2 God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy Souls and that under the Altar he means not any material Altar as that at Ierusalem was but as the holy place figured Heaven so the Altar figured Jesus Christ Heb. 13.10 And most aptly Christ is represented to Iohn in this figure and Souls of the Martyrs at the foot or basis of this Altar thereby to inform us 1 that however men look upon the death of those persons and though they kill their names by slanders as well as their persons by the Sword yet in Gods account they dye as Sacrifices and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God which he highly prizeth and graciously accepteth Suitable whereunto Pauls expression is Philip. 2.17 2 That the value and acceptation their death and blood shed hath with God is through Christ and upon his account for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the gift Matth. 23.19 and 3. it informs us that these holy Souls now in a state of Separation from their Bodies were very near to Iesus Christ in Heaven They lay as it were at his foot Once more They are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this World and that was For the word of God and for the Testimony which they held i. e. They dyed in defence of the Truths or will of God revealed in his word against the Corruptions Oppositions and Innovations of Men. As one of the Martyrs that held up the Bible at the Stake saying This is it that hath brought me hither They dyed not as Malefactors but as Witnesses They gave a threefold Testimony to the truth a lip Testimony a life Testimony and a blood Testimony whilst the Hypocrite gives but one and many Christians but two Thus we have an account of what
saith till it come to rest in God it is enougâ— because the faculty which produceth it is more 〈◊〉 spiritual and immaterial All matter hath its limits bounds 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 till we attain the desired end which is God and just measures beyond which it cannot be extended But the Soul is boundless and its appetitions infinite is rests not but in the spiritual and infinite Being God alone being is adaequate object and able to satisfie its desires which plainly proves it to be a Spiritual immaterial and simple being And being so two things necessarily follow therefrom 1. That it is void of any Principle of corruption in it self 2. That it is not liable to any stroak of death by any adverse power without it self 1. It cannot be liable to death from any seeds or Principles of Corruption within it self for where there is no composition there is no dissolution the Spirituality and simplicity of the Soul admits of no Corruption 2. Nor is it liable to death by any adverse power without it self No Sword can touch it No instrument of death can reach it 'T is above the reach of all adversaries Matt. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul The bounds and limits of creature-power are here fixed by Jesus Christ beyond which they cannot go They can wound torment and destroy the Body when God permits them but the Soul is out of their reach A Sword can no more wound it than it can wound or hurt the light and consequently it is and must needs be of an immortal nature But there seems to be a decay upon our Souls in our old Age Object and decaies argue and imply corruption and are so many steps and tendencies towards the death and dissolution thereof The experience of the whole world shews us how the Apprehensions Judgments Wit and Memory of old Men fail even to that degree that they become children again in respect of the abilities of their minds their Souls only serving as it were to salt their Bodies and keep them from putrefaction for a few days longer 'T is a great mistake Sol. there is not the least decay upon the Soul no time makes any change upon the essence of the Soul all the alteration that is made is upon the Organs and Instruments of the Body which decay in time and become inept and unserviceable to the Soul The Soul like an expert and skilful Musician is as able as ever it was but the Body its instrument is out of tune and the ablest Artist can make no pleasing melody upon an instrument whose Strings are broken or so related that they cannot be scrued up to their due height Let Hippocrates the Prince of Physicians decide this matter for us * Anima nostra quoad essentiam mutaâ—i non potest aut alterari siâ—â— cibi siâ—â— potus sive cujuscunque rei alterius accâ—ssu referends est enim omnium alterationum causa aut ad spiritus quibus se immiscet aut ad vasa sive organa que permeat Hippocrates lib. 1. de diaeâ—a The Soul saith he cannot be changed or altered as to its essence by the access of meat or drink or any other thing whatsoever but all the alterations that are made must be referred either to the Spirits with which it mixeth it self or to the Vessels and Organs through which it streameth So that this proves not its corruptibility and being neither corruptible in it self nor vulnerable by any creature without it self seeing man cannot and God will not destroy it the conclusion is strongly inferred that therefore it is immortal Argument II. THE Immortality of the Souls of Men may be concluded from the Promises of everlasting Blessedness and the Threatnings of everlasting miseries respectively made in the Scriptures of truth to the Godly and ungodly after this Life which Promises and Threatnings had been altogether vain and delusory if our Souls perish with our Bodies 1. First God hath made many everlasting Promises of Blessedness yea he hath established an everlasting Covenant betwixt himself and the Souls of the Righteous promising to be their God for ever and to bestow endless Blessedness upon them in the World to come Such a Promise is that Iohn 8.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish And Iohn 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting life And again Iohn 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye And once more Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality eternal Life with multitudes more of like nature Now if these be no vain and delusory Promises as to be sure they are not being the words of the true and faithful God then those Souls to whom they are made must live for ever for if the subject of the Promises must fail consequently the performance of the Promises must fail too For how shall they be made good when those to whom they are made are perished Let it not be objected here That the Bodies of Believers are concerned in the promises as well as their Souls and yet their Bodies perish notwithstanding For we say though their Bodies dye yet they shall live again and enjoy the fruit of the Promises in eternal Glory And whilest their Bodies lie in the Grave their Souls are with God enjoying the covenanted Blessedness in Heaven Rom. 8.10 11. and so the Covenant-Bond is not loosed betwixt them and God by Death which it must needs be in case the Soul perished when the Body doth And upon this Hypothesis that Argument of Christ is built Matth. 22.32 proving the Resurrection from the Covenant God made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living q. d. If Abraham Isaac and Iacob be perished in Soul as well as in Body how then is God their God what is become of the Promise and Covenant-Relation for if one Correlate fail the Relation necessarily fails with it If God be their God then certainly they are in being for God is not the God of the Dead i.e. of those that are utterly perished Therefore it must needs be that though their Bodies be naturally dead yet their Souls still live and their Bodies must live again at the Resurrection by vertue of the same Promise 2. On the contrary many threatnings of eternal misery after this life are found in the Scriptures of truth against ungodly and wicked Persons Such is that in 2 Thes. 1.7 8 9. The Lord Iesuâ— shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming Fire to render Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with
everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and the Glory of his Power And speaking of the Torments of the Damned Christ thus expresseth the misery of such wretched Souls in Hell Mark 9.44 Where their Worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched But how shall the Wicked be punished with everlasting Destruction if their Souls have not an everlasting Duration Or how can it be said That their Worm viz. the remorse and anguish of their Consciences dieth not if their Souls dye Punishment can endure no longer than its subject endureth If the being of the Soul cease its pains and punishments must have an end You see then there are everlasting Promises and Threatnings to be fulfilled both upon the Godly and Ungodly He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Iohn 3.36 The Believer shall never see spiritual Death viz. the separation of his Soul from God and the Unbeliever shall never see life viz. the blessed fruition of God but the Wrath of God shall abide on him If Wrath must abide on him he must abide also as the wretched subject thereof which is another Argument of the Immortality of Souls Argument III. THE Immortality of the Soul is a Truth asserted and attested by the universal consent of all Nations and Ages of the World Multum dare solemus praesumptioni omnium hominium câ—m de Animae Aeternitate disserimus non leve momentum apud nos habit consensus hominum aut timentium inseros aut colentium Soneca Ep. 17. We give much saith Seneca to the presumption of all men and that justly for it would be hard to think that an Error should obtain the general consent of Mankind or that God would suffer all the World in all Ages of it to bow down under an universal Deception This Doctrine sticks close to the nature of Man it springs up easily and without force from his Conscience It hath been allowed as an unquestionable thing not only among Christians who have the Oracles of God to teach and confirm this Doctrine but among Heathens also who had no other Light but that of Nature to guide them into the knowledge and belief of it In omni re coâ—seâ—sio oâ—â—ium gentiam Lex Naturae putanda est esque instar mille demonstâ—ationum talâ—â— consensio apud bonos esse debâ—t Zanch. de imâ—ort Animarum p. 644. Learned Zanchius cites out of Cicero an excellent passage to this purpose In every thing saith he the consent of all Nations is to be accounted the Law of Nature And therefore with all good Men it should be instead of a thousand Demonstrations and to resist it as he there adds what is it but to resist the voice of God and how much more when with this consent the Word of God doth also consent As for the consent of Nations in this point the learned Author last mentioned hath industriously gathered many great and famous Testimonies from the antient Chaldeans Graecians Pythagoreans Stoicks Platonists c. which evidently shew they made no doubt of the Immortality of their Souls How plain is that of Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speaking of the Soul in opposition to the Body which must be resolved into dust he saith But for the Soul that is immortal and never grows old but lives for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Trismegistus the famous and celebrated Philosopher gives this account of Man That he consists of two parts being mortal in respect of his Body but immortal in respect of his Soul which is his best and principal part Pluto not only asserts the immortality of the Souls of Men but disputes for it and among other Arguments urges this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si erim Mors dissolutio esset utriusque corporis sc. animae Iuâ—inâ— foret malis cuâ— moriâ—â—tur Plato in epist. That if it were not so wicked Men would certainly have the advantage of righteous and good Men who after they have committed all manner of evils should suffer none But what speak I of Philosophers the most barbarous Nations in the World constantly believe it * Quid de Tuâ—â—cis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisquâ— omnibus â—uâ—c temporis barbaâ—â—â— nationibus dicam Nemo tam barbarus aut impius est quin sentiat post montem sup 〈…〉 〈◊〉 in quibus anime aut pro Malefactis punlantur aut coâ—ountur celiciisq pâ—sâ—uantur pâ—o 〈◊〉 factis Zanch. ubi supra The Turks acknowledge it in their Alchoran and though they grosly mistake the nature of Heaven in fansying it to be a Paradise of sensual Pleasures as well as the way thither by their Impostor Mahomet yet 't is plain they believe the Souls immortality and that it lives in pain or pleasure after this life The very salvage and illiterate Indians are so fully persuaded of the Souls Immortality that Wives cast themselves chearfully into the Flames to attend the Souls of their Husbands and Subjects to attend the Souls of their Kings into the other World Two things are objected against this Argument Object 1. I. That some particular persons have denied this Doctrine as Epicurus c. and by Argument maintained the contrary Sol. To which I answer That though they have done so yet 1. this no way shakes the Argument from the consent of Nations because some few persons have denied it we truly say the Earth is Spherical though there be many Hills and Risings in it If Democritus put out his own eyes must we therefore say all the World is blind 2 It is worth thinking on whether they that have questioned the Immortality of the Soul have not rather made it the matter of their option and desire than of their Faith and Persuasion We distinguish Atheists into three Classes such as are so in Practice in Desire or in Iudgment but of the former sorts there may be found multitudes to one that is so in his setled judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieroc If you think it strange that any Man should wish his Soul to be mortal Hierocles gives us the true reason of it A wicked man saith he is afraid of his Iudge and therefore wishes his Soul and Body may perish together by Death rather than it should come to Gods Tribunal Object 2. II. Nor can the strength of the Argument be eluded by saying All this may be but an universal Tradition one Nation receiving it from another Sol. For as this is neither true in it self nor possible to be made good so if it were it would not invalidate the Argument for if it were not a truth agreeable to the light of nature and so easily received by all Men upon the Proposal of it it were impossible that all Nations in the World should embrace it so readily and hold it so tenaciously as they do Argument IV. THE Immortality of the
Immortality But in this it properly consists that he enjoys not only a reasonable but also rejoyceth in an Immortal Soul which shall overlive the world and subsist separate from the Body and abide for ever when all other Souls being but material forms perish with that matter on which they depend This is the proper Dignity of Man above the Beast that perisheth and to deprive him of Immortality and leave him his Reason is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched Creature than any that God hath put under his feet For Man is a prospecting Creature and raiseth up to himself vast hopes and fears from the world to come by these he is restrained from the sensual pleasures which other Creatures freely enjoy and exercised with ten thousands cares which they are unacquainted with and to fail at last of all his hopes and expectations of happiness in the world to come is to fall many degrees lower than the lowest Creature shall fall even so much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher Argument VI. THE Souls of Men must be Immortal or else the desires of Immortality are planted in their Souls in vain That there are desires of Immortality found in the hearts of all men is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted Man cannot bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this world I beseech men for Gods sake that if at any time there arise in them a desire or a wish that others should speak well of them rather than evil after their death then at that time they would seriously consider whether those motions are not from some Spirit to continue a Spirit after it leaves its earthly habitation rather than from an earthly Spirit a vapour which cannot act or imagine or desire or fâ—ar things beyond its continuance Halt de Anim p. 73. and the time that measures it Nothing that can be measured by time is commensurate to the desires of Mans Soul No Motto better suits it than this Non est mortale quod opto I seek for that which will not die Rom. 2. v. 7. and his great relief against death lies in this Non omnis moriar That he shall not totally perish Yea we find in all men even in those that seem to be most drowned and lost in the loves and delights of this present World a natural desire to continue their Names and Memories to posterity after death Hence it is said Psal. 49.11 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 hence is the desire of children which is as one saith nodosa Aeternitas a knotty Aeternity when our thred is spun out and cut off their thred is knit to it and so we dream of a continued succession in our Name and Family Absâ—lom had no children to continue his Memory to supply which defect he reared up a Pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 Now it cannot be imagined that God should plant the desire of Immortality in those Souls that are incapable of it nor yet can we give a rational account how these apprehensions of Immortality should come into the Souls of men except they themselves be of an immortal nature For either these notions and apprehensions of Immortality are imprest upon our Souls by God or do naturally spring out of the Souls of men It forms conceptions of things Spiritual and abstract from matter and discerns objects which have no dimensions Figure Colour or affection of matter Si conceptus de immortalitate fons sit ipsamet anima est ipsa immortalis quoâ—iam quod momentan 〈…〉 est ideam natuâ—ae perennis fa 〈…〉 non potest quemadmodum animâ— ratiâ—â—s expâ—â—s conceptum rationeâ—etâ—ttis fom 〈…〉 nequit Sterne de morte p. 198. if God impress them those impressions are made in vain if there be no such thing as Immortality to be enjoyed and if they spring and rise naturally out of our Souls that is a sufficient evidence of their Immortality For we cannot more conceive and form to our selves Ideas and Notions of Immortality if our Souls be mortal than the Brutes which are void of reason can form to themselves Notions and Conceptions of rationality So then the very apprehensions and desires that are found in mens hearts of Immortality do plainly speak them to be of an Immortal Nature Argument VII MOreover the account given us in Scripture of the return of several Souls into their own Bodies again after death and real separation from them shews us that the Soul subsists and lives in a separate state after death and perisheth not by the stroke of death for if it were annihilated or destroyed by death the same Soul could never be restored again to the same Body A dead Body may indeed be acted by an assisting form which may move and carry it from place to place So the Devil hath acted the dead Bodies of many but they cannot be said to live again by their own Souls after a real separation by death unless those Souls over-lived the Bodies they forsook at death and had their abode in another Place and state You have divers unquestionable examples of the Souls return into the Body recorded in Scripture As that of the Shâ—namites Son 2 King 4.18 19 20 32 33 34 35 36 37. That of the Rulers daughter Matth. 9.18 23 24 25. That of the Widows Son Luke 7.12 13 14 15. and that of Lazarus Iohn 11.39 40 41 42 43 44 45. These were no other but the very same Souls Non aliam sed ipsam priorem animaâ— corpori mortuo resâ—itutam esse contra tos qui putaâ—erunt bodie putant animâ—m post mortem corporis nihil esse their own Souls which returned into them again which as Chrysostom well observes is a great proof of their Immortality against them that think the Soul is annihilated after the death of the Body 'T is true the Scripture gives us no account of any sense or apprehension they retained after their re-union of the place or state they were in during their separation There seemed to be perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgetfulness of all that they saw or felt in the state of separation And indeed it was necessary it should be so that our faith might be built rather upon the sure promises of God than such reports and narratives of them that came to us from the dead Luke 16.31 And if we believe not the word neither would we believe if one came from the dead Argument VIII MOreover eighthly The supposition of the Souls perishing with the Body is subversive of the Christian Religion in the principal Doctrines and Duties thereof take away the Immortality of the Soul and all Religion falls to the ground I will instance in 1. The Doctrines of Religion 2. The Duties of Religion 1. First It overthrows the main Principles and Doctrines of Christian
flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God who hath appointed them to be so He can but never will annihilate them But the Soul depends upon matter in all its operations Object 3. nothing is in the Understanding which was not first in the Senses it useth the natural Spirits as its Servants and Tools in all its Operations and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a State of Separation 1. The Hypothesis is not only uncertain Sol. but certainly false There are acts performed by the Soul even whilst it is in the Body wherein it makes no use at all of the Body Such are the acts of Self-intuition and Self-reflection and what will you say of its Acts in Raptures and Ecstasies such as that of Paul 2. Cor. 12.2 and Iohn Revel 21.10 what use did their Souls make of the bodily senses or natural Spirits then 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life it doth use the Body as its Tool or Instrument in working doth it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other World Whilst a man is on Horseback in his Journey he useth the help and service of his Horse and is moved according to the motion of his Horse but doth it thence follow he cannot stand or walk alone when dismounted at his Journeys end We know Angels both live and act without the ministry of Bodies and our Souls are Spiritual Substances as well as they But many Scriptures seem to favour the total cessation of the Souls actions Object 4. if not of its being also after Separation as that in 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs dye and are as Water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up and Psal. 88.10 11 12. with Isaiah 38.18 19. The dead cannot praise thee Sol. Those words of the Woman of Tekoa are not to be understood absolutely but respectively and the meaning is that the Soul is in the Body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass which being broken by death the Soul is irrecoverably gone as the Water Spilt on the ground which by no humane power or art of man can be recovered again All the means in the World cannot fetch it back into the Body again She speaks not of the Resurrection or what shall be done in the World to come by the Almighty power of God but of what is impossible to be done in this World by all the skill and power of Man And for the expression of Heman and Hezekiah they only respect and relate to those services their Souls were now imployed about for the praise of God with respect to the conversion or edification of others as Psal. 30.8 9. or at most to that mediate service and worship which they give God in and by their attendance upon his ordinances in this World and not of that immediate Service and praise that is performed and given him in Heaven by the Spirits of just men made perfect such was the sweetness they had found in these Ordinances and Duties that they express themselves as loth to leave them The same answer solves also the Objections grounded upon other mistaken Scriptures as that Psal. 78.39 where man is called a wind that passeth away and cometh not again It is only expressive of the frailty and vanity of the present animal life we live in this World to which we shall return no more after death it denies not life to departed Souls but the end of this animal life at death the life we live in the other World is of a different nature Inference I. IS the Soul Immortal Then 't is impossible for Souls to find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side Heaven All temporary things are inadaequate and therefore unsatisfying to our Souls What gives the Soul rest and satisfaction must be as durable as the Soul is for if we could possibly find in this World a condition and state of things most agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes yet if the Soul be conscious to it self That it shall and must over-live and leave them all behind it it can never reach true contentment in the greatest affluence and confluence of them Man being an immortal is therefore a prospecting Creature and can never be satisfied with this That it 's well with him at present except he can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever The thoughts of leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments imbitters them all to us whil'st we have them All outward things are in fluxu continuo passing away as the Waters 1 Cor. 7.31 Riches are uncertain 1 Tim. 6.17 They fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven and with Wings of their own making Prov. 23.5 i. e. as the Feathers that enable a Bird to fly from us grow out of his own substance so doth that vanity that carries away all earthly enjoyments This alone would spoil all Contentment Inference II. THen see the ground and reason of Satans envy and enmity against the Soul and his restless designs and endeavours to destroy it It grates that Spirit of envy to find himself who is by nature Immortal sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery and the Souls of Men appointed to fill up those vacant places in Heaven from which the Angels fell No Creature but Man is envied by Satan and the Soul of Man much more than his Body 'T is true he afflicts the Bodies of Men when God permits him but he ever aims at the Soul when he wounds the Body Heb. 10. 37. This roaring Lyon is continually going about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 'T is the precious Soul he hunts after that 's the Morsus Diaboli the Bit he gapes for as the Woolf tears the Fleece to come at the Flesh. All the pleasure those miserable Creatures find is the success of their temptations upon the Souls of Men. 'T is a kind of delight to them to plunge Souls into the same condemnation and misery with themselves This is the trade they have been driving ever since their Fall By destroying Souls he at once exercises his revenge against God and his envy against man which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him Inference III. DO the Souls of Men overlive their Bodies Then 't is the height of madness and spiritual Infatuation to destroy the Soul for the Bodies sake To cast away an Immortal Soul for the gratification of perishing flesh to ruine the precious Soul for ever for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment yet this is the madness of millions of Men. They will drown their own Souls in everlasting perdition to procure unnecessary things for the Body 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich c. Every cheat and circumvention in dealing every lye every act of oppression is a wound given the Immortal Soul for the procuring some accommodations to
oppose those things which God hath subordinated bring this home to your natural or civil actions eating drinking Plowing or Sowing and see how the consequence will look Object 3. Say not 't is a mercenary Doctrine and disparages free Grace for are not all the enjoyments and comforts of this life confessedly from free Grace though God hath dispensed them to you in the way of your diligence and industry Object 4. To conclude say not the difficulties of Salvation are insuperable 't is so hard to watch every motion of the heart to deny every lust to resist a suitable temptation to suffer the loss of all for Christ that there is no hope for overcoming them For 1 God can and doth make difficult things easie to his people who work in the strength of Christ Philip. 4.13 2 These same difficulties are before all others that are before you yet it discourageth not them Philip. 3.11 Others strive to the uttermost There are extreams found in this matter some work for Salvation as an hireling for his wages so the Papists these disparage Grace and cry up works Others cry down obedience as legal as the Antinomians and cry up grace to the disparagement of duties avoid both these and see that you strive but 1 think not Heaven to be the price of your striving Rom. 4.3 2 strive but not for a spurt let this care and diligence run throughout your lives whilst you are living be you still striving your Souls are worth it and infinitely more than all this amounts to Inference VI. DOth the Soul overlive the Body and abide for ever Then 't is a great evil and folly to be excessively careful for the mortal Body and neglective of the immortal Inhabitant In a too much indulged Body there ever dwells a too much neglected Soul The Body is but a vile thing Philip. 3.21 the Soul more valuable than the whole World Matt. 16.26 to spend time care and pains for a vile Body whilst little or no regard is had to the precious Immortal Soul is an unwarrantable folly and madness To have a clean and washed Body and a Soul all filth as one speaks a Body neatly cloathed and dressed Carzv p. 148.149 with a Soul all naked and unready a Body fed and a Soul starved a Body full of the Creature and a Soul empty of Christ these are poor Souls indeed We smile at little children who in a kind of laborious idleness take a great deal of pains to make and trim their Babies or build their little houses of Sticks and straws And what are they but children of a bigger size that keep such ado about the Body a house of Clay a weak pile that must perish in a few days 'T is admirible and very convictive of most Christians what we read in an Heathen I confess saith Seneca there is a love to the Body implanted in us all 〈◊〉 insitâ—m esse nobis corpoâ—is nostri charitatem Fateâ— nos hujus gereâ—e tutelam nec nego indulgendum illi serâ—iendum nego Multus enim serviet qui corpori servit qui pro illo nimium timet qui ad illud omnia refert hujus nos nimiâ—â— amor timoribus inquietat solicitudinibus onerat contumeliâ—s objicit bonesâ—um ei vile est câ—i corpus nimis charum est agatur ejus diligentissimè cura ita tamen ut cum exiget ratio cum dignitas cum fides mittendum in ignem sit Seneca Ep. 14. p. 545. we have the Tutilage and charge of it we may be kind and indulgent to it but must not serve it but he that serves it is a servant to many cares fears and passions Let us have a diligent care of it yet so as when Reason requires when our Dignity or faith requires it we commit it to the fire 'T is true the Body is beloved of the Soul and God requires that it moderately care for the necessities and conveniences of it but to be fond indulgent and constantly sollicitous about it is both the sin and snare of the Soul One of the Fathers being invited to dine with a Lady and waiting some hours till she was drest and fit to come down when he saw her he fell a weeping and being demanded why he wept O saith he I am troubled that you should spend so many hours this morning in pinning and trimming your Body when I have not spent half the time in Praying Repenting and caring for my own Soul Two things a Master commits to his Servants care saith one the Child and the Childs cloaths it will be but a poor excuse for the Servant to say at his Masters return Sir here are all the Childs cloaths neat and clean but the child is lost Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their Souls and Bodies at the great day Lord here is my Body I was very careful for it I neglected nothing that belonged to its content and well-fare but for my Soul that is lost and cast away for ever I took little care or thought about it 'T is remarkable what the Apostle saith Rom. 8.12 We owe nothing to the flesh we are not in its debt we have given it all more than all that belongs to it but we owe many an hour many a care many a deep thought to our Souls which we have defrauded it of for the vile Bodies sake You have robb'd your Souls to pay your flesh This is madness Inference VII HOW great a blessing is the Gospel which brings life and immortality to light the most desirable mercies to immortal Souls This is the great benefit we receive by it as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel Life and immortality by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for immortal life the thing which all immortal Souls desire and long for These desires are found in Souls that enjoy not the Gospel-light for as I said before they naturally spring out of the very nature of all immortal Souls But how and where it is to be obtained that is a secret for which we are entirely beholding to the Gospel-discovery It lay hid in the Womb of Gods purpose till by the light of Gospel Revelation it was made manifest But now all men may see what are the gracious thoughts and purposes of God concerning men and what that â—s he hath designed for their Immortal Souls even an Immortal life and this life is to be obtained by Christ than which no tidings can be more welcome sweet or acceptable to us O therefore study the Gospel This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 And see that you prise the Gospel above all earthly Treasures 'T is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation you have two inestimable benefits and blessings by it 1 It manifests and reveals eternal life to you
And Paul went higher than that in a glorious excess of Charity to the Community or Body of Gods People preferring their Salvation not only to his own Body but to his Soul also Rom. 9.3 but to these extraordinary Cases we are seldome called and if we be the Gospel furnisheth us with an higher Rule than Self-love Iohn 13.34 But by this principle of Self-love in all ordinary Cases we must proportion and dispence our Love to all others by which you see what deep rooted fixed Principle in Nature Self-love is how universal and permanent alone this is which else were not fit to be made the measure of our Love to all others Two things will deserve our Consideration in the Doctrinal part of this point I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body II. What are the Grounds and Fundamental Causes or Reasons of its love to it and then apply it I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body and that it doth in divers respects 1. In its Cares for the things needful to the Body as the Text speaks in Nouriâ—â—ing and Cherishing it i.e. taking care for Food and Rayment for it This Care is Universal it 's implanted in the most Salvage and Barbarous People and is generally so excessive and exorbitant that though it never needs a Spur yet most times and with most Men it doth need a Curb and therefore Christ in Matth. 6.32 shews how those Cares torture and distract the Nations of the World warns them against the like Excesses and propounds a Rule to them for the allay and mitigation of them v. 25 26 27. So doth the Apostle also 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To speak as the matter is most Souls are over-heated with their Cares and eager pursuit after the concerns of the Body They pant after the Dust of the Earth They pierce themselves through with many Sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 They are cumbred like Martha with much Serving. 'T is a perfect Drudge and Slave to the Body bestowing all its time strength and studies about the Body for one Soul that puts the Question to it self What shall I do to be saved a Thousand are to be found that mind nothing more but What shall I eâ—t what shall I drink and wherewith shall I and mine be cloathed I do not say that these are proofs of the Souls regular Love to the Body no they differ from it as a Feaver from Natural Heat This is a doating Fondness upon the Body He truly loves his Body that moderately and ordinately cares for what is necessary for it and can keep it under 1 Cor. 9.27 and deny its whineing Appetite when Indulgence is prejudicial to the Soul or warms its Lusts. Believers themselves find it hard to keep the Golden Bridle of Moderation upon their Affections in this matter 'T is not every Man hath attained Agurs cool Temper Prov. 30.8 that can slack his pace and drive moderately where the Interests of the Body are concerned the best Souls are too warm the generality in raging Heats which distract their Minds as that word Matth 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If the Body were not exceeding dear to the Soul it would never torture it self Day and Night with such anxious Cares about it 2. The Soul discovers its Esteem and Value for the Body in all the Fears it hath about it Did not the Soul love it exceedingly it would never be affrighted for it and on its account so much and so often as it is What a panick fear do the dangers of the Body cast the Soul into Isa. 7.2 When the Body is in Danger the Soul is in Distraction the Soul is in Fears and Tremblings about it These Fears flow from the Souls tender Love and Affection to the Body if it did not Love it so intensely it would never afflict and torment it self at that rate it doth about it Satan the professed Enemy of our Souls being throughly acquainted with those Fears which flow from the Fountain of Love to the Body politickly improves them in the way of temptation to the utter ruine of some and the great hazard of other Souls he edges and sharpens his temptations upon us this way he puts our Bodies into danger that he may thereby endanger our Souls he reckons if he can but draw the Body into danger fear will quickly drive the Soul into Temptation It is not so much from Satans Malice or Hatred of our Bodies that he stirs up Persecutions against us but he knows the tie of Affection is so strong betwixt these friends that Love will draw and Fear will drive the Soul into many and great Hazards of its own Happiness to free the Body out of those Dangers Prov. 29.25 The Fear of Man brings a Snare and Heb. 11.37 tortured and tempted Upon this ground also it is that this Life becomes a Life of Temptation to all Men and there is no freedom from that danger till we be freed from the Body and set at liberty by Death Separated Souls are the only free Souls They that carry no Flesh about them need carry no Fears of Temptation within them 'T is the Body which catches the sparks of Temptation 3. The Soul manifests its dear Love and Affection to the Body by its Sympathy and compassionate feeling of all its Burdens Whatever touches the Body by way of Injury affects the Soul also by way of Sympathy The Soul and Body are as the strings of two Musical Instruments set exactly at one height if one be touched the other trembles They laugh and cry are sick and well together This is a wonderful Mystery and a rare Secret as a Learned Man observes how the Soul comes to sympathize with the Body and to have not only a knowledg but as it were a feeling of its Necessities and Infirmities how this Fleshly Lump comes to affect and make its deep Impressions upon a Creature of so different a Nature from it as the Soul or Spirit is But that it doth so though we know not how is plain and sensible to any Man If any Member of the Body though but the lowest and meanest be in Pain and Misery the Soul is presently affected with it and commands the Eyes to watch yea to weep the Hands to bind it up with all tenderness and defend it from the least injurious touch the Lips to complain of its Misery and beg pity and help from others for it If the Body be in danger how are the Faculties of the Soul Understanding Memory Invention c. imployed with utmost Strength and Concernment for its deliverance This is a real and unexceptionable Evidence of its dear and tender Love to the Body As those that belong to one Mystical Body shew their sincere Love this way 1 Cor. 12.25 26. Ephes. 4.19 So the Soul 4. The Soul manifesteth its Love to the Body by its Fears of Death and extream Aversation to a Separation from it On this account Death is called in Iob
18.14 the King of Terrors or the Black Prince or the Prince of Clouds and Darkness as some translate that place we read it the King of Terrors meaning that the Terrors at Death are such Terrors as subdue and keep down all other Terrors under them as a Prince doth his Subjects Other Terrors compared with those that the Soul conceives and conflicts with at parting are no more than a cut Finger to the laying ones Head on the Block O the Soul and Body are strongly twisted and knit together in dear Bands of intimate Union and Affection and these Bands cannot be broken without much strugling Oh 't is a hard thing for the Soul to bid the Body farewel 't is a bitter parting a doleful separation Nothing is heard in that Hour but the most deep and emphatical Groans I say emphatical Groans the deep sense and meaning of which the Living are but little acquainted with for no Man Living hath yet felt the Sorrows of a parting pull what ever other Sorrows he hath felt in the Body yet they must be supposed to be far short of these The Sorrows of Death are in Scripture set forth unto us by the bearing-Throes of a Travelling Woman Acts 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what those mean many can tell the Soul is in labour it will not let go its hold of the Body but by Constraint Death is a close Siege and when the Soul is beaten out of its Body it disputes the passage with Death as Souldiers use to do with an Enemy that enters by Storm and fights and strives to the last It 's also compared to a Battle or sharp Fight Eccles. 8.8 that war That war with an Emphasis No Conflict so sharp each labour to the utmost to drive the other from the ground they stand on and win the field And tho' Grace much over-power Nature in this matter and reconcile it to Death and make it desire to be dissolved yet Saints wholely put not off this Reluctation of Nature 2 Cor. 5.2 Not that we would be uncloathed as it is with one willing to wade over a Brook to his Fathers House puts his Foot into the Water and feels it cold starts back and is loth to venture in Not that we would be uncloathed And if it be so with Sanctified Souls how is it think you with others Mark the Scripture-Language Iob 27.8 God taketh away their Souls saith our Translation but the Root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrahere and signifies to put out by plain Force and Violence A Graceless Soul dieth not by Consent but Force Thus Adrian bewailed his Departure O Animula vagula blandula hen quo vadis Yea though the Soul have never so long a time been in the Body though it should live as long as any of the Antediluvian Father's did for many Hundred Years yet still it would be loth to part yea though it endure abundance of Misery in the Body and have little Rest or Comfort but time spent in Griefs and Fears yet for all that loth to part with it All this shews a strong inclination and affection to it 5. It 's desire of Re-union continuing still with it in its state of Separation speaks its Love to the Body As the Soul parted with it in Grief and Sorrow so it still retains even in Glory an inclination to Re-union and waits for a Day of Re-espousals and to that sense some searching and judicious Men understand those words of Iob Iob 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again viz. by a Resurrection if so then all the Days of my appointed Separation my Soul in Heaven shall wait till that Change come And to the same sense is that Cry of Separated Souls Rev. 6.9 10 11. How long O Lord how long i.e. to the Consummation of all things when Judgment shall be executed on them that killed our Bodies and our Bodies so long absent restored to us again In that Day of Resurrection the Souls of the Saints come willingly from Heaven it self to repossess their Bodies and bring them to a Partnership with them in their Glory for it is with the Soul in Heaven as it is with an Husband who is richly entertained feasted and lodged abroad but his dear Wife is solitary and comfortless it abates the compleatness of his joy Therefore we say the Saints joy is not consummate till that day There is an exercise for Faith Hope and desires on this account in Heaven The Union of Soul and Body is natural their Separation is not so many benefits will redound to both by re-union and the Resurrection of the Body is provided by God as the grand relief against those prejudices and losses the Bodies of the Saints sustain by Separation I say not that the propension or inclination of the Soul to re-union with its Body is accompanied with any perturbation or anxiety in its state of Separation for it enjoys God and in him a placid rest and as the Body so the Soul rests in hope 't is such a hope as disturbs not the rest of either yet when the time is come for the Soul to be re-espoused it is highly gratified by that second Marriage glad it is to see its old dear companion as two Friends after a long Separation And so much of the evidence of the Souls love to the Body II. Next we are to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of its love and inclination to the Body And 1. First the fundamental Ground and Reason thereof will be found in their natural Vnion with each other There my Text lays it No man ever yet hated his own flesh Mark the Body is the Souls own And this is no more than necessary for the conservation of the spâ—cies else the body would be neglected exposed and quickly perish being had in no more regard than any other Body they are strictly married and related to each other the Soul hath a propriety in its Body these two make up or constitute one Person true they are not essentially one they have far different Natures but they are personally one and though the Soul be what it was after its Separation yet to make a Man the who he was i e the same compleat and perfect Person they must be re-united hence springs its love to the Body Every man loves his own Iohn 17.19 All the World is in love with its own and hence it cares to provide for its welfare 1 Tim 5.8 If any man provide not for his own he is worse than an Infidel For nature teacheth all men to do so Why are Children dearer to the Parents than to all others but because they are their own Iob 19.17 But our Wives our Children our Goods are not so much our own as our Bodies are this is the nearest of all natural Unions In this propriety and relation are involved the Reasons and Motives of our love to and care over the Body which is no more than what is necessary
to their preservation For were it not for this Propriety and Relation no Man would be at any more cost or pains for his own Body than for that of a Stranger 'T is Propriety which naturally draws Love Care and Tenderness along with it and these are ordered by the wisdom of Providence for the conservation of the Body which would quickly perish without it 2. The Body is the Souls antient Acquaintance and intimate Friend with whom it hath assiduously and familiarly conversed from its beginning They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows They may say to each other as Miconius did to his Colleague with whom he had spent twenty years in the Government of the Thuringian Church Cucurriâ—â—s certavimus laboravimus pugnavimus vicimus viximus conjunctissimé We have run striven laboured fought overcome and lived most intimately and lovingly together Consuetude and daily conversation begets and conciliates Friendship and Love betwixt Creatures of contrary Natures Let a Lamb be brought up with a Lyon and the Lyon will express a tenderness towards it much more the Soul to its own Body 3. The Body is the Souls house and beloved habitation where it was born and hath lived ever since it had a being and in which it hath enjoyed all its comforts natural and supernatural which cannot but strengthen the Souls engagement to it Upon this account the Apostle calls it the Souls home 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body 'T is true this house is not so comfortable an habitation that it should be much desired by many Souls we may say of many gracious Souls that they pay a dear rent for the house they dwell in or as it was said of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat their Souls are but ill accommodated but yet it is their home and therefore beloved by them 4 The Body is the Souls instrument by which it doth its work and business in the World both natural and religious Rom. 6.13 Through the bodily senses it takes in all the natural comforts of this World and by the bodily Members it performs all its Duties and Services When these are broken and laid aside by death the Soul knows it can work no more in that way it now doth Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 Natural men love their Bodies for the natural pleasures they are instrumental to convey to their Souls and spiritual men for the use and service they are of to 〈◊〉 own and others Souls Philip. 1.23 5. The Body is the Souls Partner in the benefit of Christs Purchaces It was bought with the same price 1 Cor. 6.20 sanctified by the same spirit 1 Thes. 5.23 interested in the same promises Matth. 22.32 and designed for the same glory 1 Thes. 4.16 17. So that we may say of it as it was said of Augustine and his friend Alippius they are sanguine Christi conglutinati glewed together by the bloud of Christ. And thus of the grounds and reasons of its Love Inference I. IS it so Learn hence the mighty strength and prevalence of Divine Love which over-powering all natural Affections doth not only enable the Souls of men to take their Separation from the Body patiently but to long for it ardently Philip. 1.23 While some need Patience to dye others need it as much to live 2 Thes. 3.5 'T is said Revel 12.11 They loved not their lives And indeed on these terms they first closed with Christ Luke 12.26 To hate their lives for his sake ie to love them in so remiss a degree that when ever they shall come in competition with Christ to regard them no more than the things we hate The love of Christ is to be the supream love and all others to be subordinate to it or quenched by it 'T is not its own comfort in the Body it principally and ultimately designs and aims at but Christs glory and so this may be furthered by the death of the Body its death thereupon becomes as eligible to the Soul as its life Philip. 1.20 O this is an high pitch of grace A great attainment to say as one did Vivere renuo ut Christo vivam I refuse life to be with Christ Or another when asked whether he was willing to dye answered Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Let him be loth to dye that is loth to go to Christ So 2 Cor. 5. We are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. 'T is not every Christian that can arrive to this degree of Lovâ—â— though they love Christ sincerely yet they shrink from death cowardly and are loth to be gone There are two sorts of grounds upon which Christians may be loth to be unbodied 1. Sinful 2. Allowable 1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these viz. 1 Guilt upon the Conscience which will damp and discourage the Soul and make it loth to dye It arms death with terrour the sting of death is sin 2 Unmortified affections to the World I mean in such a degree as is necessary to sweeten death and make a man a Voluntier in that sharp engagement with that last and dreadful Enemy It is with our hearts as with fewel if green and full of sap it will not burn but if that be dried up it catches presently mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to the Creature which is that that resists death as green Wood doth the fire 3 The weakness and and cloudiness of Faith You need Faith to dye by as well as to live by Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in faith The less strength there is in Faith the more in death A strong Believer welcomes the messengers of Death when a weak one unless extraordinarily assisted trembles at them 2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance in the Body warrantably and allowably as 1 To do him yet more service in our bodies before we lay them down This the Saints have pleaded for longer life Psal. 30.9 Psal. 88.11 12 13. and Isai. 38.18 19. 2 To see the clouds of Gods anger dispelled whether publick or personal and a clear light break out ere we dye Psal. 27.13 3 They may desire with submission to outlive the days of persecution and not to be delivered into the hands of cruel men but come to their Graves in peace Psal. 31.15 and 2 Thess. 3.2 That may be delivered from absurd men 3. But though some Christians shun death upon a sinful account and others upon a justifyable one yet others there are who seeing their Title clear their work done and relishing the Joys of Heaven in the praelibations of Faith are willing to be uncloathed and to be with Christ. Their love to Christ hath extinguished in them the love of life and they can say with Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready Ignatius longed to come to those Beasts that were to devour him and so many of the Primitive Christians Christ was so dear
make Idols of our own Bodies we rob God yea our own Souls to give to the Body It is not a natural and kindly heat of love but a meer feavourish heat which preys upon the very Spirits of Religion which is found with many of us This feavourish distemper may be discovered by the beating of our pulse in three or four particulars 1. This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining appetites We give the flesh whatsoever it craves and can deny it nothing it desires pampering the Body to the great injury and hazard of the Soul Some have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh as it is Eph. 2.3 Trading only in those things that please and pamper the flesh They sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 i.e. all their studies and labours are but the sowing of the seeds of pleasure to the flesh Not an handful of spiritual Seed sowen in Prayer for the Soul all the day long what the Body craves the obsequious Soul like a slave is at its beck to give it Tit. 3. 3. Serving diverse lusts and pleasures attending to every knock and call to fulfil the desires of the flesh O how little do these men understand the life of Religion or the great design of Christianity which consists in mortifying and not pampering and gratifying the Body Rom. 14. 13 14. And according to that rule all serious Christians order their Bodies giving them what is needful to keep them serviceable and useful to the Soul but not gratifying their irregular desires giving what their wants not what their wantonness calls for So Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I beat it down and keep it under he understood it as his Servant not his Master He knew that Hagar would quickly peark up and domineer over Sarah expect more attendance than the Soul except it were kept under These two verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very emphatical the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffeting the other to bring it under by checks and rebukes as Masters that understand their place and Authority use to do with insolent and wanton Servants It was a rare expression of an Heathen Major sum ad 〈◊〉 natus quà m ut corporis mei sim mancipium I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a drudge or Vassal to my Body And it was the saying of a pious Divine when he felt the flesh rebellious and wanton Ego faciam aselle ut non calcitres I will make thee thou Ass that thou shalt not kick I know the superstitious Papists place much of Religion in these external things but though they abuse them to an ill purpose there is a necessary and lawful use of these abridgments and restraints upon the Body and it will be impossible to mortifie and starve our lusts without a due rigour and severity to our flesh But how little are many acquainted with these things They deal with their Bodies as David with Adonijah of whom it 's said 1 Kings 1.6 His Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so And just so our flesh requites us by its Rebellions and Treasons against the Soul it seeks the life of the Soul which seeks nothing more than its content and pleasure this is not ordinate love but fondness and folly and what we shall bitterly repent for at last 2. It appears by our sparing and favouring of them in the necessary uses and services we have for them in Religion Many will rather starve their Souls than work and exercise their Bodies or disturb their sluggish rest thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health oftentimes put by the duties of Religion or at least lose the fittest and properest season for them We are lazying upon our beds when we should be wrestling upon our knees The World is suffered to get the start of Religion in the morning and so Religion is never able to overtake it all the day long This was none of David's course he prevented the dawning of the morning and cryed Psal. 119.147 and Psal. 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshest and fittest parts of our time when our bodily Senses are most vigorous and we would do so except God by his providence disable us were our hearts fully set for God and Religion lay with weight upon our Spirits Some I confess cannot receive this injunction being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities but those tha◠〈◊〉 ought to do so But O how many slothful excuses doth the flesh invent to put off duty We shall injure our health c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas if profit or pleasure call us up we have no such shifts but can rise early and sit up late O Friends why hath God given you Bodies if not to waste and wear them out in his service and the service of your own Souls if your Bodies must not be put to it and exercised this way where is the mercy of having a Body If a stately Horse were given you on this condition that you must not ride or work him what benefit would such a gift be to you Your Bodies must and will wear out and it 's better wear them with working than with rusting we are generally more sollicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God if it had been less precious in our own eyes 'T is just with God to destroy that health with diseases which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness Think with thy self had such a Soul as Timothies or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine so strong and vigorous so apt and able for service they would have honoured God more in it in a day than perhaps you do in a year Certainly this is not love but laziness not a due improvement but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body to let it rust out in idleness which might be imployed so many ways for God for your own and others Souls Well remember death will shortly dissolve them and then they can be of no more use and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection use them for God now with a faithful self-denying diligence 3. It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that threaten them when the glory of God our own and others Salvation Here the Soul receives a deadly wound upon it self toward it â—ff from the Body So did Spira bid us expose and not regard them Some there are that rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man will hazard their Souls to the wrath of God They are too tender to suffer pain or restraint for Christ but consider not wâ—â—t
sufferings are prepared for the fearful and unbelieving in the World to come Rev. 21.8 How many sad examples do the Church-Histories of ancient and latter times afford us of men who consulting with flesh and bloud in time of danger have in pity to the Body ruined their Souls There be but few like minded with Paul who set a low price upon his liberty or life for Christ Act. 20.24 or with those worthy Iews Dan. 3.28 who yielded their Bodies to preserve their consciences Few of Chrysostoms mind who told the Empress Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but sin Or of Basils who told the Emperor God threatned Hell whereas he threatned but a prison That is a remarkable Rule that Christ gives us Mat. 10.28 The sum of it is to set God against man the Soul against the Body and Hell against temporal sufferings and so surmounting these low fleshly considerations to cleave to our duty in the face of dangers You read Gal. 11 16. how in pursuit of Duty though surrounded with danger Paul would not conferr or consult with flesh and bloud i. e. ask its opinion which were best or stay for its consent till it were willing to suffer he understood not that the flesh had any voice at the Council-table in his Soul but willing or unwilling if duty call for it he was resolved to hazard it for God We have a great many little Politicians among us who think to husband their lives and liberties a great deal better than other plain-hearted and too forward Christians do but these Politiques will be their perdition and their craft will betray them to ruine They will lose their lives by saving them when others will save them by losing them Matth. 10.39 For the interest of the Body depends on and follows the safety of the Soul as the Cabin doth the ship O my Friends let me beg you not to love your Bodies into Hell and your Souls too for their sakes be not so scar'd at the sufferings of the Body as with poor Spira to dash them both against the wrath of the great and terrible God Most of those Souls that are now in Hell are there upon the account of their indulgence to the flesh they could not deny the flesh and now are denyed by God They could not suffer from men and now must suffer the vengeance of eternal fire 4. In a word it appears we love them fondly and irregularly in that we cannot with any patience think of death and separation from them How do some men fright at the very name of death and no Arguments can perswade them seriously to think of an unbodied and separated estate 'T is as death to them to bring their thoughts close to that ungrateful Subject A Christian that loves his Body regularly and moderately can look into his own grave with a composed mind and speak familiarly of it as Iob 17.14 And Peter speaks of the putting off of his Body by death as a man would of the putting off of his cloaths at night 2 Pet. 1.13 14. And certainly such men have a great Advantage above all others both as to the tranquillity of their life and death You know a parting time must come and the more fond you are of them the more bitter and doleful that time will be Nothing except the guilt and terrible charges of conscience put men into terrours at death more than our fondness of the Body I do confess Christless persons have a great deal of reason to be shie of death their dying day is their undoing day but for Christians to startle and fright at it is strange considering how great a friend death will be to them that are in Christ. What are you afraid of What to go to Christ to be freed of sin and affliction too soon Certainly it hath not been so comfortable an habitation to you that you should be loth to exchange it for an Heavenly one USE III. Of Exhortation TO conclude seeing there is so strict a friendship and tender affection betwixt Soul and Body let me perswade every Soul of you to express your love to the Body by labouring to get union with Jesus Christ and thereby to prevent the utter ruine of both to all Eternity Souls if you love your selves or the Bodies you dwell in shew it by your preventing care in season lest they be cast away for ever How can you say you love them when you daily expose them to the everlasting wrath of God by imploying them as weapons of unrighteousness to fight against him that formed them You feed and pamper them on earth you give them all the delights and pleasures you can procure for them in this World but you take no care what shall become of them nor your Souls neither after death hath separated them O cruel Souls cruel not to others but to your selves and to your own flesh which you pretend so much love to Is this your love to your Bodies what to imploy them in Satans service on Earth and then to be cast as a prey to him for ever in Hell You think the rigor and mortification of the Saints their abstemiousness and self-denial their cares fears and diligence to be too great severity to their Bodies but they know these are the most real evidences of their true love to them they love them too well to cast them away as you do Alas Your love to the Body doth not consist â—n feeding and cloathing and pleasing it but in getting it united to Christ and made the Temple of the Holy Ghost in using it for God and dedicating it to God I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God to present your Bodies living Sacrifices to God which is your reasonable serviceâ— Rom. 12.1 The Soul should look upon the Body as a wise Parent upon a rebellious or wanton child that would if left to it self quickly bring it self to the Gallows The Father looks on him with compassion and melting bowels and saith with the rod in his hand and tears in his eyes my child my naughty disobedient headstrong child I resolve to chastise thee severely I love thee too well to suffer thee to be ruin'd if my care or corrections may prevent it So should our Souls evidence their love to and care over their own rebellious flesh 'T is cruelty not love or pity to indulge them to their own destruction Except you have gracious Souls you shall never have glorified Bodies except you Souls be united with Christ the happiness of your Bodies as well as Souls is lost to all eternity Know you not that the everlasting condition of your Bodies follows and depends on the Interest your Souls now get in Christ O that this one sad truth might sink deep into all our considerations this day that if your Bodies be snares to your Souls and your Souls be now regardless of the future estate of themselves and them assuredly they will have a bitter parting at
a very short period of time when those few years are past then I must go to my long home my everlasting abode never more to return to this world The way whence I shall not return elsewhere called the way of all flesh Iosh. 23.15 and the way of all the earth 1 King 2.2 Eccles. 8.8 There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that War By Spirit understand the natural Spirit or breath of life which as I shewed before connects or tyes the Soul and Body together this Spirit no man can retain in the day of death we can as one speaks as well stop the Chariot of the Sun when posting to night and chase away the shadows of the evening Mortem inquit Seâ—eca nulla diligentia evitat nulla soelicitas domat nulla potentia vincit as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us A man may escape the Wars by pleading priviledge of years or weakness of Body or the Kings protection or by sending another in his room but in this War the press is so strict that it admits no dispensation young or old weak or strong willing or unwilling all 's one into the field we must go and look that last and most dreadful Enemy in the face 'T is in vain to think of sending another in our room for no man dyeth by Proxy or to think of compounding with death as those self-deluding Fools did Isai. 28.15 Who thought they had been discharged of the debt by seeing the Sergeant no no there is no discharge in that War Nihil prodest ora concludere vitam fugientem retinere saith Hierom on that Text Let us shut our mouths never so close struggle against death never so hard there is no more retaining the Spirit than a woman can retain the fruit of her Womb when the full time of her deliverance is come Suppose a man were sitting upon a Throne of Majesty surrounded with armed Guards or in the midst of a Colledge of expert and learned Physicians death will pass all these Guards to deliver thee the fatal message neither can Art help thee when Nature it self gives thee up The Law of Mortality binds all good and bad young and old the most useful and desirable Saints whom the World can worst spare as well as useless and undesireable sinners Rom. 8.10 and if Christ or though Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin Peter himself must put off his Tabernacle for they are but Tabernacles frail and moveable frames not built for continuance these will drop off from our Souls as the Shell falls of from the Bird in the Nest be our earthly Tabernacles never so strong or pleasant (2) The speediness of death The Scriptures borrow Metaphors from all the Elements to this purpose we must depose them and that shortly our lease in them will expire quickly we have but a short term Iames 4.14 Like a thin mist in the morning which the Sun presently dissipates this is a Metaphor chosen from the Air You have one from the Land where the swift Post runs Iob 9.25 So doth our life from Stage to Stage till its journey be finished and a third from the Waters there Sail the swift Ships Iob 9.26 which weighing Anchor and putting into the Sea continually lessen the Land till at last they have quite lost sight of it from the Fire Psal. 58.4 The lives of men are as soon extinct as a blaze made with dry thorns which is almost as soon out as in Thus you see how the Spirit of God hath borrowed Metaphors from all the Elements of Nature to shadow forth the brevity and frailty of that life we now live in these Tabernacles So that we may say 〈◊〉 one did before us Nescio an dicenda sit vita mortalis an vitalis mors I know not which to call it a mortal life or a living death The continuance of these our Tabernacles or Bodies is short whether we consider them absolutely or comparatively I. Absolutely if they should stand seventy or eighty years which is the longest duration Psal. 90.10 How soon will that time run out what are years that are past but as a dream that is vanished or as the waters that are past away It is in fluxu continuo there is no stopping its swift course or calling back a moment that is past Death set out in its journey towards us the same hour we were born and how near is it come this day to many of us it hath us in chase and will quickly fetch us up and overtake us but few stand so long as the utmost date II. Comparatively let us compare our time in these Tabernacles 1 either with Eternity or with him who inhabits it and it shrinks up into nothing Psal. 39.5 Mine age is nothing unto thee So vast is the disproportion that it seems not only little but nothing at all Or 2 with the Duration of the Bodies of men in the first Ages of the World when they lived many hundred years in these fleshly Tabernacles The length of their life was the benefit of the World because Religion was then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing handed down from Father to Son but certainly it would be no benefit to us that are in Christ to be so long suspended the fruition of God in the everlasting Rest. The Grounds and Reasons of this Necessity that lies upon all to put off their earthly Tabernacles so soon are 1. The Law of God or his Appointment 2. The Providence of God ordering it suitably to this Appointment 1. The Law or Appointment of God which came in force immediately upon the Fall Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye And accordingly it took place upon all mankind immediately upon the first Transgression Rom. 5.12 Death entred by sinâ—â— The threatning not his immediate actual personal death in the day that he should eat but a state of Mortality to commence from that time to him and his posterity hence it s said Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die 2. The Providence of God ordering and framing the Body of man suitably to this his Appointment Quotidie moâ—imur quotidie enim demitur aliquâ— pars vita tunc quoque cum crescimus vitâ— decrescit Iâ—fantiam amisimus deinde Adolescentiâ—m usque ad besternam quicquid transit temporis perit a frail weak Creature having the seeds of death in his Constitution Thousands of Diseases and Infirmities are bred in his Nature and the smallest pore in his Body is a door large enough to let in death Hence his Body is compared to a piece of cloth which Moths have fretted Psal. 39.11 it 's become a seary rotten thing which cannot long hang together And indeed it is a wonder it continues so long as it doth
the matter of their Election which in it self is necessary and unavoidable so did Paul Philip. 1.23 but others are drawn or rent by plain violence from the Body Iob 27.8 when God draws out his Soul That man is happy indeed whose heart falls in with the Appointment of God so voluntarily and freely as that he dare not only look death in the face with confidence but go along with it by consent of will Remarkable to this purpose is that which the Apostle asserts of the frame of his own heart 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. Here is both Confidence and Complacence with respect to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies Courage Fortitude or if you will an undaunted boldness and presence of mind when we look the King of Terrours in the face We dare venture upon death we dare take it by the cold hand and bid it welcome We dare defie its Enmity and deride its noxious power 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy sting And that 's not all we have Complacence in it as well as Confidence to encounter it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are willing the Translation is too flat we are well pleased it is a desirable and grateful thing to us to die But yet not in an absolute but comparative Consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are willing rather i.e. rather than not see and enjoy our Lord Jesus Christ rather than to be here always sinning and groaning There is no Complacency in death in it self it is not desirable But if we must go through that strait gate or not see God we are willing rather to be absent from the Body So that you see death was not the matter of his submission only he did not yield to what he could not avoid but he ballances the evils of death with the Priviledges it admits the Soul into and then pronounces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are content yea pleased to die We cannot live always if we would and our hearts should be wrought to that frame as to say we would not live always if we could Iob 7.16 I would not live always or long saith he But why should Iob deprecate that which was not attainable I would not live alway he needed not to trouble himself about that it being impossible that he should both Statute and Natural Law forbid it Ay but this is his sense supposing no such Necessity as there is if it were pure matter of Election Upon a due ballancing of the accounts and comparing the good and evil of death I would not be confined always or for any long time to the Body It would be a bondage unsupportable to be here always Indeed those that have their Portion their All in this life have no desire to be gone hence They that were never changed by grace desire no change by death if such a Concession were made to them as was once to an English Parliament that they should never be dissolved but by their own consent when would they say as Paul I desire to be dissolved But it 's far otherwise with them whose portion and affections are in another World they would not live always if they might knowing that never to die is never to be happy If you say Qu. this is an excellent and most desirable temper of Soul but how did these holy men attain it Or what is the course we may take to get the like frame of willingness Sol. They attained it and you may attain it in such Methods as these 1. They lived in the believing views of the invisible World and so must you if ever death be desirable in your eyes 2 Cor. 4.18 It 's said of all that died comfortably that they died in faith Hebr. 11.13 You will never be willing to go along with death except you know where it will carry you 2. They had assurance of Heaven as well as Faith to discern it Assurance is a lump of Sugar indeed in the bitter Cup of death nothing sweetens like it So 2 Cor. 5.1 so Iob 19.26 27. This puts Roses into the pale Cheeks of death and makes it amiable 1 Cor. 15.55 56. and Rom. 8.38 39. 3. Their hearts were weaned from this World and the inordinate affectation of a terrene life Philip. 3.8 all was dung and dross for Christ they trampled under foot what we hug in our Bosomes So 't is said Hebr. 10.34 Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves c. And so it must be with us if ever we obtain a Complacency in death 4. They ordered their Conversations with much Integrity and so kept their Consciences pure and void of offence Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self c. and this was their Comfort at last 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our rejoycing c. So Iob 27.5 My Integrity will I not let go till I die O this unstings death of all its terrours 5. They kept their love to Christ at the height that flame was vehement in their Souls and made them despise the terrour and desire the friendly assistance of death to bring them to the sight of Jesus Christ Philip. 1.23 so Ignatius O how I long c. Thus it must be with you if ever you make death eligible and lovely to you which is terrible in it self There is a loveliness in the death as well as in the life of a Christian. Let me die the death of the righteous said Balaam Inference II. MUst we put off these Tabernacles of Flesh Many cry out on a death-bed O â—end for Ministers and Christians to pray Alas What can they do then Is that a time for so great a work to be shuffled up in a hurry amidst distractions and Agonies How necessary is it that every Soul look out in season and make provision for another habitation If you must be turned out of one house you must provide another or lie in the streets This the Apostle comforted himself with that if uncloathed he should not be found naked 2 Cor. 5.1 a building of God an house not made with hands You must turn out and that shortly from these earthly Habitations O what provision have you made for your Souls against that day The Soul of Adrian was at a sad loss when he saw he must be turn'd out of this World O Animula vagula blandula heu quo vadis But it was Abraham Isaac and Iacob's Priviledge that God had preâ—â—â—â—d for them a City Heb. 11.16 I know it 's a common presumption of most men that they shall be in Heaven when they can be no longer on earth Praesumendo sperant sperando pereunt But a few moments will convince them of their fatal mistake their poor Souls will meet with a confounding repulse like that Matth. 7.22 There is indeed a City full of heavenly Mansions prepared for some but who are they
but myriads in the plural number and set down indefinitely too may note many millions of Angels and therefore we fitly tender it to an innumerable company of Angels They had the ministry of Angels as well as we thousands of them ministred to the Lord in the dispensation of the Law at Sinai Psal. 68.17 But this notwithstanding we are come to a much clearer knowledge both of their present Ministry for us on earth Heb. 1.14 and of our fellowship and equality with them in Heaven Luke 20.36 3 Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written or enrolled in Heaven This also greatly commends and amplifies the priviledges of New Testament-Believers the Church of God in former ages was circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small Kingdom which was as a garden inclosed out of a waste wilderness but now by the calling in of the Gentiles the Church is extended far and wide Eph. 3.5 6. It is become a great Assembly comprizing the Believers of all Nations under Heaven and so speaking of them collectively it is the general convention or Assembly which is also dignified and ennobled by two illustrious characters viz. 1 that it is the Church of the first-born i. e. consisting of Members dignified and priviledged above others Primogeniti Israelitarum scripti crant in matricula terrestri hi vero in albo coelesti as the first-born among the Israelites did excel their younger Brethreâ— 2 That their names are written in Heaven i. e. registred or enrolled in Gods book as Children and Heirs of the Heavenly inheritance as the first-born in Israel were registred in order to the Priesthood Num 3.40 41. 4 Ye are come to God the Iudge of all But why to God the Judge this seems to spoil the harmony and jar with the other parts of the discourse No no they are come to God as a righteous Judge who as such will pardon them 1 Iohn 1.9 crown them 2 Tim. 4.8 and avenge them on all their oppressing and persecuting Enemies 1 Thes. 1.5 6 7. 5 And to the Spirits of just men made perfect A most glorious priviledge indeed in which we are distinctly to consider 1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship 2. The way and manner of our association with them 1. The Quality of those with whom we are associated or to whom we are said to be come and they are described by three characters viz. 1 1 Spirits of Men. viz. 2 Spirits of just Men. viz. 3 Spirits of just Men perfected or consummated 1 They are called Spirits that is immaterial substances strictly opposed to Bodies which are no way the objects of our exteriour Senses neither visible to the eye nor sensible to the touch which were called properly Souls whilst they animated Bodies in this lower World but now being loosed and separated from them by death and existing alone in the World above they are properly and strictly stiled Spirits 3 They are the Spirits of just Men. Man may be termed just two ways 1 by a full discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all his sins and so believers are just men even whilst they live on Earth groaning under other imperfections Acts 13.39 or 2 by a total freedom from the pollution of any sin And though in this sence there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.22 yet even in this sense Adam was just before the Fall Eccles. 7.29 according to his original constitution and all believers are so in their glorified condition all sin being perfectly purged out of them and its existence utterly destroyed in them On which account 3 They are called the Spirits of just men made perfect or consummate The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely but synecdochically they are not perfect in every respect for one part of these just Men lies rotting in the grave but they are perfected for so much as concerns their Spirit though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour yet their Spirits being once loosed from the Body and freed radically and perfectly from sin are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God which is the culminating point as I may call it higher than which the Spirit of man aspires not and attaining to this it is for so much as concerns it self made perfect Even as a Body at last lodg'd in its centre gravitates no more but is at perfect rest so it is with the Spirit of man come home to God in glory 't is now consummate no more need to be done to make it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made which is the first thing to be considered viz the Quality of those with whom we are associated 2. The second follows namely the way and manner of our association with these blessed Spirits of just Men noted iâ— this expression we are come He saith not we shall come hereafter when the Resurrection hath restored our Bodies or after the general Judgment but we are come to these Spirits of just Men. The meaning whereof we may take up in these three particulars 1 We that live under the Gospel-light are come to a clearer apprehension sight and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate of the Souls of the righteous after death than ever they had or ordinarily could have who lived under the Types and shadows of the Law Eph. 3.4 5. And so we are come to them in respect of clearer apprehension 2 We are come to those blessed Spirits in our Representative Christ who hath carried our nature into the very midst of them and whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight By Christ who is entred into that holy place where these Spirits of just Men live we are come into a near relation with them For he being the common head both to them in Heaven and to us on Earth we and they consequently make but one Body or society Eph. 2.19 whereupon notwithstanding the different and remote Countries they and we live in we are said to sit together with them in Heavenly places Ephes. 3.15 and Ephes. 2.6 3 We are come That is we are as good as come or we are upon the matter come there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath a little space of time which shortens every moment we are come to the very borders of their Country and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us and by this expression we are come he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us and to look upon them as if they already were which is the highest and most comfortable life of Faith we can live on Earth Hence the Note is DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death are immediately perfected in themselves and associated with others alike
him from duty who had already separated his Soul from his Body and all this World by fixed and deep thoughts of death 2. Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with the Nature of death and the more we are acquainted with it the less it terrifies us A Lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him than he is to his Keeper who feedeth him every day A pitcht Battle is more frightful and scaring to a new listed Souldier that never took his place in the Field before nor saw the dreadful countenance of an Army ready to engage nor heard the thundering noise of Cannon and Vollies of Shot the shouts of Armies and groans of dying men on every side than it is to an old Souldier who hath been used to such things The like we may observe in Seamen who it may be trembled at first and now can sing in a Storm Scarce any thing is more necessary for weak and timorous Believers to meditate on than the time of their Separation Our hearts will be apt to start and boggle at the first view of death but it is good to do by them as men use to do by young Colts ride them up to that which they fright at and make them smell to it which is the way to cure them Sicut panis necessarius est prae caeteres eâ—ementis it a intenta mortis meditatio neâ—â—ssaria est prae caeteris donis exercitiis Dionys. Look as Bread saith one is more necessary than other Food so the meditation of death is more necessary than many other meditations Every time we change our habitations we should realize therein our great change Our Souls must shortly leave this and be lodged for a longer season in another mansion when we put off our cloaths at night we have a fit occasion to consider that we must strip nearer one of these days and put off not our cloathes only but the Body that wears them too Holy Iob had by frequent thoughts familiarized death and the Grave to himself and could speak of them as men use to speak of their Houses and dearest Relations Iob 17.14 I have said to corruption thou art my father to the worm thou art my Mother and Sister But it needs much gracâ— to bring and hold the heart to this work and therefore Moses begs it of God Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days and David Psal. 39.4 Lord make me to know my end Yea the advantages of it have been acowledged by men whose light was less and diversions more than ours The Iews for this use and end had their Sepulchers built before-hand and that in their Gardens of pleasure too that they might season the delights of life with the frequent thoughts of death Iohn 19.41 Philip of Macedon would be awakened by his Page every morning with this sentence Memento te esse mortalem Remember O King thou art a mortal man A Great Emperor of Constantinople not only at his Inauguration but at his great Feasts Eligâ— ab his saxis ex quo invictissime Caesar tibi Tumulum me fabricare velis ordered a Mason to bring two stones before him and say Chuse O Emperor which of the two thou wilt for thy Tomb-stone Reader thou wilt find mental Separation much easier than real separation 't is easier to think of death than it is to feel it and the more we think of it the less we are like to feel it PROP. II. Actual Separation may be considered either in fieri in the previous Pangs and foregoing Agonies of it or in facto esse in the last separating stroke which actually parts the Soul and Body asunder lays the Body prostrate and dead at the feet of Death and thrusts the Soul quite out of its ancient and beloved habitation 1. LET it be considered in the previous pangs and fore-running Agonies which commonly make way for this actual Dissolution And to the people of God this is the worst and bitterest part of death except those conflicts with Satan which they sometimes grapple with on a death-bed which they encounter at that time There is saith one no ponyard in death it self like those in the way or Prologue to it I like not to dye said another but I care not if I were dead the end is better than the way The conflicts and struggles of Nature with death are bitter and sharp pains unknown to men before whatever pains they have endured Nor can it be expected to be otherwise seeing the tyes and ingagements betwixt the Soul and Body are so strong as we shew'd before The Soul will not easily part with the Body but disputes the passages with death from Member to Member like resolute Souldiers in a stormed Garrison till at last it is forced to yield up the Fort Royal into the hands of victorious death and leave the dearly beloved Body a Captive to it This is the dark side of death to all good men and though it be not worth naming in comparison with the dreadful consequents of death to all others yet in it self it is terrible Separation is not natural to the Soul which was created with an inclination to the Body Cum separatio naturalis non sit neque etiam violenta sit consequâ—ns ut ex approbata Philosophorum approbatione praeternaturalis esse dicatur Conimâ—r 't is natural indeed to clasp and embrace to love and cherish its own Body but to be divided from it is grievous and praeternatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partus doloâ—em The Agonies of death are expressed in Scripture by a word which signifies the travelling pains of a Woman yea by the sharpest and most acute pains they feel even the birth-pangs or bearing throe Acts 2.24 And yet all are not handled alike roughly by the hands of death some are favoured with a desirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and easy death 'T is the priviledge of some Christians to have their Souls fetcht out of their Bodies as it were by a kiss from the mouth of God as the Jewish Rabbins use to express the manner of Moses his death Mr. Bolton â—elt no pain at his death but the cold hand of his friend who asked him what pain he felt Yea holy Baynâ—ham in the midst of the flames professed it was to him as a Bed of Roses Every Believer is equally freed from the sting and curse of death but every one is not equally favoured in the agonies and pains of death 2. Separation from the Body is to be considered in facto esse i. e. in the result and issue of all these bitter pangs and Agonies which end in the actual dissolution of Soul and Body * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel anime à corpore discessus Vives Death or actual separation is nothing else but the dissolving of the tye or loosing of the bond of Union betwixt the Soul and Body †Privatio actus secundi
ejusdem animae id est informationis seu unionis erga corpus Conimâ—r Some call it the privation of the second Act of the Soul that is its Act of informing or enlivening the Body Others according to Scripture phrase the departing of the Soul from the Body So Peter stiles it 2 Pet. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after my departure i.e. after my death Relictio câ—rporis depositio sarcine gravis modo aliea sarcina non patietur qâ—â homo praecipitetur in gehennem August Augustine calls it the laying down of an heavy burthen provided there be not another burden for the Soul to bear afterwards which will sink it into Hell In respect of the Body which the Soul now forsakes it is called the putting off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 And the dissolving the earthly House or Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 In respect of the terminus à quo the place from which the Soul removes at death it is called our departure hence Phil. 1.23 or our weighing Anchor and loosing from this coast or shoar to sail to another In respect of the terminus ad quem the place to which the Spirits of the just go at death it is called our going to or being with the Lord ibid. To conclude in respect of that which doth most lively resemble and shadow it forth it is called our falling asleep Acts 7. ult our sleeping in Iesus 1 Thes. 4.14 This Metaphor of sleep must be stretched no further than the Spirit of God designed in the choice of it which was not to favour and countenance the fancy of a sleeping Soul after death but to represent its state of placid rest in Jesus's bosom if it refer at all to the Soul for I think it most properly respects the Body Locus Sepulturae consecratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est dormitorium appeâ—iâ—tur and thence the Sepulchres where the Bodies of the Saints were laid got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dormitories or sleeping places This is its last farewel to this world never more to return to a low animal life more Iob 7.9 10. For as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more The Soul is no more bound to a Body nor a Retainer to Sun Moon or Stars to meat drink and sleep but is become a free single abstracted being a separate and pure Spirit which the Latins call Lemures Manes Ghosts or Souls of the dead and my Text Spirits made perfect a being much like unto the Angels who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodiless Powers An Angel as one speaks is a perfect Soul a Soul is an imperfect Angel I do not say that upon their Separation they become Angels for they will still remain a distinct Species of Spirits Semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi Max. Tyr. Angels have no inclination to Bodies nor were ever fettered with cloggs of flesh as Souls were And by this you see what a difference there is betwixt these two considerations of death How gastly and affrighting is it in its previous pangs how lovely and desireable in the issue and result of them which is but the change of Earth for Heaven men for God sin and misery for perfection and glory PROP. III. The Separation of the Soul and Body makes a great and wonderful change upon both but especially upon the Soul THere is a twofold change made upon man by death one upon his Body another upon his Soul The change upon the Body is great and visible to every eye A living Body is changed into a dead carcase A beautiful and comely Body into a loathsome spectacle that which lately was the object of delight and love is hereby made an abhorrence to all flesh Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 What the Sun is to the greater that the Soul is to the lesser World When the Sun shines comfortably how vegete and chearful do all things look How well do they thrive and prosper The Birds sing merrily the Beasts play wantonly the whole Creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy but when it departs what a night of horror followeth How are all things wrapt up in the sable Mantle of darkness Or if it but abate its heat as in Winter the Creatures are as it were buried in the winding-sheet of Winters frost and Snow just so it is with the Body when the Soul shineth pleasantly upon it or departs from it That Body which was fed so assiduously cared for so anxiously loved so passionately is now tumbled into a pit and left to the mercy of crawling Worms The change which judgment made upon that great and flourishing City Nineveh is a fit emblemâ— to â—hadow forth that change which death makes upon humane Bodies That great and renowned City was once full of people which thronged the streets thereof there you might have seen children playing upon the Thresholds Beauties shewing themselves through the windows Melody sounding in its Palaces But what an alteration was made upon it the Prophet Zephaniah describes Chap. â— v. 14. Flocks shall lye down in the midst of her all the Beasts of the Nations both the Cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the Cedar work Thus it is with the Body when death hath dislodged the Soul Worms nestle in the holes where the beautiful eyes were once placed Corruption and desolation is upon all parts of that stately structure But this being a vulgar Theam I shall leave the Body to the dust from whence it came and follow the Soul which is my proper subject pointing at the changes which are made on it The essence of the Soul is not destroyed or changed by the Bodies ruine It is substantially the self same Soul that it was when in the Body The supposition of an essential change would disorder the whole frame and model of Gods eternal design for the Redemption and glorification of it Rom. 8.29 30. but yet though it undergo no substantial change at death yet divers great and remarkable alterations are made upon it by sundering it from the Body As 1. It is not where it was It was in a Body immerst in matter married unto flesh and blood but now it is out of the Body uncloathed and stript naked out of its garments of flesh like pure Gold melted out of the ore with which it was commixed or as a Birdlet out of her Cage into the open Fields and Woods This makes a great and wonderful change upon it 2. Being free from the Body it is consequently discharged and freed from all those â—ares studies fears and sorrows to which it was here enthralled and subjected upon the Bodies account It puts off all those
ascend by the virtue of his Ascension 'T is therefore rather for the State and Decorum than any absolute necessity that they attend us in our Ascension God will not only have his people brought home to him safely but honourably They shall come to their Fathers house in a becoming Equipage as the Children of a King This puts honour upon our Ascension day that day is adorned by the attendance of such illustrious Creatures upon us 'T is no small honour which God herein designes for us that Creatures of greater dignity than our selves shall be sent from Heaven to attend and wait upon us thither Yea That our Ascension day should in this resemble Christ's Ascension is an honour indeed When he ascended there were multitudes of these heavenly Creatures to wait upon him Psal. 68.17 18. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Thou hast ascended on high c. A Cloud was prepared as a Royal Chariot to carry up the King of Glory to his Princely Pavillion and then a Royal Guard of mighty Angels to wait upon his Chariot if not for support yet for the greater State and Solemnity of their Lords Ascension And Oh what Jubilations of blessed Angels were heard that day in Heaven How was the whole City of God moved at his coming the Triumph is not ended to this day no nor ever shall Now herein God greatly honours his people that there shall be some resemblance and conformity betwixt their Ascension and Christs * Quomodo inservierunt capiti eo modo inserviunt etiam membris Gaudent inserviâ—â— iâ—lis in terris quosaliquando socios habebunt in coelis Gerhard they rejoice to attend those to Heaven who must be their fellow Citizens for ever in Heaven It is convenient also that those who had the charge of us all our life should attend us to our Fathers house at our death In the one they finish their ministry in the other they begin their more intimate Society Moreover the Angels are they whom God will imploy to gather together his Elect from the four winds of Heaven at the great day Matth. 24.31 and who more fit to attend their Spirits to Heaven singly than those who must collect them into one Body at last and wait upon that collective Body when they shall be brought to Christ Psal. 45.14 Object But the sight and presence of Angels is exceeding awful and overwhelming to humane nature it will rather astonish and terrifie than refresh and chear us to find our selves all on a suddain surrounded and beset with such Majestick Creatures We see what effects the appearance of an Angel hath had upon good men in this World We shall die said Manoah for we have seen God Judg. 13.22 So Eliphaz a Spirit passed before my face the hair of my flesh stood up Iob 4.15 Sol. True whilst our Souls inhabit these mortal and sinful Bodies the appearance of Angels is terrible to them and cannot be otherwise partly upon a natural and partly upon a moral account The dread of Angels naturally falls upon our Animal Spirits They shrink and tremble at the approach of Spirits not only the Spirits of Men but of Beasts quail at it A Dog or an Horse is terrified at it as well as a Man Numb 22.25 The dread of Spirits strikes the Animal or natural Spirits primarily and the mind or rational Soul by consent There is also another cause of fear in man upon the sight or presence of Angels viz. A Consciousness of guilt Whereever there is guilt there will be fear especially upon any extraordinary appearance of God to us though it be but imediately by an Angel But when the Soul is freed both from flesh and sin and shall enjoy it self in a nature like to these pure and holy Spirits the dread of Angels is then vanished and the Soul will take great content and satisfaction in their Company and Communion The Soul then finds it self a fit Companion for them looks upon them as its fellow Servants for so they are Revel 19.10 and the Angels look upon the Spirits of just men not as Inferiours and Underlings but with great respect as Spirits in some sense nearer to Christ than themselves So that henceforth no dread falls upon us from the presence of these excellent Creatures but each enjoyeth singular delight in each others Society And thus we see in what honourable and pleasing Company the souls of the just go hence to their Father's house and bosome PROP. V. The Soul is not so maimed and prejudiced by its separation from the Body but that it both can and doth live and act without it and performs the acts of Cogitation and Volition without the aid and ministry of the Body I Know it is objected by them that assert the Souls sleeping till the Resurrection that though its essence be not destroy'd by death yet its Operations are obstructed by the want and absence of the Body its Tool and Instrument and thus they form their Objection All that the Soul understands Object it understands by Species that is the Images of things which are first formed in the Phantasie Conditiones Intellectus sunt tres 1 Objectum ens verum intelligibile 2 Phantasma vel species sensilâ— in Phâ—ntasia latens 3 Species intelligibilis quae est accidens spirituale repraesentaâ—s idealiter intellectui rem materialem existentem extra intellectum As when we would conceive the nature of an House a Ship a Man or a Beast we first form the Image or Species thereof in our fancy and then exercise our thoughts about it But this depending upon bodily Organs and Instruments the separated Soul can form no such Images It hath no such innate Species of its own but comes into the World an abrasa tabula white paper and being deprived by separation of the help of Senses and Phantasms it consequently understands nothing Thus the Soul in its state of Separation is represented to us as wounded in its Powers and Operations to that degree which seems to extinguish the very nature of it But Sol. 1. We deny that the Soul knows nothing now but by Phantasms and Images Intellectus incorporea immaterialia contemplatur ut Deum intelligentias sed haec nullo modo in phantasiam cadunt cum sunt extra limites corporeatum viriam Conimb de Anima lib. 3. cap. 8. Q. 8. For it knows it self it s own nature and powers of which it cannot possibly feign or form any image or representation What form shape or figure can the fancy of a man cast his own Soul into to help him to understand its nature And what shall we say of its understanding during an ecstasie or Rapture Doth the Soul know nothing at such a time Doth a dull Torpor seize and benumb its intellectual powers No no the Understanding is never more bright clear apprehensive
and perfect than when the Body in an Ecstasie is laid aside as to any use or assistance of the mind The Soul for that space uses not the Bodies assistance as the very words Ecstasie and Rapture convince us Si autem hoc non est ex natura animae sed per accidens hoc convenit ei ex to quod corpori alligatur sicut Platonics posuâ—runt de facili quaestio solvi possit Nam remoto impedimento corporis rediret anima ad suam naturam Aquin. p. 1. Q. 8. Art 1. 2. To understand by Species doth not agree to the Soul naturally and necessarily but by accident as it is now in Union with the Body Were it but once loosed from the Body it would understand better without them than ever it did in the Body by them A Man that is on Horse-back must move according to the motion of the Horse he rides but if he were on Foot he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth So here But though we grant the Soul doth in many cases now make use of Phantasms and that the agitation of the Spirits which are in the Brain and Heart are conjunct with its acts of Cogitation and Intellection Yet as a searching Scholar well observes The Spirits are rather Subjects than Instruments of those actions And the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits As when we use a Pen in writing or a Knife in cutting How 's Blessedness pag. 174 175. there is an operation of the Soul upon them before there can be any operation by them They act as they are first acted and so do these bodily Spirits So that to speak properly the Body is bettered by the use the Soul makes of it in these its noble actions but the Soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a Body It can do its own work without it its operations follow its essence not the Body to which it is for a time united In summ 'T is much more absonous and difficult to conceive a stupefied benumbed and unactive Soul whose very nature is to be active lively and always in motion than it is to conceive a Soul freed from the shackles and clogs of the Body acting freely according to its own nature I wish the favourers of this Opinion may take heed lest it carry them farther than they intend even to a denial of its Existence and Immortality and turn them into down-right Sâ—matists or Atheists PROP. VI. That the separated Souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earth and the Spirit having finished all his work of Sanctification upon them they do ascend to God with all the habits of Grace inherent in them and all the comfortable improvements of their Graces accompanying and following them THis Proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four Branches 1 When a gracious Soul is separated from the Body all its work of obedience in this World is finished Therefore death is called the finishing of our course Acts 20.24 the night when man works no more Iohn 9.4 There is no working in the grave Eccles. 9.10 for death dissolves the Compositum and removes the Soul immediately to another World where it can act for it self only but not for others as it was wont to do on earth I shall see man no more saith Hezekiah with the Inhabitants of the World Isaiah 38.11 that which was said of David's death is as true of every Christian that having served his Generation according to the Will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 I do not say this lower World receives no benefit at all by them after their death for though they can speak no more write no more pray for and instruct the Inhabitants of this World no more nor exhibit to them the beauty of Religion in any new acts or examples of theirs which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedience on earth Yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the Body still remains after they are gone as the Apostle speaks of Abel Hebr. 11.4 Who being dead yet speaketh This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth long after they are gone to Heaven And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us for the good of Posterity that after our decease as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.15 they may have our words and examples in remembrance But for any service to be done de novo after death it is not to be expected We have accomplished as an Hireling our day and have not a stroke more to do 2 As all our work of obedience is then finished by us so at death all the Work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory not a stroke more to be done upon it afterward which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory whereof I shall speak in another Proposition as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments which are totally laid aside as things of no more use after this stroke is given Adepto fine cessant media Means are useless when the end is attain'd There is no work saith Solomon in the Grave How short soever the Souls stay and abode in the Body was though it were regenerated one day and separated the next yet all that is wrought upon it which God ever intended should be wrought in this World and there is no preparation-work in the other World 3 But though the Soul leave all the means of grace behind it yet it carries away with it to Heaven all those habits of grace which were planted and improved in it in this World by the blessing of the Spirit upon those means though it leave the Ordinances it loseth not the effects and fruits of them though they cease their effects still live The truth dwelleth in us and shall be in us for ever 1 John 2.17 The Seed of God remaineth in us 1 John 3.9 Common gifts fall at death but saving grace sticks fast in the Soul and ascends with it into glory Gracious habits are inseparable Glory doth not destroy but perfect them They are the Souls meetness for Heaven Col. 1.12 and therefore it shall not come into his presence leaving its meetness behind it In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this World if we carry it not along with us into that World seeing all his works upon us in this life have a respect and relation to the life to come Look therefore as the same natural Faculties and Powers which the Soul had though it could not use them in its imperfect Body in the Womb came with it into this World where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life so the habits of Grace which by Regeneration are here
implanted in a weak and imperfect Soul go with it to glory where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting than ever they did here below The languishing spark of love is there a vehement flame the saint remiss and infrequent delight in God is there at a constant ravishing and transporting height 4 To conclude As all implanted habits of grace ascend with the sanctified Soul to Heaven for the Soul ascends not thither as a natural but as a new Creature so all the effects results and sweet improvements of those Graces which we gathered as the pleasant fruits of them on earth these accompany and follow the Soul into the other World also Their Works follow them Rev. 14.13 They go not before in the notion of merits to make way for them but they follow or accompany them as Evidences and comfortable Experiences I doubt not but the very remembrance of what past betwixt God and the Soul here betwixt the day of its Espousals to Christ and its Divorce from the Body will be one sweet ingredient into their blessedness and joy when they shall be singing in the upper Region the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. They were never given to be lost or left behind us And thus you see with what a rich Cargo the Soul sails to the other World though if it had no other it would never drop Anchor there PROP. VII The Souls of the just when separated from their Bodies do not wander up and down this World nor hover about the Sepulchres where their Bodies lie nor are they detain'd in any Purgatory in order to their more perfect Purification nor do they fall asleep in a benummed stupid State But do forthwith pass into glory and are immediately with the Lord. WHen once the mind of man leaves the Scripture-guidance and direction which is to it what the Compass or Pole-star is to a Ship in the wide Ocean Whither will it not wander In what uncertainties will it not fluctuate And upon what Rocks and Quick-sands must it inevitably be cast Many have been the foolish and groundless Conceits and Fancies of men about the Receptacles of departed Souls 1. Some have assigned them a restless wandering life now here now there without any certain dwelling place any where The only ground for this fancy is the frequent Apparitions of the Ghosts or Spirits of the dead whereof many instances are given and who is there that is a stranger to such Stories Now if departed Souls were fixed any where this World would be quiet and free from such disturbances I make no doubt but very many of these Stories have been the industrious Fictions and Devices of wicked and superstitious Votaries to gain reputation to their way speaking lies in Hypocrisie to draw Disciples after them And many others have been the Tricks and Impostures of Satan himself to shake the credit of the Saints Rest in Heaven and the imprisonment of ungodly Souls in Hell as will more fully appear when I come to speak to that Question more particularly 2. Others think when they are loosed from the Body at death they hover about the Graves and solitary places where their Bodies lie as willing seeing they can dwell no longer in them to abide as near them as they can just as the surviving Turtle keeps near the place where his Mate died and may be heard mourning for a long time about that part of the Wood. This opinion seeks countenance and protection from that law Deut. 18.10 11. which prohibits men to consult with the dead of which restraint there had been no need nor use if it had not been practised and such practices had never been continued if departed Souls had not frequented those places and given answers to their Questions But what I said before of Satans Impostures is enough for present to return to this also Bell. lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. 3. The Papists send them immediately to Purgatory in order to their more thorough Purification This Purgatory Bellarmin thus describes It is a certain place wherein as in a Prison Souls are purged after this life that were not fully purged here to the intent they may enter pure into Heaven and though the Church saith he hath not defined the place yet the School-men say it is in the Bowels of the Earth and upon the borders of Hell And to countenance this profitable Fable divers Scriptures are by them abused and misapplied as 1 Cor. 3.15 Matth. 5.25 26. 1 Pet. 3.19 all which have been fully rescued out of their hands and abundantly vindicated by our Divines who have proved God never kindled that fire to purifie Souls but the Pope to warm his own Kitchin 4. Another sort there are who affirm they neither wander about this World nor go into Purgatory but are cast by death into a Swoon or sleep remaining in a kind of benummed condition till the Resurrection of the Body This was the Errour of Beryllus and Irenaeus seems to border too near upon it when he saith The Souls of Disciples shall go to an invisible place appointed for them of God Discipulorum Animae abibunt in invisibilem locum definitam â—is à Deo ibi usqâ—e ad Resurrectionem commorabuntar sustinentes Resurrectionem Post recipientes corpora perfectè resurgentes i. e. corporaliter quemadmodum dominus resurrexit sic venlent ad conspectum Dei Iren. lib. 5. and shall there tarry till the Resurrection waiting for that time and the receiving their Bodies and perfectly i.e. corporally rising again as Christ did they shall come to the sight of God All these mistakes will fall together by one stroak for if it evidently appear as I hope it will that the Spirits of the just are immediately taken to God and do converse with and enjoy him in Heaven Then all these Fancies vanish without any more labour about them particularly Now there are four Considerations which to me put the immediate glorification of the departed Souls of Believers beyond all rational doubt 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them as ever it shall be 2 They are as ready and fit for Heaven as ever they shall be 3 The Scripture is plainly for it And 4 There is nothing in reason against it 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them when they die as ever it shall be Heaven is prepared for Believers 1 By the purpose and Decree of God and so far it was prepar'd from the Foundation of the World Matth. 25.34 2 By the death of Christ whose blood made the purchace of it for Believers and so meritoriously opened the Gates thereof which our sins had barred up against us Heb. 10.19 20. 3 By the Ascension of Christ into that holy place as our Representative and Forerunner Iohn 14.2 This is all that is necessary to be done for the preparation of Heaven and all this is done as much as ever God design'd should be
done to it in order to its preparation for our Souls So that no delay can be upon that account 2 The departed Souls of Believers are as ready for Heaven as ever they shall be For there is no preparation-work to be done by them or upon them after death Ioh. 9.3 Eccles. 9.10 Their justification was compleat before death and now their sanctification is so too Sin which came in by the Union going out at the separation of their Souls and Bodies They are Spirits made perfect 3 The Scripture is plain and full for their immediate glorification Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 16.22 The Beggar dyed and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosome Philip. 1.21 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The Scripture speaks but of two ways by which Souls see and enjoy God viz. Faith and Sight the one imperfect suited to this life the other perfect fitted for the life to come and this immediately succeeding that for the imperfect is done away by the coming of that which is perfect as the Twilight is done away by the advancing of the perfect day 4 To conclude There is nothing in reason lying in bar to it It hath been proved before the Soul in its unbodied State is capable to enjoy blessedness and can perform its acts of Intellection Volition c. not only as well but much better than it did when embodied I conclude therefore That seeing Heaven is already as much prepar'd for Believers as it need be or can be and they as much prepar'd from the time of their Dissolution as ever they shall be The Scriptures also being so plain for it and no bar in reason against it All the forementioned Opinions are but the Dreams and Fancies of men who have forsaken their Scripture-guide and this remains an unshaken truth That the Spirits of the just go immediately to glory from the time of their Separation PROP. VIII At the time a gracious Souls separation from the Body it is instantly and perfectly freed from sin which till that time dwelt in it from its beginning But thenceforth shall do so no more IMmediately upon their separation from the Body Ideoque vocat conseâ—ratos vel perfectos quia carnis infirmitatibus non amplius sint obnoxii depositâ ipsâ carne Marl. in loc they are Spirits made perfect as my Text stiles them and that Epithet perfect could never suit them if there were any remaining root or habit of corruption in them The time yea the set time is now come to put an end to all the dolorous groans of gracious Souls upon the account of indwelling sin What the Angel said to Ioshua Zech. 3.3 4. The same doth God say of every upright Soul at the time of its separation Take away the filthy Garments from him and cloath him with change of rayments and set a fair Miter upon his head Thus the Garments spotted with the flesh are taken away with the Body of flesh and the pure unchangeable Robes of perfect holiness cloathed upon the Soul in which it appears without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 There is a threefold burdensom evil in sin under which all regenerated souls groan in this life viz. 1 The Guilt 2 The Filth 3 The Inherence of it in their nature And there is a threefold Remedy or cure of these evils The guilt of sin is remedied by justification The filth of sin is inchoatively healed by sanctification The inherence of sin is totally eradicated by glorification For as it entred into our persons by the union of our Souls and Bodies so it is perfectly cast out by their disunion or separation at death The last stroak is then given to the work of sanctification and the last is evermore the perfecting stroak Sin languished under imperfect sanctification in the time of life but it gives up the Ghost under perfected sanctification from 〈◊〉 after death Sanctification gave it its deadly wound but glorification its final Abolition For it is with our sins after Regeneration as it was with that Beast mentioned Dan. 7.12 which though it was wounded with a deadly wound yet its life was prolonged for a season And this is the appointed season for its expiration For if at their dissolution they are immediately received into glory as it hath been proved they are in our seventh Proposition they must necessarily be freed perfectly from sin immediately upon their dissolution because nothing that is unclean can enter into that pure and holy place They must be as the Text truly represents them The Spirits of just men made perfect For if so great holiness and purity be required in all that draw nigh to God upon earth as you read Psal. 93.5 certainly those who are admitted immediately to his Throne must be without fault according to Rev. 7.14 15 16 17. When a compounded being comes to be dissolved each part returns to its own principle so it is here The Spirit of man and all the grace that is in it came from God and to him they return at death and are perfected in him and by him The flesh returns to the earth whence it came and all that body of sin is destroyed with it neither the one or other shall be a snare or clog to the soul any more A Christian in this World is but Gold in the Ore at death the pure Gold is melted out and separated and the dross cast away and consumed Hence three Consectaries offer themselves to us Consectary I. That a Believers life and warfare end together We lay not down our weapons of war till we lie down in the dust 2 Timothy 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course The course and conflict you see are finished together Though they commence from different terms yet they always terminate together Grace and sin have each acted its part upon the Stage of time and the victory hovered doubtfully sâ—â—â—times over Sin and sometimes over Grace but now the â—â—r is ended and the quarrel decided Grace keeps its ground and sin is finally vanquished Now and never before the gracious Soul stands triumphing like that noble Argive In vacuo solus Sessor Plausorque Theatro not an Enemy left to renew the Combat the war is ended and with it all the fears and sorrows of the Saints Consectary II. Separated Souls become impeccable or free from all the hazard of sin from the time of their separation For there being no root of sin now inherent in them consequently no temptation to sin can fasten upon them all temptations have their handles in the Corruptions of our natures Did not Satan find matter prepar'd within us dry tinder fitted to his hand he might strike in temptations long enough before one of his hellish sparks could catch or fasten upon us Temptations are grievous exercises to Believers they are darts Eph. 6.16 they are thorns 2 Cor. 12.7 but
the line of modesty in what I shall speak about them And the first is this QUERIE I. Querie 1. Whether any Notion or Conception can be formed of a separate Soul and if so how we may be assisted duely to form it and conceive of it Sol. Solution §. 1. 1. It must be acknowledged not only very difficult but an impossible task for a Soul immersed in matter and so unacquainted with its own Nature and Powers as it is in its embodied state to gain a perfect clear and adequate Conception of what it shall be in the World to come Expect not then a perfect image much less any magnificent draught of this excellent Creature This would be the same thing as to go about to depaint the Sun in its Glory Motions and Influences with a Pencil I shall think I have done enough if I can but give you any umbrage or faint representation of this sublime and Spiritual Being and the manner of its subsisting and acting out of the body For seeing it is by nature invisible and in most of its actions whilst it is in the state of composition it makes the same use of the body and natural Spirits that a Scribe doth of his Pen and Ink without which he cannot decipher the Characters which are formed in his fancy it must needs be difficult to conceive how it subsists and acts in its separate state §. 2. But though we acknowledge it to be a great difficulty to trace it beyond the Limits of this World though we perceive nothing to depart from the Body at the instant of its expiration but a puff of breath which vanishes like Smoke into the air And though Atheistical Witts daringly pronounce an immaterial substance to be a meer Iargon Hobs Leviathan cap. 34. a Contradiction in terminis which being joined together destroy one another Yet all this doth not make the Notion of a separate Soul impossible much less undermine its existence in its unbodied and lovely state the Scriptures having so abundantly obviated all these Atheistical Suggestions by so many plain Discoveries of the Happiness of some and Misery of others after this Life Yea my Text answers us That Death is so far from destroying or annihilating that it perfects the Spirits of the Just. §. 3. There can be no more difficulty in conceiving of a separate Soul than there is in conceiving of an Angel For it is certain that a separated Soul and an Angel are the liveliest and clearest representations of each other in the whole number of created Beings Dr. More 's Immortality of the Soul lib. 2. cap. 17. § 4. 8. Bell. de Ascen mentis Some make the difference betwixt them little more than of a Sword in the Scabbard from one that is naked A Soul is but a Genius in the Body and a Genius or Angel is a Soul out of a Body An Angel saith another is a compleat and perfect Soul a Soul an imperfect and incompleat Angel The separate Soul doth not become an Angel by putting off the Body they are and still will be divers Species but in this they agree that in their common nature they are both Spirits that is Immaterial Substances endued with Vnderstanding Will and active power And I know not why the one should not be as intelligible as the other or if there be any advantage the Soul certainly must have it seeing our acquaintance with Souls is much more intimate than with Angels Angels indeed have larger Capacities and have no natural inclination to be embodied as Souls have but their common Nature as they are Spirits is the same And if we can conceive of one we may also of the other §. 4. But the difficulty seems to lie in this how the Soul can subsist alone without a Body and how the habits of Grace which were infused into it in this life by Sanctification do inhere in it or can be reduced into act by it when it hath no bodily Organs to work by As to the first there is no difficulty at all if we once rightly apprehend what is meant when we call it a Spiritual Substance that is a Being by it self independent upon any other Creature as to its existence as was opened before The Soul depends not for its life upon the Body but the Body upon the Soul It is the same Sword when it is drawn as it was when sheathed in its Scabbard the Soul is as much it self when separated from the Body as it was when united with it it s Being is independent on it it can live and act in a Body and it can do so without it For it is a distinct Being from its Body a substantial Being by it self And §. 5. As for the habits of grace which accompany it to Heaven it would much facilitate our apprehension of it if we but compare acquired and infused habits with each other 'T is true they are of different Natures and Originals but the Soul is the subject of them both and their inhesion and improvement is much after the same manner Take we then an acquired habit into consideration which is nothing else but a permanent Quality rendering the subject of it prompt and ready to perform a work with ease Suppose that of Musick or Writing and we shall find these habits to be safely lodged in the Soul as well when the body is laid into the deepest sleep which is the Image of death as when it is awake and most active for they are both Artists when asleep and need learn no new Rules to play or write when you awake them which shews the habits to be permanently rooted in their minds Infused habits of grace are as deeply rooted in the Soul yea deeper than any acquired habit can be For when Knowledge and Tongues shall be done away love abideth 1 Cor. 13.8 viz. after death when the Body is asleep in the Grave §. 6. Add hereto that these habits of grace are inseparably rooted or lodged in a subject which is by nature a Spirit that is to say The Understanding and Will are the primary Faculties of the Soul and are therefore called Inorganical because not affixed to any Member of the Body as the sensitive Appetite and locomotive Powers are to their proper Organs The Soul therefore hath the free use and exercise of them in its separate state an intelligent active Being able to use its faculties of Understanding Will and Affections and consequently in their use to reduce these habits of Grace inherent in them into act without the help of the Body For to suppose otherwise were to dispirit it and destroy the very nature of it Moreover let this Spirit thus furnished with gracious habits be now considered in separation from the Body in which state it enjoyeth and rejoyceth in a double Priviledge it never had before viz. Perfection both of it self and of its Graces and the nearest access to God it is capable of 2 Cor. 5.6
Absent from the Body and present with the Lord. It hath now no body to clog or cloud it nor can it complain of distance from God as it did in this World O at what rate must we conceive the love and delight of a Soul under these great advantages to cast out their very Spirits as I may say in their glorious Activities and Exercises Well then here you find A Spirit naturally endued with Understanding Will and Affections in these Faculties and Affections the habits of Grace permanently rooted which therefore accompany it in its ascension to glory an ability to use and exercise these Faculties and Graces and that in a more excellent degree and manner than it did or could in this World the subject and habits inherent being now both made perfect The clog of flesh knockt off and all distance from God removed by its coming home to him even as near as the capacity of the Soul can admit Conceive such a Spirit so qualified now rankt in its proper order among innumerable other holy and blessed Spirits which surround the Throne of God beholding his face with infinite delectation and acting all its Powers and Graces to the highest in the worshipping praising loving and admiring him that sitteth on the Throne and the Lamb for evermore And then you have a true though imperfect Idea or Notion of the Spirit of a just man made perfect I will not here make use of the other Glass to represent a damned Soul separate for a time from its Body and for ever from the Lord that will be shewn you in its proper place Querie 2. QUERIE II. Whether there be any difference in the separation of Gracious Souls from their Bodies and if so in what particulars doth th◠difference appear Sol. §. 1. For the clear stating and satisfying of this Question I will lay down some things negatively and some things positively about it On the negative part I desire two things may be noted 1. First That there is no difference betwixt the separation of one gracious Soul and another in point of safety Every regenerate Soul is fully secured in and by Jesus Christ from the danger of perishing and is out of hazzard of the Wrath to come This must needs be so because all that are in Christ are equally justified by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness without difference to them all Rom. 3.22 Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference By vertue whereof they are all equally secured from Wrath to come one as well as another as all that sailed with Paul so all that die in Christ come safe to the shoar of Glory and not one of them is lost The sting of Death smites none that are in Christ. 2. Secondly There is no difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men in respect of the supporting presence of God with them in that their hour of distress that Promise belongs to them all Psal. 91.15 I will be with him in trouble and so doth that Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Their God is certainly with them all to order the Circumstances of their death and all the Occurrences of that day to his glory and their good Supports I have said a good man in such an hour though Suavities I want and so they have also who meet with the hardest tug at death But notwithstanding their equality in these Priviledges there is a great difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men And this difference is manifest both in the I. External Circumstances of their death II. Internal Circumstances of their death I. In the External Circumstances of their death all have not one and the same passage to Heaven in all respects for 1 First some go thither by the ordinary road of a natural death from their Beds and the arms of lamenting friends to the arms and bosome of Jesus Christ But others swim through the Red Sea to Canaan from a Scaffold to the Throne from a Gibbet or Stake to their Fathers house from insulting Enemies to their triumphant Brethren the Palm-bearing Multitude This is a rough but honourable way to Glory 2 Some lie long under the hand of death before it dispatch them it approaches them by slow and lingering paces they feel every step of death distinctly as it comes on towards them But others are favoured with a quick dispatch a short passage from hence to Glory Hezekiah feared a pineing sickness Isa. 38.10 12. what he feared many feel O how many Days yea Weeks and Months have many gracious Souls dwelt upon the brink of the Pit crying How long Lord how long 3 The pains and throes of death are more acute and sharp to some of Gods people than to others Death is bitter in the most mild and gentle form of it Two such dear and intimate Friends as the Soul and Body are cannot part without some tears groans or sighs and those more deep and emphatical than the groans and sighs of the living use to be But yet comparatively speaking the death of one may be stiled sweet and easie to anothers Latimer and Ridley found it so though burnt in the same flame In this respect all things come alike to all and the same difference is found in the worst as well as in the best men Some like Sheep are laid in the Grave Psal. 49.14 others die in the bitterness of their Soul Iob 21.25 and by this no man knows either love or hatred II. There are beside these some remarkable Internal differences in the dissolution of good men the sum whereof is in this 1. That some gracious Souls have a very hard strait difficult entrance into Heaven just as it is with Ships that sail by a very bare wind all their art care and pains will but just weather some head-land or Cape they steer fast by some dangerous Rock or Sand and with a thousand fears and dangers win their Port at last Saved they are but yet to use the Apostles phrase scarcely saved or saved as by fire And this difficulty ariseth to them from one or all these causes 1 It ordinarily ariseth from the weakness of their faith which is in many Souls without either the light of evidence or strength of reliance neither able to dissolve their doubts nor steadily repose their hearts and thus they die much at the rate they lived poor doubting and cloudy though gracious Souls They can neither speak much of the comfort of past experiences nor of the present foretasts of Heaven 2 The violent assaults and batteries of temptations make the passage exceeding difficult to some O the sharp conflicts and dreadful combates many poor Souls endure upon a death-bed O the charges of hypocrisie fortified by neglects of duty formality and bye-ends in duty falls into sin after conviction and humiliation c. all which the Soul is apt to yield to
his eyes upon the plaisterd wall within side the bed and whilst he was vehemently begging of God the life of his Friends there appeared upon the plaister of the wall before him the Sun and the Moon shining in their full strength The sight at first amaz'd and discomposed him so far that he could not continue his Prayer but kept his eye fixed upon the body of the Sun at last a small line or ring of black no bigger than that of a Text pen circled the Sun which increasing sensibly eclipsed in a little time the whole Body of it and turned it into a blackish colour which done the figure of the Sun was immediately changed into a perfect Death's head and after a little while vanished quite away The Moon still continued shining as before but whilst he intently beheld it it also darkned in like manner and turned also into another Death's head and vanished This made so great an impression upon the beholder's mind that he immediately awaked in confusion and perplexity of thoughts about his dream and awakning his wife related the particulars to her with much emotion and concernment but how to apply it he could not presently tell only he was satisfied that the dream was of an extraordinary nature At last Ioseph's dream came to his thoughts with the like Emblems and their interpretation which fully satisfied him that God had warned and prepared him thereby for a suddain parting with his dear Relations which answerably fell out in the same order his Father dying that day fortnight following and his Mother just a month afterwards I know there is much vanity in dreams and yet I am fully satisfied some are weighty significant and declarative of the purposes of God 3. Lastly An unusual and extraordinary elevation of the Soul to God and enlargement in Communion with him hath been a signifying forerunner of the death of some good men For as the Body hath its levamen anteferale lightning before death and is more vegete and brisk a little before its dissolution so it is sometimes with the Soul also I have known some persons to arrive on a suddain to such heights of love to God and vehement longings to be dissolved that they might be with Christ that I could not but look upon it as Christ did upon the box of Oyntment as done against their death And so indeed it hath proved in the event Thus it was with that renowned Saint Mr. Brewen of Stapleford as he excelled others in the holiness of his life so he much excelled himself towards his death his motions towards Heaven being then most vigorous and quick The day before his last sickness he had such extraordinary enlargements of heart in his Closet-Duty that he seemed to forget all the concernments of his Body and this lower World And when his wife told him Sir I fear you have done your self hurt with rising so early he answered If you had seen such glorious things as I saw this morning in private prayer with God you would not have said so for they were so wonderful and unspeakable that whether I was in the Body or out of the Body with Paul I cannot tell And so it was with learned and holy Mr. Rivet who seemed as a man in Heaven just before he went thither And so if hath been with thousands beside these I confess it is not the lot of every gracious Soul as was shew'd you in the last Question nor doth it make any difference as to the safety of the Soul whatever it makes as to comfort Let all therefore labour to make sure their Union with Christ and live in the daily exercises of grace in the duties of Religion and then though God should give them no such extraordinary warnings one way or another they shall never be surprized by death to their loss let it come never so unexpectedly upon them Quest. It may be also queried whether Satan by his Instruments may not foretel the death of some men How else did the Witch of Ender foretel the death of Saul And the Southsayers the death of Caesar upon the Ides i. e. the fifteenth day of March which was the fatal day to him Sol. Foreknowledg of things to come which appear not in their next causes is certainly the Lords Prerogative Isai. 41.23 Whatever therefore Satan doth in this matter must be done either by conjecture or commission As to the case of Saul 't is not to be questioned but that he knowing the Kingdom was made to David by promise and that the Lord was departed from Saul and saw how near the Armies were to a Battel might strongly conjecture and conclude and accordingly tell him To morrow thou shalt be with me 1 Sam. 28.19 And so for the death of Caesar The Devil knew the conspiracy was strong against him and the Plot laid for that day and so it was both easie for him to reveal it to the South-sayers and his interest to do it thereby to bring that cursed Art into reputation As for other signs and forewarnings of death by the unusual resort of doleful Creatures as Owls and Ravens vulgarly accounted Ominous Wall-watches upon this account called Death-watches and the eating of wearing-apparel by Rats I look upon them generally as supertitious fancies not worthy to be regarded among Christians God may but I know not what ground we have to believe that he doth commissionate such Creatures to bring us the message of death from him To conclude therefore Let no man expect or depend upon any such extraordinary premonitions and warnings of his change or neglect his daily work and duty of preparation for it We have warnings in the Word in the examples of Mortality frequently before us in all the diseases and decays we often feel in our own Bodies and by the signs of the times which threaten death and desolation Be ye therefore always ready for ye know not in what watch of the night your Lord cometh QUEST IV. Whether separated Souls have any knowledg of or commerce and intercourse with men in this life and if not What is to be thought of the Apparitions of the Dead 1. By separated Souls understand the departed Souls both of the Godly and Ungodly indifferently and not as it is restrained to one sort only in the Text for of both it is pretended there are frequent Apparitions after death 2. By the knowledge such Souls are supposed to have after death both of persons and things in this lower World we understand not a general knowledg which one fort of them have of the state and condition of the Church militant on earth for this we think cannot be denyed to the Spirits of the just made perfect seeing they are still fellow Members with us of the same mystical body of Christ and do behold our High-Priest appearing before God and offering up our prayers for us and long for the consummation of the Body of Christ as well as cry for vengeance
except as was before limited Object 5. Object 5. But the matters they discover are found to be true and the causes in which they concern themselves are just real Murthers are detected by them and real frauds and injuries corrected and rectified but the Devil being himself a lyar and Deceiver would never do it 't is not his interest to discover or discourage such things Sol. Sol. Though it be not his interest meerly to discover it yet it is certainly his interest to precipitate wicked men and hasten their ruine by the hand of Justice and he will speak the truth and seem to own a righteous cause to bring about his great design of ruining the Souls and Bodies of men I will shut up with three Cautions Caution I. Strain not Conscience to enrich Posterity be true to the trusts committed to you by the Dead or by the Living remembring that though they be dead and cannot avenge the wrong yet the Lord lives and will surely do it in a severer manner than they could should they appear in the most terrible and frightful forms to you Beside your own Consciences will haunt you worse than a Ghost Be just and true therefore in all your Promises and trusts for God is the Avenger Caution II. Finish your work for eternity before you die for as the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7.9 10. Your Souls will be fixed in eternity soon after they are loosed from your Bodies when death comes away you must go willing or unwilling ready or unready but no returning hither how willing soever Caution III. Keep your selves from that heathenish and accursed practice of consulting the Devil about your absent or dead Relations a practice too common in Sea-port Towns and of deep and heinous guilt before God Isa. 8.19 And when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar Spirits and unto Wizards that peep and muter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead You need not call the Devil twice that subtil and officious Spirit draws the living into his Net by such a bait as this You meet your Mortal enemy under the disguise of your dead friend QUERIE V. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven have any converse or communication with each other and how that can be seeing all the Organs and Instruments of speech and hearing are laid aside with their Bodies It seems impossible that separated or unbodied Spirits should converse together seeing the instruments by which the thoughts are communicated from one to another are perished in the Grave Suppose the Tongue of a man to be cut out his eyes and hands perished or made useless whilst the Soul remains in the Body it may enjoy its own thoughts within it self but it is impossible to signifie them to another by words or signs Or suppose a man in a deep sleep wherein the Senses are only bound for a little time he may indeed exercise his own fancy in a pleasant Dream but another cannot understand how it is entertained but in death the Senses are not bound but extinguished Beside we must not think the felicity of the departed holy Souls to consist in mutual Converses one with another but in their ineffable Visions of God and Communion with him To him who is Omniscient and understands their most inward thoughts they can freely communicate them and receive his as well as pour forth their own love but to do it to their fellow Creatures who see not as God doth seems impossible Indeed it was never doubted but after the Resurrection they shall both know and talk with one another in a more excellent and perfect manner than now they do but till that time the Reasons above seem to perswade us that all the Converses above are only betwixt God and them which indeed is enough to make them happy and indeed if this ability be allowed to separated Souls it seems to render the Resurrection of their Bodies needless for they are well enough without them But certainly the Spirits of just men are not Mutes such an August Assembly of holy and excellent Spirits do not live together in their Fathers House without mutual Converse and fellowship with each other as well as with God That acute and judicious Divine Mr. Ioseph Symonds in the Epistle to his Book entitled Sight and Faith expresseth himself about this matter thus I often think saith he of the Communion of the Spirits of men which certainly is more than many are acquainted with though we act one upon another in our present state by the help of sense yet we are wrought and designed to a more excellent way Angels and the Spirits of men made perfect converse and trade in a mutual Communication not without sense but without such sense as ours This as eternal life begins here and is found in some degrees in this Mortal State though not in so visible appearances as to lie open to much observation Angels good and bad do act upon our Spirits and our Spirits hold converse with them and with the Father of Spirits which may be discerned in secret Parlies and Discourses betwixt them and us much of this appears in David's Psalms and there passeth not only an inward speech but there are invisible approaches entertainments and touches which Paul found when bound in the Spirit and under the working of God which wrought in him mightily Col. 1.29 it is also most certain that our Souls are not mute and shut out from all mutual Traffick with each other except what they have by the mediation of Senses Instances are found that as they say of two Needles toucht with the Loadstone the Spirit of one at a distance hath found it self affected with the motion and state of another And this we are all sensible of that there is a strong desire in us to Communion of Spirits and that because the way most ready and convenient to our bodily state is by sense we are carried with much inclination to maintain intercourse of our minds and Spirits by sense but as being made to a better way our Souls are not satisfied with this present way as being both painful and short we cannot give an exact Copy of our Apprehensions Desires Designs Delights and other affections by these two great Mediators of Communion the Eye and the Ear but because we are in so great a measure confin'd to this course our Souls as it were stand in these two gates to send and receive mutual Embassies each from other Which way as it is short in it self so it is much shortned by distances disaffections impotencies and disparities I cannot imagine that men in the state of imperfection should have so many ways to communicate their minds as by speaking writing c. Yea that the
thus lamented it self Wo is me that I dwell in Mesheck It inclosed their Souls within it's mud walls which intercepted the light and joy of God's face Death therefore did a most friendly office when it set it at liberty and brought it forth into its own pure and pleasant light and liberty These blessed Spirits now rejoyce as Prisoners do in their recovered liberty and can it be supposed after all these sufferings groans and sighs to be dissolved they can be willing to be embodied again Surely there is as little reason for Souls at liberty to desire to be again embodied as there is for a Bird got out of the Snare or Cage to flie back again to its place of confinement and restraint Yea when we consider how loth some holy Souls when under the excruciating pains of sickness and as yet in the sight of this alluring World have been to â—ear of a return to it by the recovery of their health we cannot think but being quite out of the sight of this and in the fruitions of the other World the thoughts of the Body must needs be more loathsome to them than ever We read that when a good man in time of his sickness was told by his friends that some hopeful signs of his recovery began now to appear he answered And must I then return to this Body I was as a sheep driven out of the Storm almost to the Fold and then driven back into the storm again Or as a weary Traveller near his home who must go back again to fetch something he had neglected or as an Apprentice whose time was almost out and then must begin a new Term. Of some others it hath been also noted that the greatest infirmities they discovered upon their death-bed have been their too passionate desires to be dissolved and their unsubmissiveness to Gods will in their longer stay in the Body Now the Bodies of the Saints being so cheerfully forsaken and that only upon a foretaste of Heaven by Faith how can it be thought they should find any inclination to a re-union when they are so abundantly satisfied with the joys of his face in Heaven Certainly the Body hath been no such pleasant habitation to the Soul that it should cast an eye or thought that way when it is once delivered out of it If it were burdensome here a thought of it would be loathsome there 2. We have shew'd before that the separate Soul wants not the help of the Body but lives and acts at a more free and comfortable rate than ever before 'T is true it is not now delighted with meat and drink with smells and sounds as it was wont to be but then it must be considered that it is happiness and perfection not to need them It is now become equal to the Angels in the way and manner of its living and what it enjoyed by the ministry of the Body it eminently and more perfectly injoys without it What perfections can the Soul receive from matter Anima rationalis nihil perfectionis recipit à materia quod extra ilâ—am non posset recipeâ—â— ergo cum sepâ—rata fuerit in ilâ—am propensa non dicetur Conimbr What can a lump of flesh add to a Spirit And if it can add nothing to it there is no reason why it should hanker after it and incline to a re-union with it It added nothing of happiness to it but much of trouble and therefore becomes justly undesireable to it 3. The supposition of such a propension and inclination seems no way to suit with that state of perfect rest which the Souls of the just enjoy in Heaven The Scriptures tell us that at death they enter into rest Isa. 57.2 Heb. 4.9 That they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 But that which inclines and desires especially when the desired enjoyment as in this case is suspended so long must be as far from Rest as it is from satisfaction in the enjoyment of the thing desired We know what Solomon hath observed of such a life and his observation is experimentally true that hope defer'd makes the heart sick Prov. 13.12 Who finds not his own desires a very rack to him in such cases If we be kept but a few days in earnest expectation and desire of an absent Friend and he comes not what an uneasie life do we live But here we must suppose some have such an unsatisfied life for hundreds and others for thousands of years already and how much longer they may remain so who can tell We use to say lovers hours are full of Eternity These reasons seem to carry it for the Negative But if the matter be weighed once more with the following reasons in the counter scale and prejudice do not pull down the balance we shall find the contrary conclusion much more strong and rational For Argument I. THE Soul and Body are the two essential constitutive parts of Man either of these being wanting the Man is not compleat and perfect The good of the whole is the good of the parts themselves and every thing hath a natural desire and appetite to its own good and perfection Anima separata ad unionem corporis propeâ—sa est nam illa vult totius compositi actualem constitutionem cum propter hanc tanquam finem illa sit in entium latitudine inveniatur Atque haec est illa perfectio quam anima obtinet ex illo appetitu nam bonum totius compositi est bonum ipsarum partium Affirmandum itaque est animan separatam naturaliter desiderare resurrectionem Alstedii Nat Theol. pars prima p. 214 215. 'T is confessed the Soul for as much as concerns it self singly is made perfect and enjoys blessedness in the absence of the Body but this is only the perfection and blessedness of one part of man the other part viz the Body lies in obscurity and corruption and till both be blessed and blessed together in a state of composition and re-union the whole man is not made perfect For this therefore the Soul must wait Argument II. THough death hath dissolv'd the Union yet it hath not destroyed the relation betwixt the Soul and Body that dust is more to it than all the dust of the whole earth Hence it is that the whole person of a Believer is sometimes denominated from that part of him namely his Body which remains captivated by death in the grave Hence 2 Thes. 4.15 dead believers are called those that sleep which must needs properly respect the Body for the Soul sleeps not and shews what a firm and dear relation still remains betwixt these absent Friends Now we all know the mighty power of relation if it be least among entities yet surely it is one of the greatest things in the World in efficacy It is difficult to bear the absence of our dear Relatives especially if we be in prosperity and they in adversity As the case here is betwixt the Spirit in Heaven
and it's Body in the Grave This associated with Angels that prey'd upon by Worms Ioseph's case is the liveliest Embleme that occurs to my present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand He was advanced to be Lord over all Aegypt living in the greatest pomp and splendor there Gen. 43.29 30 31. but his Father and Brethren were at the same time ready to perish in the land of Canaan He had been many years separated from them but neither the length of time nor honours of the Court could alienate his affections from them O see the mighty power of Relation No sooner doth he see his Brethren and understand their case and the pining condition of Iacob his Father but his bowels yearned and his compassions rolled together for them Yea he could not forbear nor stifle his own affections though he knew how injurious his Brethren had been to him and betrayed him as the Body hath the Soul Yet all this notwithstanding he breaks forth into tears and outcries over them which made the house ring again with the news that Ioseph's brethren were come Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour and plenty until he had gotten home his dear and ancient Relations to him Thus stands the case betwixt Soul and Body Argument III. THE regret reluctancy and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it when it is actually separated from it For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately which fought strugled and disputed the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms should not when absent desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again Hath it lost its affection though it continue its relation that 's very improbable Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery that 's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us nor a good mans perferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour and that now out of sight out of mind Object But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons and sighed for deliverance by death and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting and inclinations to re-union Sol. The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point 2 Cor. 5.2 But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds which make iâ— consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting and inclination to a second meeting 1 This willingness to die doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love There is in every Christian a double love one natural to the Body and the things below the other supernatural to Christ and the things above the latter doth not extinguish though it conquer and subdue the other Love to the Body pulls backward love to Christ pulls forward and finally prevails This is so consistent with it that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part 2 The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved must not be understood absolutely but comparatively In that sense the Apostle will be understood 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. i. e. Rather than to live always a life of sin sorrow and absence from God Death is not desireable in and for it self but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin and its inlet to God So that the very best desire it but comparatively and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love The generality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven toward his people on earth from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World especially in the parting hour No considerations in all the World less than the more full fruition of God and freedom from sin could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body though but for a time and leave it in the dust Which is our third Argument Argument IV. AND as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it so doth the joy with which it receives it again at the Resurrection If it part from it so heavily and meet it again with joy unspeakable sure then it still retained much love for it and desires to be re-espoused to it in the interval Now that its meeting in the Resurrection is a day of joy to the Soul is evident because it is called the time of refreshment Acts 3.19 And they awake with singing out of the dust Isai. 26.19 If the direct and immediate scope of the Prophet point not as some think it doth at the Resurrection yet it is allowed by all to be a very lively allusion to it which is sufficient for my purpose And indeed none that understands and believes the design and business of that day can possibly doubt but there was reason enough to call it a time of refreshment a singing morning for the Souls of the righteous come from Heaven with Christ and the whole host of shouting Angels not to be speclators only but the subjects of that days triumph They come to re-assume and be re-espoused to their own Bodies this being the appointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the Grave to endow them with spiritual qualities at their second marriage to their Souls that in both parts they may be compleatly happy O the joyful claspings and dear embraces betwixt them who but themselves can understand And by the way this removes the objection forementioned of the miseries and prejudices the Soul suffered in this world in and from the Body For now it receives it a spiritual Body i.e. so
subdued to and fitted for the use of the Spirit as never to impede clog or obstruct its motions and inclinations any more 1 Cor. 15.44 In this hope it parted from it and with this consolation it now receives it again Argument V. THere are many Scriptures which very much favour if they do not positively conclude the Souls inclination to and desire to be re-united with its own body even whilst it is in the state of its single glorification in Heaven certainly our Souls leave not our Bodies at death as the Ostrich doth her Egg in the sand without any farther regard to it or concernment for it but they are represented as crying to God to remember aveâ—â—â— and vindicate them Rev. 6 1â— 11. How long Lord how long wilt thou not avenge our blood our blood speaks both the continued Relation and suitable affection they have to their absent Bodies And to the same sense a judicious and learned Pen expounds that place Iob 14.14 which is commonly but I know not how fitly accommodated to another purpose all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come which words by a diligent comparing of the Context appear to have this for their proper scope and sense Iob in the former verse had expressed his confidence by way of Petition Mr. How 's Blessedness of the Righteous p. 170 171. that at a set and appointed time God would remember him so as to recal him out of the Grave and now minded to speak out more fully puts the Question to himself If a man die shall he live again And thus answers it all the days of my appointed time that is of the appointed time which he mentioned before when God should revive him out of the dust will I wait till my change come that is that glorious change when the corruption of a loathsome Grave should be exchanged for immortal glory which he amplifies and utters more expresly Ver. 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thou shalt have a desire to the work of thy hands thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thine own Creature And surely this waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust but of that part which should be capable of such an action q. d. I in that part which shall be still alive shall patiently wait the appointed time of reviving me in that part also which Death and the Grave shall insult over in a temporary triumph in the mean time Upon these grounds I think the inclination of the separated Spirits of the just to their own Bodies to be a justifiable Opinion As for the damned we have no reason to think such a re-union to be desireable to them for alas it will be but the increase and aggravation of their torments which consideration is sufficient to over-power and stifle the inclination of nature and make the very thoughts of it horrid and dreadful To what end as the Prophet speaks in another case is it for them to desire that day It will be a day of darkness and gloominess to them re-union being designed to compleat the happiness of the one and the misery of the other But before I take off my hand and dismiss this question I must remember that I am Debtor to two Objections Objection 1. The Soul can both live and act separate from the Body it needs it not and if it don't want why should it desire it Solution The life and actings of the glorified are considerable two ways 1 Singly and abstractly for the life and action of one part and so we confess the Soul lives happily and acts forth its own powers freely in the state of separation 2 Personally or concretely as it is the life and action of the whole man and so it doth both need and desire the Conjunction or re-union of the Body for the Body is not only a part of Christs purchace as well as the Soul and is to have its own glory as well as it but it is also a constitutive part of a compleat glorified person and so considered the Saints are not perfectly happy till this re-union be effected which is the true ground and reason of this its desire Object 2. But this Hypothesis seems to thwart the account given in Scripture of the rest and placid state of separate Souls for look as Bodies which gravitate and propend do not rest so neither do Souls which incline and desire Solution There is a vast difference betwixt the Tendencies and Propensions of Souls in the way to glory and in glory we that are absent from the Lord can find no rest in the way but those that are with the Lord can rest in Jesus and yet wait without anxiety or self torturing impatience for the accomplishment of the promises to their absent Bodies Rev. 6.10 11. COROLLARY Let this provoke us all to get sanctified Souls to rule and use these their Bodies now for God this will abundantly sweeten their parting at death and their meeting again at the Resurrection of the just Else their parting will be doleful and their next meeting dreadful And so much for the Doctrine of Separation The USES of the Point OUr way is now open to the improvement and Use of this excellent Subject and Doctrine of Separation and certainly it affords as rich an entertainment for our affections as for our minds in the following Uses Of which the first will be for our information in six practical Inferences Inference I. IF this be the life and state of gracious Souls after their separation from the Body Then holy persons ought not to entertain dismal and terrifying thoughts of their own dissolution The Apprehensions and thoughts of death should have a peculiar pleasantness in the minds of Believers you have heard into what a blessed Presence and Communion death introduceth your Souls how it leads you out of a Body of sin a World of sorrows the Society of imperfect Saints to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just men made perfect To that lovely Mount Sion to the heavenly Sanctuary to the blessed Visions of the face of God O methinks there hath been enough said to make all the Souls in whom the well-grounded hopes of the life of glory are found to cry out with the Apostle We are conâ—ident I say yea and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 When good Musculus drew near his end how sweet and pleasant was this Meditation to his Soul Hear his Swan-like Song Melchior Adams in vita Musculi p. 385 386. Nil superest vitae frigus praecordia captat Sed tu Christe mihi vita perennis ades Quid trepidas anima ad sedes abitura quietis En tibi ductor adest Angelus ille tuus Linque domum hanc miseram nunc in sua fata ruentem Quam tibi fida Dei dextera restituet Peccasti Scio sed Christus credentibus
of God herein though submission be one of the lowest steps of duty in this case If it be hard to fix our thoughts but an hour upon such an unpleasing subject as death how hard mâ—st it be to bring over the consent of the will If we cannot endure it at a distance in our thoughts how shall we embrace and hug it in our bosoms If our thoughts flie back with distaste and impatience no wonder if our will be obstinate and refractory We must first prevail with our thoughts to fix themselves and think close to such a subject before it can be expected we chearfully resign our selves into the hands of death We cannot be willing to go along with death till we have some acquaintance with it and acquainted with it we cannot be till we accustome our selves to think assiduously and calmly of it They that have dwelt many years at deaths door both in respect of the condition of their Bodies and disposition of their minds yet find reluctancy enough when it comes to the point Objection But if separation from the Body be as it is an enemy to Nature and there be no possibility to extinguish natural aversation to what purpose is it to argue and perswade where there is no expectation of Success Solution Death is considerable two ways by the people of God 1. As an Enemy to Nature 2. As a medium to Glory If we consider it simply in it self as an Enemy to Nature there is nothing in it for which we should desire it but if we consider it as a medium or passage into glory yea the only ordinary way through which all the Saints must pass out of this into a better state so it will appear not only tolerable but desirable to prepared Souls Were there not a shore of glory on the other side of these black Waters of death for my own part I should rather chuse to live meanly than to die easily If both parts were to perish at death there were no reason to perswade one to be willing to deliver up the other It were a madness for the Soul to desire to be dissolv'd if it were so far from being better out of the Body than in it that it should have no being at all But Christians let me tell you death is so far from being a Bar that it is a Bridge in your way to glory and you are never like to come thither but by passing over it except therefore you will look beyond it you will never see any desireableness in it I desire to be dissolv'd saith Paul and to be with Christ which is far better To be with Death is sad but to be with Christ is sweet to endure the pains of death is doleful but to see the face of Christ is joyful To part with your pleasant habitations is irkesome but to be lodged in the heavenly Mansions is most delightful A parting hour with dear Relations is cutting but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting To be rid of your own Bodies is not pleasing but to be rid of sin and that for ever What can be more pleasing to a gracious Soul You see then in what sense I present death as a desirable thing to the people of God And therefore seeing nature teacheth us as the Apostle speaks to put the more abundant comeliness upon the uncomely parts suffer me to dress up death in its best ornaments and present it to you in the following Arguments as a beautiful and comely object of your conditional and well regulated desires And Argument I. IF upon a fair and just account there shall appear to be more gain to Believers in Death than there is in Life reason must needs vote death to be better to them that are in Christ than life can be and consequently it should be desireable in their eyes 'T is a clear dictate of reason in case of choice to chuse that which is best for us Who is there that freely exercises reason and choice together that will not do so What Merchant will not part with an hundred pounds worth of Glass Beads and Pendents for a Tun of Gold A few Tinsell Toyes for as many rich Diamonds Mercatura est amittere ut lucreris that is true Merchandize to part with things of lesser for things of greater value Now if you will be tried and determined by Gods Book of Rates then the case is determined quickly and the advantage appears exceedingly upon deaths side Philip. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain Objection True it might be so to Paul who was eminent in grace and ripe for glory but it may be loss to others who have not attained the heighth of his holiness or assurance Sol. The true and plain sense of the Objection is this whether Heaven and Christ be as much gain to him that enjoys it though he be behind others both in grace and obedience as it is to them who are more eminent in grace and have done and suffered more for its sake and let it be determined by your selves but if your meaning be that Paul was ready for death and so are not you his work and course was almost comfortably finished and so is not yours his death therefore must needs be gain to him but it may be loss to you even the loss of all that you are worth for ever To this I say the Wisdom of God orders the time of his peoples death as well as all other Circumstances about it and in this your hearts may be at perfect rest That being in Christ you can never die to your loss die when you will I know you will reply that if your Union with Christ were clear the Controversie were ended but then you must also consider they are as safe who die by an act of recumbency upon Christ as those that die in the fullest assurance of their interest in him And beside your Reluctancies and Aversations to death are none of your way to assurance but such a strong aversation to sin and such a vehement desire after and love to Christ as can make you willing to quit all that is dear and desireable to you in this World for his sake is the very next door or step to assurance and if the Lord bring your hearts to this frame and fix them there it is not like you will be long without it But to return Paul had here valued life with a full allowance of all the benefits and advantages of it To me to live is Christ that is if I live I shall live in Communion with Christ and service for Christ and in the midst of all those Comforts which usually result from both Here 's life with the most weighty and desireable benefits of it laid in one scale and he lays death and probably a violent death too for of that he speaks to them afterwards in Chap. 2.17 thus he fills the Scales and the Balance breaks on deaths side yea it
both lived in the Womb an obscure and uneasie and unsuitable life Thou canst feed upon material bread and delight thy self amidst the variety of sensitive Objects thou findest here but what are all these things to me I cannot subsist by them that which is food to thee is but Chaff Wind and Vanity to me If I stay with thee I shall be still sinning and still groaning when I leave thee I shall be immediately freed from both and arrive at the summ and perfection of all my hopes desires and whatsoever I have aimed at and laboured for in all the duties of my life Let us therefore be content to part Shrink not at the horrour of a Grave 't is indeed a dark and solitary house and the days of darkness may be many but to thee my dear Companion it shall be a Bed of rest Yea a perfumed Bed where thy Lord Jesus lay befâ—â—e thee And let the time of thy abode there be never so long thou shalt not measure it nor find the least rediousness in it A thousand years there shall seem no more in the Morning of the Resurrection than the sweetest Nap of an hour long seemed to be when I was wont to lay thee upon thy Bed to rest The worms in the Grave shall be nothing to thee nor give thee the thousandth part of that trouble that a Flea was wont to do And though I leave thee Jesus Christ shall watch in the mean time over thy dust and not suffer a grain of it to be lost And I will return assuredly to thee again at the time appointed I take not an everlasting farewel of thee but depart for a time that I may receive thee for ever To conclude there is an unavoidable necessity of our parting whether willing or unwilling we must be separated but the consent of my will to part with thee for the enjoyment of Jesus Christ will be highly acceptable to God and as a lump of Sugar to sweeten the bitter cup of death to us both This and much more the gracious Soul hath to say for its separation from the Body by which it is easie to discern where the gain and advantage of death lies to all Believers and consequently how much it must be every way their interest to be unbodied Argument II. TO be weary of the Body upon the pure account and reason of our hatred of sin and longing desires after Jesus Christ argues strongly grace in truth and grace in strength it is both the Test of our sincerity and the measure of our attainment and maturity of grace and upon both accounts highly covetable by all the people of God It is so great an evidence of the truth of grace that the Scriptures have made it the descriptive periphrasis of a Christian so we find it in 2 Tim. 4.8 the Crown of life is there promised to all them that love the appearance of Christ i.e. those that love to think of it that delight to steep their thoughts in Subjects belonging to the other World and cast â—â—ny a yearning look that way and 2 Pet. 3.12 they are described to be such as are looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God Their earnest expectations and longings do not only put them upon making all the hast they can to be with Christ but it makes the interposing time seem so tedious and slow that with their most vehement wishes and desires they do what they can to accelerate and hasten it as Rev. 22. Come Lord Iesus come quickly Lovers hours saith the Proverb are full of Eternity O said Mr. Rutherford That Christ would make long strides O that he would fold up the Heavens as an old Cloak and shovel time and days out of the way Such desires as these can spring from none but gracious and renewed Souls for Nature is wholly disaffected to a removal hence upon such Motives and Considerations as these if others wish at any time for death 't is but in a Pet a present passion provoked by some intollerable anguish or great distress of nature But to look and long and hasten to the other World out of a weariness of sin and an hearty willingness to be with Christ it supposes necessarily a deep-rooted hatred of sin abhorring it more than death it self the greatest of natural evils and a real sight of things invisible by the eye of Faith without which it is impossible any mans heart should be thus framed and tempered And as it evidenceth the truth so also the strength and maturity of Grace for alas How many thousands of gracious Souls that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity are to be found quite below this temper of mind O 't is but here and there one among the Lords own people that have reached this height and eminence of Faith and Love it is with the fruits of the Spirit just as it is with the fruits of the earth some are green and raw others are ripe and mellow the first stick fast on the Branches you may shake and shake again and not one will drop or as those fruits that grow in the Hedges with their Coats and Integuments enwrapping them as Nuts c. You may try your strength upon them and sooner break your Nails than disclose and separate them so fast and close do their husks stick to them but when time and the influences of Heaven have ripened and brought them to their perfection the Apples drop into your hands without the least touch and the Nut falls out of its Case of its own accord So much so doth the Soul part from its Body when it is maturated and come to its strength and vigour Argument III. IT may greatly prevail upon the Will and Resolution of a Believer to adventure boldly and chearfully upon Death that our Bodies of which we are bereaved and deprived by death shall be most certainly and advantageously restored to us by the Resurrection The Resurrection of the Dead is the encouragement and consolation of the dying The more our Faith is established in the Doctrine of the Resurrection the more we shall surmount the fears of dissolution If Paul urged it as an Argument to reconcile Philemon to his Servant Onesimus v. 15. That he therefore departed for a season that Philemon might receive him for ever the same Argument may reconcile every Believer to death and take off the prejudice of the Soul against it You shall surely receive your Bodies again and enjoy them for ever Now the Doctrine of the Resurrection is as sure in it self as it is comfortable to us the depth and strength of its foundation fully answers to the height and sweetness of its consolation be pleased to try the two pillars thereof and see which of them may be doubted or shaken Matth. 22.29 You err saith Christ to the Sadduces who denied this Doctrine not knowing the Scriptures and the Power of God this is the ground and root of their error not knowing the Scriptures
these fears accompany many of Gods People from their Regeneration to their Dissolution O what would they not give what would they not do yea what would they not endure to get full satisfaction in those things Every working of Corruption every discovery made by Temptation puts them into a fright and makes them question all that ever was wrought in them And as their fears are great about the inward man so also about the outward man especially when such bloody preparations seem to be making by the same Enemies that have acted such and so many bloody Tragedies already in the World But at death they enter into perfect peace and security Isai 57.2 No wind of fear shall ever ruffle and disturb their Souls and put them into a storm any more 7. From deluding shadows into substantial good This World is the World of Shadows and delusive appearances Here we are imposed upon and baffled by empty and deceitful Vanities All we have here is little else but a Dream at death the Soul awakes out of its Dream and finds it self in the World of Realities where it feeds upon substantial good to satisfaction Psal. 17.15 Now the advantages accrewing to the Soul by death being so great and many though the Medium be harsh and ungrateful in it self yet there is all the reason in the World we should covet it for the benefits that come by it Argument V. THe foretasts we have had of Heaven already in the Body should make all the Saints long to be unbodied for the full and perfect fruition of that Joy seeing it cannot be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the Soul till it hath put off the Body by death That there are Praelibations First-fruits and Earnests of future glory given at certain seasons to Believers in this life is put beyond all doubting not only by Scripture-Testimonies but frequent experiences of God's People I speak not only with the Scriptures but with the clear experience of many Saints when I say there are to be felt and tasted even here in the Body the Earnests of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 The first-fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 The sealing of the Spirit Eph. 1.13 The very Ioy of the Lord 1 Pet. 1.8 of the same kind though in a remisser degree with that of the glorified That the fulness of this joy cannot be in us whilst we tabernacle in Bodies of flesh is as plain When Moses desired a sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do continually behold and adore the Answer was No Man can see my face and live Exod. 33.18 19 20. q. d. Moses Thou askest a great thing and understandest not how unable thou art to support that which thou desirest should I shew thee my Glory in this compounded state thou now art it would confound thee and swallow thee up Nature as now constituted cannot support such a weight of Glory a Ray a glimpse of this light overpowers Man and breaks such a clay Vessel to pieces which is the reason why the Resurrection must intervene betwixt this state and that of the Bodies glorification And it is not to be doubted but one main end and reason why these foretasts of Heaven are given us in the Body is to embolden the Soul to venture through death it self for the full enjoyment of those Delights and Pleasures They are like the Grapes of Eshcol to the faint-hearted Israelites or the sweet Wines of Italy to the Gauls which once tasted made them restless till they had conquered that good Countrey where they grew Rom. 8.23 We which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption viz. The Redemption of our Bodies Well then reflect seriously upon those sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love in your sincere and secret addresses to him and converses with him What an holy forgetfulness of all things in this World hath it wrought How insipid and tastless hath it rendered the sweetest Creature-enjoyments What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it God this way brings Heaven nigh to your Souls out of design to overcome your Reluctancies at death through which you must pass to the enjoyment of it And after all those sights and tastes both of the truth and goodness of that state shall we still reluctate and hang back as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is O you may justly question whether you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ if that taste do not kindle Coals of fire in your Bosomes I mean ardent longings to be with him and to be satiated with his love If you have been priviledged with a taste of thaâ— hidden Manna with the sight of things invisible with Joys unspeakable and full of glory and yet are loth to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows certainly you herein both cross the design of the spirit in giving them and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God as thinking there is more bitterness in death than there is sweetness in his presence Yea it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts that after so many tastes and tryals as you have had you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible O what adoe hath God with his froward and peevish Children If he had only revealed the future state to us in his Word as the pure Object of Faith and required â—s to die upon the meer credit of his promise without such Pawns Pledges and Earnests as these are were there not reason enough for it But after such and so many wonderful and amazing Condescentions wherein he doth as it were say Soul if yet thou doubtest I will bring Heaven to thee thou shalt have it in thy own hand thy eyes shall see it thy hands shall handle it thy Mouth shall taste it how inexcusable is our Reluctancy Argument VI. IT should greatly fortifie the People of God against the fears of Dissolution to consider that death can neither destroy the being of their Souls by Annihilation nor the hopes and expectations they have of blessedness by disappointment and frustration Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death Though all earthly things fail at death upon which account dying is expressed by failing Luke 16.19 Yet neither the Soul nor the well grounded hopes can fail The Anchor of a Believers hope is firm and sure Hebr. 6.18 It will not come home in the greatest Storm that can beat upon the Soul For 1 God hath foreknown and chosen them to Salvation before the World was 1 Pet. 1.2 And this Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 His Decrees are as firm as Mountains of Brass Zâ—ch 6.1 2 God hath justified their persons and therein destroyed the power of death over them 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death
your selves out of this Reluctancy at death by this great Example and Pattern of Obedience Argument XII LAstly Let no Christian be affrighted at death considering that the death of Christ is the death of Death and hath utterly disarmed it of all its destructive power If you tremble when you look upon death yet you cannot but triumph when you look believingly upon Christ. For 1 Christ died O believer for thy sins Rom. 4.25 his death was an expiatory Sacrifice for all thy guilt Gal. 3.13 so that thou shalt not die in thy sins the pangs of death may and must be on thy outward man but the guilt of sin and the Condemnation of God shall not be upon thy inner man 2 The death of Christ in thy room hath utterly destroyed the power of death which once was in the hand of Satan Heb. 2.14 Col. 2.14 15. his power was not authoritative but executive Not as the power of a King but of a Sheriff which is none at all when a Pardon is produced 3 Christ hath assured us that his Victory over death shall be compleat in our persons It is already a compleat personal Victory in respect of himself Rom. 6.9 he dieth no more death hath no more Dominion over him It 's an incompleat Victory already as to our persons It can dissolve the Union of our Souls and Bodies but the Union betwixt Christ and our Souls it can never dissolve Rom. 8.38 39. and as for the power it still retains over our dust that also shall be destroyed at the Resurrection 1 Cor 15.25 26. comp with verses 54 55 56 57. so that there is no cause for any Soul in Christ to tremble at the thoughts of a separation from the body but rather to embrace it as a priviledge death is ours O that these arguments might prevail O that they might at last win the consent of our hearts to go along with death which is the Messenger sent by God to bring us home to our Fathers house But I doubt when all is said we are where we were all this suffices not to overcome the Regrets and Reluctancies of Nature still the matter sticks in our minds and we cannot conquer our disinclined Wills in this matter What is the matter Where lie the Rubbs and Hinderances O that God would remove them at last Object 1. This is a common Plea with many I am not ready and fit to die were I ready I should be willing to be gone Sol. 1 How long soever you live in the Body there will be somewhat still out of order something still to do for you must be in a state of imperfection whilst you remain here and according to this Plea you will never be willing to die 2 Your willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ is one special part of your fitness for death and till you attain it in some good measure you are not so fit to die as you should be 3 If you be in Christ you have a fundamental fitness for death though you may want some circumstantial Preparatives And as to all that is wanting in your sanctification or obedience now it will be compleated in a moment upon your dissolution Object 2. Others plead the desire they have to live is in order to God's further service by them in this World O say they it was David 's happiness to die when he had served his Generation according to the Will of God Acts 13.36 If we had done so too we should say with Simeon ` Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Sol. 1 God needs not your hands to carry on his service in the World he can do it by other hands when you are gone Many of greater Gifts and Graces than you are daily laid in the Grave to teach you God needs no mans help to carry on his Work 2 If the service of God be so dear to you there is higher and more excellent Service for you in Heaven than any you ever were or can be imployed in here on earth O why don't you long to be amidst the thick of Angels and Spirits made perfect in the Temple-Service in Heaven Object 3. O but my Relations in the World lie near my heart what will become of them when I am gone Sol. 1 'T is pity they should lie nearer your hearts than Jesus Christ if they do you have little reason to desire death indeed 2 Who took care of you when death snatcht your dear Relations from you who possibly felt the same workings of heart that you now do Did you not experience the truth of that word Psal. 27.10 When Father and Mother forsaketh me then the Lord taketh me up and if you be in the Covenant God hath prevented this Plea with his Promise Ier. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless Children to me I will keep them alive and let their Widows trust in me But I desire to live to see the felicity of Zion before I go hence Object 4. and the answer of the many Prayers I have sowen for it I am loth to leave the People of God in so sad a condition The publickness of thy Spirit and Love to Zion Sol. is doubtless pleasing to God but it is better for you to be in Heaven one day than to live over again all the days you have lived in earth in the best times that ever the Church of God enjoyed in this World the Promises shall be accomplished though you may not live to see their accomplishment die you in the faith of it as Ioseph did Gen. 50.24 But alas the matter doth not stick here this is not the main hinderance I will tell you where I think it lies 1 In the hesitancy and staggering of our faith about the certainty and reality of things invisible 2 In some special guilt upon the Conscience which appals us 3 In a negligent and careless course of life which is not ordinarily blessed with much evidence or comfort 4 In the deep engagements of our hearts to earthly things they could not be so cold to Christ if they were not overheated with other things Till these Distempers be cured no Arguments can prosper that are spent to this end The Lord dissolve all those ties betwixt us and this World which hinder our consent and willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better And now we have had a glance a glimmering light a faint umbrage of the state of separated Souls of the just in Heaven It remains that I shew you somewhat of the state and case of damned Souls in Hell A dreadful Representation it is but it is necessary we hear of Hell that we may not feel it 1 Pet. iii. ver 19. By which also he went and preached unto the SPIRITS in PRISON IN the former Discourse we have had a view of Heaven and of the Spirits of just men made perfect the Inhabitants of that blessed region of light and glory
enlarged to the uttermost PROP. IV. The wrath indignation and revenge of God poured out as the just reward of sin upon the so capacious Souls of the damned is the principal part of their misery in Hell IN the third Proposition I shew'd you that the Souls of the damned can hold more misery than all the creatures can inflict upon them When the Soul suffers from the hand of man its sufferings are but either by way of sympathy with the Body or if immediately yet it is but a light stroke the hand of a creature can give But when it hath to do with a sin revenging God and that immediately this stroke cuts off the spirit of man as the expression is Psal. 88.16 The Body is the cloathing of the Soul Most of the arrows shot at the Soul in this World do but stick in the cloaths i. e. reach the outward man but in Hell the Spirit of man is the white at which God himself shoots All his envenomed arrows strike the Soul which is after death laid bare and naked to be wounded by his hand At death the Soul of every wicked man immediately falls into the hands of the living God and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.31 Their punishment is from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1.9 They are not put over to their fellow creatures to be punished but God will do it himself and glorifie his power as well as justice in their punishment The wrath of God lies immediately upon their Spirits and this is the fiery indignation which devoureth the adversaries Heb. 10.27 A fire that licks up the very Spirit of man who knoweth the power of his anger Psal. 90.11 How insupportable it is you may a little guess by that expression of the Prophet Nahum 1.5 6. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him And as if anger and wrath were not words of a sufficient edge and sharpness it s called fiery indignation and vengeance words denoting the most intense degree of divine wrath For indeed his power is to be glorified in the destruction of his enemies and therefore now he will do it to purpose He takes them now into his own hands No creature can come at the Soul immediately that is Gods prerogative and now he hath to do with it himself in fury and revenges poured out Can thy hands be strong or thy heart endure when I shall deal with thee Ezek. 22.14 Alas the spirit quails and dies under it This is the Hell of Hells What doleful cries and laments have we heard from Gods dearest children when but some few drops of his anger have been sprinkled upon their Souls here in this world But alas there is no compare betwixt the anger or fatherly discipline of God over the Spirits of his children and indignation poured out from the beginning of revenges upon his enemies PROP. V The separate Spirit of a damned man becomes a tormentor to it self by the various and efficacious actings of its own conscience which are a special part of its torment in the other World COnscience which should have been the sinners curb on earth becomes the Whip that must lash his Soul in Hell Neither is there any faculty or power belonging to the Soul of man so fit and able to do it as his own conscience That which was the seat and centre of all guilt now becomes the seat and centre of all torments The suspension of its tormenting power in this World is a mystery and wonder to all that duely consider it For certainly should the Lord let a sinners conscience flie upon him with rage in the midst of his sins and pleasures it would put them into an Hell upon Earth as we see in the doleful instances of Iudas Spira c. but he keeps an hand of restraint upon them generally in this life and suffers them to sleep quietly by a grumbling or seared conscience which couches by them as a sleepy Lion and lets them alone But no sooner is the Christless Soul turn'd out of the Body and cast for eternity at the bar of God but conscience is rouzed and put into a rage never to be appeased any more It now racks and tortures the miserable Soul with its utmost efficacy and activity The mere presages and forebodeings of wrath by the consciences of sinners in this World hath made them lye with a ghastly paleness in their faces an universal trembling in all their Members a cold sweating horrour upon their panting bosoms like men already in Hell but this all this is but as the sweating or giving of the stones before the great rain falls The activities of conscience especially in Hell are various vigorous and dreadful to consider such are its recognitions accusations condemnations upbraidings shameings and fearful expectations First the consciences of the damned will recognize and bring back the sins committed in this World fresh to their mind for what is conscience but a Register or book of Records wherein every sin is ranked in its proper place and order this act of conscience is fundamental to all its other acts for it cannot accuse condemn upbraid or shame us for that it hath lost out of its memory and hath no sense of Son remember said Abraham to Dives in the midst of his torments This remembrance of sins past mercies past opportunities past but especially of hope past and gone with them never to be recovered any more is like that fire not blown of which Zophar speaks which consumes him or the glistering Sword coming out of his Gall Iob 20.24 c. Secondly It chargeth and accuseth the damned Soul and its charges are home positive and self-evident charges a thousand legal and unexceptionable Witnesses cannot confirm any point more than one Witness in a mans bosome can do Rom 2.15 it convicts and stops their mouths leaving them without any excuse or Apology Just and righteous are the Judgments of God upon thee saith Conscience in all this Ocean of misery there is not one drop of injury or wrong the Judgment of God is according unto truth Thirdly It condemns as well as chargeth and witnesseth and that with a dreadful Sentence backing and approving the â—entence and Judgment of God 1 Iohn 3.21 every self-destroyer will be a self-condemner This is a prime part of their misery Prima est haec ultio Juven Sat. 13. quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur improba quamvis Gratia fallacis Praetoris vicerit urnam Fourthly The upbraidings of Conscience in Hell are terrible and insufferable things to be continually hit in the teeth and twitted with our
all the city cryed out When Paul tooâ— his leave of Antioch and told them they should see his face no more how did the poor Christians lament and mourn as cut at the heart by that killing word Acts 20.37 38. It made Christs bowels to yearn and roll within him when he saw the multitude scatter'd as sheep having no shepherd Matth. 9.36 Matthew Paris tells us in the year 1072. when preaching was supprest at Rome Letters were then framed as coming from Hell wherein the Devil gave them thanks for the multitude of Souls sent to him that year but we need no Letters from Hell we have a sad account from Heaven in what a sad state those Souls are left from whom the means of Salvation are cut off Where no vision is the people perish Prov. 29.18 and Hosea 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge 'T is sad when those Stars that guide Souls to Christ as that which the Wise-men saw did are set and wandring Stars shall shine in their places O if God remove the golden Candlestick out of its place what but the desolation and ruine of millions of Souls must follow We account it insufferable cruelty for a man to undertake the pilotting of a Ship full of Passengers who never learnt his Compass or an ignorant Empirick to get his living by killing mens bodies but much more lamentable will the state of Souls be if ever they fall which God in mercy prevent into the hands of Popish Guides or blind Leaders of the blind Inference VII IF the Soul be of so precious a Nature it can never live upon such base and vile food as earthly things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quod à nobis rejectum projicitur canibus The Apostle Phil. 3.8 9 calls the things of this World Dogs meat and judge if that be proper food for such noble and high-born Creatures as our Souls are An immaterial Being can never live upon material things they are no bread for Souls as the Prophet speaks Isa. 55 2. Why do ye spend money i. e. time and pains thoughts and cares for that which is not bread Your Souls can no more live upon carnal than your bodies can upon spiritual things Earthly things have a double defect in them by reason whereof they are called things of nought Amos 6.13 of no worth or value they are neither suitable nor durable and therefore in the Souls eye not valuable 1. They are not suitable What are Corn and Wine Gold and Silver Pleasures and Honours to the Soul The body and bodily senses can find somewhat of refreshment in them but not the Spirit that which is bread to the body affords no more nourishment to the Soul than wind or ashes Isa. 44.20 Cinis est crassior illa materia in quam combustum redigitur He feedeth of ashes Ashes are that light and dry matter into which fuel is reduced by the fire the fuel before it was burnt had nothing in it fit for nourishment or if the sap or juice that was in it might in any respect be useful that way yet all that is devoured and lickt up by the fire and not the least nutriment left in the ashes and such are all earthly things to the Soul of man I am the bread of life saith Christ. A Soul can feed and feast it self upon Christ and the Promises these are things full of marrow and fatness substantial and proper Soul-nutriment 2. As earthly things are no way suitable to the Soul so neither are they durable The Apostle reduceth all earthly things to three Heads the lusts of the Eye the lusts of the Flesh and the pride of Life 1 Ioh. 2.16 he calls them all by the name of that which gives the lustre and beauty to them and pronounceth them all fading transitory vanities they all pass away as time so these things that are measured by time are in fluxu continuo always going and at last will be all gone Now the Soul being of an immortal Nature and these things of a perishing nature it must necessarily and unavoidably follow that the Soul must overlive them all and if it will do so what a dismal case are those Souls in for whom no other provision is made but that on which it cannot subsist whilst it hath them no more than the body can upon ashes or wind and if it could yet they will shortly fail it and pass away for ever So then it is beyond debate that there lies a plain necessity upon every man to make provision in time of things more suitable and durable than earthly treasures are or the Soul must perish as to its comfort to all Eternity Hence is that weighty counsel of him that came to save them Luke 12.33 Provide your selves bags that wax not old a treasure in Heaven that saileth not i. e. an happiness which will last as long as your Souls last Certainly the moth-eaten things of this World are no proâ—â—sion for immortal Spirits and yet multitudes think of â—â—â—ther provision for them but live as if they had nothing to do in this World but to get an Estate Alas what are all these things to the Soul They signifie somewhat indeed to the body and that but for a little time for after the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints become spiritual in their qualities and no more need these material things than the Angels do 'T is madness therefore to be so intent upon cares for the body as to neglect the Soul but to ruine the soul and drown it in perdition for the sake of these provisions for the flesh is the height of madness Inference VIII IF the Soul be so invaluably precious then it is a rational and well advised resolution and practice to expose all other things to hazard yea to certain less for the preservation of the more precious Soul 'T is better our bodies and all their comforts should perish than that our Souls should perish for their sakes Nature it self teacheth us to offer an hand or arm to the stroke of a Sword to save a blow from the head or put by a thrust at the heart It is recorded to the praise of those three Worthies Dan. 3.28 That they yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God By this rule all the Martyrs of Christ governed themselves still slighting and exposing to destruction their bodies and Estates to preserve their Souls reckoning to save nothing by Religion but their Souls and that they had lost nothing if they could save them They loved not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 Then do we live like Christians when the cares of our bodies are swallowed up and subdued by the cares of our Souls and all Creature-loves by the love of Christ those blessed Souls hated their own bodies and counted them their enemies when they would draw them from Christ and his Truths
and plunge their Souls into guilt and danger This was the result of all their debates with the flesh in the hour of temptation Cannot we live but to the dishonour of Christ and ruine of our own Souls by sinful compliance against our Conscienceâ— then welcome the worst of deaths rather than such a life Look into the stories of the Martyrs and you shall find this was the rule they still governed themselves by a Dungeon a Stake a Gibbet any thing rather than guilt upon the inner man death was welcome even in its most dreadful form to escape ruine to their precious and immortal Souls One kissed the Apparitor that brought him the tidings of his death Another being advised when he came to the critical point on which his life depended to have a care of himself So I will said he I will be as careful as I can of my best self my Soul These men understood the value and precious worth of their own Souls and certainly we shall never prove couragious and constant in sufferings till we understand the worth of our Souls as they did Consider and compare these sufferings in a few obvious particulars and then determine the matter in thine own breast 1. How much easier it is to endure the torments of men in our bodies than to feel the terrors of God in our Consciences Can the Creature strike with an arm like God O think what it is for the wrath of God to come into a mans bowels like water and like oyl into his bones as the expression is Psal. 109.18 Sure there is no compare betwixt the strokes of God and men 2. The sufferings of the body are but for a moment When the Proconsul told Polycarp that he would tame him with fire he replied Your fire shall burn but for the space of an hour and then it shall be extinguished but the fire that shall devour the wicked will never be quenched the sufferings of a moment are nothing to eternal sufferings 3. Sufferings for Christ are usually sweetned and made easie by the consolations of the Spirit but Hell-torments have no relief they admit of no ease 4. The life you shall live in that body for whose sake you have damned your Souls will not be worth the having it will be a life without comfort light or joy and what is there in life separate from the joy and comfort of life 5. In a word if you sacrifice your bodies for God and your Souls freely offer them up in love to Christ and his Truth your Souls will joyfully receive and meet them again at the Resurrection of the Just but if your poor Souls be now ensnared and destroyed by their fond indulgence to their bodies you will leave them at death despairing and meet them at the Resurrection howling Inference IX TO conclude If the Soul be so invaluably precious how great and irreparable a loss must the loss of a Soul to all Eternity be There is a double loss of the Soul of man the one in Adam which loss is recoverable by Christ the other by final impenitence and unbelief cutting it off from Christ and this is irreparable and irrecoverable Souls lost by Adams sin are within the reach of the arms of Christ but in the shipwrack of personal infidelity there is no plank to save the Soul so cast away Of all losses this is the most lamentable yet what more common O what a shrlek doth the unregenerate Soul make when it sees whereto it must and that there is no remedy Three cries are dreadful to hear on Earth yet all three are drown'd by a more terrible cry in the other World The cry of a condemned Prisoner at the Bar the cry of drowning Seamen and Passengers in a shipwrack the cries of Souldiers conquer'd in the field all these are fearful cries yet nothing to that of a Soul cast away to all Eternity and lost in the depth of Hell If a man as Chrysostome well observes lose an eye an arm a hand or leg it is a great loss but yet if one be lost there is another to help him for omnia Deus dedit duplicia God hath given us all those members double animam verò unam but we have but one Soul and if that be damned there is not another to be saved And it is no small aggravation to this loss that it was a wilful loss We had the offers and means of Salvation plentifully afforded us we were warn'd of this danger over and over we were intreated and beseecht upon the knee of importunity not to throw away our Souls by an obstinate rejection of Christ and Grace we saw the diligence and care of others for the salvation of their Souls some rejoycing in the comfortable assurance of it and others giving all diligence to make their calling and election sure we knew that our Souls were as capable of blessedness as any of those that are in enjoying God in Heaven or panting after that enjoyment on Earth yea some Souls that are now irrecoverably gone and many others who are going after them once were and now are not far from the Kingdom of God they had convictions of sin a sense of their lost and miserable state they began to treat with Christ in Prayer to converse with his Ministers and People about their condition and after all this even when they seemed to have clean escaped the snares of Satan to be again intangled and overcome when even come to Harbours mouth to be driven back again and cast away upon the Rocks O what a loss will this be O thou that createdst Souls with a capacity to know love and enjoy thee for ever who out of thine unsearchable Grace â—entest thine own Son out of thy bosom to seek and save that which was lost pity those poor Souls that cannot pity themselves let mercy yet interpose it self betwixt them and eternal ruine awaken them out of their pleasant slumber though it be at the brink of damnation lest they perish and there be none to deliver them DOCT. II. How precious and invaluable soever the Soul of man is it may be lost and cast away for ever This Proposition is supposed and implied in our Saviours words in the Text and plainly expressed in Matth. 7.13 Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat The way to Hell is throng'd with Passengers 't is a beaten rode one draws another along with him and scoffs at those that are afraid to follow 1 Pet. 4.4 Facilis descensus Averni 't is pleasant sailing with the Wind and Tide Infernus ab inferendo dicitur quia ita inferuntur praecipitantur â—t nunquam ascensuri sint Some derive the word Hell from a Verb which signifies to carry or thrust in millions go in but none return thence millions are gone down already and millions more are coming after as fast as Satan and their own lusts can
as Grace doth Cheat not your selves therefore in so important a concern as Salvation is with an empty shadow 3. Civility is not only found in multitudes that are out of Christ but may be the cause and reason why they are Christless Mistake not I am not pleading the Cause of Prophaneness nor disputing Civility out of the world I heartily wish there were more of it to be found in every place it would exceedingly promote the peace order and tranquility of the world but yet it is certain that the eyes of thousands are so dazled with the lustre of their own Morality that they see no need of Christ nor feel any want of his Righteousness and this is the ruine of their Souls Thus Christ brings in the Pharisee with his proud boast that he is no Extortioner Adulterer nor unjust or such an one as that Publican Luke 18.11 O what a Saint doth he vote himself when he compared his life with the others Well then beware you be not deceived by thinking you are safe because you are got out of the dirty road to Hell when all the while you are only stept over the hedge into a cleaner path to damnation You have had a short account of some few of those many ways in which the precious Souls of men are eternally lost let us briefly apply it in the following Inferences Inference I. IF there be so many ways of losing the Soul and such multitudes of Souls lost in every one of them then the number of saved Souls must needs be exceeding small The number of the saved may be considered either absolutely or comparatively In the first consideration they appear great and many even a great multitude which no man can number Rev. 7.9 but if compared with those that are lost they make but a small remnant Isa. 1.9 a little flock Matt. 12.32 For when we consider how vastly the Kingdom of Satan is extended who is called the God of this World from the world of people who are in subjection to him how small a part of this earthly Globe is enlightned with the beams of Gospel-light and that Satan is the acknowledged Ruler of all the rest Eph. 6.12 But when it shall be farther considered that out of this spot on which the light of the Gospel is risen the far greatest part are lost also O what a poor handful remains to Jesus Christ as the Purchace of his Blood 'T is of trembling consideration how many thousands of Families amongst us are meer Nurseries for Hell Parents bringing forth and breeding up Children for the Devil not one word of God except it be in the way of blasphemy or prophaneness to be heard among them How naturally their ignorant and wicked Education puts them in the course and tide of the world which carries them away irresistibly to Hell How one sinner confirms and animates another in the same sinful course till they be all past hope or remedy How the rich are taken with the baits of sensual pleasures and the poor lost in the brake of distracting worldly cares except here and there a Soul pluckt out of the snare of the Devil by the wonderful power and arm of God On the one side you may see multitudes drowned in open prophaneness and debauchery and on the other side many thousands securely sleeping in the state of Civility and Morality Some key-cold and without the least sense of Religion others Hell-hot with blind zeal and superstitious madness against true Godliness and the sincere Practitioners of it Some living all their days under the Ordinances of God and never touched with any conviction of their sin or misery others convinced and making some faint offers at Religion but their convictions like blossoms nipt with a frosty morning fall off and no fruit follows And as Rubies Saphires and Diamonds are very few in comparison of the Pebbles and common stones of the Earth so are true Christians in comparison of multitudes that perish in the snares of Satan Inference II. HOW little reason have the Vnregenerate to glory and boast themselves in their earthly acquisitions and successes whilst mean time their Souls are lost they have gotten other things but lost their Souls 'T is strange to see how some men by rolling a small Fortune up and down the World as Boys do a Snow-ball have increased the heap and raised a great Estate they have attained their design and aim in the world and hug themselves in the pleased thoughts of their happiness but alas among all the thoughts of their gains there is not one thought of what they have lost O if such a thought as this could find room in their hearts I have indeed gotten an Estate but I have lost my Soul I have much of the world but nothing of Christ Gold and Silver I have but Grace peace and pardon I have not my body is well provided for but my Soul is naked empty and destitute such a thought like the Sentence written on the wall would make their hearts quail within them What a rapture and transport of joy did the sight of a full Barn cast that Worldling into Luke 12.19 20. Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry little dreaming that death was just then at the door to take away the cloth guest and all together that the next hour his Friends would be scrambling for his Estate the Worms for his body and the Devils for his Soul O how many have not only lost their Souls whilst they have been drudging for the world but have sold their Souls to purchase a little of the world parted by consent with their best treasure for a very trifle and yet think they have a great bargain of it Surely if poor sinners did but apprehend what they have lost as well as what they have gained their gains would yield them as little comfort as Iudas his money did for which he sold both his Soul and Saviour Instead of those pleasing Frolicks of wanton Worldlings what a cold shiver would run through all their bones and bowels did they but understand what it is to lose a gracious God and a precious Soul and both eternally and irrecoverably The just God remains still to avenge and punish the sinner but the favour of God that friendly look is gone the peace of God that Heaven upon Earth is gone the Essence of the Soul remains still but its purity peace joy hope and happiness these are gone and these being gone what can remain but a tormenting piercing sight of those things for which you have sold them Inference III. HEnce let us estimate the evil of sin and see what a dreadful thing that is which men commonly sport themselves with and make so light of it is not only a wrong and injury to the Soul but the loss and utter ruine of the Soul for ever It is said Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul And if this were all the mischief sin did
us it were bad enough a wrong to the Soul is a greater evil than the ruine of the body or estate and all the outward enjoyments of this life can be but to lose the precious Soul and destroy it to all Eternity O who can estimate such a loss Now the result and last effect of sin is death the death of the precious Soul Rom. 6.21 The end of those things is death So Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye Sin doth not destroy the Being of the Soul by annihilation but it doth that which the damned shall find and acknowledge to be much worse it cuts off the Soul from God and deprives it of all its felicity joy and pleasure which consists in the enjoyment of him Such is dolefulness and fearfulness of this result and issue of sin that when God himself speaks of it he puts on a passion and speak of it with the most feeling concernment Ezek 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked turn ye turn ye for why will ye dye O house of Israel q. d. why will ye wilfully cast away your own Souls why will ye chuse the pleasures of sin for a season at the price of my wrath and fury poured out for ever O think upon this you that make so light a matter of committing sin We pity those who in the depth of melancholy or desperation lay violent hands upon themselves and in a desperate mood cut their own throats but certainly for a man to murder his own Soul is an act of wickedness as much beyond it as the value of the Soul is above the body Inference IV. WHat an invaluable Mercy is Iesus Christ to the World who came on purpose to seek and to save such as were lost In Adam all were shipwrackt and cast away Christ is the plank of Mercy let down from Heaven to save some The loss of Souls by the Fall had been as irrecoverable as the loss of the fallen Angels had not God in a way above all humane thoughts and counsels contrived the method of their Redemption 'T is astonishing to consider the admirable Harmony and glorious Triumph of all the Divine Attributes in this great project of Heaven for the recovery of lost Souls 'T is the wonder of Angels 1 Pet. 1.21 the great Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 the matter and burden of the triumphant Song of redeemed Saints Rev. 1.5 and well it may when we consider a more noble Species of Creatures finally lost and no Mediator of reconciliation appointed betwixt God and them this is to save an earthen Pitcher whilst the Vessel of Gold is let fall and no hand stretched out to save it But what is most astonishing is that so great a Person as the Son of God should come himself from the Futhers bosom to save us by putting himself into our room and stead being made a Curse for us Gal. 3 13. he leaves the bosom of his Father and all the ineffable delights of Heaven disrobes himself of his Glory and is found in fashion as man yea becomes as a worm and no man submits to the lowest step and degree of abasement to save lost sinners What a low stoop doth Christ make in his Humiliation to catch the Souls of poor sinners out of Hell Herein was love that God sent his own Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Ioh. 4.10 and so God loved the world Ioh. 3.16 at this rate he was content to save lost sinners How seasonable was this work of Mercy both in its general Exhibition to the World in the Incarnation of Christ and in its particular Application to the Soul of every lost sinner by the Spirit When he was first exhibited to the world he found them all as lost sheep gone astray every one turning to his own way Isa. 53.6 he speaks of our lost estate by Nature both collectively or in general we all went astray and distributively or in particular every one turned to his own way and then in the fulness of time a Saviour appeared And how seasonable was it in its particular application How securely were we wandering onwards in the paths of destruction fearing no danger when he graciously opened our eyes by conviction and pulled us back by heart-turning Grace No Mercy like this it 's an astonishing act of Grace that stands alone Inference V. IF there be so many ways to Hell and so few that escape it how are all concerned to strive to the uttermost in order to their own Salvation In Luke 13.23 a certain person proposed a curious question to Christ Lord are there few that be saved He saw a multitude flocking to Christ and thronging with great zeal to hear him and he could not conceive but Heaven must fill proportionably to the numbers he saw in the way thither but Christs answer ver 24. at once rebukes the curiosity of the Questionist fully solves the question propounded and sets home his own duty and greatest concernment upon him It rebukes his curiosity and is as if he should say Be the number of the saved more or less what is that to thee strive thou to be one of them It fully solves the question propounded by distinguishing those that attend upon the means of Salvation into Seekers and Strivers In the first respect there are many who by a cheap and easie profession seek Heaven but take them under the notion of Strivers i. e. persons heartily ingaged in Religion and who make it their business and so they will shrink up into a small number and it presseth home his great business and concern upon him Strive to enter in at the strait gate By Gate understand whatsoever is introductive to Blessedness and Salvation By the Epithet strait understand the difficulties and severities attending Religion all that suffering and self-denial which those that are bound for Heaven must count and cast upon And by striving understand the diligent and constant use of all those means and duties how hard irksom and costly soever they be The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a deep sense and Emphasis and imports striving even to an agony and this duty is enforced two wayes upon him and every man else first by the indisputable Soveraignty of Christ from whom the command comes and also from the deep interest and concern every Soul hath in the commanded duty It is not only a simple compliance with the will of God but what also involves our own Salvation and eternal Happiness in it our great duty and our great interest are twisted together in this command your eternal happiness depends upon the success of it A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully i. e. successfully and prevalently O therefore so run so strive that ye may obtain If you have any value for your Souls if you would not be miserable to Eternity strive strive Believe it you will find that the assurance of Salvation
grave and necessary Caution of the Poet Sumite materiam vestris qui scribitis â—quam viribus versate diù quid ferre recusent quid valeant humeri Horace to wield and poise the burden as Porters use to do before I undertook it Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius as some may do me for undertaking the Controversie of that Age because saith he Non habet satis humerorum his shoulders are too weak for it And yet I know mens labours prosper not according to the art and elegancy of the composure but according to the divine blessing which pleaseth to accompany them Ruffinus tells us of a learned Philosopher at the Council of Nice who stoutly defended his Thesis against the greatest Witts and Scholars there and yet was at last fairly vanquished by a man of no extraordinary parts of which Conquest the Philosopher gave this candid and ingenuous account Against words said he I opposed words and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of speaking But when instead of words power came out of the mouth of the Speaker words could no longer withstand truth nor man oppose the power of God O that my weak endeavours might prosper under the like influence of the Spirit upon the hearts of them that shall read this inartificial but well-meant Discourse I am little concerned about the Contempts and Censures of fastidious Readers I have resolved to say nothing that exceeds Sobriety nor to provoke any man except my dissent from his unproved Dictates must be his provocation Perhaps there are some doubts and difficulties relating to this Subject which will never be fully solved till we come to Heaven For Man by the Fall being less than himself doth not understand himself nor will ever perfectly do so until he be fully restored to himself which will not be whilst he dwells in a Body of sin and death And yet it is to me past doubt that this as well as other Subjects might have been much more cleared than it is if instead of the proud Contendings of masterly Wits for Victory all had humbly and peaceably applied themselves to the impartial search of truth Truth like an Orient Pearl in the bottom of a River would have discovered it self by its native lustre and radiancy had not the feet of Heathen Philosophers cunning Atheists and daring School Divines disturbed and foul'd the stream 2. And as the difficulties of the Subject are many so many have been the interruptions and Avocations I have met with whilst it was under my hand Which I mention for no other end but to procure a more favourable Censure from you if it appear less exact than you expected to find it Such as it is I do with much respect and affection tender it to your hands humbly requesting the blessing of the Spirit may accompany it to your hearts If you will but allow your selves to think close to the matter before you I doubt not but you may find somewhat in it apt both to inform your minds and quicken your affections I know you have a multiplicity of business under your hands but yet I hope your great concern makes all others daily to give place and that how clamorous and importunate soever the Affairs of this World be you both can and do find time to sit alone and bethink your selves of a much more important business you have to do My Friends we are Borderers upon Eternity we live upon the Confines of the Spiritual and Immaterial World We must shortly be associated with bodyless Beings and shall have after a few days are past no more concerns for Meat Drink and Sleep buying and selling Habitations and Relations than the Angels of God now have Beside we live here in a State of Tryal Man as Scaliger fitly calls him is Utriusque Mundi nexus one in whom both Worlds do meet his Body participates of the lower his Soul of the upper World Hence it is he finds such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward both Worlds as it were contending for this invaluable prize the precious Soul All Christs Ordinances are instituted and his Officers ordained for no other use or end but the Salvation of Souls Books are valuable according to their Conducibility to this end How rich a Reward of my Labours shall I account it if this Treatise of the Soul may but promote the Sanctification and Salvation of any Readers Soul To your hands I first tender it It becomes your Property not only as a Debt of Justice the fulfilling of a Promise made you long since upon your joynt and earnest desires for the publication of it but as an acknowledgment of the many Favours I have received from you to one of you I stand obliged in the Bond of Relation and under the sense of many Kindnesses beyond whatever such a degree of Relation can be supposed to exact You have here a succinct account of the Nature Faculties and Original of the Soul of Man as also of its infusion into the Body by God without intitling himself to the guilt and sin resulting from that their Union You will also find the breath of your Nostrils to be the Nexus Tie or Bond which holds your Souls and Bodies in a personal Union and that whilst the due Crasis and Temperament of the Body remains and Breath continues your Souls hang as by a weak and slender thread over the state of a vast Eternity in Heaven or in Hell Which will inform you both of the value of your breath and the best way of improving it whilst you enjoy it The Immortality of the Soul is here asserted proved and vindicated from the most considerable Objections so that it will evidently appear to you by this Discourse you do not cease to be when you cease to breathe And seeing they will over-live all Temporal Enjoyments they must necessarily perish as to all their Joys Comforts and Hopes which is all the Death that can be incident to an Immortal Spirit if they be not in the proper season secured and provided of that never-perishing food of Souls God in Christ their Portion for ever Here you will find the Grounds and Reasons of that strong inclination which you all feel them to have to your Bodies and the necessity notwithstanding that of their divorce and separation from their beloved Bodies and that it would manifestly be to their prejudice if it should be otherwise And to overcome the unreasonable Aversations of Believers and bring them to a more becoming chearful submission to the Laws of death whensoever the Writ of Ejection shall be served upon them You will here find a representation of that blessed life comely order and most delightful employment of the incorporeal People inhabiting the City of God wherein beside those sweet Meditations which are proper to feast your hungry affections you will meet with divers unusual though not vain or unuseful Questions stated and resolved which will be a grateful entertainment
viz. 1. That God infused it yet infused not sin into it p. 41 2. Knit it to the Body by our breath about which 4 things are opened 1. What breath is p. 70 2. Its Instruments p. 71 3. It s feebleness p. 73 4. Its Improvements p. 74 5. It s love to the Body both in the 1. Evidences of it viz. 1. Its Cares about it p. 136 2. Fears of it p. 137 3. Sympathy with it p. 138 4. Reluctancies at death p. 139 5. Inclinations to Re-union p. 140 And 2 Causes 1. Propriety in it as its Instrument 1. Of Pleasure p. 143 2. Of Service p. 143 2. Consuetude with it as its antient Companion p. 142 3. Partnership both in Redemption and in Glory p. 143 6. The Necessity of its separation grounded upon 1. The Law of God whose equity is cleared with respect to 1. The Godly p. 169 2. The Ungodly p. 169 2. The Providence of God moulding our frame suitably to the Law of our Mortality p. 169 A View of the Soul as separated considered three ways in this Table of Death First In its general Nature as a Soul separated four ways viz. 1. The Nature of Separation and that both 1. Mental and Intellectual the usefulness of which is shewed p. 192 2. Real and Physical and that either 1. In â—ieri its foregoing pains p. 195 2. In facto esse its dividing stroke p. 196 2. The Notices and Signs of approaching death where 1. The Reasons against it are weighed p. 250 2. The Evidences for it are produced p. 253 3. The Changes made by separation both upon 1. The Body visibly p. 193 2. The Soul more considerably in several respects p. 199 4. The Souls ability both to exist and act when separate proved 1. By its understanding some things now without Phantasms or help of the Body p. 205 2. The Absurdities of the contrary Hypothesis p. 207 Secondly As a Soul in Christ In eight Particulars viz. 1. The proper Season of its separation which is not 1. Till the Work of Sanctification be wrought out upon it p. 208 2. Till the whole Work of Obedience be finished by it p. 209 3. And then it goes with all its graces and Comforts with it p. 209 2. The Ministry of Angels at the time of Separation 1. Not out of pure Necessity as though it could not ascend to God without them p. 203 2. But to grace and adorn that day p. 204 3. Their Residence after death opened both 1. Negatively 1. They wander not up and down the World p. 211 2. They abide not about our Graves p. 212 3. They are not detained in Purgatory p. 212 4. They fall not into a Swoon or sleep p. 21â— 2. Positively they ascend to God immediately for 1. Heaven is ready for them p. 21â— 2. They are ready for it p. 214 3. Scriptures are for it p. 214 4. Nothing in reason against it p. 214 4. The life of holy separate Souls in respect of their 1. Pleasure which transcends 1. All the Sensitive pleasure here p. 218 2. All the Intellectual pleasure here p. 219 3. All the Spiritual Pleasure here p. 221 2. Knowledge which is 1. More perfect in degree p. 223 2. More easie in its acquisition p. 224 3. Communion with God which 1. Excels that here in ten Respects p. 227 2. Admits a double change p. 232 5. The Idea of a Soul in Glory p. 242 6. The Apparitions of departed Soulâ— where 1. The Arguments for it are produced p. 260 2. Concessions about it laid down p. 266 3. Reasons against it urged and Objections answered p. 270 7. The Discourse and Speech of the Spirits of the just 1. That they do Converse in Heaven 2. Yet without words or sound 1. More clear p. 274 c. 2. More quick p. 274 c. 3. By an act of the Will which is 8. Their desires of Re-union where 1. The Reasons against it are weighed p. 282 2. The Arguments proving it produced p. 284 Thirdly As a damned Soul in two things 1. The Idea or Representation of a damned Soul in respect of 1. The place where its Tormentâ— p. 334 2. The Misery what its Tormentâ— p. 345 3. The Instrument its Tormentâ— p. 346 4. The Aggravations of its Tormentâ— 2. The Various Methods of destroying precious Souls 1. By Satan 2. By Men. p. 398 3. By themselves 3. The only season of Salvation noted and pressed upon all p. 450 CORRIGENDA SOme mistakes have escaped the Press for which the Readers Charity is desired in a very hasty review some are noted as E. G. Pag. 33. l. 12. dele that p. 90. l. 6. for its r. his p. 98. l. 4. r. relaxed p. 108. l. 9 dele more p. 140. l. 11. for put r. pull p. 215. l. 1. add of p. 220. l. penult after Boy add to p. 241. l. 15. for sense r. suspence p. 243. l. 13. for lovely r. lonely p. 298. l. 22. add Separations p. 324. l. 17. for being r. bring GENESIS II. vers vii And the Lord formed Man out of the dust of the Ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and Man became a living Soul THree things saith * Triâ— sunt quae secundum essentiam hominibus sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus Angâ—lus anima hominis Athanas. in Tract de deâ—â—â— Athanasius are unknown to men according to their Essence viz. God Angels and the Souls of men Of the Nature of the Divine and high-born Soul we may say as the learned †Quari facilius est quam intelligi mâ—liâ—s intelligitur quâ—m explicatur Whitaker doth of the way of its infection by Original sin It is easier sought than understood and better understood than explicated And for its Original the most fagacious and renowned for wisdom amongst the ancient * Plato doubted Aristotle denyed and Galen derided the Doctrine of the Worlds Creation Philosophers understood nothing of it It is said of Democrituâ— that there is †Nihil est in toto opificio naturae de quo non scripsit Democritus And for Aristotle they stiled him Regula Naturae naturae Miratulam ipsa eruditio Sol scientiaerum Antistes literarâ—â— sapientiae Lactantius lib. 3. cap. 17 18. nothing in the whole workmanship of Nature of which he did not write and in a more lofty and swelling Hyperbole they stile their Eagle-eyed Aristotle the Rule yea and Miracle of Nature Learning it self the very Sun of knowledge Yet both these are not only said but proved by Lactantius to be learned Ideots How have the Schools of Epicurus and Aristotle the Cartesians and other Sects of Philosophers abused and troubled the world with a kind of Philosophical Enthusiasm and a g 〈…〉 many ridiculous phancies about the Original of the Soul of Man And when all is done three words of God by the pen of his inspired Moses Veritatem quaerit Philosophia invenit Theologia Jo. Piâ—us Mirand enlightens us
their own trembling and condemning Consciences There would not be so many pale sweating affrighted Consciences on Earth and in Hell if the Will had any command or power over them Tam frigida mens est Criminibus tacitâ sudaâ—t praecordia culpâ 'T is an horrible sight to see such a trembling upon all the members such a cold Sweat upon the panting bosom of a self-condemned and wrath-presaging Soul in which it can by no means relieve or help it self These things are exempt from the liberty and dominion of the Will of man but notwithstanding these exemptions it is a noble faculty and hath a vastly extended Empire in the Soul of man It is the door of the Soul at which the spirit of God knocks for entrance When this is won the Soul is won to Christ and if this stand out in rebellion against him he is barr'd out of the Soul and can have no saving union with it The truth of grace is to be judged and discerned by its compliance with his call and the measure of Grace to be estimated by the degree of its subjection to his Will VII The Soul of man is not only endued with an Vnderstanding 7 Furnished with various Affections and Passions and Will but also with various Affections and Passions which are of great use and service to it and speak the excellency of its nature They are originally designed and appointed for the happiness of man in the promoting and securing his chiefest good to which purpose they have a natural aptitude For the true Happiness and Rest of the Soul not being in it self nor in any other creature but in God the Soul must necessarily move out of it self and beyond all other created Beings to find and enjoy its true felicity in him The Soul considered at a distance from God its true Rest and happiness is furnished and provided with desire and hope to carry it on and quicken its motion towards him These are the arms it is to stretch out towards him in a state of absence from him And seeing it is to meet with many obstacles Enemies and difficulties in its course which hinder its motion and hazzard its fruition of him Passio animae nihil aliud est quam motus apâ—etitivae virtutis in prosecutione boni vel fugâ— mali God hath planted in it Fear Grief Indignation Iealousie Anger c. to grapple with and break through those intercurrent difficulties and hazzards By these weapons in the hand of grace it conflicts with that which opposes its passage to God as the Apostle expresseth that holy fret and passion of the Corinthians and what a fume their souls were in by the gracious motion of the irascible appetite 2 Cor. 7.11 For behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Much like the raging and strugling of Waters which are interrupted in their course by some dam or obstacle which they strive to bear down and sweep away before them But the Soul considered in full union with and fruition of God its supream Happiness is accordingly furnished with the affections of Love Delight and Ioy whereby it rests in him and enjoys its proper blessedness in his presence for ever Yea even in this life these affections are in an imperfect degree exercised upon God according to the prelibations and enjoyments it hath of him by faith in its way to Heaven In a word The true uses and most excellent ends for which these affections and passions are bestowed upon the Soul of man are to qualifie it and make it a fit subject to be wrought upon in a moral way of perswasions and allurements in order to its union with Christ for by the affections as Mr. Fenner rightly observes the Soul becomes marriageable or capable of being espoused to him and being so then to assist it in the prosecution of its full enjoyment in Heaven as we heard but now But alas how are they corrupted and inverted by sin The concupiscible appetite greedily fastens upon the Creature not upon God and the irascible appetite is turned against holiness not sin But I must insist no farther on this subject here it deserves an intire Treatise by it self VIII 8 And an inclination and love to the Body The Soul of man hath in the very frame and nature of it an inclination to the body There is in it a certain Pondus or inclination which naturally bends or sways it towards matter or a body There are three different Natures found in living Creatures viz. 1. The Brutal 2. The Angelical 3. The Humane 1. The Soul of a Brute is wholly confined to and dependent on the matter or body with which it is united It is dependent on it both in esse in operari In its being and working it is but a material form which rises from and perisheth with the body The Soul of a Brute Lord Chief Justice Hale in his Treatise de Animâ— p. 56. saith a great Person is no other than a fluid bodily Substance the more lively subtil and refined part of the blood called spirit quick in motion and from the Arteries by the branches of the Carotides carried to the Brain and from thence conveyed to the Nerves and Muscles moves the whole frame and mass of the body and receiving only certain weak impressions from the Senses and of short continuance hindred and obstructed of its work and motion vanishes into the soft Air. 2. An Angel is a Spirit free from a body and created without an appetite or inclination to be imbodied The Stoicks call the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souly substances And the Peripateticks formas abstractas abstract forms They are Spirits free from the fetters and cloggs of the body * Angelus est anima perfecta anima est Angelus imperfectus Bell de Ascen mentis An Angel is a perfect Soul and an Humane Soul an imperfect Angel Yet Angels have no such rooted disaffection and abhorrence of a body but that they have and can in a ready obedience to their Lords commands and delight to serve him assume bodies for a time to converse with men in them i.e. Aerial Bodies in the figure and shape of humane bodies So we read Gen. 18.2 three men i.e. Angels in humane shape and appearance stood by Abraham and talked with him and at Christs Sepulchre Luke 24. There appeared two men in shining garments But they abide in these bodies as we do in an Inn for a night or short season they dwell not in them as our souls in those houses of flesh which we cannot put on and off at pleasure as they do but as we walk in our garments which we can put off without pain 3. The humane Soul is neither wholly tyed to the body as the brutal soul is nor
Iohn saw II. Next he tells us what he heard and that was 1. A vehement Cry from those Souls to God 2. A gracious Answer from God to them 1. The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth A cry like that from the blood of Abel Yet let it be remembred 1 This cry doth not imply these holy Souls to be in a restless state or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the Body noâ— yet 2 that they carried with them to Heaven any malevolent or revengeful disposition but that which is principally signified by this Cry is their vehement desire after the abolition of the Kingdom of Satan and the Completion and Consummation of Christs Kingdom in this World That those his Enemies which oppose his Kingdom by slaying his Saints may be made his footstool which is the same thing Christ waits for in glory Heb. 10.13 2. Secondly Here we find Gods gracious Answer to the cry of these Souls in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways 1. By somewhat given them for present 2. By somewhat promised them hereafter 1. That which he gives them in hand White Robe were given to every one of them It is generally agreed that these white Robes given them denote heavenly Glory the same which is promised to all sincere and faithful ones who preserve themselves pure from the corruptions and defilements of the World Revel 3.4 and it is as much as if God should have said to them Although the time be not come to satisfie your desires in the final ruine and overthrow of Satans Tyrannical Kingdom in the World and Christs consummate Conquest of all his Enemies yet it shall be well with you in the mean time you shall walk with me in white and enjoy your glory in Heaven 2 And this is not all but the very things they cry for shall be given them also after a little season q. d. wait but a little while till the rest that are to follow in the same suffering path be got through the red-Sea of Martyrdome as you are and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his Enemies and justice shall fully avenge the precious innocent blood of all the Saints which in all Ages hath been shed for my sake from the blood of Abel to the last that shall ever suffer for Righteousness sake in the World From all which this Conclusion is most fair and obvious DOCTRINE THat the Souls of men perish not with their Bodies but do certainly over-live them and subsist in a state of separation from them Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments but their Souls were out of the reach of all those cruel Engines They were in safety under the Altar and in glory cloathed with their white Robes when the Bodies they lately inhabited on earth were turned to ashes and torn to pieces by wild Beasts The point I am to discourse from this Scripture is the immortality of the Soul for the better understanding whereof let it be noted that there is a twofold Immortality I. Simple and absolute in its own Nature II. Derived dependent and from the pleasure of God In the former Sense God only hath Immortality as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 our Souls have it as a gift from him He that created our Souls out of nothing can if he please reduce them to nothing again but he hath bestowed Immortality upon them and produced them in a nature suitable to that his appointment fitted for an everlasting life So that though God by his absolute power can yet he never will annihilate them but they shall and must live for ever in endless Blessedness or Misery Death must destroy these mortal Bodies but it cannot destroy our Souls And the certainty of this assertion is grounded upon these reasons and will be cleared by these following Arguments Argument I. THe first Argument for proof of the Souls Immortality may be taken from the Simplicity Spirituality and uncompoundedness of its Nature It is a pure simple unmixed Being * Interitus est discessus Secretio direptuâ— earum partium qâ—ae conjuctione aliqua tenebaâ—tur Tâ—lly Death is the Dissolution of things compounded where therefore no composition or mixture is found no death or dissolution can follow Death is the great Divider but it is of things that are divisible The more simple pure and refined any material thing is by so much the more permanent and durable it is found to be The nearer it approacheth to the nature of Spirits the farther it is removed from the power of death but that which is not material or mixed at all is wholly exempt from the stroke and power of death It is from the contrariant qualities and jarring humours in mixed Bodies that they come under the Law and power of dissolution Matter and Mixture are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the Creatures But the Soul of man is a simple spiritual immaterial and unmixed Being not compounded of matter and form as other Creatures are but void of matter and altogether Spiritual as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty which cannot be straitned by receiving multitudes of Truths into it It need not empty it self of what it had received before to make way for more truth nor doth it find it self clogg'd or burthened by the greatest multitudes or varieties of Truths but the more it knows the more it still desires to know It s capacity and appetite are found to inlarge themselves according to the increase of knowledge So that to speak as the matter is if the Knowledge of all Arts Sciences and Mysteries of Nature could be gathered into the mind of one man yet that mind would thirst and even burn with desire after more knowledge and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt and relished the sweetness of truth Knowledge as Knowledge never burthens or cloys the mind but like fire increases and enlarges as it finds more matter to work upon Now this could never be if the Soul were a material Being Take the largest Vessel and you shall find that the more you pour into it the less room is still left for more and when it is full you cannot pour in one drop more except you let out what was in it befoâ—e But the Soul is no such Vessel it can retain all it had and be still receptive of more so that nothing can fill it and satisfie it but that which is infinite and perfect The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it 〈◊〉 not but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimiâ—â—d it never
death these witnesses of the spirit are Delusions and his earnests are given us but in jest 3 His Comforting work is a sweet fruit and effect sensibly felt and tasted by believers in this World He is from this Office stiled the Comforter Iohn 16.7 signanter eminenter He so comforts as no other doth or can And what is the matter of his comforts but the Blessedness to come the joys of the coming World Iohn 16.13 Eye hath not seen c. Upon the account of these unseen things he enableth believers to glory in tribulations Rom. 5.4 to despise present things whether the smiles or the frowns of the World Heb. 11.24 and v. 26. But if the being of our Souls fail at death these are but the Phantastick joys of men in a dream and the experiences of all Gods people are found but so many fond conceits and gross mistakes 5. This supposition overthrows the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is the consolation of Christians We according to the Scripture believe that after death hath divorced our Souls and Bodies for a time they shall meet again and be re-united and that the joy at their re-union will be to all that are in Christ greater than the sorrows they felt at parting This seems not incredible to us what ever natural improbabilities and carnal reasons may be against it Acts 26.8 And that because the Almighty power which is able to subdue all things to himself undertakes this task Philip. 3.21 We believe this very same numerical Body shall rise again Iob 21.27 by the return of the same Soul into it which now dwelleth in it and that we shall be the same persons that now we are The remunerative justice of God requiring it to be so We believe the Souls of the righteous shall be much better accommodated and have a more comfortable habitation in their Bodies than now they have 1 Cor. 15.42 43. seeing they shall be made like unto Christ's glorious Body Phil. 3.21 And that then we shall live after the manner of Angels Luke 20.16 without the necessities of this animal life These are the things we look for according to promise and this expectation is our great relief against 1 the fears of death 1 Cor. 15.55 2 against the death of our Friends and Relations 1. Thes. 4.14 3 against all the pressures and afflictions of this life Iob 19.25 26 27. But if the being of our Souls fail at death all hopes and comforts from the Resurrection fail with it for it is not Imaginable that the body should rise till it be revived nor how it should be revived but by the re-union of the Soul with it and if it be not the same Soul that now inhabits it we cannot be the same persons in the Resurrection we are now and consequently this supposition subverts not only the Doctrine of the Resurrection but 6 It overthrows also the faith of the Iudgment to come For if the Soul perish the Body cannot rise or if it rise by a new created Soul the person raised is another and not the same that lived and dyed in this World and consequently the rewards and punishments to be bestowed and awarded to all men in that day cannot be just and equal for we believe according to the Scriptures that 1 The actions which men perform in this life are not transient but are filed to their account in the world to come Gal. 6.7 here we sow and there we reap Actions done in this World are two ways considerable viz. Physically or Morally in the first consideration they are transient in the last permanent and everlasting A word is spoken or an Act done in a moment but though it be past and gone and perhaps by us quite forgotten God registers it in his Book in order to the day of account 2 We believe that God hath appointed a day in which all men shall appear before his judgment seat to give an account of all they have done in the Body whether it be good or evil 2. Cor. 5.10 3 And that in order hereunto the very same persons shall be restored by the Resurrection and appear before God the very same Bodies and Souls which did good or evil in this World shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Justice requires that the rewards and punishments be then distributed to the same persons that did good or evil in this World which strongly infers the immortality of the Soul and that it certainly overlives the Body and must come back from the respective places of their abode to be again united to them in order to their great account By all which you see the clearest proof of the Souls Immortality and how the contrary supposition overthrows our Faith Duties and Comforts Yet all this notwithstanding how apt are we to suspect this Doctrine and remain still dis-satisfyed and doubting about it when all is said which comes to pass partly from 1 the subtilty of Satan who knows he can never perswade men to live the life of Beasts till he first perswade them to think they shall dye as the Beasts do and partly from the influence of Sense and Reason upon us whereby we do too much suffer our selves to be swayed and imposed upon in matters of greatest moment in Religion For these being proper Arbiters and Judges in other matters within their Sphere they are arrogant and we easy enough to admit them to be Arbiters also in things that are quite above them hence come such plausible objections as these Object 1. The Soul seems to vanish and dye when it leaves the Body for when it hath strugled as long as it can to keep its possession in the Body and at last is forced to depart we can perceive nothing but a puff of breath which immediately vanishes into air and is lost Sol. We cannot perceive therefore it is nothing but what we do and can perceive viz. a puffe of vanishing breath By this argument the being of the Soul in the Body is as questionable as after its departure out of the Body for we cannot discern it by sight in the Body yea by this Argument we may as well deny the existence of God and Angels as of Souls for it is a spiritual and invisible being as they are our gross senses are incapable of discerning Spirits which are immaterial and invisible substances Object 2. But you allow the Soul to have a rise and beginning it is not eternal à parte antà and it is certain what ever had a beginning must have an end Every thing which had a beginning may have an end Sol. and what once was nothing may by the power that created it be reduced to nothing again But though we allow it may be so by the absolute power of God we deny the consequence that therefore it shall and must be so Angels had a beginning but shall never have an end And indeed their Immortality as well as ours
which you could never have come to the knowledge of any other way those that are without it are gropeing or feeling after God in the dark Acts 17.27 Poor Souls are conscious to themselves that there is a just and terrible God and that their sins offend and provoke him but how to atone the offended Deity they know not Mica 6.6 7. But the way of Reconciliation and life is clearly discovered to us by the Gospel 2 As it manifests and reveals Eternal life to us so it frames and moulds our hearts as Gods sanctifying Instrument for the enjoyment of it 'T is not only the Instrument of Revelation but of Salvation the word of life as well as the word of light Philip. 2.16 It can open your hearts as well as your eyes and is therefore to be entertained as that which is the first rank of Blessings a peerless and inestimable Blessing Inference VIII IF our Souls be immortal certainly our enemies are not so formidable as we are apt by our sinful fears to represent them They may when God permits them destroy your Bodies they cannot touch or destroy your Souls Matth. 16.28 As to your Bodies no enemy can touch them till there be leave and permission given them by God Iob 1.10 The Bodies of the Saints as well as their Souls are within the line or hedge of Divine Providence They are securely fenced sometimes mediately by the ministry of Angels Psal. 34.7 And sometimes immediately by his own hand and power Zech. 2.5 As to their Souls whatever power Enemies may have upon them when divine permission opens a gap in the hedge of Providence for them yet they cannot reach their Souls to hurt them or destroy them but by their own consent They can destroy our perishing flesh it is obnoxious to their malice and rage they cannot reach home to the Soul no Sword can cut asunder the band of Union betwixt them and Christ they would be dreadful Enemies indeed if they could do so Why then do we tremble and fear at this rate as if Soul and Body were at their mercy and in their power and hand The Souls of those Martyrs were in safety under the Altar in Heaven they were cloathed with white Robes when their Bodies were given to be meat to the Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Earth The Devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the Saints he tears the nest but the bird escapes he cracks the Shell but loseth the Kernel Two things make a powerful defensative against our fears 1 That all our Enemies are in the hand of Providence 2 That all providences are steered by that promise Rom. 8.28 Inference IX IF Souls be Immortal Then there must needs be a vast difference betwixt the aspects and influences of death upon the Godly and Vngodly O if Souls would but seriously consider what an alteration death will make upon their condition for evil or for good how useful would such meditations be to them 1 They must be disseized and turned out of these houses of Clay and live in a state of separation from them of this there is an inevitable necessity Eccles. 8.8 'T is in vain to say I am not ready ready or unready they must depart when their lease is out 'T is as vain to say I am not willing for willing or unwilling they must be gone there 's no hanging back and begging Lord let death take another at this time and spare me for no man dies by a Proxy 2 The time of our Souls departure is at hand 2 Pet. 1.13 14. Iob 16.22 The most firm and well built body can stand but a few days but our ruinons Tabernacles give our Souls warning that the day of their departure is at hand The lamp of life is almost burnt down the glass of time almost run yet a few a very few days and nights more and then time nights and days shall be no more 3 When that most certain and near approaching time is come wonderful alterations will be made on the state of all Souls Godly and Ungodly 1 A marvellous alteration will then be made on the Souls of the Godly For 1 no sooner is the dividing stroak given by death and the parting pull over but they shall find themselves in arms of Angels mounting them through the upper Regions in a few moments far above all the aspectable Heavens Luke 16.22 The airy Region is indeed the place where Devils inhabit and have their haunts and walks but Angels are the Saints Convoy through Satans Territories from the arms of mourning Friends into the welcome arms of officious and benevolent Angels 2 from the sight and converses of men to the sight of God Christ and the general assembly of blessed and sinless Spirits The Soul takes its leave of all men at death Isa. 38.11 Farewell vain World with all the mixed and imperfect comforts of it and welcome the more sweet suitable and satisfying company of Father Son and Spirit holy Angels and perfected Saints Heb. 12.23 3 From the bondage of corruption to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom so much is implied Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of just men made perfect 4 From all fears doubtings and questionings of our conditions and anxious debates of our title to Christ to the clearest fullest and most satisfying assurance for what a man sees how can he doubt of it 5 From all burdens of affliction inward and outward under which we have groaned all our days to everlasting rest and ease 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3. O what a blessed change to the righteous must this be 2 A marvellous change will also be then made upon the Souls of the ungodly who shall then part from 1 all their comforts and pleasant enjoyments in the World for here they had their consolation Luke 16.25 here was all their Portion Psal. 17.14 And in a moment find themselves arrested and seized by Satan as Gods Gaoler hurrying them away to the prison of Hell 1 Pet. 3.19 There to be reserved to the judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. 2 From under the means of Grace Life and Salvation to a state perfectly void of all means instruments and opportunities of Salvation Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 never to hear the joyful sound of preaching or praying any more never to hear the wooing voice of the blessed Bridegroom saying Come unto me come unto me any more 3 From all their vain ungrounded presumptuous hopes of Heaven into absolute and final desperation of mercy The very sinews and nerves of hope are cut by death Prov. 14.32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death These are the great and astonishing alterations that will be made upon our Souls after they part with the Bodies which they now inhabit O that we who cannot but be conscious to our selves that we must overlive our Bodies were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into after that separation which is
at hand Inference X. IF our Souls be Immortal Then death is neither to be feared by them in Heaven nor hoped for by them in Hell The being of Souls never fails whether they be in a state of blessedness or of misery O mors dulcis es quibus amara fuisti te solum desiderant qui te solum oderunt August In glory they are ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4.17 There shall be no death there Revel 21.4 And in Hell though they shall wish for death yet death shall flee from them Though there be no fears of annihilation in Heaven yet there be many vain wishes for it in Hell but to no purpose there never will be an end put either to their being or to their torments In this respect no other Creature is capable of the misery that wicked men are capable of when they die there is the end of all their misery but it is not so with Men. Better therefore had it been for them if God had created them in the basest and lowest order and rank of Creatures a Dog a Toad a Worm is better than a Man in endless misery ever dying and never dead And so much of the Souls Immortality TEXT Ephesians V. 29. For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church HAving given some account of the Nature and Immortality of the Soul we next come to discourse its Love and Inclination to the Body with which it is united from this Text. The scope of the Apostle is to press Christians to the exact Discharge of those Relative Duties they owe to each other particularly he here urgeth the mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives v. 22. Wives to an Obedient Subjection Husbands to a tender Love of their Wives This Exhortation he enforceth from the intimate Union which by the Ordinance of God is betwixt them they being now one Flesh and this Union he illustrates by comparing it with 1. The Mystical Union of Christ and the Church 2. The Natural Union of the Soul and Body And from both these as excellent Examples and Patterns he with great strength of Argument urgeth the Duty of Love v. 28. So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself Self-love is naturally implanted in all Men and it is the Rule by which we measure out and dispense our Love to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self This Self-love he opens in this place by 1. The Universality of it 2. The effects that evidence it 1 The Universality of it No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh. By Flesh understand the Body by a usual Metonymy of a part for the whole called Flesh. By hating it understand simple hatred or for hatred it self 'T is usual for Men to hate the Deformities and Diseases of their own Bodiâ—s and upon that account to deal with the Members of their own Bodies as if they hated them hence it is they willingly stretch forth a gangren'd Leg or Arm to be cut off for the preservation of the rest but this is not simple hatred of a Mans Self but rather an Argument of the strength of the Souls Love to the Body that it will be content to endure so much Pain and Anguish for its sake And if the Soul be at any time weary of and willing to part not with a single Member only but with the whole Body and loaths its Union with it any longer yet it hates and loaths it not simply in and for it self but because it is so filled with Diseases all over and loads the Soul daily with so much Grief that how well soever the Soul loves it in it self yet upon such sad Terms and Conditions it would not be tied to it This was Iob's Case Iob 10.1 My Soul is weary of my Life yet not simply of his Life but such a Life in Pain and Trouble Except it be in such Respects and Cases No Man saith he ever yet hated his own Flesh i. e. No Man in his right Mind and in the Exercise of his Reason and Sense for we must except Distracted and Delirious Men who know not what they do as also Men under the Terrors of Conscience when God suffers it to rage in Extremity as Spira and others who would have been glad with their own Hands to have cut the Thred that tied their miserable Souls to their Bodies Supposing that way and by that Change to find some relief Either of these Cases forces Men to act beside the stated Rule of Nature and Reason 2 This Love of the Soul to the Body is further discovered by the effects which evidence it viz. It s Nourishing and Cherishing the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Two comprize the Necessaries for the Body viz. Food and Rayment The first signifies to nourish with proper Food the latter to warm by Cloathing as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered Iames 2.16 to which the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers Iob 31.20 The Care and Provision of these things for the Body evidences the Souls Love to it DOCTRINE That the Souls of Men are strongly inclined and tenderly affected towards the Bodies in which they now dwell THE Souls Love to the Body is so strong natural and inseparable that it is made the Rule and Measure by which we dispence and proportion our Love to others Matth. 19.19 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And the Apostle Gal. 5.14 tells us that the whole Law i.e. the Second Table of the Law is fulfilled or sum'd up in this Precept Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self The meaning is not that all and every one who is our Neighbour must be equally near to us as our own Bodies but it intends 1. The Sincerity of our Love to others which must be without Diâ—â—â—mulation for we dissemble not in Self-love 2. That we be as careful to avoid injuring others as we would our selves Matth. 7.12 To do by others or measure to them as we would have done or measured unto us for which Rule Severus the Heathen Emperour honoured Christ and Christianity and caused it to be written in Capital Letters of Gold 3. That we take direction from this Principle of Self-Love to measure out our Care Love and Respects to others according to the different degrees of nearness in which we stand to them As 1. The Wife of our Bosome to whom by this Rule is due our first Care and Love as in the Text. 2. Our Children and Family 1 Tim. 5.8 3. To all in general whether we have any Bond of Natural Relation upon them or no but especially those to whom we are Spiritually related as Gal. 6.10 And indeed as every Christian hath a right to our Love and Care above other Men so in some Cases we are to exceed this Rule of Self-love by a transcendent act of Self-denyal for them 1 Iohn 3.16
is generally a burthened and a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 In this Tabernaele we groan being burthened Here the Saints feel 1 A burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 this is a dead and a sinking weight 2 A burthen of Affliction of this all are Partakers Hebr. 12. though not all in an equal degree or in the same kind yet all have their burthens equal to and even beyond their own strength to support it 2 Cor. 1.8 pressed above measure 3 A burthen of inward troubles for sin and outward Troubles in the Flesh both together so had Iob Heman David and many of the Saints Certainly this befals them not 1 Casually Iob 5.6 It rises not out of the Dust 2 Nor because God loves and regards them not for they are fruits of his love Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he correcteth 3 Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans Lamen 3. To tread under his feet the Prisoners of the earth the Lord hath no pleasure 'T is not for his own pleasure but his Childrens profit Heb. 12.10 And among the prâ—fits that result from these burthens this is not the least to make you less fond of the body than you would else be and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest And certainly all the Diseases and Pains we endure in the Body whether they be upon inward or outward accounts by Passion or Compassion from God or Men will be found but enough to wean us and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life Afflictions are bitter things to our taste Ruth 1.20 so bitter that Naomi thought a name of a contrary signification fitter for her afflicted condition Call me Marah i. e. bitter not Naomi pleasant beautiful And the Church Lam. 3.19 calls them Wormwood and Gall. The great design of God in afflicting them is the same that a tender Mother projects in putting Wormwood to her Breast when she would wean the Child It hath been observed by some discreet and grave Ministers that before their remove from one place to another God hath permitted and ordered some weaning Providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them which not only makes the manner of their departure more easie but the grounds of it more clear Much so it falls out in our natural death the comfort of the World is imbittered to us before we leave it The longer we live in it the less we shall like it We overlive most of our Comforts which engaged our hearts to it that we may more freely take our leave of it It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such Providences as these and answer the Designs of them in a greater willingness to die 1. Is thy Body which was once hail and vigorous now become a crazy sickly pained body to thee neither useful to God nor comfortable to thee a Tabernacle to groan and sigh in And little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper God hath ordered this to make thee willing to be divorced from it The less desireable life is the less formidable death will be 2. Is thy Estate decayed and blasted by Providence so that thy life which was once full of Creature-Comforts is now fill'd with Cares and Anxieties O 't is a weaning Providence to thee and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the World farewel The less comfort it gives you the less it should entangle and engage you We little know with what aking hearts and pensive breasts many of Gods people walk up and down though for Religion or Reputations sake they put a good face upon it but by these things God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better State 3. Is an Husband a Wife or dear Children dead and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust Why this the Lord sees necessary to do to perswade you to come after willingly 'T is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth that thou maist fall the more easily O how many stroaks must God give at our Names Estates Relations and Health before we will give way to the last stroak of death that fells us to the ground 4. Do the times frown upon Religion Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand Are desireable Assemblies scattered Nothing but Sorrows and Sufferings to be expected in this World By these things God will imbitter the earth and sweeten Heaven to his People 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian Society defaced and decayed That Communion which was wont to be Pithy Substantial Spiritual and Edifying becomes either frothy or contentious so that thy Soul hath no pleasure in it This also is a weaning Providence to our Souls Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus Theologorum odiis from the Wranglings and Contentions that were in his time Our fond affection to the Body requires all this and much more to wean and mortifie them Inference IV. HOW Comfortable is the Doctrine of the Resurrection to Believers which assures them of receiving their Bodies again though they part with them for a time Believers must die as well as others their Union with Christ priviledges them not from a Separation from their Bodies Rom. 8.10 Heb. 9.27 But yet they have special grounds of Consolation against this doleful separation above all others For 1. Though they part with them yet they part in hopes of receiving them again 1 Thessal 4.13 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die Husbandmen cast their Seed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly because they part with it in hope so should we when we commit our Bodies to the earth at death 2. Though death separate these dear Friends from each other yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ Luke 20.37 38. I am the God of Abraham c. Your very dust is the Lords and the Grave rots not the Bond of the Covenant 3. The very same Body we lay down at death we shall assume again at the Resurrection Not only the same specifical but the same Numerical Body Iob 19.25.26 With these eyes shall I see God 4. The unbodied Soul shall not find the want of its Body so as to afflict or disquiet it nor the Body the want of its Soul but the one shall be at rest in Heaven and the other sweet asleep in the Grave and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence The time will be long Iob 14.12 but if it were longer it cannot be afflicting considering how the Soul is cloathed immediately 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and how the Body sleeps sweetly in Jesus 1 Thess. 4.14 5. When the day of their re-espousals is come the Soul will find the Body so transformed and improved that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more but a singuler addition to its Happiness and Glory Now it clogs us
death a terrible meeting again at the Resurrection and horrid reflections upon each other mutually charging their ruine upon each other to all eternity Whilst they that are in Christ part in hope meet with joy and bless God for each other for evermore TEXT 2 Peter 1.13 14. Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in Remembrance Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me AT the tenth verse of this Chapter The Apostle sums up his foregoing precepts and exhortations in one great and most important duty the making sure of their calling and election This exhortation he enforceth on them by a most solemn and weighty motive ver 11. Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom No work of greater necessity or difficulty than to make sure our Salvation no argument more forceable and prevalent than an easy and free enterance into Glory at death an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet and comfortable dissolution to enter the Port of glory before a wind with our full ladeing of comfort peace and joy in believing our Sails full and our Streamers flying Oh how much better is this than to lye Wind-bound I mean heart-bound at the Harbours mouth tost up and down with fears doubts and manifold temptations making many a board to fetch the harbour for so much is signified in his figurative and allusive expression v. 11. And for their encouragement in this great and difficult work he ingageth himself by promise to give them all the assistance he can whilst God should continue his life and knowing that would be but a little while he resolves to use his utmost endeavour to secure these things in their Memories after his death that they might not dye with him This is the general scope and order of the words Wherein more particularly we have I. His exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work II. The consideration stimulating and provoking him thereunto I. His Exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work in which two things are remarkable viz. 1 The quality of his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excitare expergesacere i. e. mentes vestras tanquam do mitantes ac torpescentes c. Poli Synopsis which was to stir them up by putting them in remembrance to keep the heavenly flame of love and zeal lively upon the Altar of their hearts He well knew what a sleepy disease the best Christians are troubled with and therefore he had need to be stirring them up and awakening them to their duty 2 The constancy of his work as long as I am in this Tabernacle i. e. as long as I live in this World The Body is here called a Tabernacle in respect of its moveableness and frailty and in opposition to that house made without hands eternal in the Heavens And it is observeable how he limits and bounds his serviceableness to them by his commoration in his Tabernacle or Body as well knowing after death he could be no longer useful to them or any others in this World Death puts an end to all our ministerial usefulness but till that time he judged it meet and becoming him to be aiding and assisting their faith Our life and labour must end together II. We have here the Motive or consideration stimulating and provoking him to this diligence knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle even as the Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me in which words he gives an account of 1 The speediness 2 Necessity 3 Voluntariness of his death and the way and means by which he knew it All these must be considered singly and apart and then valued altogether as they amount to a weighty Argument or Motive to excite him to diligence in his his duty 1. He reflects upon the speediness or near approach of his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brevi suturum Every Christian knows not the time of his death as Peter did by special Revelation But though we know it not by a word spoken to us in particular we know it by a word written for all in common Eccles. 9.5 the living know that they must die I must shortly put off this my Tabernacle which is a form of Speech of the same importance with that of Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 The time of my departure is at hand my time in the Body is almost at an end 2. The necessity of his death it is not I may but I must put off this my Tabernacle yea I must put it off shortly for so the Lord had shewed him Christ had signified it expresly to him Iohn 21.18 19. And besides this most Expositors think this clause refers to some special vision or Revelation which Peter had of the time and manner of his own death so that besides the natural necessity or the inevitableness of his death by the law of Nature he was certified of it by special Revelation We have here also 3. The voluntariness of his death for voluntariness is consistent enough with the necessity of the event Deponere dicit ut significet se voluntariè mortem obiturum esse pro Christo. Pool I must put off or lay down my Tabernacle he saith not I must be torn or rent by violence from it but I must depose or lay it down Camero will have the word here used for death properly to signifie the laying down of ones Garments he made no more of putting off his Body than his Garments Upon the consideration of the whole matter the speediness of his death which he knew to be at hand the Necessity of it that when it came he must be gone from them and could be no more useful to them and his own inclination to be with Christ in a better state being as willing to be gone as a weary Traveller to be at home he judged it meet or becoming him as he was called of Christ to feed his sheep as he was gifted extraordinarily for the Churches service full of spiritual excellencies all which in a short time would be taken away from them by death I say upon all these accounts he could not but judge it meet to be stirring them up and every way striving to be as useful as he might Hence the Note will be DOCT I. How sâ—rong soever the Affections and inclinations of Souls are to the fleshly Tabernacles they now live in yet they must put them off and that speedily (1) The certaintâ— of death Ioâ— 16.22 Anni numeri i. e. qui numerati sunt adeo ut brevissimi periodo circumscripti THE point lies very plain before us in the Scriptures That is a remarkable expression we have in Iob 16.22 When a few years are come I shall go the way whence I shall not return in the Hebrew it is when the years of number or my numbred years are come years so numbred that they are circumscribed in
protract stop or call back one minute of time O what is Man that the heavenly bodies should be wheel'd about by Almighty power in constant Revolutions to beget time for him Psal. 8.3 2 More precious are the Seasons and Opportunities that are in time for our Souls those are the golden spots of time like the pearl in the Oyster shell of much more value than the shell that contains it There is much time in a short opportunity There is a day on which our Eternal happiness depends Luke 19.41 42. Hebr. 4.7 3 Invaluable are the things which God doth for mens Souls in time There are works wrought upon mens hearts in a seasonable hour in this life which have an Influence into the Souls happinness throughout Eternity There is a time of mercy a time of love viz. Of Illumination and Conversion and on that point of time Eternal life hangs in the whole weight of it 4 Lost opportunity is never to be recovered by the Soul any more Ezek. 24.13 Revel 22.11 To come before the opportunity is to come before the Bird be hatch't and to come after it is to come when the Bird is flown There is no calling back time when it is once past See this in the Examples you find Luke 13.26 Eccles. 9.10 5 It is wholly uncertain to every Soul whether the present day may not determine his Lease in this Tabernacle and a writ of Ejection be served by death upon his Soul tomorrow Iames 4.13 Luke 12.20 6 As soon as ever time shall end Eternity takes place The stream of time delivers Souls daily into the boundless Ocean of vast Eternity Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas We are now measured by time hereafter by eternity 7 In Eternity all things are fixed and unalterable We have no more to do all means and works are at an end Iohn 9.4 and Eccles. 11.3 As the Tree falls so it lies O that these weighty Considerations might lie upon your hearts as long as you are in these Tabernacles If they did 1 The Unregenerate would not so desperately hazard their eternal happiness by trifling away their precious Seasons under the Gospel O how many aged sinners gray-headed sinners hear me this day who in fifty or sixty years never redeemed one solemn hour to take their poor Souls aside out of the clutter and distracting noise of the World to ask and debate this question with them O my Soul how stands the case with thee in reference to the World to come They have found no time to bethink themselves in what World their Souls shall be landed when time shall deliver them up into Eternity Their whole life hath been but a continual diversion from one trifle to another They have been serious in trifles and trifled in things most serious this will afford horrid reflections in the World to come 2 The Regenerate would not cast away the comfort of their lives in the Evidences of eternal life at so cheap a rate as they do May I not say to you as the Apostle doth Hebr. 5.12 for the time you have had under the Gospel you might have attained a rich treasure both of Grace and Comfort Turpe est senex elementarius Is it not shameful and inexcusable to be where you were twenty years past O let these things sink deep into every Soul Inference IV. MUst we shortly put off these our Tabernacles Then slack your pace and cool your selves be not too eager in the prosecution of earthly Designs O what Bustling is here for the World and for provisions for futurity when as far less would serve the turn We need not victual a Ship to cross the Chanel to France as if she were bound to the Indies Most mens Provisions at least their cares and thoughts are far beyond the preparations of their Abode in this World The folly of this Christ discovers in that Parable Luke 12.19 and on this very account gives him the Title of a Fool who provided for years many years when poor soul he had not one night to enjoy those Provisions O the multitude of thoughts and cares this World needlessly devours We keep our selves in such a continual hurry and crowd of cares thoughts and imployments about the concerns of the Body that we can find little time to be alone communing with our own hearts about our great Concernments in Eternity It is with many of us in respect of our Souls and their great Interests as it is with a man that is deep in thoughts about some Subject that wholly swallows him up he seeth not what he seeth nor heareth what he heareth of any other matter His eyes seem to look upon this or that but it 's all one as if he did not So it was with Archimedes who was so intent in drawing his Mathematical Scheams that though all the City was in an Allarm the Enemy had taken it by Storm the Streets filled with dreadful cries and dead Bodies the Soldiers came into his particular house nay entred his very study and pluckt him by the sleeve before he took any notice of it Even so many mens hearts are so profoundly immersed and drowned in earthly cares thoughts projects or pleasures that death must come to their very houses yea and pull them by the sleeve and tell them its Errand before they will begin to awake and come to a serious consideration of things more important Inference V. IF we must shortly put off these Tabernacles Then the groaning and mourning time of Believers is but short How heavy soever their burden be yet they shall carry it but a little way It 's said 2 Cor. 5 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened Good Souls in this State are every where groaning under heavy pressures Their burdens are of two sorts Sympathetical whereby they grieve with and on the account of others and so every true member of the Church of God ought to sympathize both with God Psal. 1 39.21 Am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee Psal. 42.10 it is as with a Sword in their bones and with the people of God Zeph 3.18 sorrowful for the solemn Assembly so 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is offended and I burn not And indeed it is an Argument of rich as well as true grace that we can and do heartily mourn with and for the Interest and People of God though our own lot in the World as Nehemiah's be never so comfortable Or else our burdens are Idiopathetical i. e. such as we bear upon our own proper account and score And where is the Christian that hath not his own burden yea many burthens on him at once Some groan under the burden of sin Rom. 7.24 Scarce one day are the tears off some eye-lids on this account And who groans not under the burden of affliction either inward upon the Soul Prov. 18.14 Iob 6.1 2 3. or outward upon the Body State Relations c. These things make the people
in point of knowledg concerning that great Question What is God Thus no man hath seen or can see God in this World Even Moses himself could not so see God Exod. 33.18 19 20. But the Spirits of the just made perfect have satisfying apprehensions though no perfect comprehensions of the Divine Essence 2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which they here rackt their thoughts upon but could not penetrate in this life There they will know what is to be known of the Union of the two Natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel and the manner of the subsistence of each person in the most glorious and undivided God-head Iohn 14.20 The several Attributes of God will then be unfolded to our understandings for his Essence and Attributes are not two things Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. O what ravishing sight will this be The mysteries of the Scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then Curiosity it self will be there satisfied 3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face will be infinitely more sweet and ravishingly plasant than any or all the views we had of him here by Faith ever were or possibly could be There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of Faith 1 Pet. 1.8 But it comes far short of the facial vision Who can tell the full importance of that one Text Rev. 22.4 The Throne of the Lamb shall be in it and they shall see his face O for such a Heaven said one as but to look through the key-hole and get one glimpse of that lovely face Earth cannot bear such sights This light overwhelms and confounds the inadequate faculties of imperfect and embodied Souls But there it is lumen confortans a chearing strengthening pleasant light as the light of the Morning star Rev. 2.28 4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative We there see him as our own God and portion Without a clear interest in him the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying Sight without interest is like the light of a gloworm light without heat All doubts and objections are solv'd and answer'd in the first sight of this blessed face 5. To conclude This perfect and most comfortable knowledge is attained without labour by the separate Soul Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains How many weary hours and aking heads did the acquisition of a little knowledg stand us in But then it flows in upon the Soul easily It was the Saying of a great Vsurer I once took much pains to get a little meaning the first stock but now I get much without any pains at all O lovely state of separation That Body which interposed clog'd and clouded the willing and capable Spirit being drawn aside as a Curtain by death the light of glory now shines upon it and round about it without any inâ—erception or lett PROP. XI The separated Souls of the Iust do live in a more high and excellent way of Communion with God in his Temple-worship in Heaven than ever they did in the sweetest Gospel-Ordinances and most Spiritual Duties in which they conversed with him here on Earth THAT Saints on earth have real Communion with God and that this Communion is the joy of their hearts the life of their life and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience as well as clearly revealed in the Word that there can remain no doubt about it among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of Religion This Communion with God is of that precious value with Believers that it unspeakably endears all those Duties and Ordinances to them which as means and instruments are useful to maintain it At death the people of God part with all those precious Ordinances and Duties they being only designed for and fitted to the present state of imperfection Eph. 4.12 13. but not at all to their loss no more than it is to his that loses the light of his candle by the rising of the Sun A Candle a Star is comfortable in the Night but useless when the Sun is up and in it's meridian Glory Christian Pray much hear much and drive as profitable a trade as thou canst among the Ordinances of God and duties of Religion For the time is at hand that you shall serve and wait on God no more this way But yet think not your Souls shall be discharged from all Worship and Service of God when you dye No you will find Heaven to be a Temple built for worship and the worship there to be much transcendent to all that in which you were here employ'd The Sanctuary was a pattern of Heaven in this very respect Heb. 9.23 And on this very account it is called Sion in my Text and the heavenly Ierusalem as denoting a Church-state and the spiritual Worship there performed by the Spirits of just men made perfect Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof by comparing it with that Worship and Service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them In this they agree that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to one and the same Object Father Son and Spirit all centers and terminates in God They also agree in the general quality and common Nature they are both spiritual Worship But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and other as will be manifest in the following collation 1. All our Worship on Earth is performed and transacted by Faith as the instrument and mean thereof Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe c. In Heaven Faith ceaseth and sight takes place of it 1 Cor. 5.7 There we see what here we only believe There are now before us Ordinances Scriptures Ministers and the Assemblies of Saints in the places of worship but if we have any communion with God by or among these we must set our selves to believe those things we see not By realizing and applying invisible things we here get sometimes and with no small pains a taste of Heaven and a transient glance of that glory In this service our Faith is put hard to it it must work and fight at once Resolutely act whilst sense and reason stand by contradicting and quarrelling with it And if with much ado we get but one sensible touch of Heaven upon our Spirits if we get a little spiritual warmth and melting of our affections towards God we call that day a good day and it is so indeed But in Heaven all things are carried at an higher rate the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour or pains of ours to procure it We may say of it there as the Prophet speaks of the dew and showres upon the grass Which tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men
and admit the dreadful conclusion These are the last and therefore oft-times the most violent conflicts The malice of Satan will send them halting to Heaven if he cannot bar them out of it 3 To conclude The hidings of Gods face puts terror into the face of death and makes a dying day a dark and gloomy day All darkness disposes to fear but none like inward darkness They must like a Ship in distress venture into the Harbour in the dark though they see not their Land-marks 2. But others have the priviledge of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easy death a comfortable and sweet passage into glory through the broad gate of assurance 2 Pet. 1.11 Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom What a difference doth God make not only betwixt those that have grace and those that have none but betwixt gracious Souls themselves in this matter The things which usually make an easy passage to Heaven are 1 A pardon cleared Isai. 33.24 The Sense of pardon swallows up the sense of pain 2 An heart weaned from this world Heb. 11.9 13 16. An heart loosed from the World is a foot out of the snare Mortified limbs are cut off from the Body with little pain 3 Fervent love to Christ and longings to be with him Philip. 1.23 He that loves Christ fervently must needs loath absence from Christ proportionably 4 Purity and peace of Conscience make a death-bed soft and easie The strains and wounds of Conscience in the time of life are so many Thorns in our Bed or pillow in the time of Death 1 Iohn 3.21 But integrity gives boldness 5 The work of obedience faithfully finished or a steddy course of holiness throughout our life is that which usually yields much peace and joy in death Acts 20.24 6 But above all the presence of the Comforter with us in that cloudy and dark day turns it into one of the days of Heaven 1 Pet. 4.14 And thus you see though all dying Christians be equally safe and all supported and carried through by the power of God yet their farewels to the Body are not alike chearful There are many external and internal circumstantial differences in the deaths of good men as well as a substantial and essential difference betwixt all their deaths and the death of a wicked man QUEST III. Whether any Souls have notices and forewarnings given them by Signs or Predictions in an extraordinary way of their approaching Separation Terms open'd The terms of this Question need a little explanation Let us therefore briefly consider what is meant by signs what by predictions and what by extraordinary signs and predictions A sign is that which represents something else to us than that which is seen Signâ—m est quod aliud repraesentat quam quod cernitur or heard And a sign of death is that which gives notice to our minds that our departure is at hand A Prediction is a forewarning of a person more plainly and expresly of any thing which is afterwards to fall out or come to pass Praedicâ—re est aliquem de re aliqâ—a eventuâ—a praemonere and a prediction of death is an express notice or message informing us of our own or of anothers Death to the end the mind may be actually disposed to an expectation thereof Of Signs some are ordinary and natural some extraordinary and supernatural or at least preternatural There are natural symptoms and prognosticks of Death which are common to most dying persons and by which Physicians inform themselves and others of the state of the Sick These are out of this Question we have nothing to do with them here but I am inquiring after extraordinary signs and predictions by words or things forewarning us immediately or by others of our approaching death The Question is whether such intimations of Death be at any time truly given unto men or whether we are to take them for fabulous reports and superstitious fancies For the Negative Reasons for the Negative the following grounds are laid REASON I. The sufficient ordinary provision God hath made in this case renders all such extraordinary notices and intimations of our Death needless And be sure the most wise God doth nothing in vain We have three standing ordinary and sufficient means to premonish us of our departure hence viz. the Scriptures Reason and daily Examples of Mortality before our eyes The Scriptures tell us our life is but a vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away James 4.14 That our days are but to an hand breadth and that every man in his best estate is vanity Psal. 39.5 Reason tells us so feeble a tye as our breath is can never secure our lives long The living know that they must dye Eccles. 9.5 The radical moisture which is daily consuming by the flame of life must needs be spent ere long And all the Graves we see opened so frequently are sufficient warnings that we our selves must shortly follow Therefore as there was no need of Manna when bread might be had in an ordinary way so neither is there need of extraordinary signs when God hath abundantly furnished us with standing and ordinary means for this purpose REASON II. And as the Scriptures render such signs needless so they seem to be directly against them Christ commands us to watch because we know not in what hour the Lord cometh Yea even Isaac himself an extraordinary person and endued with a Spirit of Prophecy whereby he foretold the condition of his Sons after him yet it 's said Gen. 27.2 That he knew not the day of his death And it is not reasonable to think that common persons should know that which extraordinary and prophetick persons knew not REASON III. All mankind belong either to God or the Devil To such as belong to God such extraordinary warnings are needless for they have a watchful principle within them which continually prompts them to mind their change and besides death cannot endanger those that are in Christ how suddainly or unexpectedly soever it should befal them And for wicked men it cannot be thought God should favour and priviledg them in this matter above his own children and as for Satan he knows not the time of their death himself and if he did it would thwart his design and interest to discover it to them Luke 11.21 So that upon the whole it should seem such signs and predictions are of no use and the relations and reports of them fabulous But though these reasons make the common and daily use of such signs and predictions needless E contra yet they destroy not the credibility of them in all cases and at all times For I. There are recorded instances in Scripture of premonitions and predictions of the death of persons Thus the death of Abijah was foretold to his Mother by the Prophet and the precise hour thereof which fell out answerably 1 King 14.6 12. And thus the death of the
King of Assyria was foretold exactly both as to kind and place Isaiah 37.7 37 38. II. These predictions serve to other ends and uses sometimes than the preparation of the persons warned even to display the foreknowledg power and justice of God in marking out his Enemies for ruine And thus the Lord is known by the judgments that he executeth Psal. 9.16 Thus Mr. Knox predicted the very place and manner of the death of the Laird of Grange Clark's Lives p. 277. You have sometime seen the courage and constancy of the Laird of Grange in the cause of God and now that unhappy man is casting himself away I pray you go to him from me said Mr. Knox and tell him that unless he forsake that wicked course he is in the Rock wherein he confideth shall not defend him nor the carnal wisdom of that man meaning the young Leshington whom he counteth half a God shall help him but he shall be shamefully pull'd out of that nest and his carcase hung before the Sun And even so it fell out the following year when the Castle was taken and his Body hang'd out before the Sun Thus God exactly fulfilled the prediction of his death The same Mr. Knox in the year 1566. being in the Pulpit at Edenburgh upon the Lords day a paper was given up to him among many others wherein these words were scoffingly written concerning the Earl of Murray who was slain the day before Take up the man whom ye accounted another God At the end of the Sermon Mr. Knox bewailed the loss that the Church and state had by the death of that vertuous man and then added There is one in this company that makes this horrible murther the subject of his mirth for which all good men should be sorry but I tell him he shall dye where there shall be none to lament him The man that wrote the Paper was one Thomas Metellan a young Gentleman who shortly after in his Travels died in Italy having none to assist or lament him III. And others have had premonitions and signs of their own deaths which accordingly fell out And these premonitions have been given them sometimes by strong irresistible impressions upon their minds sometimes in dreams and sometimes by unusual elevations of their Spirits in duties of Communion with God 1. Some have had strong and irresistible impressions of their approaching change made upon their minds So had Sir Anthony Wingfield who was slain at Brest Anno 1594. At his undertaking of that expedition Sir Iohn Norris his Expedition p. 46. he was strongly perswaded it would be his death and therefore so setled and disposed of his Estate as one that never reckoned to return again And the day before he died he took order for the payment of his debts as one that strongly presaged the time was now at hand which accordingly fell out the next day Much of the same nature was that of the late Earl of Marleburrough who fell in the Holland War He not only presaged his own fall in that Encounter which was exactly answered in the event but left behind him that memorable and excellent Letter which evidenced to all the World what deep fixed apprehensions of Eternity it had left upon his Spirit Many examples of this nature might be produced of such as have in their perfect health foretold their own death and others who have dropt such passages as were afterwards better understood by their sorrowful friends than when they first dropt from their lips 2. Others have been premonished of their death by Dreams sometimes their own and sometimes others The learned and judicious Amyraldus gives us this well attested relation of Lewis of Bourbon Amyraldus of divine Dreams p. 122 123. That a little before his journey from Dreux he dreamed that he had fought three successful Battels wherein his three great Enemies were slain but that at last he himself was mortally wounded and that after they were laid one upon another he also was laid upon the dead Bodies The event was remarkable for the Mareschal of St. Andree was killed at Dreux the Duke of Guise at Orleans the Constable of Montmorency at St. Denis and this was the Triumvirate which had sworn the ruine of those of the Religion and the destruction of that Prince At last he himself was slain at Basack as if there had been a continuation of deaths and funerals Suetonius in the life of Iulius Caesar tells us that the night before he was slain he had divers premonitions thereof for that night all the doors and windows of his chamber flew open his wife also dreamed that Caesar was slain and that she had him in her arms The next day he was slain in Pompey's Court having received three and twenty wounds in his Body Pamelius in the life of Cyprian tells us for a most certain and well attested truth that upon his first entrance into Carubis the place of his banishment it was revealed to him in a dream or vision that upon that very day twelve-month he should be consummate which accordingly sell out for a litle before the time prefixed there came suddainly two Apparators to bring him before the new Proconsul Galeius Pamelius in vita Cyprian by whom he was condemned as having been a Standard-bearer of his Sect and an Enemy of the Gods Whereupon he was condemned to be beheaded a multitude of Christians following him crying Let us die together with him And as remarkable is that recorded by the learned and ingenious Doctor Sterne of Mr. Vsher of Ireland a man saith he Dr. Sterne's disseâ—tatio de morte p. 163. of great integrity dear to others by his merits and my kinsman in blood who upon the eighth day of Iuly 1657. went from this to a better World About four of the clock the day before he died a Matron who died a little before and whilst living was dear to Mr. Vsher appeared to him in his sleep and invited him to sup with her the next night he at first denyed her but she more vehemently pressing her request on him at last he consented and that very night he died I have also the fullest assurance that can be of the truth of this following Narrative A person yet living was greatly concerned about the welfare of his dear Father and Mother who were both shut up in London in the time of the great Contagion in 1665. Many Lettets he sent to them and many hearty prayers to Heaven for them But about a fortnight before they were infected he fell about break of day into this dream That he was in a great Inn which was full of company and being very desirous to find a private room where he might feek God for his parents life he went from room to room but found company in them all at last casting his eye into a little chamber which was empty he went into it lockt the door kneeled down by the outside of the bed fixing
signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc fluxâ—runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not
catch a few moments in the intervals of pain and then are put by all again Consideration IV. There is no man living but hath something to do for his own Soul in a dying hour and something for others also Suppose the best that can be supposed that the Soul be in real Union with Christ and that Union be also clear yet it is seldom found but there are some assaults of Satan or if not yet how many Relations and Friends need our experiences and Counsels at such a time How many things shall we have to do after our great and main work is done And others have a great deal more to do though as safe as the former O the Knots and Objections that are then to be dissolv'd and answered The unusual Onsets and Assaults of Satan that are then to be resisted And yet most dying persons have much more upon their hands than either of the former The whole work of Repentance and Faith is to do when time is even done Consideration V. Few yea very few are found furnished â—â—â—h Wisdom Experience and Faithfulness to give dying Persons any considerable assistance in Soul affairs it may be there may be found among the Visitants of the Sick now and then a person who hath a word of Wisdom in his heart but then either he wants opportunity or courage and faithfulness to do the part of a true Spiritual friend Elihu describes the person so qualified as he ought for this work Iob 33.23 24. and calls him one among a thousand Some are too close and reserved others too trifling and impertinent Some are willing but want Ability others are able but want faithfulness Some cut too deep by uncharitable censoriousness others skin over the wound too slightly speaking Peace where God and Conscience speak none So that little help is to be expected Consideration VI. How much therefore doth it deserve to be lamented that where there is so much to do so little time to do it and so few to help in the best improvement of it all should be lost as to their Souls by earthly incumbrances and wordly affairs which may have been done sooâ—â—â—nd better in a more proper season O therefore let mâ—â—â—erswade all men to take heed of bringing the proper business of healthful days to their sick beds Inference IV. What an excellent creature is the Soul of man which is capable not only of such preparations for God whilst it is in the Body but of such sights and enjoyments of God when it lives without a Body Here the Spirit of God works upon it in the way of grace and sanctification Eph. 2.10 The scope and design of this his workmanship is to qualifie and make us meet for the life of Heaven 2 Cor. 5.5 For this self same thing or purpose our Souls are wrought or moulded by grace into quite another frame and temper than that which nature gave them and when he hath wrought out and finished all that he intends to be wrought in the way of sanctification then shall it be called up to the highest injoyments and imployments for ever that a creature is susceptible of Herein the dignity of the Soul appears that no other Creature in this World beside it hath a natural capacity either to be sanctified inherently in this World or glorified everlastingly in that to come to be transformed into the image and filled with the joy of the Lord. There are Myriads of other Souls in this World beside ours but to none of them is the Spirit of sanctification sent but only to ours The Souls of Animals serve only to move the dull and sluggish matter and take in for a few days the sensitive pleasures of the Creation and so expire having no natural capacity of or designation for any higher imployment or enjoyment And it deserves a most serious animadversion that this vast capacity of the Soul for eternal blessedness must of necessity make it capable of so much the more misery and self torment if at last it fail of that blessedness For it is apparent they do not perish because they are uncapable but because they are unwilling not because their Souls wanted any natural faculty that others have but because they would not open those they have 〈◊〉 â—â—ceive Christ in the way of faith and obedience as others did Think upon this you that live only to eat and drink and sleep and play as the Birds and Beasts of the field do what need was there of a reasonable Soul for such sensual imployments do not your noble faculties speak your designation for higher uses and will you not wish to exchange Souls with the most vile and despicable Animal in this World if it were possible to be done Certainly it were better for you to have no capacity of eternal blessedness as they have not if you do not enjoy it and no capacity of torment beyond this life as they have not if you must certainly endure it Inference V. IF our Souls and Bodies must be separated shortly how patiently should we bear all lesser that may or will be made betwixt us and any other enjoyments in this World No union is so intimate strict and dear as that betwixt your Souls and Bodies All your relations and enjoyments in this World hang looser from your Souls than your Bodies do and if it be your duty patiently and submissively to suffer a painful parting pull from your Bodies it is doubtless your duty to suffer meekly and patiently a separation from other things which are but a prelude to it and a meer shadow of it 'T is good to put such cases to our selves in the midst of our pleasant enjoyments I have now many comfortable Relatives in the World Wife Children Kindred and Friends God hath made them pleasant to me but he may bereave me of all these Doth not Providence ring such changes all the World over Are not all Kingdoms Cities and Towns full of the sighs and laments of Widows Orphans and Friends bereaved of their pleasant and useful Relations But if God will have it so 't is our duty to bound our sorrows remembring the time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 In a few days we must be stript much nearer even out of our own Bodies by death God may also separate betwixt me and my health by sickness so that the pleasure of this World shall be cut off from me but sickness is not death though it be a prelude and step towards it I may well bear this with patience who must submissively bear sharper pains than these ere long Yea and well may I bear this submissively considering that by such imbittering and weaning providences God is preparing me for a much easier dissolution than if I should live at ease in the Body all my days till death come to make so great and suddain a change upon me God may also separate betwixt me and my liberty by restraint It hath been the lot of the best men that ever
were in the World and if it should be ours also we should not be much startled at it considering these Bodies of ours must be shortly pent up in a straiter darker and more loathsome place of confinement than any prison in this World can be The grave is a darker place Iob 17.13 And your abode there will be longer Eccles. 11.8 These and all other our outward enjoyments are separable things and its good thus to alleviate our loss of them Inference VI. HOw Heavenly should the tempers and frawles of those Souls be who are Candidates for Heaven and must be so shortly numbred with the Spirits of just men made perfect 'T is reasonable that we all begin to be that which we expect to be for ever To learn that way of living and conversing which we believe must be our everlasting life and business in the World to come Let them that hope to live with Angels in Heaven learn to live like Angels on Earth in Holiness Activity and ready obedience There is the greatest reason that our minds be there where our Souls are to be for ever A spiritual mind will be found possible congruous sweet and evidential of our interest in that glory to all those holy Souls who are preparing and designed for it First it is possible notwithstanding the clogs and entanglements of the Body to be heavenly minded Others have attained it Philip. 3.20 Two things make an heavenly conversation possible to men viz. 1. The natural abilities of the Mind 2. The gracious principles of the Mind 1. The natural abilities of the mind which can in a minutes time dispatch a nimble messenger to Heaven and mount its thoughts from this to that World in a trice The power of cogitation is a rich endowment of the Soul such as no other creature on earth is participant of Though spiritual thoughts be not the natural growth of the Soul yet thoughts capable of being spiritualized are And without this ability of projecting thoughts all intercourse must have been cut off 2. The gracious principles implanted in the Soul do actually incline the mind and mount its thoughts heaven-ward Yea this will prove more than a possibility of a conversation in Heaven whilst Saints tabernacle on earth in Bodies of flesh it will almost prove an impossibility that it should be otherwise For these spiritual principles setting the bent and tendency of the heart heaven-ward we must act against the very law of our new Nature when we place our affections elsewhere Secondly A mind in heaven is most congruous decorous and comely for those that are the enrolled inhabitants of that heavenly City Where should a Christians love be but where his Lord is Our hearts and our homes do not use to be long asunder It becomes you so to think and so to speak now as those who make account to be shortly singing Allelujahs before the throne Thirdly 'T is most sweet and delightful no pleasure in all this World comparable to this pleasure Rom. 8.6 To be spiritually minded is life and peace 'T is a young Heaven born in the Soul in its way thither Fourthly To conclude It is evidential of your interest in it an agreable frame is the surest title Col. 3.1 2. Matth 6.21 If Heaven attract your minds now it will centre them for ever USE II. THis Doctrine of the separation of the Spirits of the Just from their Bodies as it lyes before you in this Discourse affords a singular help to all the people of God to entertain lovely and pleasant thoughts of that day to make death not only an unregretted but a most pleasant and desirable thing to their Souls I know there is a pure simple natural fear of death from which you must not expect to be perfectly freed by all the Arguments in the World And there is a reverential awful fear of death which it would be your prejudice and loss to have destroyed You will have a natural and ought to have a reverential fear of death the one flows from your sensitive the other from your sanctified nature But it is a third sort of fear which doth you all the mischief a fear springing in gracious Souls out of the weakness of their Graces and the strength of their unmortified affections A fear arising partly out of the darkness of our minds and partly out of the sensuality and earthlyness of our hearts this fear is that which so convulseth our Souls when death is near and imbitters our lives even whilst it is at a distance He that hath been over-heated in his affections to this World and over-cooled by diversions and temptations neglects and intermissions to that World cannot chuse but give an unwilling shrug if not a frightful screech at the appearance of death And this being the sad case of too many good and upright Souls for the main and there being so few even amongst serious Christians that have attained to that courage and complacence in the thoughts of death which the Apostle speaks of 2 Cor. 5.8 to be both confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord I will from this discourse furnish them with some special assistance therein But withal I must tell you upon what great disadvantages I am here to dispute with your fears so strong is the current of natural and vicious fear that except a special hand of God back and set on the Arguments that shall be urged they will be as easily swept away before it as so many Straws by a rapid Torrent nor will it be to any more purpose to oppose my breath to them than to the Tides and Waves of the Sea Moreover I am fully convinced by long and often experience how unsteady and inconstant the frames and tempers of the best hearts are and that if it be not full home yet it is next to an impossibility to fix them in such a temper as this I aim at is Where is that man to be found who after the revolutions of many years and in those years various dispensations of providence without him altering his condition and greater variety of temptations within can yet say notwithstanding all these various aspects and positions his heart hath still held one steddy and invariable tenour and course Alas there be very few if any of such sound and Athletick temper of mind whose pulse beats with an even stroke through all inequalities of condition alike free and willing at one time as another to be uncloathed of the Body and to be with Christ. This heighth of faith and depth of mortification this strength of love to Christ and ardour of holy desire are degrees of grace to which very few attain The case standing thus it is no more than needs to urge all sorts of Arguments upon our timorous and unsteady hearts and it 's like to prove an hard and difficult task to bring the heart but to a quiet and unregretting submission to the appointment
and the Power of God q d. did you know and believe the Scriptures of God and the Power of God you would never question this Doctrine of the Resurrection which is built upon them both The Power of God convinceth all men that know and believe it that it may be â—o and the Scriptures of God convince all that know and believe them that it must be so as for his Power Who can doubt it At the Command and fiat of God the Earth brought forth every living Creature after his kind Gen. 1.24 25. at his Command Lazarus came forth Iohn 11.43 And was there not as much difficulty in either of these as in our Resurrection By this Power our Souls were quickened and raised from the death of sin and guilt to the Spiritual life of Christ Eph. 1.19 and is it not as easie to raise a dead Body as a dead Soul But what stand I arguing in so plain a Case when we are assured this mighty Power is able to subdue all things to it self Phil. 3.21 And then for his promise that it shall be so What can be plainer See 1 Thes. 4.15 16. This we say unto you by the Word of the Lord c. i.e. In the Name or Auhority of the Lord and by Commission and Warrant from him he first opens his Commission shews his Credentials and then publishes the comfortable Doctrine of the Resurrection and the Saints preheminence to all others therein Well then what remains in death to fright and scare a Believer is it our parting with these Bodies Why it is not for ever that we part with them as sure as the power and promises of God are true firm and sufficient to accomplish it we shall see and enjoy them again This comforted Iob chap. 19.25 26. over all his diseases when of all his enjoyments that once he had he could not say my Friends my Children my Estate yet then he could say my Redeemer When he looked upon a poor wasted withered loathsome Body of his own and saw nothing but a Skeleton an Image of death yet then could he see it a glorious Body by viewing it believingly in this glass of the Resurrection So then all the damage we can receive by death is but the absence of our Bodies for a time during which time the Covenant-relation betwixt God and them holds good and firm Matth. 22.32 He therefore will take care of them and in due time restore them with marvellous improvements and endowments to us again divested of all their infirmities and cloathed with Heavenly qualities and perfection 1 Cor. 15.43 44. And in the mean time the Soul attains its rest and happiness and satisfaction in the blessed God Argument IV. THE consideration of what we part from and what we go to should make the medium by which we pass from so much evil to so great good lovely and desireable in our eyes how unpleasing or bitter soever it be in it self No man desires Physick for it self There is no pleasure in bitter Pills and loathsome Potions except what rises from the end viz the disburthening of Nature and recovery of health and this gives it a value with the Sick and pained Under a like consideration is death desired by sick and pained Souls who find it better to dye once than groan under burthens continually Death is certainly the best Physician next and under Jesus Christ that ever was employed about them for it cures radically and perfectly so that the Soul never relapses any more into any distemper Other Medicines are but Anodynes or at best they relieve us but in part and for a time but this goes through the work and perfects the cure at once Methinks that Call of Christ which he gives his Spouse in Cant. 4.8 Come with me from Lebanon my Spouse with me from Lebanon look from the top of Amana from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the Lions dens from the Mountains of Leopards scarce suits any time so well as the time of death Then it is that we depart from the Lions Dens and the mountains of Leopards places uncomfortable and unsafe More particularly at death the Saints depart 1. From defiling corruptions inâ—o 1. Perfect purity 2. From heart sinking sorrows inâ—o 2. Fulness of joy 3. From entangling temptations inâ—o 3. Everlasting freedome 4. From distressing persecutions inâ—o 4. Full rest 5. From pinching wants inâ—o 5. Universal supplies 6. From distracting fears inâ—o 6. Highest security 7. From deluding shadows inâ—o 7. Substantial good 1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity No sin hangs about the separated though it do about the sanctified Soul They come out of the Body suitable to that character and encomium Cant. 4.7 Thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee It doth that for the Saints which all their graces and duties all their mercies and afflictions could never do Faith is a great purifier Communion with God a great cleanser sanctified afflictions a Refiner's fire and Fuller's Soap these have all done their parts and been useful in their places but none of them nor altogether perfected this cure till death come and then the work is done and the cure perfected All Weeping all Praying all Believing all Hearing all Sacraments all the means and instruments in the World cannot do what death will do for thee One dying hour will do what ten thousand praying hours never did nor could do In this hour the design of all those hours is accomplished as he that is dead by mortification is at present freedom from sin in respect of imputation and dominion Rom. 6.7 so he that being justified and mortified is dead naturally is immediately freed from the very indwelling and existence of sin in him We read of the washing of the Robes of the Saints in Rev. 7.14 The blood of the Lamb cleanseth them from every spot but it doth it gradually The last spot of guilt indeed was fetcht out by one act of justification but the last spot filth is not fetcht out till the time of their dissolution when they are come out of the Agonies of death which the Scripture calls great tribulation then and not till then are they perfectly cleansed Sin brought in death and death carries out sin O what a pure lovely shining Creature is the separated Spirit of a Just man How clear is its Judgment how ordinate its will how holy and altogether heavenly are all its affections now and never till now it feels it self perfectly well and as it would be 2. From heart-sinking Sorrows into fulness of Joy The life we now live is a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 where is the Christian that if his inside could be seen and his heart laid naked would not be found wounded from many hands From the hand of God of Enemies of Friends of Satan but especially by the hands of its own Corruptions Christ our Head was stiled a man of sorrows from the multitude of his Sorrows and it
themselves first into a deep guilt by compliance with Antichrist and receiving his mark then into an Hell upon Earth the remorse and horrour of their own consciences which gives them no rest day nor night he immediately subjoyns v. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord yea from henceforth saith the spirit c. Oh 't is a special blessing and favour to be hid out of the way of those temptations and torments in a seasonable and quiet grave Argument IX YOur fixed aversation and unwillingness to die will provoke God to imbitter your lives with much more affliction than you have yet felt or would feel if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure no nor yet with patience Well take heed lest this draw down such troubles upon you as shall make you at last to say with Iob chap. 10. v. 1. My Soul is weary of my life An expression much like that 2 Sam. 1.9 Anguish is come upon me because my life is whole in me My Soul is hardened or become cruel against my life as the Chaldee renders it There is a twofold weariness of life one from an excellency of spirit a noble principle the ardent love of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Another from the meer pressures of affliction and anguish of Spirit under heavy and successive stroaks from the hand of God and men Is it not more excellent and desireable to groan for death under a pressure of love to Christ than of afflictions from Christ I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account to make us willing to dye Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our comfortable and desireable things in this World before he can gain our consents to be gone Why will you put God upon such work as this Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate If you could dye many of your comforts for ought I know might live Had Iacob come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time Absalom had never set his field of Barly on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And if we were more obedient to the will of God in this matter 't is likely he would not consume your health and Estates and Relations with such heavy strâ—â—ks as he hath done and will yet farther do except your wills be more compliant Alas To cut off your comforts one after another and make you live a groaning life the Lord hath no pleasure in it but rather he had you should lose these things than that he should lose your hearts on Earth or company in Heaven Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit Medicum Argument X. THe decree of death cannot be reversed nor is there any other ordinary passage for the Soul into Glory but through the gates of death Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to die but after that the Iudgment There is but one way to pass out of the obscure suffocating life in the Womb into the more free and nobler life in the World viz. through the Throes and Agonies of Birth And there is ordinarily but one way to pass from this sinning groaning life we live in this World to the enjoyment of God and the Glory above but through the Agonies of death You must cast as it were your Secundine once again I mean this vile body before you can be happy Heaven cannot come down to you you cannot see God and live Exod. 33.20 It would certainly confound and break you to pieces like an earthen Pitcher should God but ray forth his Glory upon you in the state you now are and it is sure you cannot expect the extraordinary savour of such a translation as Enoch had Hebr. 11.5 Or as those Believers shall have that shall be found alive at Christ's coming 1 Thes. 4.17 You must go the common road that all the Saints go but though you cannot avoid you may sweeten it God will not reverse his Decree but you may and ought to arm your selves against the fears of it Ahashuerus would not re-call the Proclamation he had emitted against the Iews but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves against their Enemies 'T is much so here the Sentence cannot be revoked but yet he gives you leave yea he commands you to arm your selves against death and defie it and trample it under the feet of Faith Argument XI WHen you find your hearts reluctate at the thoughts of leaving the Body and the comforts of this World then consider how willingly and chearfully Iesus Christ left Heaven and the Bosome of his Father to come down to this World for your sakes Pr. 8.30 31. Ps. 40.7 Loe I come c. O compare the frames of your hearts with his in this point and shame your selves out of so unbecoming a temper of Spirit 1 He left Heaven and all the Delights and Glory of it to come down to this World to be abased and humbled to the lowest you leave this World of sin and misery to ascend to Heaven to be exalted to the highest He came hither to be impoverished you go thither to be enriched 2 Cor. 8.9 yet he came willingly and we go grudgingly 2 He came from Heaven to Earth to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we go from Earth to Heaven to be fully and everlastingly delivered from sin yet he came more willingly to bear our sins than we go to be delivered from them 3 He came to take a body of Flesh to suffer and die in Heb. 2.24 you leave your Bodies that you may never suffer in or by them any more 4 As his Incarnation was a deep abasement so his death was the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the beginning or ever shall to the end of the World and yet how obediently doth he submit to both at the Father's Call Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Ah Christians your death cannot have the ten thousandth part of that bitterness in it that Christ's had I remember one of the Martyrs being asked why his heart was so light at death returned this answer because Christs heart was so heavy at his death O there is a vast difference betwixt one and the other the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law was in his death Gal. 3.13 but there is neither Wrath nor Curse in your death who die in the Lord Rom. 8.1 God forsook him when he hanged upon the Tree in the Agonies of death Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But you shall not be forsaken He will make all your Bed in sickness Psal. 41.3 He will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 Yet he regretted not but went as a Sheep or Lamb Isa. 53.7 O reason
could have been made upon their state by death Little do their surviving Friends think what they feel or what is their estate in the other World whilst they are honouring their Bodies with splendid and pompous Funerals None on earth have so much reason to fear death to make much of life and use all means to continue it as those who will and must be so great losers by the exchange Inference XIII SEe here the certainty and inevitableness of the judgment of the great day This Prison which is continually filling with the Spirits of wicked men is an undeniable evidence of it for why is Hell called a Prison and why are the Spirits of men confined and chained there but with respect to the judgment of the great day As there is a necessary connection betwixt sin and punishment so betwixt punishing and trying the Offender there are millions of Souls in custody a world of Spirits in Prison these must be brought forth to their Tryal for God will lay upon no man more than is right the legality of their Mittimus to Hell will be evidenced in their solemn day of Tryal God hath therefore appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 Here sinners run in Arrears and contract vast debts in Hell they are seiz'd and committed at Judgment tryed and cast for the same This will be a dreadful day those that have spent so prodigally upon the patience of God must now come to a severe account for all they have past their particular judgment immediately after death Eccles. 12.7 Hebr. 9.27 by this they know how they shall speed in the general judgment and how it shall be with them for ever but though this private Judgment secures their Damnation sufficiently yet it clears not the Justice of God before Angels and Men sufficiently and therefore they must appear once more before his Bar 2 Cor. 5.10 In the fearful expectation of this day those trembling Spirits now lie in Prison and that fearful expectation is a principal part of their present misery and torment You that refuse to come to the Throne of Grace see if you can refuse to make your appearance at the Bar of Justice You that brav'd and brow-beat your Ministers that warn'd you of it see if you can out-brave your Judge too as you did them Nothing more sure or awful than such a day as this Inference XIV HOw much are Ministers Parents and all to whom the charge of Souls is committed bound to do all that in them lies to prevent their everlasting misery in the World to come The great Apostle of the Gentiles found the consideration of the terror of the Lord as a spur urging and enforcing him to ministerial faithfulness and diligence 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men and the same he presseth upon Timothy 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine O that those to whom so great a trust as the Souls of men is committed would labour to acquit themselves with all faithfulness therein as Paul did warning every one night and day with tears that if we cannot prevent their ruine which is most desireable yet at least we may be able to take God to Witness as he did that we are pure from the blood of all men O consider my Brethren if your faithful plainness and unwearied diligence to save mens Souls produce no other fruit but their hatred of you now yet it is much easier for you to bear that than that they and you too should bear the Wrath of God for ever We have all of us personal guilt enough upon us let us not add other mens guilt to our account to be guilty of the blood of the meanest man upon the earth is a sin which will cry in your Consciences but to be guilty of the blood of Souls Lord who can bear it Christ thought them worth his heart blood and are they not worth the expence of our breath Did he sweat blood to save them and will not we move our lips to save them 'T is certainly a sore Judgment to the Souls of men when such Ministers are set over them as never understood the value of their peoples Souls or were never heartily concerned about the Salvation of their own Souls MATTH 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul DIfficult Duties need to be enforced with powerful Arguments in the 24th verse of this Chapter our Lord presseth upon his Disciples the deepest and hardest duties of self-denial acquaints them upon what terms they must be admitted into his service If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me This hard and difficult Duty he enforceth upon them by a double Argument viz. from 1. The vanity of all sinful shifts from it v. 25. 2. The value of their Souls which is imported in it v. 26. They may shift off their Duty to the loss of their Souls or save their Souls by the loss of such trifles If they esteem their Souls above the World and can be content to put all other things to the hazard for their Salvation making account to save nothing but them by Christianity then they come up to Christs terms and may warrantably and boldly call him their Lord and Master and to sweeten this choice to them he doth in my Text balance the Soul and all the World weighing them one against the other and shews them the infinite odds and disproportion betwixt them What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul What is a man profited There is a plain Meiosis in the Phrase and the meaning is how inestimably and irreparably is a man damnified what a Soul-ruining bargain would a man make If he should gain the whole world There is a plain Hyperbole in this Phrase for it never was nor will be the lot of any man to be the sole Owner and Possessor of the whole world * Hypotheticâ â—âc hyperbole amissionis salutis aeternae atrocitas summa notatur S. Glassius Non magis juvabitur qâ—à m qui acquirit Venetias ipse verò suspâ—ndatur ad portam Pareus in loc But suppose all the power pleasure wealth and honour of the whole World were bid and offer'd in exchange for a mans Soul what a dear purchace would it be at such a rate What were this saith one but to win Venice and then be hang'd at the gate of it As that man acts like a