Temple of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us And that it is the Soul the Apostle hath here in his Eye in this Discourse of his in my Text as that which he intends the Subject here wrought upon appears if we consult the Well-head of his Discourse about the Soul which is the 16. ver of the 4. Chap. Our inward Man says he is renewed c. there is your wrought upon here whilst the outward the Body perisheth Which Soul in being call'd the inward Man connotates at once both Grace and the Soul conjunct together and distinct from the Body as well as from Sin and Corruption Elsewhere it is declared the subject first and originally wrought on Eph. 4. 23. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Look round about the Text and what is the Vs wrought on plainly this Inward Man by the Coherence afore and after Ask yet 1. If our earthly Tabernacle that is our Body be dissolved we have c. that is This inner Man our Souls have for the Body is supposed dissolved So likewise ver 4. We in this Tabernacle that is our Souls in these Bodies More expresly after ver 8. our very Souls not only whilst in our Bodies but when separated from our Bodies have the We given them We are willing to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The We present with the Lord and absent from the Body is nor can be no other than a separate Soul in its estate of Widowhood And so here ver 5. Hath wrought Vs the Soul bears the Person carries away the Grace with it Add to this the Time here specified in Observa quôd non in futuro dicit Parabit â—s Non demumparabitur ubi jam induendum est c. Musc in locum the Text in which we are wrought upon It is but this Life and during the term thereof Hath wrought us says the Apostle not in the future Who shall work us for it That hath wrought referring to the work of Conversion at the first Who hath made us meet to be partakers c. Col. 1. 12. and who doth continue still to work us the Peterperfect being often put by the Apostle for the Present God renewing the inner Man Day by Day Chap. 4. 16. So working upon it in order to this self-same thing continually Unto which Words there these here have an evident aspect yet so as that time of working is but during this Life For it is whilst the outward Man is mouldring and that by Afflictions which during this moment work an eternal weight of Glory ver 17. and that is expresly said to be but this present time Rom. 8. So then there is no Parabit in that other World But as Solomon says of Man There is no work after this Life No remembrance Eccl. 9. 10. says David namely which Psal 6. 5. hath any influence into a Man's Eternity So there is no working upon us in order thereunto after Death God hath done his Do hath wrought and Man hath finished his course as Paul of himself and in this Chapter of my Text ver 10. Every Man receiveth the things done in his Body be they good or evil Those things that are done in this Body only therefore only what in this Life he hath wrought And for this he hath wrought us says the Text. §. These things premised I come to the Argument to be raised out of them to prove the Point in hand First that Grace or Holiness because they are immediately wrought in the Soul that therefore when the Body dies the Soul shall be taken up into Life That this is a meet and congruous Ordination of God the Scripture it self owns and seems so to pitch the reason of it in Rom. 8. 10 11. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you He gives an account of what is to become hereafter both of the Bodies and Souls of them in whom Christ is 1. First for the Body that is condemned to die The Body is dead because of Sin By Body I understand the same which he in the 11th Verse terms the mortal Body to be raised up which says he is dead that is appointed to die as one sentenced to Death you term a dead Man And this because of Sin It was meet that that first threatning of dying should have some effect to evidence the Truth of God therein Only God is favourable in his Ordination in this that he arresteth but the Body the less principal Debtor but that to be sure shall pay for it It is appointed to all Men once to die even for Men that are in Christ as this place of the Romans hath it Then 2. follows what remains the Soul of such an one when the Body dies But says he speaking by way of exception and contrary fate too The Spirit is Life because of Righteousness The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body this when the Body dies is Life He says not Living only or immortal but is swallowed up into Life And why because of Righteousness which is Christ's Image and so preserves and by God's ordination upon dying elevates the Soul which is the immediate and original Subject of it which is the Point in hand For this thing it is God hath wrought it But then because the Query would be Shall this Body for ever remain dead because of this first Sin and bear this Punishment for ever No Therefore 3. he adds He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies So at last and then bringing both Body and Soul together unto compleat Glory And the congruity of Reason that is for this appointment is observable something like to that 1 Cor. 15. As by Man came Death so by Man came also the Resurrection from the Dead For that Sin that condemned us to this Death we had from the first Adam by bodily Generation as the channel or means of conveying it who was as other Father of our Flesh The Arrest therefore goes forth against the Body which we had from that Adam because of that Sin conveyed by means of our Bodies for tho I must not say the Body defiles the Soul or of it self is the immediate Subject of Sin yet the original Means or Channel through which it comes down and is derived unto us is the Generation of our Bodies The Body therefore congruously pays for this and the Death thereof is a Means to let Sin out of the World as the propagating it was a means to bring Sin in But an holy Soul or Spirit which is the Off-spring of God having now true Holiness and Righteousness from the second Adam communicated to it
is the King I could harden my self against that yea and to endure the pains of the most exquisite Tortures any kind of Death could inflict if thereby God would thus cut me off Then indeed if such News of Death were brought me I should yet have comfort yea I would harden my self in Sorrow So ver 10. And let it be the worst Death he can put me to for so it follows let him not spare Oh but they are these Arrows of his own within me these I cannot bear So ver 12. Is my Strength the Strength of Stones or my Flesh Brass that I should be able to endure and bear up my self against these Encounters Oh no. Read on those his Expressions further roared forth by him in Chap. 16. ver 12 13 14. He hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by the Neck and shaken me to peices and set me up for his Mark. His Archers compass me round about he cleaveth my Reins asunder and doth not spare He poureth out my Gall upon the Ground He breaketh me with breach upon breach he runneth upon me like a Giant What should I instance in more or how to comment on them That which in the second place is proper next to be done is to provoke those that are secure Sinners c. and others also that are awakened to raise but up their Thoughts from the Consideration hereof to infer and gather how dreadful this Punishment in Hell must be above all that these Dispensations can represent unto us And this is most strongly inferred from these Examples whether they be the Examples of Good Men as Job was or bad Men as Cain and Judas were in both which I formerly instanced in I shall make Inference from each of these apart as in the first Section I also did in arguing from them the immediateness c. 1. From these of good Men. If you consider that all these Terrors wich Job and Heman endured from God were yet all in Love out of so solid and substantial a Love permanent and abiding in God's Heart all this while towards them and that all these were but chastisings of them for tryal and to make them partakers of his Holiness And besides what manner of Anger was it towards them It was but Anger which Love stirred up and those his Afflictions were accompanied and joyned all with everlasting kindness and thoughts of Peace all the while According to that in Isa 54. 8. In a little Wrath I hid my Face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redemer Yea those two known Cordial Recipes so frequently made use of and commonly taken by most Christians in their distresses and cited by two Apostles and Christ himself from Heaven Happy is the Man whom God correcteth Jam. 1. 12. chap. 5. 11. Heb. 12. 5. Apoc. 3. 19. Therefore despise not thou the chastning of the Almighty were first spoken and directed unto this our Job whilst in the midst of these Afflictions in chap. 5. 17. And are particularly applyed to that his Condition in the worst of it by the Holy Ghost Jam. 5. 11. Yea and all this that was upon Job was in it self how great soever it seemed to his sense but the touch of God's little Finger Job 1. 11. Oh think then how great will that Vengeance be which is pure Wrath Rev. 14. which is out of Fury as was shewn which is the fiery Indignation of Patience abused boyl'd up into Fury This that befel them is said to be but a little Wrath and for a Moment And yet as also it is said Psal 2. ult If God be angry but a little who is able to abide it then what will this last and extream Vengeance reserved for Hell be These Chastisements of Job's and Heman's were in comparison of what awaits Men in Hell but as Rods of Birch or Rushes which we use to whip our Children withal Psal 89. 32 33. Then will I visit their Transgressions with the Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from them nor suffer my faithfulness to fail These were all Rods of Mercies own gathering and making the Stripes whereof are not so deep but they may be and were healed again as in the same Book you also find it chap. 5. 18. He maketh sore and bindeth up he woundeth and his hands make whole and so was Job in the Issue thus healed And Heman likewise and 1 Kings 4. 31. made thereby one of the wisest Men in the World Yea but these wherewith wicked Men in Hell are eternally lash'd and cut off are Rods of Revenges making Rods of Iron as the Psalmist in that second Psalm speaks to break them in pieces like a Potters Vessel never to be set together again or made whole Again those stroaks on the Children of God are in measure as Isa 27. 7 8. but of these in Hell it may be and is said that Wrath cometh upon them without measure Again in the midst of these Corrections he remembers Mercy but in this of Hell there is Judgment without Mercy Jam. 2. 13. In those other Stripes given his Children God himself is afflicted and feels every Stroak he gives them as Jer. 31. 20. and Isa 64. But in these in Hell Vengeance and Justice do satisfy themselves in their deserved Damnation It is stiled a Sacrifice to him Mark 9. 48 49. compared and elsewhere 2. The same Inference may be much more raised from those Instances given of bad Men suffering in this Life the like Terrors to these mentioned If we but consider that when they fall and seize upon them in the greatest extremity that yet then they are in comparison to what remains to them in Hell but as the sippings of the top of that Cup here the Dregs whereof are reserved for them there to drink to the bottom as Psal 75. 8. In the Hand of the Lord there is a Cup and the Wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same but the Dregs thereof all the Wicked of the Earth shall wring them out and drink them Those Words he poureth out of the same and but the Dregs thereof are an opposition each to other shewing how that in this Life God promiscuously poureth forth the same from the upper part thereof both upon good and bad And that all that is but the overflowings of what is uppermost but the Dregs the brackish bitter Stuff is reserved for Hell And the truth is Men can bear but the sippings thereof here Should they drink but a little deeper their Souls would be giddy and reel out of their Bodies in a Moment As the Joys of Heaven cannot be inherited by Flesh and Blood so nor the Torments of the fulness of this Wrath. * Tam Bonorum quam Malorum intollerabilis magnitudo est But in Hell their Bodies shall be nealed as we
also And to be sure it cannot be that extraordinary way of entrance into Glory by such a sudden Change both of Soul and Body into Glory at once without dissolution should be the self-same thing here aimed at For it was not the Lot of any of those Primitive Christians of whom the Holy-Ghost here speaks this He hath wrought us for this thing that they should be in that manner changed and so enter into Glory but the contrary For they all and all Saints since for these 1600 years have put off their Tabernacles by Death as Peter did and speaks of himself 2 Pet. 1. 14. and therefore the Scripture or Holy Ghost foreseeing as the Phrase is Gal. 3. 8. this change would be their fate would not have uttered this of them God hath wrought us for this whom he knew God had not designed thereunto Neither is it that those groaning desires spoken of in the foregoing verses 2 3 4. is that self-same thing here as some would for indeed as Musculus well If the Apostle had said He that hath wrought this thing in us c. that Expression might have carried it to such a Sense But he saith He that wrought us for the self-same thing And so 't is not that desire of Glory in us is spoken of But us our selves and Souls as wrought for that Glory If it be asked what is the special proper scope of these words as touching this Glory of the Soul The answer in general It is to give the rational part of this Point or demonstrative Reasons to evidence to Believers That indeed God hath thus ordained and prepared such a Glory afore the Resurrection And it is as if the Apostle had said Look into your own Souls and consider God's dealings with you hitherto viz. First the operation of his hands For what other is the meaning or mystery says he of all that God is daily so at work with you in this Life What else is the end of all the workings of Grace in you and of God that is the Worker This is his very design He that hath wrought us that is our Souls for this very thing is God Besides the evidence the work gives there is also over and above the earnest of the Spirit given to your Souls now whilst in your Bodies in Joy full of Glories of the same kind as Earnests are of what fulness of Glory they are both capable of then and shall be filled with when severed from your Bodies Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit §. We Preachers have it in use as to allege Proofs of Scripture for the Points or Subjects we handle So to give Reasons or Demonstrations of them And so doth our Apostle here of this great Point he had been treating of and such Reasons or Demonstrations run often upon Harmony and Congruity of one Divine Thing or Truth kissing another Also upon Becomingnesses or Meetnesses that is what it becometh the great God to do For instance In giving an account why God in bringing many Sons to Glory did choose to effect it by Christ's Death rather than any other way It became him says he Heb. 2. 10. For whom are all things and by whom are all things c. And so in the point of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by Man came Death by Man came also the resurrection of the dead that is it was congruous harmonious it should thus be the one answering correspondently to the other The like congruity will be found couched here in God's bringing Souls to Glory afore that Resurrection Now there are two sorts of harmonious Reasons couched in the fore-part of these Words He that wrought us for this is God I. That it is Finis operis opérantis The End of the Work it self upon us and of God as an Efficient working for an End God hath wrought on us for this very thing II. It is Opus Dignum Deo Authore A Work as he is the great God and as a thing worthy and becoming of God as the Author of it He that hath wrought us for this thing is God There is a third point to be superadded and that is It is the Interest of all three Persons Which how clearly evidenced out of the Text will appear when I have dispatched these former Doctrines I. Doctrine That it is a strong Argument that God hath provided a Glory for separate Souls hereafter That He hath wrought us and wrought on us a Work of Grace in this Life Ere the Reason of this will appear I must first open three things natural to the words which will serve as materials out of which to make forth that Argument First that the thing here said to be wrought is Grace or Holiness which is a preparation unto Glory 1. Grace is the Work And so Phil. 1. 6. termed The good Work A frame of Spirit created to good works Eph. 2. 10. We are his Workmanship created unto good Works The Text here says Who hath wrought us There similarly We are his Workmanship And 2. Secondly this Work is a preparation to Glory For for one thing to be first wrought in order to another is a preparation thereunto Now saith the Text He hath wrought us for this thing and Rom. 9. 23. it is in terminis The Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared to Glory which was by working Holiness for it follows ver 24. Even us whom he hath called Likewise Col. 1. 12. Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Meet by making us Saints So then Had prepared Hath made meet is all one with Who hath wrought us for this thing Here The second what is the principal Subject wrought upon or prepared and made meet for Glory 'T is certainly the Soul in Analogy to the Phrase here We use to say when we speak of our Conversion Since my Soul was wrought on And though the Body is said to be sanctified 1 Thess 5. 23. yet the immediate Subject is the Soul and that primitively originally the Body by derivation from the Soul And hence it is the Soul when a Man dies carries with it all the Grace by inherency All Flesh is Grass which withers that is the Body with all the appurtenances saith Peter 1 Pet. 1. 24. But you having purified your Souls being born again of incorruptible Seed our Bodies are made of corruptible Seed which is the opposition there by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever And this is the Word he says he means which by the Gospel is preached every day unto you ver 25. and by preaching is engrafted in your Souls purifying your Souls ver 22. In no other Subject doth that Word as preached for ever abide For the Body rots and in the Grave hath not an inherent but a relative Holiness such as the Episcopal Brethren would have to be in Churches consecrated by them because once it was the
great Reward And so we come to connect this fifth Head with the foregoing Gen. 15. 1. And therefore if the being his God moved him to prepare that City against his death as hath been said then surely his being his Reward doth also then take place I shall not omit it because it falls in the next Chapter Heb. 12. 23. that in that stupendious Assembly of Heaven God the Judge of all is mentioned between the Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven this afore and the Spirits of justified Men made perfect this after it For there are none of these First-born or the Spirits of just Men do come to sit down there but they pass the award of this Judge first for they sit down by him and surely having done all their Work in the time of that day is allotted to each man to work in it is a righteous thing with God to give them a Reward in the evening of this day which is Christ's time set for rewarding and it is the twelfth and last hour succeeding the eleventh of the day Matth. 20. 6 9. See Brugensis Maldonat c. Lev. 19. 13. compared which is when the night of death comes Now there is a Law given by God that the wages to a man hired should be given him by him that set him awork in his day that is says the Septuagint the very same day so as his Work or the wages of his Work abide not with thee all the night until the morning Deut. 24. 15. says God Deut. 24. 15. Did God take care for hirelings when their Work was done not to stay any space of time no not a night and doth he not fulfil this himself unto his Sons that serve him Surely yes he defers not nor puts them off to the morning of the Resurrection as the Psalmist elegantly calls it Psal 17. last It abides not with him all that dark and longsome night or space after death in which their bodies rest in the grave which is termed Man's long home and Eccles 12. 5. The days of darkness are many says Solomon No he rewards them in the evening of the day besides what he will add to it in the morning It is observable that Rev. 6. 9 10. concerning the separate Souls slain for Christ that whilst they cry for Justice on their enemies only And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth that they had white robes given them to quiet them in the mean time ver 11. And white Robes were given unto every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season till they heard that vengeance also was executed on that Roman Empire for their blood shed And thus to deal is a righteous thing with God Thus you have seen the Point confirmed from all sorts of relations that God bears unto us by congruous Reasons that so it becometh God the great God to do He that hath wrought us for this thing is God And so much for this first Branch of this second Doctrine §. The II. Branch of the second Doctrine That there is a glorious Contrivement and Workmanship carried on in this Dispensation of his like unto the great God indeed This carries on this Point yet higher For it is not onely an Ordination becoming God upon the respects mentioned but there is an Artifice a Workmanship in it such as he useth to shew in his Works of Wonder even in this That he should work upon Men's Souls in this life and then bring them into a Glory he had in the mean space been a working also for those their Souls This is the great God indeed When God secretly bestows Cost and Curiosity in preparing matters for such or such an end and then again as hiddenly hath laid out a greater Art Skill and Workmanship upon that end it self and then hath exactly suited and matched the one to the other when All comes to be finish'd and both wrought and brought together then will an infinite surpassing Glory arise unto God out of all which deserveth to have this Notoriety that is here put upon it He that hath wrought this for that Is GOD and lo this is found here which is demonstrated if we view 1. Each of these Workmanships singly and apart 2. Joyntly as designed and fitted each to the other §. 1. Each singly If there were no such ordination of the one for the other yet so considered they deserve to have each an He that hath wrought this is God to be written under it 1. For his Artifice in working us in this life Learned Cameron hath but one In his Myrothecium Note upon this whole fifth Chapter and and it falls to be upon this very Word who hath wrought and it is this This word says he as used by the Septuagint signifies Rem expolire rudem informem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To polish a thing that is rude and without fashion for which he gives instance out of Exod. 35. 33. in Bezaleel's work whom as the 31 32 verses speak of him God had filled with his Spirit in all Wisdom in all Workmanship to devise cunning Work And again the same word is used of the Temple-work that other was for Mose's Tabernacle 1 King 6. 36. by Solomon which how transcendent a structure it was you have all read or heard An infinitely surpassing Art then hath the Spirit himself who is the immediate worker in this shewn in the framing and hewing and curiously carving and engraving those living Stones that grow up into a Temple unto God 1 Pet. 2. 5. especially considering the utter remoteness indisposedness yea crookedness and perverseness in the matter wrought upon our souls fill'd with the contrary form and workmanship of Satan Ye are his workmanship says the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. And truly if we could enlarge upon all the varieties of dealings God useth to each Soul to work it the several sorts of gracious dispositions he impresseth and carveth upon it the manifold actings of every Soul drawn forth by him you may take a view of some in the very next chapter to that of my Text 2 Cor. 6. from the 4. ver In much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses v. 5. In Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Watching in Fastings ver 6. By Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned ver 7. By the Word of Truth by the Power of God by the Armour of Righteousness on the right-hand and on the left ver 8. By Honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report as deceivers and yet true ver 9.