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 sayes of man There is no work after this life No remembrance sayes David namely which hath any influence into a mans Eternity So there is no working upon us in order thereunto after death God hath done his Do hath wrought and man hath finish'd 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 onely therefore onely 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 Holinesse because they are immediately wrought in the Soul that therefore when the body dyes 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 righteousnesse But if the spirit of him that raised us Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall 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 11. verse termes the mortall body to be raised up which sayes he is dead that is appointed to die as one sentenced to death you term a dead man And this because of sinne It was meet that that first threatning of dying should have some effect to evidence the truth of God therein Onely God is favourable in his ordination in this that he arresteth but the Body the lesse principall 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. followes what remains the soul of such an one when the body dyes But sayes he speaking by way of exception and contrary fate too The Spirit is life because of righteousnesse The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body This when the body dies is Life He sayes not living onely or immortall but is swallowed up into life And why because of righteousnesse which is Christs image and so preserves and by Gods 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 Quaerie would be Shall this body for ever remain dead because of this first sin and bear this punishment for ever No Therefore 3. he addes He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall 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 channell 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 though I must not say the body defiles the soul or of it self is the immediate subject of sin yet the originall means or channel through which it comes down and is derived unto us is the generation of our bodies The Body therefore congruously payes 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 holinesse and righteousnesse from the second Adam communicated to it and abiding in it and being not onely the immediate subject thereof but further the first and originall subject from and by which it is derived unto the body The womb into which that immortall seed was first cast and in which the inward man is formed and in respect of a constant abiding in which it is that seed is termed incorruptible Hence therefore sayes God of this Soul It is life It shall live when this Body dies There is nothing of Christs Image but is ordained to abide for ever Charity never fails His Righteousness endures for ever and therefore is ordained to conserve and elevate unto life the subject it is in and that is the Soul This as a foundation of the substantial parts of this first Reason out of this one Scripture thus directly and explicitly holding this forth §. I come 2. to the Argumentation it self which ariseth out of these things laid together 1. That the Soul is the immediate Subject of Grace 2. The first and Primitive Susceptive thereof 3 And it self is alone and immediately capable of Glory which Grace is a preparation to And 4. that God afore our deaths hath wrought all of Grace he intends to work in preparation to Glory Out of all these a strong Argument doth arise That such a Soul upon death shall be admitted unto Glory and not be put to stay till the time of the Resurrection when both Soul and Body shall be joyned again together And that this holdeth a just and meet conveniency upon each or at least all these grounds when put together First consider the Soul as the immediate subject of this working and preparation for Glory Hence therefore this will at least arise That the inherency or abiding of this Grace wrought in this Soul depends not upon its conjunction with the Body but so as it remains as an everlasting and perpetual conserver of that Grace stampt on it yea and carries it all with it self as a rich Treasure innate unto it where-ever it goes when separate from the Body I say it either hath in it or appertaining unto it all that hath been wrought for it either in it or by it Revel. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord And their Works do follow them They go to Heaven with them and after them And in what subject else is it that the Seed of God remains incorruptible or the Word of God abides for ever Or how else comes that saying to be performed 1 Joh. 2. 17. He that doth the will of God endures for ever Having therefore all these
A State of Glory FOR SPIRITS OF JUST MEN UPON DISSOLUTION DEMONSTRATED A SERMON preached in Pauls Church Aug. 30. 1657. before the Rt. Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London By THO: GOODVVIN D. D. President of Magd. Coll. Oxon. LONDON Printed by J. G. for Robert Dawlman 1657. TICHBORN Mayor Tuesday the first of Septemb. 1657. IT is ordered That Doctor Thomas Goodwin be desired from this Court to print his Sermon at Pauls the last Lord Day And further Mr. Alderm. Thomson is desired to use all endeavours with him to that purpose SADLER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir ROBERT TICHBORNE Lord Major Together with the Honourable COURT OF ALDERMEN Of the Renowned CITY of LONDON Greatly Honoured THis imperfect Piece and almost born out of due time puts it self forth into the world by your Command but like Zarah giving out the hand the body to which that appertained remaining still in the womb For this Sermon is but one member and indeed not so much the Hand as the Foot that is the latter part of a larger Bulk or Body of Sermons preached just afore elswhere upon those foregoing Verses of this Chapter My real purpose after your Order for this one was To have presented the whole entire Discourse unto YOV I found not time so much as leisure and spirits failing me in the performance I have therefore done as the Midwife for that Childe did in the same Gen. 38. 28. bound upon this foot for by your force and in obedience to you it comes wrong and backward this Scarlet thred of Dedication saying as she This is come forth first That if hereafter the rest may see the light You may know if You will vouchsafe it how to own and appropriate them all as Yours as being thus consecrated to You by these in respect of the publication the first-fruits of that whole Lump And now what is my earnest desire and prayer for you but according to the tendency of the matter it might be blessed to be an Helper to your Faith against the Time of your being unclothed of your flesh your going into another world where you all profess to look for another and better CITY that is an Heavenly whose Maker and Builder is God who hath or must work Us for the self-same thing or we perish everlastingly And my Lord I have particularly directed it to wait on your Honour in the contemplation of this very Aim as a Signall whereof Providence and not my Design having seemed to give forth this semblance in that it allotted no other season for it could not come forth one day sooner for its attendance on you but the very DAY of your being VNCLOTHED of your office which are little civil deaths and going out of this your transitory Government over this great CITY the best and best governed in the world But the honour of this performed amongst us you still remain clothed with and will ever wear yea and be clothed upon to a glory for it at the latter day Those things even now said unto you all being the brief Collect of this ensuing Sermon I turne into a Prayer for you all who am Your true Honourer and Servant in the Gospel THO: GOODVVIN Mag. Coll. Oxon. Oct. 23. 1657. 2 COR. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit THere is no point of more moment to All nor of greater comfort to Saints than what shall become of their Souls when they die 'T is our next stage and things that are next use more to affect us And besides it is the beginning and a taking possession of Our Eternity That these words should aim at this self-same thing cannot be discerned without consulting the fore-going part of the Apostles discourse and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the coherence having pitch'd upon what this fifth Verse contributes unto this Argument which alone will require more than this time allotted having also very largely gone through the Exposition of the fore-going Verses elswhere and I now go but on where I left last But yet to make way for the understanding the scope of my Text take The Coherence in brief thus In the 16 Verse of the fore-going Chapter where the Well-head of his Discourse is to be found he shews the extraordinary care God hath of Our inward man to renew it day by day where Inward man is strictly the Soul with its Graces set in opposition unto Our outward man the Body with its appurtenances which he saith daily perisheth that is is in a mouldring and decaying condition Chap. 5. ver. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens In this first verse of this fifth Chapter he meets with this supposition But what if this outward man or earthly tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pull'd down what then shall become of this inner man And he resolves it thus That if it be dissolved we have an house a building of God in the heavens And what is the WE but this inner man he had spoken of renewed Souls which dwell now in the body as in a tabernacle as the In-mates that can subsist without it And it is as if he had said If this inward man be destituted of one house we have another God that in this life was so careful over this inner man to renew it every day hath made another more ample provision against this great change It is but it 's removing from one house to a better which God hath built As your selves to speak in your own language if Wars should beset you and your Countrey-house were plundred and pull'd down you would comfort your selves with this I have yet a City-house to retire unto Neither is the terming the glory of Heaven and that as it is bestowed upon a separate Soul alien from the Scripture-phrase Luke 16. 9. That when you fail they may receive you into EVERLASTING HABITATIONS Death is a failing 't is your City-phrase also when a man proves Bankrupt A Statute of Bankrupt comes forth then upon your old house Statutum est omnibus semel mori and upon all you have and then it is that there is a receiving or entertaining that otherwise-desolate Soul into everlasting habitations that is into an house eternal in the heavens as the Text Nor yet is the phrase of terming Heaven A City-house remote neither for Heb. 11. ver. 13. Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith Mark that in faith or expectation of what He had told us ver. 10. He looked for a City whose Builder is God What is a City but an aggregation and heap of houses and Inhabitants Multitudes had died afore Abraham and gone to Heaven from Adam Abel Seth downwards and God promiseth him peace at his death and a being gathered to those
and so a part of the Reward of Faith received in hand as we say and vouchsafed over and above the ordinary way of living by Faith This Interpretation I no way gainsay nor will go about to exclude for I know it doth consist with that other I am about to give and is subordinate to it But if this Sense should obtain that it were Directly Alone intended yet by consequence and at the rebound it doth strongly argue the point in Hand For if whilest Faith continues God is pleased to vouchsafe such joyes much more when faith ceaseth He will vouchsafe a fuller Enjoyment for why else are these present joyes termed Salvation That is in a sort part of the taking possession of Salvation aforehand and that as distinct from the Right to Salvation which Faith in ordinary gives without such joyes at all times to all believers they have the name given them as being an earnest of the same kind of that greater summe And again why are these present joyes termed the Salvation of their SOULS But because they are intended by God being also now wrought immediately in the Soul without the body's influence to be an earnest that it is their Souls when without their bodies shall have that fuller possession given them and so this earnest assigneth this payment to be made to this Legatee the SOUL specified as the first receiver of it 2. Every payment having a day or set time appointed for it which the earnest obligeth the trustee unto as well as to make payment it self and useth to be at the end of the performance on his part to whom the contract is made this therefore is as elegantly designed to be the end of their faith there 's the day of payment And 3. it would be hard to think that God should give forth joyes whilest faith continues and then for so long a time as till the Resurrection withdraw all communication of himself both of faith and joy through sight also Surely they are not left worse than in this life they were I also know the Soul being the eminent part of man is often in Scripture by a Synecdoche put for the whole And I must not deny but that ultimately it is intended here it extending it self to the whole of Salvation first and last after Faith ended Which sense on the other hand many interpreters are for I onely contend for this That the salvation of the soul is intended also of that Salvation which falls out in the midst between these joyes the earnest in this life and that ultimate Salvation at the Resurrection that is the Salvation of the Soul whilest separate as being the next It hath a weight in it that Salvation and Damnation should so often be said to be of the soul by Christ himself as Mat. 26. 16. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole word and so provide for his body and lose his own soul And again in speaking of the Soul as considered apart from the Body Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that are able to kill but the body and are not able to kill the soul But that which is more conjunct to my purpose it is observable that this our Apostle Peter should choose to use in this Epistle more than any other Apostle this phrase of Soul in relation to Salvation either as being the eminent subject and sometimes as the single subject both of Grace and Salvation So in this Chapter You have purified your souls c. as the immediate susceptive of the incorruptible seed as was observed Then again in ch. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and 8. 25. Ye are returned to the Bishop of your Souls Which he speaks as being the eminent part and upon separation from the body the speciall charge he hath pastorall care of And more directly to our purpose ch. 4. last v. he exhorts them when they come to die to commit their souls to God as then being to be separate from their bodies Now it were hard to think that this Salvation to come should bear the title and name of the salvation of the soul in this and other Scriptures and that yet when this Soul shall in the other world come to subsist for a long time single and alone and then be properly and without figure A meer soul without a body a lonesome soul That during that state it should not be the subject of this Salvation and so intended here when more properly and literally if ever it is the salvation of the soul And it would be yet more strange that the phrase salvation of the soul should be wholly restrained unto that estate of the soul when remitted to the body at the Resurrection and onely unto that And that word the soul should serve onely synecdochically as a part put to signifie the whole man as then it is to be raised up but especially it were strangest of all if it should be confined and limited in this place of Peter wherein this salvation of the soul is set forth for the comfort of such as were to lay down their tabernacles of their bodies for Christ as this Peter speaks of himself in the next Epistle and whose faith was then to cease with their lives whose expectations therefore he would in this case certainly pitch upon that salvation of the soul which was next which is this of the soul separate To confirm all which That which further invited me to this place was this phrase The end of your Faith especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto such Christians who in those times were as he foretels ch. 4. v. 4. shortly to be martyred and at present were sorely tried v. 7. of this Chapter and in the last verse of the fourth he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls when they come to die to be kept by God And so understood in a proper and literall sense this salvation of their souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith First in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in as Death is said to be the end of life So noting forth that when Faith ends this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it The end of a thing signifies the immediate event issue period thereof As of wicked men it is said whose end is destruction Phil. 3. Heb. 10. last v. Apostasy unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition And on the contrary there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the soul And both note out the finall event and consequent of each and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith when men continue and go on to believe untill their faith arriveth at attaineth this Salvation of the Soul To this sense also Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit in holinesse and the end everlasting life And the Apostle Peter having in the foregoing verses
space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of Gods being a father of spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerely the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that word and live this life is well interpreted by ver. 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus that if he would have them be subject unto God in holinesse as upon that relation as unto the father of spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one speciall aim of the promise is answerable and hath this eye That God as a Father of their spirits will therefore take care of their spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this life on them and truly when its more proper for him to shew himself a Father then when their souls after their subjection to him in holinesse here accomplished and when that as naked spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashired out of this world and come stript and naked of all but holinesse unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Fathers blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as spirits who as sons that have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the demonstration of this point then all the former The Text sayes He that wrought us for this is God I adde he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of spirits in common and yet withall a father of their spirits out of special love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the spirits of all flesh that is of man Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by grace And these two relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all men So in common answerably he is Your God and Your Father by special grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you finde yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how farre he is a God of the one so farre a Father also extendeth in the other And look how farre that he is our God so farre reacheth also that he is Our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will adde further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant reward which respected the life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of Gods unto us unto two inferences drawn from Abrahams instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christs inference from thence That therefore Abrahams soul lives and Abraham both soul and body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's collection from the same Promise is that God had provided in the mean time for Abrahams soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the story and case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver. 8 9. whereupon ver. 13. it is said That these all died in faith not having received the promises being strangers in the land yea not having a foot of land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose maker and builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from Gods having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his reward and his friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which is spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their deaths The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their
God did import and carry this with it That he had provided this estate for them at their death even an heavenly and that otherwise as the Apostle glosseth upon it he had not come up unto the amplitude of nor filled full this convenanted Engagement and Profession of HIS BEING THEIR GOD Will you have it in plain English as we speak if he had not made this provision for their souls he would have been ashamed to have been called their God thus deeply doth this oblige him That he is our God and Father which is the point in hand And judge of this in the light of all that Reason we have hitherto carried along and again let this inference of the Apostle mutually serve to confirm us in all that Reason For poor Abraham to be driven out of his own Country by God who called him to his foot and said no more but as a Master to his Servant Take your Cloke and follow me who must presently without more ado trig and foot it after his Master as Isa 41. 2. and then to live a stranger in the Land of Promise upon the faith that God would be his God which faith in him was also to cease when he came to die If this God in this case should not have taken care to answer his faith in some greater way in stead of the possession of Canaan and that after upon his being turned out of that Country too which he sojourned in during this life if God had not provided another House or Country or City for his soul that was to live to bring it into when it should be deprived of all in this world The Apostle tells us God in this case would have been ashamed to have been called his God which now having provided so abundantly for him upon dying there is superabundant cause to say God is not ashamed for that is a diminutive implying That he infinitely exceedeth that their expectation could be supposed to be Let us but view the force of this inference of the Apostles and so of all the reasonings hitherto read But according to man or what is found amongst men and God will be sure infinitely to surpass men in his ways of favour Take an ordinary friend if his friend be turn'd out of house and home plundred banished driven out of all as the Steward in that Parable Luk. 16. was and comes to his friend at midnight as in that other Parable Luk. 11. 5 6. will not his friends entertain him into their houses as ver. 9. of Luke 16. yea and rise at midnight to do it as ver. 5 6. in that Parable of Luke 11. shall profession of friendship engage and oblige men to do this and shall not Gods professing himself to be our God Father Friend engage his heart much more Nay will he not so entertain them as shall exceed all wonderment What need I say more than this Wherefore He is not ashamed to be called their God He will therefore give you an entertainment that shall be worthy of his being your God The fifth and last Consideration is That these separate Souls having done and finish'd all their work that in order to glory God hath appointed them for ever to do they now at death appear afore him as a JUDGE AND REWARDER And that is the fifth Relation moving God to bestow at this season such a glory on them How that then the Soul returns to God you have heard again again out of Eccl. 12. 7. and that it is upon the account of his being the Judge thereof at the end of their work in this life The Chaldee Paraphrase hath long since glossed upon it It returns to God that it may stand in Judgement afore Him In this life it came unto God by faith as the Apostle speaks believing that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and now at the end of its faith it comes unto God for the reward of its faith as some interpret that 1 Pet. 1. 9. which we so largely have insisted on This is certain That in that Promise to Abraham To be his God he intended and included his being to him an exceeding great reward And so we come to connect this fifth Head with the fore-going 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 Christs time set for rewarding and it is the twelfth and last hour succeeding the eleventh of the day Matth. 20. 6 9. 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 untill the morning 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 long some night or space after death in which their bodies rest in the grave which is termed Mans long home and The days of darkness are many says Solomon no he rewards them in the evening of the day besides what he will adde 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 cried 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