safely trust the worth of their Souls and the weight of Eternity with him who has said he will never leave them nor forsake them Besides the Promise of a Reward to the obedient Children of God is secur'd not only by his Fidelity but the declar'd Equity of his Proceedings in his final Judgment 'T is a Regality invested in the Crown of Heaven to dispense Rewards Whoever comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him His Being and rewarding Bounty are the Foundations of Religion 'T is true such is the Distance between God and the Creature and the eternal Obligations of it to God that it can challenge nothing from God as due to its Merit Justice unqualified with Bounty and Clemency owes nothing to the most excellent Obedience of the Creature tho innocent But since the Fall our best Works are defective and defiled and want Pardon and our heaviest Sufferings are but light in the Ballance against the exceeding Weight of Glory But the Apostle tells the Thessalonians It is a righteous thing with God to recompense Tribulation to them who trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us Consider them in the Comparison 'T is becoming his governing Justice to punish the unrighteous Persecutors and reward his faithful Servants who suffer for his Glory Now the present Life is the Day for our Work as our Saviour saith I must do the Work of him that sent me while 't is called to Day And at Death the Spirit returns to God that gave it in order to Judgment either fatal or favourable according to the tenor of Mens good Works and the desert of their bad The Promise is to them who by patient continuance in wel-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality they shall obtain eternal Life Our Saviour encourages his suffering Servants Be faithful to the Death and I will give you the Crown of Life The compleat Reward is reserved to the great Day of universal Recompences when the Sons of God by Regeneration shall be the Sons of a glorious Resurrection But the righteous Judg will give a present Reward at the end of the Day to all that with unfainting Perseverance have perform'd his Work Our Saviour tells us that all who wrought in the Vineyard receiv'd their Rewards in the last Hour of the Day The Parallel is instructive that when the Night of Death comes the Reward will be dispens'd There is a Law recorded concerning the paying Wages to those who were hir'd that it should be in the end of the Day that it should not be detain'd all Night with thee until the Morning The Allusion is very congruous that God will fulfil his own Law to his Sons that serve him The Reward shall not abide with him the long dark Interval the Night wherein their Bodies sleep in the Grave till the Morning of the Resurrection Our Saviour promised the dying Penitent To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The End of our Faith is immediately attended with the Salvation of the Soul The Labour of Faith being finish'd is productive of the beatifick Vision in the State of Light and Glory The Sum is That the Children of God who have by constant Conversation sincerely endeavoured to please and glorify him may with an entire Resignation commit their Souls to his Hands as if an Angel were sent from Heaven to them in their dying Agonies with the comfortable Message that they should presently be with God 3. The Divine Power in conjunction with Love and Truth is the Foundation of our secure dependance upon God in our last Hours This Consideration is absolutely necessary for our sure Trust For Love without Power is ineffectual and Power without Love of no comfortable Advantage to us The Apostle gives this reason of his chearful and couragious Sufferings in the Service of God For I know in whom I have believed and am perswaded he is able to keep what I have committed to him till that Day His Faith respected the Promises of God concerning his Salvation which are infinitely sure the Divine Power being alsufficient to fulfil them The precious Depositum that is committed to his dear Care he can and will preserve inviolate The Father of sincere Believers is the Lord of Heaven and Earth who by his Word without the least strain of his Power made the World and preserves it from falling into Confusion 'T is the Essence of Faith to assure us of God's Almighty Mercy to all that have the true Characters of his Children that are qualified for his Salvation Our Redeemer joins the two Relations of our Father and our God the gracious and the glorious Relation are inseparable Now the Love of our heavenly Father engages the Power of our God that we shall want nothing to secure our Happiness that is within the object of Omnipotence I shall insist no further upon the Consideration of the Divine Power because it will return under some of the following Heads of Discourse II. The Blessedness of this Privilege is to be unfolded This will appear by considering First What is the Depositum the Thing that is intrusted in God's Hands Secondly What is implied in his receiving of it In answer to the first 'T is the Soul the more excellent and immortal Part of Man that is commended to God's keeping 1. ' T is our more excellent Part in its Nature and Capacity Man is a compounded Creature of a Body and a Soul the Body in its Original and Resolution is Earth the Soul is of a divine Descent a spiritual Substance and in the Nobility and Perfections of its Nature but a little lower than the Angels 't is the vile Body but the precious Soul In its Capacity it incomparably excels the Body for the Body lives moves in the low Region of the Senses that are common with the Worms of the Earth but the Soul in its Understanding and Desires is capable of Communion with the blessed God of Grace and Glory From hence it is that the whole World can't make one Man happy for the Ingredients of true and compleat Happiness are the Perfection and Satisfaction of the Soul The Apostle tells us The less is blessed of the greater Can the World bring Perfection to Man that is so incomparably short of his Imperfection Our Saviour assures us the Gain of the whole World cannot recompense the Loss of one Soul There is a vast Circuit in our Desires and all the Lines terminate in the Centre of Blessedness Can the World give sincere Satisfaction to them Solomon who was as rich and high as the World could make him has left an everlasting Testimony of the Vanity of transient Things from his experimental Observation and the Direction of the Holy Spirit So he begins and ends his Sermon Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity so vain and vexing that we shall not only be weary of them
things to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father to those that ask him The Inference is strong not only from the Divine Authority of the Speaker but from the native Perspicuity of the Things for the Love of an earthly Father is but an Infusion into his Breast from the heavenly Father and but a faint resemblance of his Love The Love of a Mother is more tender and endearing than of a Father Even a fearful Hen will fly upon Death to preserve its tender Brood from the Devourer Yet the Love of God to his Children far excels it Can a Woman forget her sucking Child What Heart what Marble is in her Breast so incompassionate and unrelenting as to neglect her helpless Infant She may but saith God I will never forget thee The Seraphims those bright and unperishing Flames are but faint and cold in comparison of God's Love to his Children 'T is observable how the Love of God to them expresses it self in all the Notions of Propriety and Preciousness to make it more sensible to us They are stiled his Treasure his Jewels the most precious part of his Treasure the Jewels of his Crown that are the richest Jewels Now will he throw away his Treasure or suffer the cruel Enemy to rob him of his Jewels Will he not take them into his safe Custody 'T is to be observed that the Esteem and Affection of God principally respects the Souls of his Children Their Souls have an original Affinity with him in their Substance as Spirits and being born again of the Spirit they are Spirit in their Divine Qualities Endowments and more endear'd to him than by their first Alliance His tender Care to preserve them will be correspondent to his Valuation and Love Moreover the Condition of departing Souls affords another Argument of reliance upon his Love for they leave this visible World with all their Supports and Comforts they are stripp'd of all sensible Securities And will he leave them fatherless in such a forlorn and desolate State His Love is express'd by Mercy Compassion Pity melting Affections that are most tenderly moved when the beloved Object is in Distress Our Saviour propounds an Argument for dependance upon the delivering Love of God from the Exigence of his People Shall not God deliver his own Elect the Designation of Love who cry day and night to him He will do it speedily Love is never more ardent and active than in times of Distress Therefore when his dying Children are deprived of all their Hopes and dependance upon Creatures and fly to him for Protection and Relief will he not hear their mournful Requests and grant their fainting Desires When their earthly Tabernacles are so ruinous that they are forc'd to dislodg will the Love of a Heavenly Father suffer their naked Souls to wander in the vast Regions of the other World seeking Rest and finding none Certainly he will bring them into his reviving Presence If Divine Love be so condescending that the high and lofty One that inhabits Eternity dwells with the humble and contrite Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble when they are confin'd to our lowly Earth we may be assur'd when that Spirit shall be devested of Flesh he will bring it to Heaven the Temple of his Glory to be with him for ever 'T is greater Love for a King to lay aside his State and dwell in a mean Cottage with his Favourite than to receive him into his Palace and communicate to him of his rich Abundance 'T is another most comfortable Consideration that the Love of God is unvariable towards his Children His Love is the sole moving Cause of our filial Relation to him Of his own Will he begat us by the Word of Truth His Soveraign free Love was the Principle of his electing any to the Dignity of being his Children This Love is as unchangeable as free and Election that proceeds from it is as unchangeable as his Love What can induce him to alter his Affection towards them For such is the perfection of his Knowledg that he can never be surprized by a sudden new Event that may cause a change in his Mind and Will He foresaw all the Sins of his People with their provoking Aggravations Now if the foresight of them did not hinder his electing Love in its rise can they frustrate its end the bringing of them to Glory Besides we may argue from what his Love has done for his Children to what he will do He has given his Son and Spirit to them the surest Signs of his Love if we consider the unvaluable Excellence of the Gifts and the Design of the Giver The Son of God is the most excellent Gift of his Love as undeserved as he was undesired And from hence the Apostle argues He that gave his Son for us all how much more will he with him give us all things Blessed God! What richer Evidence and more convincing Demonstration can there be of thy Love Will he not with him give us all things The Inference is direct and conclusive with respect to temporal and eternal Things He will give to his Children in the present World whatever his Wisdom in conjunction with his Love sees good for them To illustrate this by a low and familiar Instance If a Mother bestows upon her Daughter rich Jewels for her Marriage-Ornaments will she deny her Pins to dress her And we may as strongly argue that with his Son he will give us eternal Blessings Will he give us the Tree of Life and not permit us to eat of the Fruit of it What was the design of his Counsel and Compassion in giving his Son to be a Sacrifice for us but to restore us to his Favour The Apostle reasons strongly If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life He has paid our Ransom and revers'd the Sentence of Condemnation against us and it invincibly follows he can more easily accomplish our Happiness in Heaven If Love justify a Sinner it will glorify a Saint And as the Gift of the Son so the most precious Gift of the Spirit to God's Children to make them holy and heavenly is the most certain sign of his Love to them The Apostle in the fullest expression speaks of it God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he has loved us even when we were dead in Sins quickned us together with Christ By Grace ye are saved Sanctification is the effect of rich Mercy great Love and saving Grace The Children of God are seal'd by the Holy Spirit to the Day of Redemption that Seal distinguishes them from the obstinate and polluted World and ratifies the conveyance of eternal Life to them The Spirit is stiled the Earnest of the Inheritance His dwelling in the Saints by his sanctifying and comforting Operations is an Earnest of their dwelling with
escape their deep Censures The Pulpit represented them as seditiously disaffected to the State as obstinate Schismaticks and often the Name of God was not onely taken in vain but in violence to authorise their hard Speeches and harder Actions against them Some drops of that Storm fell upon Mr. Baxter who calmly submitted to their injurious dealings I shall speak of that afterward In the Interval between his Deprivation and his Death he wrote and publisht the most of his Books of which I shall give some account His Books for their number and variety of Matter in them make a Library They contain a Treasure of Controversial Casuistical Positive and Practical Divinity Of them I shall relate the Words of one whose exact Judgment joyn'd with his Moderation will give a great value to his Testimony they are of the very Reverend Dr. Wilkins afterwards Bishop of Chester he said that Mr. Baxter had cultivated every Subject he handled and if he had lived in the Primitive Times he had been one of the Fathers of the Church I shall add what he said with admiration of him another time That it was enough for one Age to produce such a Person as Mr. Baxter Indeed he had such an amplitude in his Thoughts such vivacity of Imagination and such solidity and depth of Judgment as rarely meet together His inquiring Mind was freed from the servile dejection and bondage of an implicit Faith He adher'd to the Scriptures as the perfect Rule of Faith and searcht whether the Doctrines received and taught were Consonant to it This is the duty of every Christian according to his capacity especially of Ministers and the necessary means to open the Mind for Divine Knowledge and for the advancement of the Truth He publisht several Books against the Papists with that clearness and strength as will Confound if not Convince them He said he onely desir'd Armies and Antiquity against the Papists Armies he cause of their bloody Religion so often exemplified in England Ireland France and other Countries However they may appear on the Stage they are always the same persons in the Tyring-room their Religion binds them to extirpate Hereticks and often over-rules the milder inclinations of their nature Antiquity because they are inveigled with a fond pretence to it as if it were favourable to their Cause but it has been demonstrated by many learned Protestants that the Argument of Antiquity is directly against the principal Doctrines of Popery as that of the Supremacy of Transubstantiation of Image-worship and others He has wrote several excellent Books against the impudent Atheism of this loose Age. In them he establishes the fundamental Principle upon which the whole Fabrick of Christianity is built that after this short uncertain life there is a future state of happiness or misery equally Eternal and that Death is the last irrevocable step into that unchangeable state From hence it follows by infallible Consequence that the reasonable Creature should prefer the interest of the Soul before that of the Body and secure Eternal life This being laid he proves the Christian Religion to be the onely way of fallen Man's being restor'd to the favour of God and obtaining a blessed Immortality This great Argument he manages with that clearness and strength that none can refuse assent unto it without denying the infallible Principles of Faith and the evident Principles of Nature He also publisht some warm Discourses to Apologize for the Preaching of Dissenting Ministers and to excite them to do their Duty He did not think that Act of Uniformity could disoblige them from the Exercise of their Office 'T is true Magistrates are Titular-Gods by their Deputation and Vicegerency but subordinate and accountable to God above Their Laws have no binding force upon the Conscience but from his Command and if contrary to his Law are to be disobeyed The Ministers Consecrated to the Service of God are under a moral perpetual Obligation of Preaching the saving Truths of the Gospel as they have opportunity There needs no miraculous Testimony of their Commission from Heaven to authorize the doing their ordinary Duty In some points of modern Controversie he judiciously chose the middle way and advised young Divines to follow it His reverence of the Divine Purity made him very shy and jealous of any Doctrine that seem'd to reflect a blemish and stain upon it He was a clear asserter of the soveraign Freeness and infallible Efficacy of Divine Grace in the Conversion of Souls In a Sermon reciting the Words of the Covenant of Grace I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me he observed the Tenor of it was I will and you shall Divine Grace makes the rebellious Will obedient but does not make the Will to be no Will. By the Illumination of the Mind the Will is inclin'd to Obedience according to the Words of our Saviour All that have heard and learn'd of the Father come to me He preach'd that the Death of Christ was certainly effectual for all the Elect to make them partakers of Grace and Glory and that it was so far beneficial to all Men that they are not left in the same desperate State with the fallen Angels but are made capable of Salvation by the Grace of the Gospel not capable of Efficience to convert themselves but as Subjects to receive saving Grace He did so honour the sincerity of God as entirely to believe his Will declared in his Word he would not interpret the Promises of the Gospel in a less gracious sense than God intended them Therefore if Men finally perish 't is not for want of Mercy in God nor Merits in Christ but for their wilfull refusing Salvation His Books of Practical Divinity have been effectual for more numerous Conversions of Sinners to God than any printed in our time and while the Church remains on Earth will be of continual Efficacy to recover lost Souls There is a vigorous Pulse in them that keeps the Reader awake and attentive His Book of the Saints Everlasting Rest was written by him when languishing in the suspence of Life and Death but has the Signatures of his holy and vigorous Mind To allure our Desires he unvails the Sanctuary above and discovers the Glory and Joys of the Blessed in the Divine Presence by a Light so strong and lively that all the glittering Vanities of this World vanish in that Comparison and a sincere Believer will despise them as one of mature Age does the Toys and Baubles of Children To excite our fear he removes the Skreen and makes the Everlasting Fire of Hell so visible and represents the tormenting Passions of the Damned in those dreadfull Colours that if duly considered would check and controul the unbridled licentious Appetites of the most sensual Wretches His Call to the Vnconverted how small in bulk but how powerfull in vertue Truth speaks in it with that authority and efficacy that it makes the Reader to lay
God in his Sanctuary above From hence the Apostle propounds a strong Argument to assure the Saints upon their leaving this World of their reception into Heaven Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God and the Almighty always obtains his End who hath also given us the earnest of his Spirit Holiness is the Morning-Star of the great Day Grace is the Preparative and Assurance of Glory For altho the Saints are in themselves mutable and while there remains Corruption within and a tempting World without are liable to falling away yet the free and powerful Love of God that revived them when dead will preserve them living that which raised them from the Grave will prevent their relapsing into it The Gifts of God are without Repentance How triumphantly does the Apostle express his Confidence Who shall separate us from the Love of God Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword These are the most powerful Terrors that the perverse World in combination with the Devil can make use of to constrain us to desert the Service of God but they are vain Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present nor Things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This blessed Assurance of the Apostle is not rais'd from his extraordinary Privileges not from the apparition of Angels to him nor his rapture to Paradise nor special Revelations but from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord that everlastingly embraces all his Children Briefly in that God has given his Son to die for us and his Spirit to live in us his Son to purchase and prepare Heaven for us his Spirit to prepare us for Heaven a dying Saint may with blessed Tranquillity commend his Soul into God's Hands I have more particularly considered the Fatherly Love of God what a strong Security it affords to his Children that he will never leave them in that no Point requires and deserves more Confirmation and weight of Argument to press it down into our distrustful Hearts 2. The Divine Truth affords a strong Security to the Children of God to commend their Souls to him at last Truth is an Attribute as essential and dear to God as any of his Perfections And in the Accomplishment of our Salvation he ordered all things becoming to his Wisdom that is for the illustration of all his principal Attributes and accordingly design'd the Glory of his Truth equally with the Honour of his Mercy Thus he declares to his chosen People Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments The Attribute that is set next to the Deity as most sacred is the Faithful God and that further express'd keeping Covenant and Mercy for he delights in fulfilling his Promises as in the freest Acts of Mercy The Psalmist breaks forth with the affectionate Praises of these Attributes I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy Name for thy loving Kindness and thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name His Word here immediately signifies his Promise that has its rise from his loving Kindness and its performance from his Truth This he magnifies both with respect to the matter of his Promises that are exceeding great and precious and the fulfilling them above all that we can ask or think God cannot repent or lie his Counsels are unretractable from the Immutability of his Nature his Promises are infallible from his Fidelity they are as unchangeable as the Sun and Stars in their appointed Courses nay more stable than the Centre for Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not a tittle of his Promises and our Hopes be unfulfilled If the Frame of Nature were dissolved it would be no loss to God who is glorious and blessed in his own Perfections but if his Promises fail the Honour of his Truth would be impair'd and blemish'd The Psalmist saith Those that know thy Name will trust in thee Those who know the Creature its Levity Mutability and Mortality will be discourag'd from trusting in it but those who know the eternal Constancy of God in his Nature and Promises will securely rely upon him Now the Promises the Declarations of God's Love without which we cannot have any solid and sustaining Hope in our Death assure us of God's receiving the separate Spirits of his Children There was a constant clearness tho not in that degree of Light as since the appearance of Christ of the Happiness of the departed Saints Dying Jacob breaks forth with a lively Hope O Lord I have waited for thy Salvation Job says Tho he kill me yet will I trust in him that is for his Almighty Mercy in the next State The Psalmist expresses his Confidence Thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and receive me into thy Glory After the safe conducting him through a World of Troubles and Temptations he would bring him to Heaven a Place of equal Purity and Glory David when he was in pressing Peril addresses to God Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit to be preserved as a precious Depositum thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth His Assurance is built on God's Right and Title to him Thou hast redeemed me and his everlasting Fidelity The Apostle speaks with full assurance We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God eternal in the Heavens And we are confident I say rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. St. Peter encourages Christians when surrounded with Death to commit their Souls to him Wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in wel-doing as unto a faithful Creator He encourageth them to encounter Death in its most formidable Pomp by considering their Souls shall be safe for ever upon the account of God's Right and Interest in them and his Fidelity he has an original Right in them by the first Creation as they are intellectual immortal Spirits in their Nature but a nearer and more especial Right by a new and nobler Creation as they are renewed Spirits made like to him in his Holiness the most Divine Perfection The Relation of Creator implies his omnipotent Love and the Attribute of Faithful his eternal Love declar'd in his Promises There can never be the least cause to charge him with Insincerity or Inconstancy The Favour of God is round about the Righteous as a Shield And his Faithfulness is round about him that he is always ready to perform his Promise to them They may
but of this Life wherein we use them Can the Creature make us happy when their Emptiness and Anguish annex'd to it makes our Lives miserable The World cannot satisfy our narrow Senses The Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing much less the infinite Desires of our supreme Faculties Those who are now inchanted with its Allurements within a little while will see through its false Colours As when one awakes all the pleasant Scenes of Fancy in his Dream vanish so when the Soul is awakened in the End of Life the World and the Lusts thereof pass away and the remembrance of them I shall add further What clearer Evidence can we have of the worth of the Soul than from God's Esteem the Creator of it Now when God foresaw the Revolture of our first Parent that brought him under a double Death in one Sentence temporal and eternal and that all Mankind was desperately lost in him then his compassionate Counsels were concerning his Recovery His Love and Wisdom accorded to contrive the Means to accomplish our Redemption by the Death of his incarnate Son We are not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as a Lamb without spot and blemish Of what value is a Soul in God's account that he bought with his own Son's Blood the most sacred Treasure of Heaven We may say for the Honour of our Redeemer and our own that which the Angels cannot we were so valued by God himself that his Son became Man and died on the Cross for the Salvation of our Souls I shall only mention another Evidence and Effect of God's valuation of our Souls that is the eternal Weight of Glory which exceeds all the Thoughts of our Minds and Desires of our Hearts What are all the Kingdoms and Pleasures of the World in comparison of that Blessedness God has prepar'd for those who love him Now the Soul that is inestimably precious and should be most dear to us is secured from Danger when received by God's Hands 2. The Soul is our immortal Part. The Body is compounded of jarring Principles frail and mortal A Casualty or Sickness dissolves the vital Union and it falls to the Dust. But the Soul is a Spirit by Nature and immortal by its inherent Property It s spiritual Operations perform'd without the ministry of the Senses the Eye of the Mind contemplates its Objects when the Eyes of the Body are clos'd demonstrate its spiritual Nature for the Being is the Root of its working and consequently that it exists independently upon the Body But of this we have the clearest assurance in the Scripture This is another demonstration that present Things cannot make us happy for they forsake us the first step we take into the next World and then the Soul enters into Happiness or Misery equally eternal The Immortality of the Soul and the Immutability of its State are inseparable then for the present Life is the time of our Work the next is of Recompences according to our Works If we die in the Lord the Consequence is infallible we shall live with him for ever If we die in our Sins we shall not be received by his merciful Hands but fall into his bottomless Displeasure And of what concernment is it to have our Souls with God in that infinite and incomprehensible Duration All the Measures of Time Days and Weeks Months and Years and Ages are swallow'd up in that invisible Depth as the Rivers that pour into the Sea are swallowed up without any overflowing of its Waters The Dove that Noah let out of the Ark as a Spy to discover whether the Deluge was abated found not a Place to rest on but after many Circuits in the Air it returned to the Ark. If our Thoughts take wing and multiply Millions of Millions of Ages we cannot rest in any Computation for there remains after all an entire innumerable Eternity Secondly I will consider more particularly what is contained in this blessed Privilege The reception of the Soul into God's Hands implies three things 1. Entire Safety 2. Heavenly Felicity 3. 'T is a certain Pledg of the reviving of the Body and its reunion with the Soul in the State of Glory 1. Entire Safety After Death the separate Soul of a true Believer immediately passes through the airy and Ethereal Regions to the highest Heaven the Temple of God the native Seat and Element of blessed Spirits The Air is possess'd by Satan with his Confederate Army who are Rebels to God and Enemies to the Souls of Men he is stiled the Prince of the Power of the Air He often raises Storms and Tempests discharges Thunder and Lightning the woful Effects of which are felt in the lower World The Numbers the Strength and the Malice of the evil Angels to the Souls of Men render them very terrible We may conjecture at their Number from what is related in the Gospel that a Legion possess'd one Man They are superiour Spirits to Man and tho stripp'd of their moral Excellencies Holiness Goodness and Truth yet retain their natural Power at least in great degrees Their Malice is unquenchable 'T is said of the Devil He goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour All the Joy those malignant Spirits are capable of is the involving the Souls of Men in their desperate Calamity And tho they know their opposing God will increase their Guilt and Torment yet their Diligence is equal to their Malice to seduce pervert and ruin Souls for ever Now when the Saints die all the Powers of Darkness would if possible hinder the ascension of their Souls to God What David complains of his cruel Enemies is applicable in this case Their Souls are among Lions and if destitute of divine Preservation the Danger would be the same as if a little Flock of Lambs were to encounter with a great number of fierce Lions or fiery Dragons Anger sets an edg upon Power and makes a Combatant but of equal Strength to overcome How dangerous then would the Condition be of naked Souls oppos'd by over-matching Enemies armed with Rage against them How easily would they hurry them to the Abyss the Den of Dragons the Prison where lost Souls are secur'd to the Day of Judgment But all the Potentates of Hell are infinitely inferiour to God they are restrain'd and tortur'd by the Chains of his powerful Justice a Legion of them could not enter into the Swine without his permission much less can they touch the Apple of his Eye That black Prince with all his infernal Host cannot intercept one naked Soul from arriving at the Kingdom of Glory Our Saviour assures us None is able to pluck them out of his Father's Hands The Lord Christ our Head and Leader having vanquish'd in his last Battel on the Cross Principalities and Powers made his triumphant Ascension to Glory Thus his Members having overcome their spiritual Enemies shall by the