night closing upon them their Sunne is set and they but as a Candle spent to the end and blinking within the socket their gray haires and wrinkled cheeks their dim eyes trembling hands and weak knees reade unto them continuall Lectures of mortality and advise them to withdraw out of the tumultuous Sea of this troublesome World and to put in to the Haven of quiet rest and repose to give themselves to Prayer and Meditation to meditate upon the vanity of the time past the shortness of the time present and Eternity to come to set their House and their Heart in order and to prepare for a change at hand and all the few dayes of their appointed time to waite till that change doe come that so it may be unto them a happy change and they may with hope and comfort resigne their soules into the hand of their Creator and not be afraid to say with our Prophet in the Text Lord take away my soule which is the request it selfe which in old Simeons Language I call the Prophets Nunc dimittis In which are these three things First The Person The Lord. Secondly The Act take away Thirdly The Object my soule From the first note He might not take it away himselfe his soule was not his own he might not of his own head dismiss it himselfe though it were in him in never so much bitterness but he must stay the time till God that gave it him remands it again in the meane time In his pâ—tience possess his soule and all the dayes of his appointed time waite untill his change should come It is the refore a despâ—rate course of desperate men to antedate this Act of God by offering violence to themselves and so letting out their own soules as Achitophel and Judas did such think thereby to rid themselves of some present griefe or discontent by ridding-themselves of their lives but it is a delusion of Satan to tell them so herein they doe but leape out of the Frying Pan into the Fire as the Proverbe is for if this life did scourge them with scourges that other without the extraordinary mercy of God will torment them with Scorpions It was said of Hanniball That he alwaies carried three or foure drops of strong poyson inclosed under the stone of his Ring that at any time if he were hard set as Saul once was upon the loss of the day in a Battell against the Philistines he might sup them out and prevent his falling into his enemies hands as Saul then upon the same occasion fell upon his Speare and with the help of the fugitive Amalekite Slew himselfe And that stout hearted Prince which being taken Prisoner and carried about by the Conqueror in a silver Cage impatient of his Captivity and not having where withall to make away himselfe beat our his braines against the barrs of the Cage We could instance in too many such God knows which by hanging drowning poysoning and other kinds of death have made away themselves these our Law calls Felones de se Felons of themselves and inflicts upon them as grievous a punishment as they are capable of being dead by an ignominious buriall And yet I dare not say peremptorily of all such that they are certainly and eternally damned though there be nothing visible to us whereby we may judge otherwise of them yet who can limit the mercies of the most high or know what secret communication of spirit there may be in them between the beginning of the act and the end of it Inter pontem fontem between the bridge the brook between the stirrup and the ground mercy I ask't mercy I found Judas was not damned for hanging himselfe but for his I reason but to leave them to their own Master and Maker to stand or fall But Secondly There are more Felones de se selfe murderers or which at least are accessary to their own deaths then these though the Law doe not call them so As first All lewd and ungodly persons which having not the feare of God before their eyes take wicked courses commit robberies burgleries rapes â—elones treasons murders and other such capitall Crimes such as that the Laws of the Land take hold of them and â—ut them off as not worthy to live upon the Earth not among the Society of men The cruell and blood thirsty man shall not live out halfe his dayes all such are at least accessary to their own deaths Secondly All luxurious and intemperate persons which by surfetting drunkenness and riotous living destroy themselves fill their bodies with noxious humours which breed in them mortall diseases Surâ—ets Fevers Dropsies dead Palsies and the like by which they shorten their dayes The Philosopher observ'd 〈◊〉 long agoe That Plures gulâ quam gladio There were more dyed by intemperance then by the sword Lastly All quarrelsome Persons such as are apt to give offence to others and to provoke others to give offence to them and so from words they fall to blows or to challenge one another to fight Duells in which both parties are guilty of Murder by the sixth Commandement and as well he that is killed as he that killeth is at least accessary to his own death In none of these cases can a man say confidently That the Lord doth take away his soule he throweth it away himselfe and destroyeth himself 2. From this the Prophets request unto the Lord To take away his soule we may inferr That though a man may not take away his own soul yet in some cases he may make it his Suit to Almighty God that he would doe it So did old Simeon before mentioned So did St. Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 So did Moses Numb 11.15 So did Job cap. 6.8.9 So did Jeremiah cap. 20. So did Jonas Jonah 3.3 So did our Prophet in the Text I dare not justifie nor excuse all these which I have mentioned in this their request I suppose that in some of them it proceeded from passion and impatience and so it was their infirmity and blame-worthy yea in this our Prophet himself if there were not in this his request a tacite submission to the will of God it could not be excused but it proceeded from infirmity in him but this doth not infringe the truth of my inference That in some cases the Saints and Servants of Almighty God may without sin make it their Suite to him That he will take away their soules that is by death and dissolution separate them from their bodies First That so he may be taken out of a wicked world Oh what a Hell is it to a pious foule to be ingag'd in a wicked world For a Lot to live in Sodom A David in Meshech It was a farr greater mercy which God shewed to Enoch in taking him out of the world from the Flood at hand then that he shewed to Noah in preserving him in it Secondly In case of long and lasting sharpe and grievâ—us Afflâ—ctions Oh death how
sweet is theâ—r membrance of thee to the soule that lives in bitterness I doe not think the Lord did impute it for sin to Job or Jeremy that they were so weary of their bitter Lives and did so often wish That their change might come Or that King Edward the sixth did sin when in his death bedsickness he prayd so earnestly Lord take me out of this wretched World Nor Dr. Hamond who under the tortures of the Stone whereof he dyed was so often heard to say Lord make hast though I doubt not but in all these there was implyed a tacit submission to the will of God Thirdly That a man may be taken away frâ—m the evill to come This was a mercy promised to Josiah upon his humiliation 2 Kings 22.19.20 as it was the misery of his surviving Sonne Zedekiah to see the evill which his Father was taken from and to suffer in it Wise men fore-see evill to come in the causes of it and in the â—ore-runners of it And the Lord mentions it as a mercy That he will take them away from those evills and they may without sin Pray for that mercy Isay 57.1 Fourthly That they may be freed from the burden of the flesh and the bondage of corruption inherint in it that Ground Ivie in the Wall which will never be pluckt out root and branch till the Wall be thrown down It was under the sense of this that St. Paul cryes out Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death this will never be done but by the death of this body Fifthly In extremity of old age when a man becomes a burden to himselfe and others when he is fallen into those years of which David saith His life is nothing but labour and sorrow and the years of which he shall say I have no pleasure in them when not onely his body grows weak but his mind also and his intellectuall faculties faile his understanding weak his apprehension dull his memory unfaithfull his affections Childish and he becomes unserviceable not able to doe that good which he hath done and should doe when a man becomes thus superannuate he may doubtless without sin make it his suite to Almighty God To take away his soule Vse This Meditation is usefull to comfort and to confirme us against the feare of death either of our selves or our friends why should we make that the object of our feare which others have made the object of their hope and desire Holy men wise men good men men that have had a great interest in the world have been willing to lay down all and to leave all and made it their suite that they might dye in assurance of a change for a better life To help us to pass through this Gulfe with comfort and courage weigh well but these two things 1. What a world we leave behind us the Terminus à quo 2. What a world we have before us the Terminus ad quem And these two considerations will make the passage through that medium easie First For the Terminus à quo the world we leave behind us a very sink of sin a duâ—ghill of uncleanness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World lyes in wickedness as St. John speaks nothing in it but sinne and sorrow and travaile and trouble and malice and mischief and that which may well make any wise man out of love with it and even weary of it The best things in it which men make most account of have been weighed to our hands by the wisest of the Sonnes of Men and upon the tryall found To be lighter then vanity it selfe not onely vanity but vexation of spirit For first They are all transitory Secondly They are not all satisfactory Thirdly All imbitter'd with so many cross Ingredients that there is no true contentment in them nor true comfort to be taken out of them We could shew you examples of the greatest of men Kings Emperours Lords of the world such as have had as much of the glory of it and all other worldly good in it as the world could give or lend yet have seen so farr into the vanity and emptiness of it as to despise it to lay down all and take themselves unto a private and monasticall life which is a death to the world and the shaddow of death it selfe Secondly For the Terminus ad quem Consider what a world in dying we are going to it would require a world of time and words to describe it the best description of it is to describe it to be such for the transcendency of the glory of it as that it cannot be described For neither hath the eye seen nor the eare heard nor can the heart of Man comprehend the great things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 St. Paul shaddows it out in part Heb. 12.22 where he shows the happiness of the Church militant in their communion with the Church triumphant thus But you are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Caelestiall Jerusalem and to the company of inâ—numerable Angels And to the Assembly and Congregation of the first borne whose names are Written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Testament and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel Here 's a description in part of the Place and Society which we shall goe to when we shall come to be joyned with the Church triumphant in glory now be you well assured that all things els there are suitable to these which must needs render it transcendently joyous and glorious O! if we could but draw the Curtaine of Heaven and look in the Sanctum Sanctorum to see the joy and glory that is there we would never care for this world more the most pretious things in it would be despised in our eyes our whole life would be nothing but a Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and we would long for the time when the Lord would take away our soul that we might be translated thither I reade of one Cleombrotus that hearing Plato discoursing of the immortality of the soul and the happines of the other life to come Threw himself headlong off from a high Rock to quit himself of this life that so he might enter into that other life that Plato so much commended And if a Heathen man could be so sensible of advantaging himself by his change into the other life upon those weak grounds which Plato's Philosophy could give as to hasten his own death upon the hope of it Surely we that are Christians and have better grounds to build our faith and hope upon then any Plato's Philosophy could give may with much more Comfort think on Death with much more hope and
confidence waite for it and when it comes bid it welcome as our friend that comes to free our soul out of the prison of the body the sole impediment of it's perfection and to open the doore to let us into a better world and into a better life Thus of the Person to whom he makes his suit The Lord. 2. Now we are to consider of the Act Take away my soule How doth the Lord take away souls Not by annihilation or reducing them to nothing as at the first Creation Nor by laying them a sleep together with their bodies till the Resurrection the Opinion of the Arabians Nor by a Metempsuchosis transmitting them into some other body to informe them Nor by fixing them as Starrs in the Firmament Nor by sending them into purgatory as the Papists teach But thou that gavest it me take it unto thy self either by thine own immediate power and grace who art a Spirit and the God of the spirits of all flesh or by the Ministery of thy good Angells let them be ready to receive it at the parting of it out of my body as they did the soul of Lazarus and to carry it up to rest and glory Thus Lord take away my soule From hence note first That our souls are immortall they dye not with the body but when the body at the dissolution returns to the earth from whence it was taken the soul returns to God that gave it All the expressions of holy men dying imports as much Lord Jesus receive my spirit saith St. Stephen Father into thy hands I commend my spirit saith our Saviour Lord take away soul saith our Prophet all expressing their faith in this truth That their souls were immortal Feare not them that can kill the body and are not able to kill the soul saith our Saviour So then the soul cannot be killed Our blessed Lord disputing with the Sadduces concerning the Resurrection Mat. 22. tells them out of the Scriptures That God was the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob who were dead and buried a thousand years before and from thence concludeth the immortality of the soul inasmuch as God was not the God of who dead but of the living ver 32. their spirits did never dye their souls were still alive and in being and he was their God Vses First It is of Use to quiet our spirits and to satisfie our minds sometimes troubled upon the consideration of the perplexities of Providence in the cross dispensation of evill and good to the good and the evill here in this world the unravelling of this Clue of the souls immortality from the beginning to the end will guide us through this Labyrinth so that in the end we shall say The wayes of the Lord are right when a day shall come when it shall be said to the Epicures of this world which have had their portion in this life as in Luke 16.25 Sonne Rentember you have had your pleasure in your life time and my servants received pain now they are comforted and you are tormented 2. This Meditation is of Use to comfort and to confirme us against the fear of death either our own or our friends inasmuch as beleeving in the Lord me shall live though we dye And he that liveth and beleeveth in him shall never dye eternally Indeed we shall not dye at all totally for though we lay down our bodies into the earth to sleep yet our spirits shall not dye at all but being delivered from the burden of the flesh shall live with the Lord and be translated into a state of joy and feliâ—ity Et meliore sui parte superstesâ— erit The better part is still living and therefore the Scripture will hardly call it a death but a Sleep a Change a Dissolution a Departure a Translation 3. It is of use for the contempt of this world in which we have no surer footing and of the best things of this world of which we have no better hold nor longer enjoyment but for this short uncertain life 4. This Meditation of the immortality of the soul is of speciall use to teach and to admonish to prepare and to provide for that our future condition to lay up for our selves treasure in Heaven that we may have something to take to when we come into the other world when we shall leave this and all that we have in it behind us to make us friends of the Mammon of iniquity that when time comes they may receive us into the everlasting habitations to lay here a good soundation against the time to come that seeing our fouls are immortall and shall have an eternall being it may be in well being that seeing they shall live eternally it may be in bliss and happiness now is the time to provide for it O how miscrable will be the condition of those souls which having lost their time here when this life is ended shall be swallowed up into eternity and all that while shall live in woe and misery in pain and torment easeless endless and remediless How much better had it been for such if they had never been born Or being born that their souls had dyed with their bodies or living after them there had been some period of time wherein they might have been extinguished But when they must so continue for ever That the worme shall never dye nor the fire never goe out that they shall continue in torment to all eternity Who can conceive the misery of it That word eternity into what a deep bottomeless gulfe doth it swallow up the mind that thinks upon it Great wonder it is and a miracle indeed that a point of such great importance and high concernment should be no more heeded and regarded Some live as if they had no souls at all or if they have any that they are but as the souls of bruits which perish with their bodies and well were it with them if they did so they live as if they never thought to dye and dye as if they never thought to rise again they have no hope in their death nor any care of their immortall soules ever after To these I say no more but this Lord have mercy upon their poor miserable soules they will have time enough hereafter when it is too late to see their error and to repent of this their stupidity and security Secondly Note here the holy and heavenly expressions of the Saints and Servants of the Lord at their departure out of this life O Lord I have waited for thy salvation saith the Patriarke Jacob upon his death bed Gen. 49.18 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace said old Simeon Luke 2.29 for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Saint Stephen the holy Martyr with these words breath'd out his soule Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 Our Lord himselfe upon the Cross giving up the ghost with these words breath'd his last Father into thy hands I commend
world and to lose his foule Vse 1. It should teach all men to value their souls according to the worth of them and not to destroy them nor to pass them away so carelesly and inconsiderately as ordinarily men doe to their eternall undoing Some desperately wound them to death by desperate willfull and presumptuous sins Heale my soule for I have sinned against thee implying that by sinne he had wounded it Some sell their souls and that for triflles that are worth nothing for pleasures of sinne which are but for a season for treasures of wickedness which profit nothing for satisfying some sinfull lusts which are worse then nothing Some give away their souls for nought for sins in which there is neither pleasure nor profit as Cursing Swearing idle and lewd Communication and the like these make the worst bargains of all Others pawne their souls they will give themselves liberty to walk in the sight of their own eyes and in the wayes of their own heart and to serve their lusts but for such a time and then they will take up and repent and recover themselves and their souls again as if it were in their own will and power to come in when they will All these make ill bargains and pass away their pretious souls for a thing of nought which all the Kingdoms of the world cannot buy again We see this we heare it and we condemne them for it yet are there dayly amongst us that are guilty of the same folly and by Covetousness Voluptuousness Ambition Malice Perjury and the like sell themselves and their souls for less and pass them away upon worse termes then they have done Adam sold himselfe for an Apple Esau for a Mess of Pottage Achan for a Wedge of Gold Ahab for a Vineyard Judas for thirty pieces of silver How many are there to be found amongst us which for less matters will lye will sweare will forsweare will steale deceive cheate and cosen and what not That to satisfie their base sinfull and unreasonable lusts and humours will part with a good Conscience forfeit the favour of God their hope of Heaven their interest in Christ and in the Gospel sell themselves and soules and all for less then a Mess of Pottage The resolution of Balaam was good and honest just and religious if he had kept it as well Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I would not goe beyond the Word of the Lord to doe more or less Let it be the resolution of every soul and God give us grace and power to keep it 2. Are souls so pretious Then let us look to them carefully preserve them charily as we would doe our chiefest Jewells Keep thy soule with all diligence examine the state of it see it want nothing of that which should be for the happiness and the prosperity of it Our care is much for the body What shall we eate what shall we drinke wherewithall shall we be clothed in the meane while the soule is neglected set by and least look't after but as our Saviour saies in a like case Mat. 6.25 Is not the body better then the rayment So say I Is not the soule better then the body Is there any comparison between the Jewell and the Cabinet that it is layd up in It was Martha's reproofe That she cared for many things more then she needed And for the one thing that was more necessary less It is our just reproofe in this case We enquire after the health and welfare of our friends and after their prosperity how they thrive in this world but without any regard to their spirituall estate and the wellfare and prosperity of their souls St. John in his Epistle to Gaius with a more spirituall salutation hath a more speciall eye to the prosperity of his soule Beloved I wish chiefly that thou doe prosper as thy soule prospereth 3 John 1.2 David did more rejoyce in the good the Lord had done for his soule then for all the good he had done to him and for him in his body in his estate or in any other his relations Hearken to me saith he all you that feare God and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soule The Lord had done great things for him otherwise and he could have given them a large narrative of them but in his remembrance of his great favours to him he passes by all these and mentions the other as farr greater then all the rest I wil tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul So the care of all those holy men dying which I have mentioned was chiefly for the safety of their souls Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And in the Text Lord take away my soul Though the bodies of the Saints dying are not to be neglected but decently to be inter'd as in hope and expectation of a blessed Resurrection as the body of St. Stephen was and the body of our blessed Lord yet the care they had of their souls swallowed up all the care of their bodies so that it is not so much as mentioned by them nor by our Prophet in the Text but onely his soul Lord take away my soul 3. Are souls so pretious Then this is a severe admonition to us that have undertaken Curam animarum the care of souls to look well to our charge as such as must give an account of the greatest trust in the world even the souls of Gods people committed to our charge I cannot but tremble when I reade St. Paul giving up his account to God to his Peoplae and to his own Conscience in this matter Acts 20.26 I am free from the blood of all Men. What blood doth St. Paul here speak of he was no Sword Man there was no fear of his shedding any mans blood by violence How comes he to clear himself from blood Bel. the blood here meant is more pretious then the life-blood of man can be it is the blood of souls implying That if he had not faithfully and conscionably performed the duties of his Pastorall charge amongst them he had been guilty of the blood of souls Oh let this sink deep into our hearts that we may not become guilty of the blood of souls How earnestly ought we to endeavour the salvation of our people as of our selves and at the hour of death to Pray That the Lord would be mercifull to them and take away their souls Quest But here now ariseth a great question a grand inquiry not without great caution and sobriety to be resolved Touching the state of souls separated and taken out of the body What becomes of them afterward Whether upon their separation they doe presently enter into that state in which they are to remain and continue during this vast space of Eternity without all change or alteration of their condition Ans I answer no For the soule of man
true dost thou not Judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth And long white robes were given to every one and it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season untill their fellow servants and their brethren that should be killed even as they were were fulfilled This Scripture makes for our purpose all along For first Who are they that here complain the Text sayes They were Martyrs and those are Saints of the first lift and if their souls were not received into the fulness of joy and happiness at their dissolution what souls are But that they were not it appears First By their complaint How Long Lord how long Secondly By the answer given unto them perswading still to waite for a season and to possess their souls with patience til the rest of the number of their brethren were accomplished without whom they could not be made perfect and that could not be till the Resurrection and the Generall Judgement at the great day Aquinas doth excellently describe Summum bonum or the highest felicity to be Quies Mentis or Acquiescentia Mentis in ultimo fine the rest or acquiescence of the mind in the last end beyond which nothing can be desired to make it more happy But those souls which yet cry How long Lord how long doe declare That they have not yet attained their ultimate end and therefore they doe not perfectly acquiesce but are in expectation of a farther degree of fuller happiness yet to be given unto them And thus I have made good this Proposition in both the Parts That the souls separated from the body by Death are not in the same state from the time of their separation to the time of their re-union again at the day of Judgement that they shall be in after that day to all eternity But then me thinks I heare you ask me In what state are they then during that time Where are they Or what becomes of them And to this Quaerie I shall endeavour to satisfie you too and that Ad partes to both the parts of it both as it concerns the souls of the just and the souls of the unjust and wicked men And first as to the souls of wicked men If you ask me where or in what state they are I answer They are in the same state and in the same places that the evill Angells are in and what that was you heard even now out of Jude 6. they are secured in prison they are with them reserved in chains unto the judgement of the great day For proofe of this take these two Scriptures the first in 1 Pet. 3.19 The second in Luke 12.20 In the first St. Peter speaking of the death of Christ saith thus ver 18. Christ also suffered for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God who was put to death as concerning the flesh but was quickned in the Spirit By which spirit also he went and Preach't to the spirits in prison v. 19. If ye ask What spirits he tells you ver 20. Those spirits which in time past were disobedient In what time In the times of Noah and before the Flood for so it followeth When once the long suffering of God abode in the dayes of Noah while the Ark was preparing wherein few that is eight persons were saved from perishing in the waters There you have St. Peter plainly interpreting himselfe that the spirits here mentioned are the spirits of the sinners of the old world which perished in the Flood but their spirits perished not neither were they presently sent to the Lake of everlasting Burnings but they are secured in Prison as the evill Angels are and so reserved unto the Judgement of the great day That place in St Luke speaks the same thing where the Voyce is heard speaking to the secure Epicure singing a requiem to his own soule Soule take thine ease eate drink and be merry thou hast goods layd up for many years Alas he dreams of many years when he hath not many hours to live Stulte hac nocte Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule then whose shall these things be Nay Whose shalt thou be This night shall they fetch away thy soule Which they The evill Angels When good men dye the good Angells are ready to receive their souls as they did the soule of Lazarus Luke 16. and carry them into Abraham's bosome But when wicked men dye the evill Angells fetch away their souls Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule And whither think you were they to carry it but to their own Quarters to those Prisons in which themselves are secur'd as in chains unto the judgement of the great day But then here ariseth another Question What those Prisons are Or Where it is that they are secured unto that day And to this I Answer There are three vast large and spacious Prisons in which the evill Angells are secured and with them the souls of wicked men unto the Judgement of the great day And they are 1. The Aire 2. The Earth 3. The Sea First The Aire with all the severall Regions of it into which the Apostate Angells were banished When for their rebellion against their Creator they were expell'd out of Heaven For this see St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians cap. 6.12 You wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places And what or who are those spirituall wickednesses but those evill spirits And what are those high places but the Regions of the Aire And therfore is the Principall of the Devills called The Prince that ruleth in the Aire for even amongst them there is Order and subordination We reade of a Prince among Devills Ephes 2.2 The second of those Prisons is The Earth and therein first The vast and howling Wildernesses and Places uninhabited where no foot doth tread but where Ostriches doe dwell where Ziim doth boade and the Satyres dance Secondly The vast caverns and concavities within the earth amongst which the hollow mountains of Aetna Vesuuius and in Ireland that hollow vault called Saint Patriarchs Purgatory famous in story But in America many such and more evident dens of Daemons But above all these the vast hollowness in the very heart and Center of the Earth for who knows what vast and spatious receptacles there may be for such spirits It is not unreasonable nor against any Article of Faith or of Scripture to conceive That there is in the very heart and Center of the Earth such a vast hollowness both for a fit receptacle for such spirits and by which that vast and weighty body is buoy'd up that it sink not any way towards the Circumference on any side though no way supported neither by Poasts nor Pillars What is it that sustains the vast and weighty Ships in the Sea with all the Anchors Ordnance and Fraught in them but the