by treasuring up guilt for wrath and guilt are treasured up together in proportion to each other Every day of his life vast summs have been cast into this treasury and the patience of God waiteth till it be full before he call the sinner to an account and reckoning Gen. 15.16 PROP. II. All the sin and guilt contracted upon the Souls and consciences of impenitent men in this World accompanies and follows their departed Souls to judgment and there brings them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God which cuts off all their hopes and comforts for ever IF you believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins Joh. 8.24 and Job 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall lye down with him in the dust No Proposition lies clearer in Scripture or should lie with greater weight upon the hearts of sinners nothing but pardon can remove guilt but without faith and repentance there never was nor shall be a pardon Acts 10.43 Rom. 3 24 25. Luk. 24.46 47. Look as the graces of Believers so the sins of Unbelievers follow the Soul whithersover it goes All their sins who dye out of Christ cry to them when they go hence We are thy works and we will follow thee The acts of sin are transient but the guilt and effects of it are permanent and it is evident by this that in the great day their consciences which are the Books of record wherein all their sins are registred will be opened and they shall be judged by them and out of them Rev. 20.12 Now before that general judgment every Soul comes to its particular judgment and that immediately after death of this I apprehend the Apostle to speak in Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to dye but after that the judgment The Soul is presently stated by this judgment in its everlasting and fixed condition The Soul of a wicked man appearing before God in all its sin and guilt and by him sentenced immediately it gives up all its hope Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish Etiam spes valentissima and the hope of unjust men perisheth His strong hope perisheth as some read it i.e. his strong delusion for alas He took his own shadow for a bridge over the great waters and is unexpectedly plunged into the gulph of eternal misery as Matth. 7.22 This perishing or cutting off of hope is that which is called in Scripture the death of the Soul for so long the Soul will live as it hath any hope The deferring of hope makes it sick but the final cutting off of hope strikes it quite dead i.e. dead as to all joy comfort or expectation of any for ever which is that death which an immortal Soul is capable to suffer the righteous hath hope in his death but every unregenerate man in the world breaths out his last hope in a few moments after his last breath which strikes terror into the very centre of the Soul and is a death-wound to it PROP. III. The Souls of the damned are exceeding large and capacious subjects of wrath and torment and in their separate state their capacity is greatly enlarged both by laying asleep all those affections whose exercise is relieving and throughly awakning all those passions which are tormenting THE Soul of man being by nature a Spirit an intelligent Spirit and in its substantial faculties assimilated to God whose image it bears it must for that reason be exquisitely sensible of all the impressions and touches of the wrath of God upon it The Spirit of man is a most tender sensible and apprehensive Creature The eye of the Body is not so sensible of a touch a nerve of the Body is not so sensible when pricked as the Spirit of man is of the least touch of Gods indignation upon it A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Other external wounds upon the Body inflicted either by man or God are tolerable but that which immediately toucheth the Spirit of man is insufferable Who can bear or endure it And as the Spirit of man hath the most delicate and exquisite sense of misery so it hath a vast capacity to receive and let in the fulness of anguish and misery into it it is a large vessel called Rom. 9.22 a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction The large capacity of the Soul is seen in this that it is not in the power of all the creatures in the World to satisfie and fill it It can drink up as one speaks all the rivers of created good and its thirst not quenched by such a draught but after all it crys Give give Nothing but an infinite God can quiet and satisfie its appetite and raging thirst And as it is capable and receptive of more good than is found in all the Creatures So it is capable of more misery and anguish than all the Creatures can inflict upon it Let all the elements or men on Earth yea all the Devils and damned in Hell conspire and unite in a design to torment man yet when they have done all his Spirit is capable of a farther degree of torment a torment as much beyond it as a rack is beyond an hard bed or the Sword in his bowels is beyond the scratch of a pin The Devils indeed are the executioners and tormentors of the damned but if that were all they were capable to suffer the torments of the damned would be comparatively mild and gentle to what they are O the largeness of the understanding of man What will it not take into its vast capacity But add to this That damned Souls have all those affections laid in a deep and everlasting sleep the exercises whereof would be relieving by emptying their Souls of any part of their misery and all those passions throughly and everlastingly awakened which increase their torments The affections of joy delight and hope are all benummed in them and laid fast asleep never to be awakened into act any more Their hope in Scripture is said to perish i. e. it so perisheth that after death it shall never exert another act to all eternity The activity of any of these affections would be like a cooling gale or refreshing Spring amidst their torments but as Adrian lamented himself nunquam jocos dabis thou shalt never be merry more And as these affections are laid asleep so their passions are rouzed and throughly awakened to torment them So awakened as never to sleep any more The Souls of men are sometimes jog'd and startled in this World by the words or rods of God but presently they sleep again and forget all but hereafter the eyes of their Souls will be continually held waking to behold and consider their misery their understandings will be clear and most apprehensive their thoughts fixed and determined their consciences active and efficacious and by all this their capacity to take in the fulness of their misery
chains of thy neck what will its beauty and his delight in it be in the state of perfectâ—punc Glorification As we imagine the Circles in the Heavens to be vastly greater than those we view upon the Globe so must we imagine in the case before us 4. Fourthly The preparations God makes for Souls in Heaven speak their great worth and value When you lift up your eyes to Heaven and behold that bespangled Azure Canopy beset and inlaid with so many golden Studs and sparkling Gems you see but the floor or pavement of that place which God hath prepared for some Souls He furnished this World for us before he put us into it but as delightful and beautiful as it is it is no more to be compared with the Fathers house in Heaven than the smallest ruined Chapel your eyes ever beheld is to be compared with Solomons Temple when it stood in all its shining glory When you see a stately magnificent Structure built richest Hangings and Furniture prepared to adorn it you conclude some great persons are to come thither such preparations speak the quality of the Guests Now Heaven yea the Heaven of Heavens the Palace of the great King the Presence-chamber of the Godhead is prepared not only by Gods Decree and Christs Death but by his Ascension thither in our Names and as our Forerunner for all renewed and redeemed Souls Ioh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And where is the place prepared for them but in his Fathers house the same place the very same house where the Father Son and Spirit themselves do dwell such is the love of Christ to Souls that he will not dwell in one house and they in another but as he speaks Ioh. 12.26 Where I am there shall my servant also be There is room enough in the Fathers house for Christ and all the Souls he redeemed to live and dwell together for evermore His Ascension thither was in the capacity of a common or publick person to take Livery and Seisin of those many mansions for them which are to be filled with their inhabitants as they come thither in their respective times and orders 5. Fifthly The great price with which they were redeemed and purchased speaks their dignity and value No wise man will purchase a trifle at a great price much less the most wise God Now the redemption of every Soul stood in on less than the most precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. You know saith the Apostle there that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot All the gold and silver in the world was no Ransom for one Soul nay all the blood of the Creatures had it been shed as a Sacrifice to the glory of Justice or even the blood which is most dear to us as being derived from our own I mean the blood of our dear Children even of our first-born the beginning of our strength which usually have the strength of affection I say none of this could purchase a pardon for the smallest sin that ever any Soul committed much less was it able to purchase the Soul it self Micah 6.6 7. Thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl or our first-born are no ransom to God for the sin of the Soul It is only the precious Blood of Christ that is a just ransom or counterprice as it 's called Matth. 20.28 Now who can compute the value of that Blood such was the worth of the Blood of Christ which by the communication of properties is truly stiled the Blood of God that one drop of it is above the estimations of men and Angels and yet before the Soul of the meanest man or woman in the World could be redeemed every drop of his Blood must be shed for no less than his Death could be a price for our Souls Hence then we evidently discern an invaluable worth in Souls A whole Kingdom is taxed when a King is to be ransomed the delight and darling of Gods Soul must dye when our Souls are to be redeemed O the worth of Souls 6. Sixthly This evidences the transcendent dignity and worth of Souls that Eternity is stampt upon their actions and theirs only of all the Beings in this World the acts of Souls are immortal as their Nature is whereas the actions of other Animals having neither moral goodness or moral evil in them pass away as their Beings do The Apostle therefore in Gal. 6.7 compares the actions of men in this world to seed sown and tells us of everlasting fruits we shall reap from them in the next life they have the same respect to a future account that seed hath to the Harvest he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity i. e. everlasting disappointment and misery Prov. 22.8 and they that now sow in tears shall then reap in joy Psal. 126.5 every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of sorrow and this makes the great difference betwixt the actions of a rational Soul and those done by Beasts and if it were not so man would then be wholly sway'd by sense and present things as the beasts are and all Religion would vanish with this distinction of actions Our actions are considerable two ways physically and morally in the first sense they are transient in the last permanent a word is past assoon as spoken but yet it must and will be recalled and brought into the Judgment of the great Day Matth. 12.36 whatever therefore a man shall speak think or do once spoken thought or done it becomes eternal and abides for ever Now what is it that puts so great a difference betwixt humane and brutal actions but the excellent Nature of the reasonable Soul 'T is this which stamps immortality upon humane actions and is at once a clear proof both of the immortality and dignity of the Soul of man above all other Creatures in this World 7. Seventhly The contention of both Worlds the strife of Heaven and Hell about the Soul of man speaks it a most precious and invaluable Treasure The Soul of man is the Prize about which Heaven and Hell contend the great design of Heaven is to save it and all the plots of Hell to ruine it Man is a Borderer betwixt both Kingdoms he lives here upon the Confines of the spiritual and material World and therefore Scaliger fitly calls him Vtriusque mundi nexus one in whom both worlds meet his body is of the earth earthly his Soul the off-spring of a Deity heavenly It is then no wonder to find such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward such â—allies from Heaven to rescue and save it such incursions from Hell to captivate and ruine it The infinite Wisdom of God hath laid the plot
everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and the Glory of his Power And speaking of the Torments of the Damned Christ thus expresseth the misery of such wretched Souls in Hell Mark 9.44 Where their Worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched But how shall the Wicked be punished with everlasting Destruction if their Souls have not an everlasting Duration Or how can it be said That their Worm viz. the remorse and anguish of their Consciences dieth not if their Souls dye Punishment can endure no longer than its subject endureth If the being of the Soul cease its pains and punishments must have an end You see then there are everlasting Promises and Threatnings to be fulfilled both upon the Godly and Ungodly He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him Iohn 3.36 The Believer shall never see spiritual Death viz. the separation of his Soul from God and the Unbeliever shall never see life viz. the blessed fruition of God but the Wrath of God shall abide on him If Wrath must abide on him he must abide also as the wretched subject thereof which is another Argument of the Immortality of Souls Argument III. THE Immortality of the Soul is a Truth asserted and attested by the universal consent of all Nations and Ages of the World Multum dare solemus praesumptioni omnium hominium câ—m de Animae Aeternitate disserimus non leve momentum apud nos habit consensus hominum aut timentium inseros aut colentium Soneca Ep. 17. We give much saith Seneca to the presumption of all men and that justly for it would be hard to think that an Error should obtain the general consent of Mankind or that God would suffer all the World in all Ages of it to bow down under an universal Deception This Doctrine sticks close to the nature of Man it springs up easily and without force from his Conscience It hath been allowed as an unquestionable thing not only among Christians who have the Oracles of God to teach and confirm this Doctrine but among Heathens also who had no other Light but that of Nature to guide them into the knowledge and belief of it In omni re coâ—seâ—sio oâ—â—ium gentiam Lex Naturae putanda est esque instar mille demonstâ—ationum talâ—â— consensio apud bonos esse debâ—t Zanch. de imâ—ort Animarum p. 644. Learned Zanchius cites out of Cicero an excellent passage to this purpose In every thing saith he the consent of all Nations is to be accounted the Law of Nature And therefore with all good Men it should be instead of a thousand Demonstrations and to resist it as he there adds what is it but to resist the voice of God and how much more when with this consent the Word of God doth also consent As for the consent of Nations in this point the learned Author last mentioned hath industriously gathered many great and famous Testimonies from the antient Chaldeans Graecians Pythagoreans Stoicks Platonists c. which evidently shew they made no doubt of the Immortality of their Souls How plain is that of Phocylides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speaking of the Soul in opposition to the Body which must be resolved into dust he saith But for the Soul that is immortal and never grows old but lives for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Trismegistus the famous and celebrated Philosopher gives this account of Man That he consists of two parts being mortal in respect of his Body but immortal in respect of his Soul which is his best and principal part Pluto not only asserts the immortality of the Souls of Men but disputes for it and among other Arguments urges this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si erim Mors dissolutio esset utriusque corporis sc. animae Iuâ—inâ— foret malis cuâ— moriâ—â—tur Plato in epist. That if it were not so wicked Men would certainly have the advantage of righteous and good Men who after they have committed all manner of evils should suffer none But what speak I of Philosophers the most barbarous Nations in the World constantly believe it * Quid de Tuâ—â—cis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisquâ— omnibus â—uâ—c temporis barbaâ—â—â— nationibus dicam Nemo tam barbarus aut impius est quin sentiat post montem sup 〈…〉 〈◊〉 in quibus anime aut pro Malefactis punlantur aut coâ—ountur celiciisq pâ—sâ—uantur pâ—o 〈◊〉 factis Zanch. ubi supra The Turks acknowledge it in their Alchoran and though they grosly mistake the nature of Heaven in fansying it to be a Paradise of sensual Pleasures as well as the way thither by their Impostor Mahomet yet 't is plain they believe the Souls immortality and that it lives in pain or pleasure after this life The very salvage and illiterate Indians are so fully persuaded of the Souls Immortality that Wives cast themselves chearfully into the Flames to attend the Souls of their Husbands and Subjects to attend the Souls of their Kings into the other World Two things are objected against this Argument Object 1. I. That some particular persons have denied this Doctrine as Epicurus c. and by Argument maintained the contrary Sol. To which I answer That though they have done so yet 1. this no way shakes the Argument from the consent of Nations because some few persons have denied it we truly say the Earth is Spherical though there be many Hills and Risings in it If Democritus put out his own eyes must we therefore say all the World is blind 2 It is worth thinking on whether they that have questioned the Immortality of the Soul have not rather made it the matter of their option and desire than of their Faith and Persuasion We distinguish Atheists into three Classes such as are so in Practice in Desire or in Iudgment but of the former sorts there may be found multitudes to one that is so in his setled judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieroc If you think it strange that any Man should wish his Soul to be mortal Hierocles gives us the true reason of it A wicked man saith he is afraid of his Iudge and therefore wishes his Soul and Body may perish together by Death rather than it should come to Gods Tribunal Object 2. II. Nor can the strength of the Argument be eluded by saying All this may be but an universal Tradition one Nation receiving it from another Sol. For as this is neither true in it self nor possible to be made good so if it were it would not invalidate the Argument for if it were not a truth agreeable to the light of nature and so easily received by all Men upon the Proposal of it it were impossible that all Nations in the World should embrace it so readily and hold it so tenaciously as they do Argument IV. THE Immortality of the
flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God who hath appointed them to be so He can but never will annihilate them But the Soul depends upon matter in all its operations Object 3. nothing is in the Understanding which was not first in the Senses it useth the natural Spirits as its Servants and Tools in all its Operations and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a State of Separation 1. The Hypothesis is not only uncertain Sol. but certainly false There are acts performed by the Soul even whilst it is in the Body wherein it makes no use at all of the Body Such are the acts of Self-intuition and Self-reflection and what will you say of its Acts in Raptures and Ecstasies such as that of Paul 2. Cor. 12.2 and Iohn Revel 21.10 what use did their Souls make of the bodily senses or natural Spirits then 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life it doth use the Body as its Tool or Instrument in working doth it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other World Whilst a man is on Horseback in his Journey he useth the help and service of his Horse and is moved according to the motion of his Horse but doth it thence follow he cannot stand or walk alone when dismounted at his Journeys end We know Angels both live and act without the ministry of Bodies and our Souls are Spiritual Substances as well as they But many Scriptures seem to favour the total cessation of the Souls actions Object 4. if not of its being also after Separation as that in 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs dye and are as Water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up and Psal. 88.10 11 12. with Isaiah 38.18 19. The dead cannot praise thee Sol. Those words of the Woman of Tekoa are not to be understood absolutely but respectively and the meaning is that the Soul is in the Body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass which being broken by death the Soul is irrecoverably gone as the Water Spilt on the ground which by no humane power or art of man can be recovered again All the means in the World cannot fetch it back into the Body again She speaks not of the Resurrection or what shall be done in the World to come by the Almighty power of God but of what is impossible to be done in this World by all the skill and power of Man And for the expression of Heman and Hezekiah they only respect and relate to those services their Souls were now imployed about for the praise of God with respect to the conversion or edification of others as Psal. 30.8 9. or at most to that mediate service and worship which they give God in and by their attendance upon his ordinances in this World and not of that immediate Service and praise that is performed and given him in Heaven by the Spirits of just men made perfect such was the sweetness they had found in these Ordinances and Duties that they express themselves as loth to leave them The same answer solves also the Objections grounded upon other mistaken Scriptures as that Psal. 78.39 where man is called a wind that passeth away and cometh not again It is only expressive of the frailty and vanity of the present animal life we live in this World to which we shall return no more after death it denies not life to departed Souls but the end of this animal life at death the life we live in the other World is of a different nature Inference I. IS the Soul Immortal Then 't is impossible for Souls to find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side Heaven All temporary things are inadaequate and therefore unsatisfying to our Souls What gives the Soul rest and satisfaction must be as durable as the Soul is for if we could possibly find in this World a condition and state of things most agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes yet if the Soul be conscious to it self That it shall and must over-live and leave them all behind it it can never reach true contentment in the greatest affluence and confluence of them Man being an immortal is therefore a prospecting Creature and can never be satisfied with this That it 's well with him at present except he can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever The thoughts of leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments imbitters them all to us whil'st we have them All outward things are in fluxu continuo passing away as the Waters 1 Cor. 7.31 Riches are uncertain 1 Tim. 6.17 They fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven and with Wings of their own making Prov. 23.5 i. e. as the Feathers that enable a Bird to fly from us grow out of his own substance so doth that vanity that carries away all earthly enjoyments This alone would spoil all Contentment Inference II. THen see the ground and reason of Satans envy and enmity against the Soul and his restless designs and endeavours to destroy it It grates that Spirit of envy to find himself who is by nature Immortal sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery and the Souls of Men appointed to fill up those vacant places in Heaven from which the Angels fell No Creature but Man is envied by Satan and the Soul of Man much more than his Body 'T is true he afflicts the Bodies of Men when God permits him but he ever aims at the Soul when he wounds the Body Heb. 10. 37. This roaring Lyon is continually going about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 'T is the precious Soul he hunts after that 's the Morsus Diaboli the Bit he gapes for as the Woolf tears the Fleece to come at the Flesh. All the pleasure those miserable Creatures find is the success of their temptations upon the Souls of Men. 'T is a kind of delight to them to plunge Souls into the same condemnation and misery with themselves This is the trade they have been driving ever since their Fall By destroying Souls he at once exercises his revenge against God and his envy against man which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him Inference III. DO the Souls of Men overlive their Bodies Then 't is the height of madness and spiritual Infatuation to destroy the Soul for the Bodies sake To cast away an Immortal Soul for the gratification of perishing flesh to ruine the precious Soul for ever for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment yet this is the madness of millions of Men. They will drown their own Souls in everlasting perdition to procure unnecessary things for the Body 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich c. Every cheat and circumvention in dealing every lye every act of oppression is a wound given the Immortal Soul for the procuring some accommodations to
18.14 the King of Terrors or the Black Prince or the Prince of Clouds and Darkness as some translate that place we read it the King of Terrors meaning that the Terrors at Death are such Terrors as subdue and keep down all other Terrors under them as a Prince doth his Subjects Other Terrors compared with those that the Soul conceives and conflicts with at parting are no more than a cut Finger to the laying ones Head on the Block O the Soul and Body are strongly twisted and knit together in dear Bands of intimate Union and Affection and these Bands cannot be broken without much strugling Oh 't is a hard thing for the Soul to bid the Body farewel 't is a bitter parting a doleful separation Nothing is heard in that Hour but the most deep and emphatical Groans I say emphatical Groans the deep sense and meaning of which the Living are but little acquainted with for no Man Living hath yet felt the Sorrows of a parting pull what ever other Sorrows he hath felt in the Body yet they must be supposed to be far short of these The Sorrows of Death are in Scripture set forth unto us by the bearing-Throes of a Travelling Woman Acts 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what those mean many can tell the Soul is in labour it will not let go its hold of the Body but by Constraint Death is a close Siege and when the Soul is beaten out of its Body it disputes the passage with Death as Souldiers use to do with an Enemy that enters by Storm and fights and strives to the last It 's also compared to a Battle or sharp Fight Eccles. 8.8 that war That war with an Emphasis No Conflict so sharp each labour to the utmost to drive the other from the ground they stand on and win the field And tho' Grace much over-power Nature in this matter and reconcile it to Death and make it desire to be dissolved yet Saints wholely put not off this Reluctation of Nature 2 Cor. 5.2 Not that we would be uncloathed as it is with one willing to wade over a Brook to his Fathers House puts his Foot into the Water and feels it cold starts back and is loth to venture in Not that we would be uncloathed And if it be so with Sanctified Souls how is it think you with others Mark the Scripture-Language Iob 27.8 God taketh away their Souls saith our Translation but the Root is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extrahere and signifies to put out by plain Force and Violence A Graceless Soul dieth not by Consent but Force Thus Adrian bewailed his Departure O Animula vagula blandula hen quo vadis Yea though the Soul have never so long a time been in the Body though it should live as long as any of the Antediluvian Father's did for many Hundred Years yet still it would be loth to part yea though it endure abundance of Misery in the Body and have little Rest or Comfort but time spent in Griefs and Fears yet for all that loth to part with it All this shews a strong inclination and affection to it 5. It 's desire of Re-union continuing still with it in its state of Separation speaks its Love to the Body As the Soul parted with it in Grief and Sorrow so it still retains even in Glory an inclination to Re-union and waits for a Day of Re-espousals and to that sense some searching and judicious Men understand those words of Iob Iob 14.14 If a Man die shall he live again viz. by a Resurrection if so then all the Days of my appointed Separation my Soul in Heaven shall wait till that Change come And to the same sense is that Cry of Separated Souls Rev. 6.9 10 11. How long O Lord how long i.e. to the Consummation of all things when Judgment shall be executed on them that killed our Bodies and our Bodies so long absent restored to us again In that Day of Resurrection the Souls of the Saints come willingly from Heaven it self to repossess their Bodies and bring them to a Partnership with them in their Glory for it is with the Soul in Heaven as it is with an Husband who is richly entertained feasted and lodged abroad but his dear Wife is solitary and comfortless it abates the compleatness of his joy Therefore we say the Saints joy is not consummate till that day There is an exercise for Faith Hope and desires on this account in Heaven The Union of Soul and Body is natural their Separation is not so many benefits will redound to both by re-union and the Resurrection of the Body is provided by God as the grand relief against those prejudices and losses the Bodies of the Saints sustain by Separation I say not that the propension or inclination of the Soul to re-union with its Body is accompanied with any perturbation or anxiety in its state of Separation for it enjoys God and in him a placid rest and as the Body so the Soul rests in hope 't is such a hope as disturbs not the rest of either yet when the time is come for the Soul to be re-espoused it is highly gratified by that second Marriage glad it is to see its old dear companion as two Friends after a long Separation And so much of the evidence of the Souls love to the Body II. Next we are to enquire into the Grounds and Reasons of its love and inclination to the Body And 1. First the fundamental Ground and Reason thereof will be found in their natural Vnion with each other There my Text lays it No man ever yet hated his own flesh Mark the Body is the Souls own And this is no more than necessary for the conservation of the spâ—cies else the body would be neglected exposed and quickly perish being had in no more regard than any other Body they are strictly married and related to each other the Soul hath a propriety in its Body these two make up or constitute one Person true they are not essentially one they have far different Natures but they are personally one and though the Soul be what it was after its Separation yet to make a Man the who he was i e the same compleat and perfect Person they must be re-united hence springs its love to the Body Every man loves his own Iohn 17.19 All the World is in love with its own and hence it cares to provide for its welfare 1 Tim 5.8 If any man provide not for his own he is worse than an Infidel For nature teacheth all men to do so Why are Children dearer to the Parents than to all others but because they are their own Iob 19.17 But our Wives our Children our Goods are not so much our own as our Bodies are this is the nearest of all natural Unions In this propriety and relation are involved the Reasons and Motives of our love to and care over the Body which is no more than what is necessary
a very short period of time when those few years are past then I must go to my long home my everlasting abode never more to return to this world The way whence I shall not return elsewhere called the way of all flesh Iosh. 23.15 and the way of all the earth 1 King 2.2 Eccles. 8.8 There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that War By Spirit understand the natural Spirit or breath of life which as I shewed before connects or tyes the Soul and Body together this Spirit no man can retain in the day of death we can as one speaks as well stop the Chariot of the Sun when posting to night and chase away the shadows of the evening Mortem inquit Seâ—eca nulla diligentia evitat nulla soelicitas domat nulla potentia vincit as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us A man may escape the Wars by pleading priviledge of years or weakness of Body or the Kings protection or by sending another in his room but in this War the press is so strict that it admits no dispensation young or old weak or strong willing or unwilling all 's one into the field we must go and look that last and most dreadful Enemy in the face 'T is in vain to think of sending another in our room for no man dyeth by Proxy or to think of compounding with death as those self-deluding Fools did Isai. 28.15 Who thought they had been discharged of the debt by seeing the Sergeant no no there is no discharge in that War Nihil prodest ora concludere vitam fugientem retinere saith Hierom on that Text Let us shut our mouths never so close struggle against death never so hard there is no more retaining the Spirit than a woman can retain the fruit of her Womb when the full time of her deliverance is come Suppose a man were sitting upon a Throne of Majesty surrounded with armed Guards or in the midst of a Colledge of expert and learned Physicians death will pass all these Guards to deliver thee the fatal message neither can Art help thee when Nature it self gives thee up The Law of Mortality binds all good and bad young and old the most useful and desirable Saints whom the World can worst spare as well as useless and undesireable sinners Rom. 8.10 and if Christ or though Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin Peter himself must put off his Tabernacle for they are but Tabernacles frail and moveable frames not built for continuance these will drop off from our Souls as the Shell falls of from the Bird in the Nest be our earthly Tabernacles never so strong or pleasant (2) The speediness of death The Scriptures borrow Metaphors from all the Elements to this purpose we must depose them and that shortly our lease in them will expire quickly we have but a short term Iames 4.14 Like a thin mist in the morning which the Sun presently dissipates this is a Metaphor chosen from the Air You have one from the Land where the swift Post runs Iob 9.25 So doth our life from Stage to Stage till its journey be finished and a third from the Waters there Sail the swift Ships Iob 9.26 which weighing Anchor and putting into the Sea continually lessen the Land till at last they have quite lost sight of it from the Fire Psal. 58.4 The lives of men are as soon extinct as a blaze made with dry thorns which is almost as soon out as in Thus you see how the Spirit of God hath borrowed Metaphors from all the Elements of Nature to shadow forth the brevity and frailty of that life we now live in these Tabernacles So that we may say 〈◊〉 one did before us Nescio an dicenda sit vita mortalis an vitalis mors I know not which to call it a mortal life or a living death The continuance of these our Tabernacles or Bodies is short whether we consider them absolutely or comparatively I. Absolutely if they should stand seventy or eighty years which is the longest duration Psal. 90.10 How soon will that time run out what are years that are past but as a dream that is vanished or as the waters that are past away It is in fluxu continuo there is no stopping its swift course or calling back a moment that is past Death set out in its journey towards us the same hour we were born and how near is it come this day to many of us it hath us in chase and will quickly fetch us up and overtake us but few stand so long as the utmost date II. Comparatively let us compare our time in these Tabernacles 1 either with Eternity or with him who inhabits it and it shrinks up into nothing Psal. 39.5 Mine age is nothing unto thee So vast is the disproportion that it seems not only little but nothing at all Or 2 with the Duration of the Bodies of men in the first Ages of the World when they lived many hundred years in these fleshly Tabernacles The length of their life was the benefit of the World because Religion was then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing handed down from Father to Son but certainly it would be no benefit to us that are in Christ to be so long suspended the fruition of God in the everlasting Rest. The Grounds and Reasons of this Necessity that lies upon all to put off their earthly Tabernacles so soon are 1. The Law of God or his Appointment 2. The Providence of God ordering it suitably to this Appointment 1. The Law or Appointment of God which came in force immediately upon the Fall Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye And accordingly it took place upon all mankind immediately upon the first Transgression Rom. 5.12 Death entred by sinâ—â— The threatning not his immediate actual personal death in the day that he should eat but a state of Mortality to commence from that time to him and his posterity hence it s said Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die 2. The Providence of God ordering and framing the Body of man suitably to this his Appointment Quotidie moâ—imur quotidie enim demitur aliquâ— pars vita tunc quoque cum crescimus vitâ— decrescit Iâ—fantiam amisimus deinde Adolescentiâ—m usque ad besternam quicquid transit temporis perit a frail weak Creature having the seeds of death in his Constitution Thousands of Diseases and Infirmities are bred in his Nature and the smallest pore in his Body is a door large enough to let in death Hence his Body is compared to a piece of cloth which Moths have fretted Psal. 39.11 it 's become a seary rotten thing which cannot long hang together And indeed it is a wonder it continues so long as it doth
him from duty who had already separated his Soul from his Body and all this World by fixed and deep thoughts of death 2. Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with the Nature of death and the more we are acquainted with it the less it terrifies us A Lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him than he is to his Keeper who feedeth him every day A pitcht Battle is more frightful and scaring to a new listed Souldier that never took his place in the Field before nor saw the dreadful countenance of an Army ready to engage nor heard the thundering noise of Cannon and Vollies of Shot the shouts of Armies and groans of dying men on every side than it is to an old Souldier who hath been used to such things The like we may observe in Seamen who it may be trembled at first and now can sing in a Storm Scarce any thing is more necessary for weak and timorous Believers to meditate on than the time of their Separation Our hearts will be apt to start and boggle at the first view of death but it is good to do by them as men use to do by young Colts ride them up to that which they fright at and make them smell to it which is the way to cure them Sicut panis necessarius est prae caeteres eâ—ementis it a intenta mortis meditatio neâ—â—ssaria est prae caeteris donis exercitiis Dionys. Look as Bread saith one is more necessary than other Food so the meditation of death is more necessary than many other meditations Every time we change our habitations we should realize therein our great change Our Souls must shortly leave this and be lodged for a longer season in another mansion when we put off our cloaths at night we have a fit occasion to consider that we must strip nearer one of these days and put off not our cloathes only but the Body that wears them too Holy Iob had by frequent thoughts familiarized death and the Grave to himself and could speak of them as men use to speak of their Houses and dearest Relations Iob 17.14 I have said to corruption thou art my father to the worm thou art my Mother and Sister But it needs much gracâ— to bring and hold the heart to this work and therefore Moses begs it of God Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days and David Psal. 39.4 Lord make me to know my end Yea the advantages of it have been acowledged by men whose light was less and diversions more than ours The Iews for this use and end had their Sepulchers built before-hand and that in their Gardens of pleasure too that they might season the delights of life with the frequent thoughts of death Iohn 19.41 Philip of Macedon would be awakened by his Page every morning with this sentence Memento te esse mortalem Remember O King thou art a mortal man A Great Emperor of Constantinople not only at his Inauguration but at his great Feasts Eligâ— ab his saxis ex quo invictissime Caesar tibi Tumulum me fabricare velis ordered a Mason to bring two stones before him and say Chuse O Emperor which of the two thou wilt for thy Tomb-stone Reader thou wilt find mental Separation much easier than real separation 't is easier to think of death than it is to feel it and the more we think of it the less we are like to feel it PROP. II. Actual Separation may be considered either in fieri in the previous Pangs and foregoing Agonies of it or in facto esse in the last separating stroke which actually parts the Soul and Body asunder lays the Body prostrate and dead at the feet of Death and thrusts the Soul quite out of its ancient and beloved habitation 1. LET it be considered in the previous pangs and fore-running Agonies which commonly make way for this actual Dissolution And to the people of God this is the worst and bitterest part of death except those conflicts with Satan which they sometimes grapple with on a death-bed which they encounter at that time There is saith one no ponyard in death it self like those in the way or Prologue to it I like not to dye said another but I care not if I were dead the end is better than the way The conflicts and struggles of Nature with death are bitter and sharp pains unknown to men before whatever pains they have endured Nor can it be expected to be otherwise seeing the tyes and ingagements betwixt the Soul and Body are so strong as we shew'd before The Soul will not easily part with the Body but disputes the passages with death from Member to Member like resolute Souldiers in a stormed Garrison till at last it is forced to yield up the Fort Royal into the hands of victorious death and leave the dearly beloved Body a Captive to it This is the dark side of death to all good men and though it be not worth naming in comparison with the dreadful consequents of death to all others yet in it self it is terrible Separation is not natural to the Soul which was created with an inclination to the Body Cum separatio naturalis non sit neque etiam violenta sit consequâ—ns ut ex approbata Philosophorum approbatione praeternaturalis esse dicatur Conimâ—r 't is natural indeed to clasp and embrace to love and cherish its own Body but to be divided from it is grievous and praeternatural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partus doloâ—em The Agonies of death are expressed in Scripture by a word which signifies the travelling pains of a Woman yea by the sharpest and most acute pains they feel even the birth-pangs or bearing throe Acts 2.24 And yet all are not handled alike roughly by the hands of death some are favoured with a desirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and easy death 'T is the priviledge of some Christians to have their Souls fetcht out of their Bodies as it were by a kiss from the mouth of God as the Jewish Rabbins use to express the manner of Moses his death Mr. Bolton â—elt no pain at his death but the cold hand of his friend who asked him what pain he felt Yea holy Baynâ—ham in the midst of the flames professed it was to him as a Bed of Roses Every Believer is equally freed from the sting and curse of death but every one is not equally favoured in the agonies and pains of death 2. Separation from the Body is to be considered in facto esse i. e. in the result and issue of all these bitter pangs and Agonies which end in the actual dissolution of Soul and Body * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel anime à corpore discessus Vives Death or actual separation is nothing else but the dissolving of the tye or loosing of the bond of Union betwixt the Soul and Body †Privatio actus secundi
portion Else it could never be a satisfying vision Iob 19.27 Whom I shall see for my self Not look on him as anothers God but as my God and Portion for ever Balaam saw Christ by a spirit of prophecy but he had no comfort because no interest in him Numb 24.17 The wicked shall see him but without joy yea with weeping eyes and gnashing of teeth because they cannot see him as their Lord Luke 13.28 'T is but a poor comfort to starving beggars to stand quivering and famishing in the streets in a cold dark night and see the lights in the bridegrooms house the noble Dishes served in and to hear the Musick and mirth of the Guests that feast within Here it will be as clear that he is our God as that he is God Assurance is that which many Souls have desired prayed and panted for but cannot attain There be many rubbs and stumbling blocks in the way to that sweet enjoyment but here we find what we have been so long seeking there be no doubts scruples objections puzling cases to exercise your own or others thoughts But as these did arise from one of these grounds viz the working of corruption the efficacy of temptation or divine withdrawments and the hidings of Gods face so all these being removed perfectly and for ever in that state the Heavens must needs be clear and not a cloud of doubt or fear to be seen for ever 4. It will be a deeply affecting sight your eye will now so affect your hearts as they were never affected before The first view of God will snatch away your hearts to him as a greater flame doth the less Love will not now distill from the heart as Waters from a cold Still but gush out as from a Sluce or flood-Gate pulled up The Soul will not move after God so deadly and slowly as it doth now but be as the Chariots of Aminadab Can. 6.12 We may say of the fraÌ„mes of our hearts there compared with what they are here as it is said Deut. 12.8 9. You shall not love or delight in God as you do this day If the perfection of that state would admit shame or sorrow how should we blush and mourn in Heaven to think how cold our love and how low our delights in God were on Earth 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God Look as Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the Soul dwelling in the God of love becomes all love all delight all joy O what transports must that Soul feel that abides under the line of love feels the perpendicular beams of electing creating redeeming preserving love beating powerfully upon it and melting it into love See some of their transports Rev. 5.13 14. 5. It will be an everlasting vision of God 1 Thes. 4.17 So shall we be ever with the Lord ever with the Lord who can find words to open the deep sence of these few words Vacabimus videbimus videbimus amabimus amabimus laudabimus in fine fine fine said blessed Austine This is the everlasting Sabbath which hath no night Rev. 22.4 5. The eternal happiness purchased for the Saints by the invaluable blood of Christ. If one hours enjoyment of God in the way of faith be so sweet and no price can be put upon it nothing on earth taken in exchange for it what must a whole Eternity in the immediate and full visions of that blessed face in Heaven be Well then if such sights as these immediately succeed the sight you have on Earth either by sense of things natural or by reason of things intellectual or by faith of things spiritual who that believes the truth and expects the fulfilling of such promises as these would not not be willing to have his eyes closed by death as soon as God shall please I have read of an holy man that had sweet Communion with God in Prayer who in the close of his duty cryed out claudimini oculi mei claudimini c. be shut O my eyes be shut you shall never â—ee any thing on Earth like that I have now seen Ah little do the Friends of dead Believers think what visions of God what ravishing sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with tears Argument VIII THE consideration of the evil days that are to come should make the people of God willing to accept of an hiding place in the grave as a special favour from God It is accounted an act of favour by God Isa. 57.1 2. to be taken away from the evil to come â—â—ere are two kinds of evils to come the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings Sins to come are terrible to gracious hearts when temptations shall be at their height and strength O what warping and shrinking what dissembling yea downright denying the known truths and ways of God may you see every where Many consciences will then be wounded and wasted Many scandals and rocks of offence will be rolled into the way of godliness Christ will be exposed and put to open shame Should we only be spectators of such Tragedies as these it were enough to overwhelm a gracious and tender heart but what upright heart is there without fears and jealousies of being brought under the guilt of these evils in it self as well as the shame and grief for them in others O it were a thousand times better for you to die in the purity and integrity of your consciences than to protract a miserable life without them O think what a world it is that you are like to leave behind you in respect of sin to come And as there are many evils of sin to come so there are many evils of sufferings coming on The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come and Israel shall know it Hos. 9.7 All the sufferings you have yet met with have been in Books and Histories you never saw the Martyrdome of the Saints but in the Pictures and Stories But you will find it quite another thing to be the Subjects of these cruelties than to be the meer Readers or Relators of them 'T is one thing to see the painted Lion on a sign Post and another to meet the living Lion roaring upon you Ah! little do we imagine how the hearts of men are convulst what fears what faintings invade their Spirits when they are to meet the King of terrors in the frightful formalities of a violent death The consideration of these things will discover to you the reason of that strange wish of Job chap. 14. v. 13. Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the Grave that thou wouldst keep me in secret until thy wrath be past And it deserves a serious thought that when the holy Ghost had in Rev. 14.9 10 11 12. described the miserable plight of those poor Souls who being overcome by their own fears and the love of this this World should plunge
themselves first into a deep guilt by compliance with Antichrist and receiving his mark then into an Hell upon Earth the remorse and horrour of their own consciences which gives them no rest day nor night he immediately subjoyns v. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord yea from henceforth saith the spirit c. Oh 't is a special blessing and favour to be hid out of the way of those temptations and torments in a seasonable and quiet grave Argument IX YOur fixed aversation and unwillingness to die will provoke God to imbitter your lives with much more affliction than you have yet felt or would feel if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure no nor yet with patience Well take heed lest this draw down such troubles upon you as shall make you at last to say with Iob chap. 10. v. 1. My Soul is weary of my life An expression much like that 2 Sam. 1.9 Anguish is come upon me because my life is whole in me My Soul is hardened or become cruel against my life as the Chaldee renders it There is a twofold weariness of life one from an excellency of spirit a noble principle the ardent love of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Another from the meer pressures of affliction and anguish of Spirit under heavy and successive stroaks from the hand of God and men Is it not more excellent and desireable to groan for death under a pressure of love to Christ than of afflictions from Christ I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account to make us willing to dye Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our comfortable and desireable things in this World before he can gain our consents to be gone Why will you put God upon such work as this Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate If you could dye many of your comforts for ought I know might live Had Iacob come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time Absalom had never set his field of Barly on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And if we were more obedient to the will of God in this matter 't is likely he would not consume your health and Estates and Relations with such heavy strâ—â—ks as he hath done and will yet farther do except your wills be more compliant Alas To cut off your comforts one after another and make you live a groaning life the Lord hath no pleasure in it but rather he had you should lose these things than that he should lose your hearts on Earth or company in Heaven Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit Medicum Argument X. THe decree of death cannot be reversed nor is there any other ordinary passage for the Soul into Glory but through the gates of death Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to die but after that the Iudgment There is but one way to pass out of the obscure suffocating life in the Womb into the more free and nobler life in the World viz. through the Throes and Agonies of Birth And there is ordinarily but one way to pass from this sinning groaning life we live in this World to the enjoyment of God and the Glory above but through the Agonies of death You must cast as it were your Secundine once again I mean this vile body before you can be happy Heaven cannot come down to you you cannot see God and live Exod. 33.20 It would certainly confound and break you to pieces like an earthen Pitcher should God but ray forth his Glory upon you in the state you now are and it is sure you cannot expect the extraordinary savour of such a translation as Enoch had Hebr. 11.5 Or as those Believers shall have that shall be found alive at Christ's coming 1 Thes. 4.17 You must go the common road that all the Saints go but though you cannot avoid you may sweeten it God will not reverse his Decree but you may and ought to arm your selves against the fears of it Ahashuerus would not re-call the Proclamation he had emitted against the Iews but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves against their Enemies 'T is much so here the Sentence cannot be revoked but yet he gives you leave yea he commands you to arm your selves against death and defie it and trample it under the feet of Faith Argument XI WHen you find your hearts reluctate at the thoughts of leaving the Body and the comforts of this World then consider how willingly and chearfully Iesus Christ left Heaven and the Bosome of his Father to come down to this World for your sakes Pr. 8.30 31. Ps. 40.7 Loe I come c. O compare the frames of your hearts with his in this point and shame your selves out of so unbecoming a temper of Spirit 1 He left Heaven and all the Delights and Glory of it to come down to this World to be abased and humbled to the lowest you leave this World of sin and misery to ascend to Heaven to be exalted to the highest He came hither to be impoverished you go thither to be enriched 2 Cor. 8.9 yet he came willingly and we go grudgingly 2 He came from Heaven to Earth to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we go from Earth to Heaven to be fully and everlastingly delivered from sin yet he came more willingly to bear our sins than we go to be delivered from them 3 He came to take a body of Flesh to suffer and die in Heb. 2.24 you leave your Bodies that you may never suffer in or by them any more 4 As his Incarnation was a deep abasement so his death was the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the beginning or ever shall to the end of the World and yet how obediently doth he submit to both at the Father's Call Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Ah Christians your death cannot have the ten thousandth part of that bitterness in it that Christ's had I remember one of the Martyrs being asked why his heart was so light at death returned this answer because Christs heart was so heavy at his death O there is a vast difference betwixt one and the other the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law was in his death Gal. 3.13 but there is neither Wrath nor Curse in your death who die in the Lord Rom. 8.1 God forsook him when he hanged upon the Tree in the Agonies of death Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But you shall not be forsaken He will make all your Bed in sickness Psal. 41.3 He will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 Yet he regretted not but went as a Sheep or Lamb Isa. 53.7 O reason
madness wilfulness and obstinacy as the cause of all that eternal misery which we have pull'd down upon our own heads What is it but the rubbing of the wound with Salt and Vinegar Of this torment holy Ioâ— was afraid and therefore resolv'd what in him lay to prevent it when he saith Iob 27.6 My heart i.e. my Conscience shall not reproach me so long as I live O the twits and taunts of Conscience are cruel cuts and lashes to the Soul Fifthly The shameings of Conscience are unsufferable torments Shame arises from the turpitude of discovered actions If some mens secret filthiness were but published in this World it would confound them what then will it be when all shall lie open as it will after this life and their own Consciences shall cast the shame of all upon them They shall not only be derided by God Prov. 1.26 but by their own Consciences also Lastly The fearful expectations of Conscience still looking forward into more and more wrath to come this is the very summ and complement of their misery What makes a Prison so dreadful to a Malefactor but the trembling expectations he there lives under of the approaching Assizes Much after the same rate or rather after the rate of condemned persons preparing for Execution do these Spirits in Prison live in the other World But alas no instance or similitude can reach home to their case PROP. VI. That which makes the torments and terrours of the damned Spirits so extream and terrible is that they are unrelievable miseries and torments for ever They are not capable either of 1. A partial relief by any mitigation or 2. A compleat relief by a final cessation 1. Not of a partial relief by any mitigation could they but divert their thoughts from their misery as they were wont to do in this World drink and forget their sorrows or had they but any hope of the abatement of their misery it would be a relief to them But both these are impossible Their thoughts are fixed and determined to remove them though but for a moment from their misery is as impossible as to remove a Mountain their sin and misery is ever before them As the blessed in Heaven are bono confirmati so fixed and setled in blessedness that they are not diverted one moment from beholding the blessed face of God for they are ever with the Lord so the damned in Hell are malo obfirmati so setled and fixed in the midst of all evil that their thoughts and miseries are inseparable for ever 2. Much less can their undone state admit the least hope of relief by a final cessation of their misery All hope perisheth from them and the perishing of their hope is the plainest proof that can be given of the eternity of their misery For were there but the remotest possibility of deliverance at last hope would hang upon that possibility and whilst hope lives the Soul is not quite dead the death of hope is the death of a mans Spirit the cutting off of the Soul from God and the last act of hope to see or enjoy him for ever is that death which an immortal Soul is capable of suffering Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire is that Sentence which strikes hope and soul dead for ever In these six Propositions you have the true and terrible Representation of the Spirits in Prison or the state of damned Souls I have not mentioned their association with Devils or the dismal place of their confinement which though they compleat their misery yet are not the principal parts of it but rather Accessories to it or Rivers running into the Ocean of their misery The summ of their misery lies in what was opened before and the improvement of it is in that which followeth Inference I. IS this the state of ungodly Souls after death Then it follows that neither death nor annihilation are the worst of evils incident to man Aristotle calls death the most terrible of all terribles and the Schoolmen affirm Annihilation to be a greater evil than the most miserable being but it is neither so nor so the Wrath of God the Worm of Conscience are much more bitter than death The pains of death are natural and bodily pains the Wrath of God and anguish of Conscience are spiritual and inward that is but the pain of a few hours or days these are the unrelieved torments of eternity And as for Annihilation what a favour would the damned account it Indeed if we respect the glory of Gods justice which is exemplified and illustrated in the ruine of these miserable souls it is better they should abide as the eternal monuments thereof than not be at all but with respect to themselves we may say as Christ doth of the Son of Perdition Matth. 26.24 Good had it been for them if they had never been born For a mans Soul to be of no other use than a vessel of wrath to receive the indignation and be filled with the fury of God surely an unâ—timely Birth that was never animated with a reasonable Soul is better than they for alas they seek for death but it flies from them The immortality of their Souls which was their dignity and priviledge above other Creatures is now their misery and that which continually feeds and perpetuates their flame Here is a Being without the comfort of it a Being only to howl and tremble under Divine wrath a Being therefore which they would gladly exchange with the contemptiblest Fly or most loathsome Toad but it cannot be exchanged or annihilated Inference II. HEnce it follows That the pleasures of sin are dear bought and costly pleasures There is a greater disproportion betwixt that pleasure and this wrath than betwixt a drop of Honey and a Sea of Gall. Could a man distil all the imaginable pleasure of sin and drink nothing else but the highest and most refined delights of it all his life though his life should be protracted to the Term of Methuselahs Yet one day or night under the wrath of God would make it a dear bargain But 1. 'T is certain sin hath no such Pleasures to give you they are all imbitter'd either by adverse stroaks of Providence from without or painful and deadly gripes and twinges of Conscience within Iob 20.14 His meat in his Bowels is turned it is the gall of Aspes within him 2. 'T is as certain the time of a sinner is near its Period when he is at the height of his pleasure in sin for look as high delights in God speak the Maturity of a Soul for Heaven and it will not be long before such be in Heaven so the heights of delight in sin answerably speak the Maturity of such a Soul for Hell and it will not be long ere it be there Sin is now a big Embryo and speedily the Soul travels with death 3 According to the measure of delights men have had in sin will be the degrees and measures
to think thus with thy self Here sit I with a joyful plenary free pardon of sin in my hand whilst many who never sinned to that height and degree I have lye groaning howling sweating and trembling under the indignation of God poured out like fire upon their Souls in Hell A greater sinner saved and lesser damned O how unspeakably sweet is that rest into which my terrified and diquieted Soul is come by faith Rom. 5.1 Heb. 4.3 We which have believed do enter into rest O blessed calm after a dreadful Tempest This poor breast of mine was lately panting sweating trembling under the horrors of wrath to come terrified with the visions of Hell No other sound was in mine ears but that of fiery indignation to devour the adversaries O what price can be put upon my quietus est What value upon a pardon delivered as it were at the ladders foot O precious hand of faith that receives it but oh the most precious blood of Christ which purchased it If Satan now come with his accusations the law with its comminations death with its dreadful summons I have in a readiness to answer them all Here is the law the wrath of God and everlasting burnings the just demerit of sin upon one side and a poor sinful creature on the other side but the Covenant of grace hath solv'd all An Act of oblivion is past in Heaven I will forgive their iniquities and their sins and transgressions will I remember no more In this Act of Grace my Soul is included I am in Christ and there is no condemnation Dye I must but damned I shall not be My debts are paid my bonds are cancelled my Conscience is quieted let death do its worst it shall do me no harm that blood which satisfies God may well satisfie me Inference V. HOw amazingly sad and deplorable is the security and stilness of the Consciences of sinners under all their own guilts and the immediate danger of Gods everlasting wrath Philosophers observe that before an Earthquake the Wind lies and the weather is exceeding calm and still not a breath of wind going So it is in the Consciences of many just before the tempest and storm of Gods wrath pours down upon them What a golden morning open'd upon Sodom and began that fatal day Little did they imagine showres of fire had been ready to fall from so pleasant and serene a skie as they saw over their heads How secure still and unconcerned are those to day who it may be shall rage roar and tremble in Hell to morrow Caesar hearing of a Citizen of Rome who was deep in debt and yet slept soundly would needs have his Pillow as supposing there was some strange charming virtue in it It is wonderful to consider what shift men make to keep their consciences in that stilness and quiet they do under such loads of guilt and threatnings of wrath ready to be executed upon them It must be some strong Opium that so stupefies and benums their Consciences and upon enquiry into the matter we shall find it to be the effect of 1. A strong delusion of Satan 2. A Spiritual judicial stroke of God 1. This stilness of Conscience upon the brink of damnation proceeds from the strong delusions of Satan blinding their eyes and feeding their false hopes he removes the evil day at many years imaginary distance from them and interposeth many a fair day betwixt them and it and in that interposed season time enough to prepare for it without such an artifice as this his house would be in an uproar but this keeps all in peace Luke 11.21 Praesumendo â—â—erâ—nt perando pereâ—nt By presuming he feeds their hopes and by their hopes destroys their Souls Some he diverts from all serious thoughts of this day by the pleasures and others by the cares of this life and so that day cometh upon them unawares Luke 21.34 2. This stilness of Conscience in so miserable and dangerous a state is the effect of a spiritual judicial stroke of God upon the children of wrath That 's a dreadful word Isaiah 6.10 Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes Pinguedo non refractaria solum facit animalia sed omnis expers sensus est consetientibus Physicis Glass the Eye and Ear are the two principal doors or inlets to the heart when these are shut the heart must needs be insensible as the fat of the Body is There is a Spirit of a deep sleep poured out judicially upon some men Isa. 29.10 Such as that upon Adam when God took a Rib from his side and he felt it not but this is upon the Soul and is the same as to give up a man to a reprobate sense Inference VI. THe case of distressed Consciences upon earth is exceeding sad and calls upon all for the tenderest pity and utermost help from men You see the labourings of Conscience under the sense of guilt and wrath is a special part of the Torments of Hell of which there is not a livelier Emblem or Picture than the distresses of Conscience in this World It must be thankfully confessed there are two great differences betwixt the terrours of Conscience here and there One in the degrees of anguish the other in the reliefs of that anguish The ordinary distresses of Conscience here compared with those of the damned are as the flame of a Candle to a fiery Oven a mild and gentle fire Or as the Sparks that fly out of the top of a Chimney to the dreadful eruptions of Vesuvius or Mount Aetna Beside these are capable of relief but those are unrelievable their hearts die because their hope is perished from the Lord. But yet of all the miseries and distresses incident to men in this World none like those of distressed Consciences the terrours of God set themselves in array or are drawn up in Batalia against the Soul Iob 6.4 Whilst I suffer thy terrors saith Heman I am distracted Psal. 88.15 Yea they not only distract but cut off the Spirit as he adds v. 16. They lick up the very Spirit of a man and none can bear them Prov. 18.14 for now a man hath to do immediately with God yea with the Wrath of the great and dreadful God and this wrath which is the most acute and sharp of all torments falls upon the most tender and sensible part the Spirit and Mind which now lies open and naked before him to be wounded by it No Creature can administer the least relief by the application of any temporal comfort or refreshment to it Gold and Silver Wife and Children Meat and Melody signifie no more than the drawing off a silk stockin to cure the Paroxysms of the Gout All that can be done for their relief is by seasonable judicious and tender Applications of Spiritual Remedies and what can be done ought to be done for them What heart can hear a voice like that of Iob
Have pity upon me have pity upon me O ye my Friends for the Hand of God hath touched me and not melt into Compassions over them Is there a word of Wisdom in thy heart let thy Tongue apply it to the relief of thy distressed Brother whilst his heart meditates terrour let thine meditate his succour It is not impossible but thou who lendest a friendly hand to another maist ere long need one thy self and he that hath ever felt the terrours of the Almighty upon his Soul hath motive enough to draw forth the Bowels of his pity to another in the like case Alas for poor distressed Souls who have either none about them that understand and are able and willing to speak a word in season to their weary Souls or too many about them to exasperate their sorrows and persecute them whom God hath smitten You that have both ability and opportunity for it are under the strongest engagements in the World to endeavour their relief with all faithfulness seriousness compassion and constancy Did Christ shed his Blood for the saving of Souls and wilt not thou spend thy breath for them Shall any man that hath found mercy from God shew none to his Brother God forbid A Soul in Hell is out of your reach but these that are in the Suburbs of Hell are not the Candle of intense sorrow is put to the thread of their miserable life and should they be suffered to drop into Hell whilst you stand by as unconcern'd Spectators of such a Tragedy will have little peace Your unmercifulness to their Souls will be a wound to your own Inference VII BE hence inform'd of the evil that is in sin be convinced of the evil that is in it by the eternal misery that follows it If Hell be out of measure dreadful then sin must be out of measure sinful the torments of Hell do not exceed the demerit of sin though they exceed the understandings of men to conceive them God will lay upon no man more than is right sin is the Founder of Hell all the miseries and torments there are but the Treasures of wrath which sinners in all Ages have been treasuring up and how dreadful soever it be it is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the recompence which is meet Rom. 6. ult The Wages of sin is death We have slight thoughts of sin Fools make a mock of sin but if the Lord by the convictions of mens Consciences did but lead them through the Chambers of death and give them a sight of the wrath to come could we but see the Piles that are made in Hell as the Prophet calls them Isaiah 30.33 to maintain the flames of Vengeance to eternity could we but understand in what Dialect the damned speak of sin who see the treasures of wrath broken up to avenge it surely it would alter our apprehensions of sin and strike cold to the very hearts of sinners Cannot the extremity and eternity of Hell Torments exceed the evil that is in sin What words then can express the evil of it Hell flames have the Nature of a punishment but not of an atonement O think on this you that look upon sin as the veriest trifle that will sin for the value of a Penny that look upon all the humiliations broken hearted confessions and bitter moans of the Saints under sin as Frenzy or Melancholy slighting them as a Company of half-witted Hypochondriack persons You that never had one sick night or sad day in all your lives upon the account of sin let me tell thee that breast of thine must be the seat of sorrow that frothy airy Spirit of thine must be acquainted with emphatical sobs and groans God grant it may be on this side Hell by effectual repentance else it must be there in the extremity and eternity of sorrows Inference VIII WHat enemies are they to the Souls of men who are Satans instruments to draw them into sin or who suffer sin to lie upon them When there were but two persons in the World one drew the other into sin and among the Millions of Men and Women now in the World where are there two to be found that have in no case been snares to draw some into sin Some tempt designedly taking the Devils work out of his hands others virtually and consequentially by examples which have a compelling power to draw others with them into sin the first sort are among the worst of Sinners Prov. 1.10 the latter are among the best of Saints see Gal. 2.14 Whose Conversation is so much in Heaven that nothing falls out in the course thereof which may not farther some or other in their way to Hell Among wicked men there are five sorts eminently accessary to the guilt and ruine of other mens Souls 1 Loose Professors whose lives give their lips the Lie whose Conversations make their Professions blush 2 Scandalous Apostates whose fall is more prejudicial than their Profession was ever beneficial to others 3 Cruel Persecutors who make the Lives Liberties and Estates of men the occasion of the ruine of their Consciences 4 Ignorant and unfaithful Ministers who strengthen the hands of the wicked that they should not return from their wickedness 5 Wicked Relations who quench and damp every hopeful beginning of conviction and affection in their friends of all which I shall distinctly speak in the next Discourse to which therefore I remit it at present And many there are who suffer sin to lie upon others without a wise and seasonable reproof to recover them O what cruelty to Souls is here The day is coming when they will curse the time that ever they knew you 't is possible you may repent but then it may be those whose Souls you have help'd to ruine are gone and quite out of your reach The Lord make you sensible what you have done in season lest your repentance come too late for your selves and them also Inference IX HOw poor a comfort is it to him that carries all his sins out of this World with him to leave much earthly treasure especially if gotten by sin behind him It is a poor consolation to be praised where thou art not Quid prodest esse quod esse non prodest Tertul. and tormented where thou art to purchase a life of pleasure to others on earth at the price of thine own everlasting misery in Hell All the consolation sensual voluptuous and oppressing Wordlings have is but this that they were coached to Hell in pomp and state and have left the same Chariot to bring their graceless Children after them in the same Equipage to the place of Torments There be five Considerations provoking pity to them that are thus past into a miserable eternity and Caution to all that are following after in the same path First That fatal mistake in the practical understanding and judgment of man deserves a compassionate lamentation as the cause and reason of their eternal miscarriage and ruine
us it were bad enough a wrong to the Soul is a greater evil than the ruine of the body or estate and all the outward enjoyments of this life can be but to lose the precious Soul and destroy it to all Eternity O who can estimate such a loss Now the result and last effect of sin is death the death of the precious Soul Rom. 6.21 The end of those things is death So Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye Sin doth not destroy the Being of the Soul by annihilation but it doth that which the damned shall find and acknowledge to be much worse it cuts off the Soul from God and deprives it of all its felicity joy and pleasure which consists in the enjoyment of him Such is dolefulness and fearfulness of this result and issue of sin that when God himself speaks of it he puts on a passion and speak of it with the most feeling concernment Ezek 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked turn ye turn ye for why will ye dye O house of Israel q. d. why will ye wilfully cast away your own Souls why will ye chuse the pleasures of sin for a season at the price of my wrath and fury poured out for ever O think upon this you that make so light a matter of committing sin We pity those who in the depth of melancholy or desperation lay violent hands upon themselves and in a desperate mood cut their own throats but certainly for a man to murder his own Soul is an act of wickedness as much beyond it as the value of the Soul is above the body Inference IV. WHat an invaluable Mercy is Iesus Christ to the World who came on purpose to seek and to save such as were lost In Adam all were shipwrackt and cast away Christ is the plank of Mercy let down from Heaven to save some The loss of Souls by the Fall had been as irrecoverable as the loss of the fallen Angels had not God in a way above all humane thoughts and counsels contrived the method of their Redemption 'T is astonishing to consider the admirable Harmony and glorious Triumph of all the Divine Attributes in this great project of Heaven for the recovery of lost Souls 'T is the wonder of Angels 1 Pet. 1.21 the great Mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 the matter and burden of the triumphant Song of redeemed Saints Rev. 1.5 and well it may when we consider a more noble Species of Creatures finally lost and no Mediator of reconciliation appointed betwixt God and them this is to save an earthen Pitcher whilst the Vessel of Gold is let fall and no hand stretched out to save it But what is most astonishing is that so great a Person as the Son of God should come himself from the Futhers bosom to save us by putting himself into our room and stead being made a Curse for us Gal. 3 13. he leaves the bosom of his Father and all the ineffable delights of Heaven disrobes himself of his Glory and is found in fashion as man yea becomes as a worm and no man submits to the lowest step and degree of abasement to save lost sinners What a low stoop doth Christ make in his Humiliation to catch the Souls of poor sinners out of Hell Herein was love that God sent his own Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Ioh. 4.10 and so God loved the world Ioh. 3.16 at this rate he was content to save lost sinners How seasonable was this work of Mercy both in its general Exhibition to the World in the Incarnation of Christ and in its particular Application to the Soul of every lost sinner by the Spirit When he was first exhibited to the world he found them all as lost sheep gone astray every one turning to his own way Isa. 53.6 he speaks of our lost estate by Nature both collectively or in general we all went astray and distributively or in particular every one turned to his own way and then in the fulness of time a Saviour appeared And how seasonable was it in its particular application How securely were we wandering onwards in the paths of destruction fearing no danger when he graciously opened our eyes by conviction and pulled us back by heart-turning Grace No Mercy like this it 's an astonishing act of Grace that stands alone Inference V. IF there be so many ways to Hell and so few that escape it how are all concerned to strive to the uttermost in order to their own Salvation In Luke 13.23 a certain person proposed a curious question to Christ Lord are there few that be saved He saw a multitude flocking to Christ and thronging with great zeal to hear him and he could not conceive but Heaven must fill proportionably to the numbers he saw in the way thither but Christs answer ver 24. at once rebukes the curiosity of the Questionist fully solves the question propounded and sets home his own duty and greatest concernment upon him It rebukes his curiosity and is as if he should say Be the number of the saved more or less what is that to thee strive thou to be one of them It fully solves the question propounded by distinguishing those that attend upon the means of Salvation into Seekers and Strivers In the first respect there are many who by a cheap and easie profession seek Heaven but take them under the notion of Strivers i. e. persons heartily ingaged in Religion and who make it their business and so they will shrink up into a small number and it presseth home his great business and concern upon him Strive to enter in at the strait gate By Gate understand whatsoever is introductive to Blessedness and Salvation By the Epithet strait understand the difficulties and severities attending Religion all that suffering and self-denial which those that are bound for Heaven must count and cast upon And by striving understand the diligent and constant use of all those means and duties how hard irksom and costly soever they be The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a deep sense and Emphasis and imports striving even to an agony and this duty is enforced two wayes upon him and every man else first by the indisputable Soveraignty of Christ from whom the command comes and also from the deep interest and concern every Soul hath in the commanded duty It is not only a simple compliance with the will of God but what also involves our own Salvation and eternal Happiness in it our great duty and our great interest are twisted together in this command your eternal happiness depends upon the success of it A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully i. e. successfully and prevalently O therefore so run so strive that ye may obtain If you have any value for your Souls if you would not be miserable to Eternity strive strive Believe it you will find that the assurance of Salvation
drops not down from Heaven in a night-dream as the Turks fable their Alcoran to have done in that lailato hanzili night of demission as they call it no no the righteous themselves are scarcely saved many seek but few find strive therefore as men and women that are heartily concerned for their own Salvation Sit not with folded arms like so many heaps of stupidity and sloth whilst the door of Hope is yet open and such a sweet voice from Heaven calls to you saying Strive Souls strive if ever you expect to be partakers of the Blessedness that is here to be enjoyed strive to the uttermost of your abilities and opportunities Such an Heaven is worth striving to obtain such an Hell is worth striving to escape such an invaluable Soul is worth striving to save I confess Heaven is not the purchace or reward of your striving No Soul shall boastingly say there Is not this the Glory which my duties and diligence purchased for me And yet on the other side it is as true that without striving you shall never set foot there Say not it depends upon the pleasure of God and not upon your diligence for it is his declared will and pleasure to bring men to Glory in the way though not for the sake of their own striving as in the works of your civil Calling you know all the care toil and sweat of the Husbandman avails nothing of it self except the Sun and Rain quicken and ripen the Fruits of the Earth and yet no wise man will neglect plowing and harrowing sowing and weeding because these labours avail not without the influences of Heaven but waits for them in the way of his duty and diligence rational hope sets all the world awork Do they plow in hope and sow in hope and will not you pray in hope and hear in hope You that know your Souls to be hitherto strangers to Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit how is it that you take them not aside sometimes out of the distracting noise and hurries of the world and thus bemoan them O my poor graceless Christless miserable Soul how sad a case art thou in others have but thou never feltest the burden of sin thousands in the World are striving and labouring searching and praying to make their Calling and Election sure whilst thou sittest still with folded hands in a supine regardlesness of the misery that is hastening on upon thee Canst thou endure the devouring wrath of God Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings Hast thou fancied a tolerable Hell Or is it easie to perish Why dost thou not cast thy self at the feet of Christ and cry as long as breath will last Lord pity a sinful miserable undone and self-condemning Soul Lord smite this rockie heart subdue this stubborn will heal and save an undone Soul ready to perish The characters of death are upon it it must be changed or condemned and that in a little time Bowels of pity hear the cry of a Soul distressed and ready to perish And you that do not understand the case and slate your Souls are in you have never a Bible near you O turn to those places 1 Cor. 6.9 10. where you will presently find the more obvious marks and characters God hath set upon the children of perdition and if you find not your self in that Catalogue among the unrighteous Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners c. then turn to Ioh. 3.3 and solemnly ask thy own Soul this question Am I born again Am I a new Creature Or still in the same condition I was born in What solid evidence of the new birth have I to rely upon if I were now within a few gasps of death Am not I the man or woman who live in the very same sins which the Word of God makes the Symptoms and Characters of Damnation And doth not my Conscience witness against me that I am utterly void and destitute of all that saving Grace and a meer stranger to the regenerating work of the Spirit without which there can be no well-bottom'd hope of Salvation And if so are not the tokens of death upon me Am not I a person markt out for misery And shall I sit still in a state of so much danger and not once strive to make an escape from the wrath to come Is this vile body worth so much toil and labour to support and preserve it And is not my 〈◊〉 worth as much care and diligence to secure it from the everlasting wrath of the great just and terrible God O that the consideration of the wrath to come the multitudes all the world over preparing as fuel for it and the door of opportunity yet held open to Souls by the hand of Grace to escape that wrath might prevail with thy heart Reader to strive and that to the uttermost to secure thy precious Soul from the impending ruine EPHES. 5.16 Redeeming the time or opportunity because the days are evil TIme is deservedly reckoned among the most precious mercies of this life and that which makes it so valuable are the commodious seasons and opportunities for Salvation which are vouchsafed to us therein Opportunity is the golden spot of Time the sweet and beautiful flower growing upon the stalk of Time If Time be a Ring of Gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opportunity is the rich Diamond that gives it both its value and glory The Apostle well knew the value of Time and seeing how prodigally it was wasted by the most doth therefore in this place earnestly press all men to redeem save and improve it with the utmost diligence In this and the former Verse We have 1. The Duty injoyned Walk circumspectly We have 2. The Injunction explained 1. More generally Not as fools but as wise 2. More particularly Redeeming the time 3. The Exhortation strongly inforced with a powerful Motive Because the days are evil Among these Particulars my Discourse is principally concerned about the Redemption of Time or Opportunities which in this life are graciously vouchsased us in order to that which is to come and here it will be needful To inquire 1. What the Apostle means by Time 2. What by the Redemption of Time 1. Time is taken more largely or strictly according to the double acceptation of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth sometimes Time and sometimes Occasion Season or Opportunity and accordingly is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus and Tempestivitas the latter is the word here used and denotes the commodiousness and fitness of some parts of Time above others for the successful and prosperous management and accomplishment of our main and great business in this world which is to secure our interest in Christ and glorifie God in a course of fruitful obedience For these great and weighty purposes our time is graciously lengthened out and many fit opportunities presented to us in the