specious and so spacious between the Starry Firmament and the Empyrean Heaven stand voyd and empty without Inhabitants No it cannot be but they have their Inhabitants too and they are the souls of the Just when they are separated from their bodies by death and dissolution who being next unto the Angells in holiness are placed in receptacles next unto them in glory The Chrystalline Heaven next and immediately under the Empyrean Heaven and the Aqueall or Watry Heaven next immediately under it and as they have atteined to the degrees of purity here in this life so are they disposed of into the one or into the other of them neerer or farther off from the Throne of glory for as after the Resurrection there shall be severall and different degrees of glory so in this state of separation the souls separated shall be in severall and different degrees of joy and happiness according as they are prepared for it and have atteined to severall degrees of holiness and purity in this life while they were in the body Secondly If you enquire into the state of those souls separated it must needs be blessed and glorious suitable to the glory of those Heavens wherein they are Where first They are delivered from the burden of the Flesh the body the very prison wherein they were deteined and sole impediment of their perfection Secondly They are freed from all sin and sorrow concupiscence and corruption from all temptations and sollicitations from the world the devill and the flesh and from all the evill of this lower world which they have left behind them and which now As that glorious Woman Rev. 12.1 they trample under their feet all tears are wipt from their eyes all sorrow and grief and pain are flowne away they dyed in the Lord they are blessed they rest from their labours and so they are in Abraham's bosome They are in the hand of God as Solomon speaks Wisedom 3.1 so that no evill shall touch them they are got above the reach of the malice of men or Devills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Proverbe hath it out of the danger of the dart And so their state agrees with that which St. John sayes of them Rev. 6. That he saw them under the Altar yet all this is but their privative happiness consisting in their freedom from all evill and their security from all danger but they are in present possession of a positive blessedness too in a great measure and high degree of present joy and glory Their very imployment is a part of their blessedness which is no less then Angelicall to laud and prayse and magnifie the living Lord to sing Hosanna to Hosannah's in the highest and Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the Threne to admire the glory and the greatness and the goodness and the power and the holiness of the mighty Lord God of which they have now a clearer sight and apprehension then before and in particular his singular and unspeakable grace and goodness unto them which hath done such great things for them as to bring them thither to triumph in the apprehension of it and to rejoyce and glory in the sence of it I know not whether I should rather ranke these things under their imployments or their enjoyments they are blessed duties which are both With what sweet contentation and selfe satisfaction doe they converse together in pure love and light With what joy and comfort can they now remember the difficulties and the dangers which they have past through in their comming thither What temptations what afflictions they have met withall What strong corruptions they have wrestled with What importunate lusts they have denied and subdued What sollicitations from the World from the Flesh and from the Devill they have resisted and rejected and how now they bless themselves that they have done so and God that gave them grace and strength to doe it With what joy and prayse doe they congratulate one another in their happy victories over sin and Satan Death and Hell and all the enemies of their salvation and in their safe passage through all the dangers and difficulties that stood between them and Heaven and that having escaped all the corruption that is in the world through Lust they are at length arrived to the Place where they would even to the top of Mount Syon the Place of their rest and joy where now they are taken into neerer Communion with God then they could be before they have more clear manifestation of him sweet influences from him and union with him they converse with Angels congratulating them in their happiness and with Euges of joy and prayse well-coming them into those Heavens the habitations of their happiness the Paradise of their joy and glory And now their Charity invites them to Pray for the whole estate of Christs Church militant here on Earth That the Lord would guide them and keep them in the way of Truth that he would bring them safe through all the dangers and difficulties that stand in the way between them and Heaven that the Gospel may have free passage through the world that it may runne prosper and be glorious that by it he would call in all that are yet uncalled that he would shortly accomplish the number of his elect and hasten his Kingdom that they with them and all others that shall depart out of this life in the faith and feare of his holy Name may have their perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soule in his eternall and everlasting glory Which is the third estate in which immortall souls doe pass their immortality which begins from the day of the generall Judgement and lasts from thence to all eternity Of which though we had the Tongue of Men or Angells it is impossible to speak to the full and as the subject requires O Aeternity Aeternity How is the Heart astonish't and the Mind swallowed up that enters into the thoughts of it with the state of the just and the unjust in it the joy and glory of the one and the misery and torment of the other both which being unexpressible I shall forbeare to enter into the description of them and in stead thereof onely referr you to the words of the sentences at the great day to be given upon them both the sentence of absolution to the just on the right hand and of condemnation to the wicked on the left both which the Judge himselfe that shall pronounce them hath told us before hand and left us in terminis upon record Mat. 25. And first The sentence of absolution because that shall be first pronounc'c that the wicked on the left hand may see Heaven opened and have a sight of the joy and glory of the Celestiall Paradise and see the just taken into it and set down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and themselves cast out that they may see what happiness they have lost by wilfully forsaking
was an Asylum a place of refuge and protection 1 Kings 2.28 The souls of these Martyrs were seen under the Altar to intimate their security their safety no evill might touch them As to that saying of our Lord to the penitent theefe upon the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I give these two answers First That Paradise is not so limited to the highest Heaven where the Throne of God is but that it may comprehend some other place adjacent to it where he might be in joy and felicity with Christ who as to his Divine Nature is every where the word signifieth A place of pleasure and such are the places assigned to be the receptacles of the souls of the just when they are separated from their bodies I answer secondly That for the souls of Enoch before the Law and of Elijah under the Law and of this penitent theefe under the Gospel I doe not deny but they might have speciall priviledge in the translation of them that the Lord in their examples might give good assurance to all beleevers and to all the just that ever have or shall live in any Age of the World whether before the Law under the Law or since the Law as well of their ascension and glorification as of their resurrection As to this penitent theefe in particular dying with him upon the Crosse that he might shew a specimen of the power of his death in saving justifying and glorifying penitent sinners though never so great offenders but then we must remember withall that these were peculiar priviledges of singular persons And Privilegia sunt paucorum the Civill Law will tell us That Priviledges are the portion but of few This doth not weaken the truth of my ascertion That the souls of just men dying doe not immediately upon the separation of them from the body pass into the highest Heaven nor to the highest glory nor to that fulness of joy which they shall enter into at the Resurrection when they shall be re-united to their bodies and so both together shall be taken into the everlasting habitations and shall stand in the presence of God and enjoy the beatificall Vision in whose light they shall see light when they shall see God face to face in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore This the Royall Prophet by his spirit of Prophesie foresaw long agoe and rejoyced under the hope of it Psal 17.15 I shall behold thy face in righteousness and when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy Image When I awake that is in the morning of the Resurrection then I shall be satisfied with thine Image then and not till then shall I be fully satisfied with thine Image But then here ariseth another Question as there did of the souls of wicked men Where are the souls of the just in the mean while between the time of their separation from the body by death and the re-union of them with the body at the Resurrection Where are they What becomes of them In what state and condition have they their being What is their imployment What is their enjoyments To all these foure Quaeries I shall endeavour to give you some satisfaction as touching the Place the State the imployment and the enjoyments of souls separated And as to the first of these The place of the souls separation I shall not send you to the Elysan fields of the antient Poëts to seek them Nor to the Gardens nor Orchards of the Hesperides Nor to the Mahometan Paradises all these conceived and beleeved That the souls of vertuous and just men as soon as they were separated from the body did pass into some place of rest and joy wherein they were not deceived but for want of a more distinct knowledge of the Place where they had their being and their state in it they set it forth by comparing it to the being in those places which they conceived to be most happy pleasant and joyous But certainly that which is most agreeable to reason in this case and is no way repugnant to any Article of Faith nor to any discovery in Scripture made to the contrary is this That the souls of the just being separated from the bodies doe pass into those high Heavens which are above the Starry Firmament as the souls of wicked men doe pass into the Regions of the Aire below it For that there are Heavens above the Starry Firmament it cannot be denyed two we reade of before we come to the Empyrean Heavens where the Throne of God is and where the Lord of Hosts with all his holy Angells keeps his Court in Majesty and Glory The lower-most of these is called Caelum aqueum The watery Heaven from the clearness and the transparancy of it The other above that is called Caelum Crystallinum The Crystall Heaven from the purity and the pellucidity of it for still the higher the Heavens are and the neerer they approach to the Empyrean Heaven where the Throne of God is the more glorious are they and the more noble the Inhabitants of them Now between every of these Heavens there is a vast space of infinite capacity and it must needs be so by reason of the greatness of their circumference the least and lowest of them is of greater capacity and comprehension then all this space that is between the Earth and the Starry Firmament and the rest greater then it proportionably Now I would ask Of what use these vast and comprehensive Heavens are if this be not one to be the receptacle of the souls of the just when they are taken out of their bodies Natura nihil facit frustrà The God of Nature the Creator of all things hath made nothing in vain There is no part of the world which he hath made but he hath stor'd and stock't it with Inhabitants suitable to it The Earth he hath stor'd and stock't with Beasts and Cattell the Sea with Fishes the Ayre with Fowle and with Aeriall Inhabitants every of the Spheres above it with Starrs and Planets which by their light heare influence and motion divide the times and Governe this inferiour world The Starry Firmament that is spread out as a vaile between this inferiour and the superiour world between these lower and the higher Heavens it is peopled as it were with innumerable Golden Starrs of severall magnitudes specious to behold and pretious for their use and influence The Empyrean Heavens the highest of all the rest is stor'd and Inhabited with Angells and Arch-Angells Cherubims and Seraphims and the other Orders of those Heavenly Courtiers that stand in the presence of God waiting his pleasure and ready to execute his will and to fulfill his Word Thus the whole Universe is replenished with Inhabitants suitable to the places which the Great Creator and high disposer of all things hath appointed for them And doe these beautifull Heavens the Aqueall and Chrystalline Heavens so
Elijah's nunc Dimittis OR The Authors own Funerall SERMONS In his Meditations upon 1 Kings 19.4 It is now enough Lord take away my Soule for I am no better then my Fathers Where also is Treated Of the immortality of the Soule Of the state of it when separated from the Body Of the Destruction of this lower World by Fire Of Locall-Hell with the graduall Torments thereof Of the Heavens of the Superiour World and the Inhabitants of them their happiness and glory By Thomas Bradley D. D. one of his late Majesties Chaplains and Praebandary of York and Preach't in the Minster there and in his Rectory of Ackworth 1669. Aetatis suae 72. Oxon. Exon. Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace that mine Eyes may see thy Salvation Sic sic juvat ire sub umbras YORK Printed by Stephen Bulkley 1669. Elijah's Nunc Dimittis Or The Authors own Funerall Sermon In his Meditation upon the 1 Kings 19.4 the latter end of the Verse It is now enough Lord take away my Soule for I am no better then my Fathers THese Words are the Complaint or the Petition or the Suite the Wish or Request call it what you will of the Prophet Elijah now weary of his Life and desiring he might dye The causes and occasion of it you may reade in the context and in the Chapter immediately precedent where ye have the whole narration of the business the sum of all you finde in the 14th verse of this Chapter I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant cast down thine Altars and Slaine thy Prophets with the sword and I onely am left and they seek my life to take it away That wicked woman Jezabell in revenge of her Chaplains the Priests of Baal which he had lately so clearly and so powerfully convinc't and silenc't and proved to be false Prophets had sworn his death Warrants are seal'd and Pursuivants sent out to take him Upon this the Prophet flies for his life as farr as to Beersheba the utmost border of all Israel on the South as Dan was on the North yet not thinking himselfe secure there neither though at so great a distance he takes a farther flight a dayes Journey into the Wilderness supposing haply he might finde more kindnes there among the wild beasts then amongst men in Samaria more savage then they But here he meets with another enemy as dangerous as any of the rest Hunger and Thirst in danger to pine and perish through famine his fear and hast not allowing him either time or means to furnish himselfe with viaticum for such a Voyage nor the barren wilderness affording him supplies of sustenance in such a want The Prophet now compast about with so many deaths and dangers and not knowing which way to turn himself hungry and thirsty faint and weary layes him down under a Juniper Tree wishing That might might be the end of his Pilgrimage and with his Pilgrimage of his Life too Here in this Wilderness he makes his Will Wherein first He bequeaths his soule to God that gave it Lord take away my soule his body to the Earth from whence 't was taken wishing That spot of ground upon which he lay might be his Grave the Juniper Tree over him his Monument with no other Inscription upon it but onely this instead of an Epitaph I am no better then my Fathers It is now enough Lord take away my soule for I am no better then my Fathers In the Division of the Text I shall not use any curiosity at all the words neither require nor admit it For the summe of them you may call them if you please in old Simeons Language The Prophet Elijah's nunc Dimittis Or in St. Pauls his Cupio dissolvi In it these Parcels First The Dimittis it self in these word Lord take away my Soule Secondly Two Reasons perswading him to make this his Suite at this time The one prefixt and set before the Dimittis in these words Nunc satis est It is now enough The other annext and following after it in these words Nam non sum melior majoribus meis For I am no better then my Fathers In all reason we must begin first with the former Reason both because it stands first in the Text and because it stands in our way to the Nunc Dimittis and because it is a motive ushering it in therefore of it first of Nunc satis est before of Nunc Dimittis It is now enough And Elijah's satis est may be reasonably grounded upon these four Considerations or in four respects might he well say It is now enough 1. In respect of what he had seen 2. In respect of what he had suffered 3. In respect of what he had done 4. In respect of the years he had lived In all these respects the Prophet might reasonably say Nunc satis est It is now enough As if he should say Lord I have seen enough to make me weary of this World And I have suffered enough to make me weary of my Life And I have done enough in the faithfull discharge of my duty in the Office of a Prophet whereunto I was called And I have lived long enough even to desire to live no longer in this wretched World therefore now Lord I beseech yee dismiss me Lord take away my Soule So here are four enoughs and they are all grounded in the 14. verse of this Chapter and in this Text. For first He complains there The Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant broke down thine Altars and Slaine thy Prophets with the Sword There 's his Satis Vidi I have seen enough Secondly He complains That he onely is left and they seek his Life to take it away There 's his Satis Tuli I have suffered enough Thirdly I have been Zealous for the Lord God of Hosts There 's his Satis Feci I have done enough Fourthly Those three things before mentioned which he had Seen which he had Suffered and which he had Done were not the worke of a short time they were the worke of many years he was now grown old under his sufferings and doing his Duty and so willing to follow the Generation of his Fathers For I am no better then my Fathers There 's his Satis Vixi And in all these respects he concludes It is now enough and begs for a dismission Lord take away my Soule To all these enoughs we shall speak something briefly with the inferences from them And first of his Satis Vidi I have seen enough That is as himself Interprets himself ver 14. of the wickedness irreligion profaneness and Idolatry of the times and places that he lived in to make him weary of the world and of his life And that is the first ground of this his request to Almighty God to take away his Soule The inference from hence is this That to live in evill times 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
from the time of it's first being in him whether by Creation or by infusion or by traduction generation I dispute not nor of the praeexistence of it before an Opinion that hath great Patrons too especially among the Philosophers the Gymnosophists of Egypt the Brachmans of India the Magi of Persia and the Jewish Cabalists and among them some Christians also Origen for one but I wave that dispute too But I date my discourse from the souls first being in the body from that beginning it passes it's immortality under three conditions or a three-fold estate every one of them different from other The first is the state of the foule during the time of it's being in the body which it doth actuate and informe The second is the state of it between the time of the separation of it from the body by dissolution and there union of it again with the body at the Resurrection the day of Judgement And the third is from that day to Eternity and for ever after That these three states of the soule are different one from the other is evident enough Of the first of these we have experience in this life while our souls are in our bodies which are given unto us to actuate and informe them and to use them as Organs or Instruments for glorifying God by them and doing good Glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits for they are his 1 Cor. 6.20 this is done by giving up the faculties of the one and the parts of the other Not as members of unrighteousness to unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness unto holiness and accordingly as we have so done shall we give an account unto God in the day of account For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to render an account for the things done in the body whether they be good or evill 1 Cor. 5.15 Therefore now is the time of working now is the time of doing our selves good now is the time of laying a good foundation for the time to come now is the time of laying up that which may be for the furtherance of our account then now in this first estate of the soule while it is in the body must we provide for the well-being of it in the second estate and in the third and to Eternity Now as this first estate of the soule in the body is different from the second estate of it as it is separated from the body so is that second estate of it out of the body different from the third estate of it when it shall be re-united to the body again and put into that estate in which it shall remain for ever and to all Eternity It is the generall Opinion of men but withall a generall mistake That as soon as ever the soule is separated from the body it passes immediately into that estate either of joy glory or of misery and torment in which it shall remain for ever without any alteration True it is That at the separation of the soule from the body there is a particular judgement passes upon it by which it is made known to it what shall become of it Eternally and is presently put into the beginnings either of the one or the other and into a state previous to that third estate in which it is to remain for ever without alteration but that either the souls of wicked men are immediately upon their separation from the body cast into that extremity of misery and torment which is prepared for them Or that the souls of the just doe then pass into that heigth of joy and glory which God hath prepared for them I doe confidently deny and shall prove the contrary in both the parts of it And first for the souls of wicked men that they are not upon their separation from the body cast into that extremity of torment which is prepared for them I prove by an Argument à Majori thus The very Devills themselves are not yet cast into that extremity of torment that they are condemned unto Therefore the souls of wicked men are not immediately upon their separation cast into those torments The Consequence of this Argument is clear for no man will judge the state of wicked men to be worse then the state of Devills The Antecedent I prove by two clear testimonies of Scripture The first out of St. Mat. 8.29 where those fierce Devills which had possessed two men among the Gergesens seeing Christ comming towards them are stricken with terror at his presence and cry out What have we to doe with thee Jesus thou Sonne of God Art thou come to torment us before the time They knew they were condemn'd to torment but there was a time set when they should be cast into it but that time was not yet come and therefore seeing him comming towards them they cry out against him as if he came to antedate their misery by casting them into it before the time Art thou come to torment us before the time The other proofe is both a confirmation of the truth in hand and an illustration of this Text It is in the Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels also which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in chains of darkness unto the Judgement of the great day where you have the time when they shall be cast into that extremity of torment unto which they are condemned at the judgement of the great day and the estate that they are in in the mean time they are reserv'd in chains of darkness the chains noting the safe keeping and securing of them that thus can no ways make their escape And the darkness noting their dismall and uncomfortable condition all that while They are reserv'd in chains of darkness unto the Judgement of the great day an expression borrowed from the state of condemned prisoners which after they are condemn'd are secured in chains or fetters and cast into the dungeon and there reserved unto the day of Execution And this is a sufficient proofe of the truth of this assertion in the first part of it as touching the souls of wicked men That the state of their souls from the day of their separation from their bodies untill the day of Judgement is not the same that it shall be after that day though it be a woefull estate too as will farther appear in the sequel of this discourse We are now to make good this Proposition in the other part of it Concerning the souls of the just that they enter not presently upon their dissolution into the fullness of joy and glory intended them and prepared for them And for that I alledge Rev. 6.9.10.11 where at the opening of the fifth Seale St. John sees under the Altar the souls of them that were killed for the Word of God and for the testimony which they maintained And they cryed with a loud voyce saying How long Lord how long holy and
their own mercy and putting from them the Kingdom of Heaven offered unto them and what happiness joy and glory the servants of God are arrived unto whom they despised to the greater aggravation of their sorrow and misery Therefore shall the sentence of Absolution be first pronounc't in these comfortable words Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the Inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Every word carries in it life and glory Come ye blessed ones take possession of a Kingdom Who and what are we that the Lord should doe so much for us may they well say as to give us a Kingdom That 's the day of which St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians tells them Jesus Christ shall be admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes 1.10 not onely by them but in them by Men and Angells to see that the Lord hath exalted his poor humble and despicable servants to so high honour that he hath brought them hitherto Then shall the righteous shine as the Sunne in his brightness Wisedom 5.1 2 3 4. in the Kingdom of their Father After this shall the Judge turne himselfe to the wicked on the left hand and pronounce against them the sentence of condemnation in these words Ite maledicti Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels Every word full of death and terror Goe and goe ye cursed and goe into fire and fire everlasting and fire prepared Isay 30.33 and prepared for the Devill and his Angels so these shall goe into everlasting torments and the righteous into life eternall And this is the third estate of of immortall souls and in this they shall abide for ever without alteration without end And so I end my Discourse upon this Subject in which I may truely say with Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing Heaven and Hell that so you may chuse the better and that you may doe it in time while remedy may be had That you may live and not dye that you may be blessed and not cursed that your Portion may be in Heaven and not in Hell Amen IT tests now that I should speak something 〈◊〉 the third part of the Text in these words For I am no better then my Fathers But an intervenient occasion makes me interpose a few Lines for the satisfaction of some of whom I heare they should say That in the former Discourse concerning the state of souls separated from their bodies I Preach't New Doctrine And ask't whereunto is was usefull Which exception hath two parts in it The first Concerning the newness of it And the second Concerning the uselesness of it To both which I must say something in way of vindication And as to the first The newness of it To pass by all that hath been Written by the Learned Schoolemen of the Romish perswasion because they were of the Romish perswasion and yet if we should reject all that is written by the learned of the Romish perswasion because they were of the Romish perswasion we shall doe our selves as much wrong as them but to wave them I could fill up my Page with the testimonies of Learned and holy men unexceptionable which have declared themselves of the same Judgement in this matter That neither the souls of the just nor the unjust doe immediately upon the separation of them from the body 〈…〉 the state of their ternall being but into a state intermediate and different from the third state at least in degree in which they doe remain untill the Resurrection and the generall Judgement The one in Prison the other in Paradise The one amongst the evill Angells the other among the good Angells The one in the mouth of Hell it selfe and in the beginnings of woe and torment in a great degree and the other in the very entrance into the highest Heaven in bliss and joy and happiness unspeakable and glorious I should make a long business of it here to cite and to recite the testimonies of the Ancients in this matter but to save my selfe and Reader that labour let me intreat him to consult the Writings of an eminent Divine well known and approved of in the Evangelicall Churches for Learned and Orthodox and Professor of Divinity in the University of Lausanna I meane Bucanus a man as directly opposit to Purgatory and Popery as Light is to Darkness in his Common Places Loc. 39 under the Title De Vita aeterna he proposes this very Question in these words First of the souls of the faithfull Anne anunae piorum nunc a corporibus separate perfecta tonsummata beatitudine fruantur Whether the souls of the faithfull separated from their bodies doe presently enjoy perfect bliss and consummate happiness Unto which he makes this Answer Satis sit nobis scire illicô à discessu è corpore spiritum redire ad Deum qui dedit illum Eccles 12.7 Esse cum Christo Philip. 1.23 In Paradiso Luke 23.43 In pace Sapien. 3.3 In requie Heb. 4.3 In consolatione Luke 16.25 In refrigerio Sap. 4.7 In securitate Job 11.15 In manu Dei ut minime attingit eum cruciatus Sapien. 3.1 In glorificatione Wisd 5.1 Thus Englished Let it be enough for us to know That presently upon the departure of it out of the body the spirit returns to God that gave it that it is with Christ that it is in Paradise that it is in Peace in rest in comfort in a place of refreshment in security in the hand of God so that no evill shall touch it that it is in glory all glorious expressions setting forth the happy state of the souls of the Saints which they pass into presently upon the separation of them from the bodies But then marke what follows he comes in upon all this with an adversitive tamen notwithstanding which in answer to the Question here proposed hath the force of a negative for thus it followeth Quia tamen resurrectionem corporum expectant fruitionem plenissimam omnium bonorum quae Deus promisit diligentibus ipsum non in perfecta jam consummata sed inchoata beatitudine versari dici possunt Englished thus Yet notwithstanding because they expect the resurrection of their bodies and the most full fruition of all those good things which God hath promised to them that love him they may be said to be not in the full fruition of their perfect and consummate happiness but in the beginning of it or their happiness inchoated and begun Thus Bucanus Com. Loc. 39. pag. 447. And for proofe of this he alleageth the same Text of Scripture that I have done Rev. 6.9 10 11. Vsque quo Domine How long Lord how long Aquinas brings in a another Scripture for proofe of this truth 2 Tim. 4.8 From henceforth is layd up for me a Crowne of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me at that day At what day At the day
all that infinite space which is above the Starry Firmament and the Sydereall Heavens be it never so great or the Heavens in it never so many and so in this three-fold division of the Heavens into Aëriall Sydereall and Etheriall we shall easily reconcile Astronomy and Divinity together the Mathematicall Account with the Theologicall In it St. Paul may finde his third Heaven Bishop Bilson his fourth Aristotle may finde his eight Ptolomy his nines Purbacchius his tenn and Maginus his eleven and neither of them wrong other in the reckoning so they seek them while they are there in being but that must be before the Conflagration here in this Text Prophesied of by St. Peter For in the great burning here spoken of the two former the Aëriall and the Sydereall Heavens with the whole compages of them will be destroyed burnt up dissolved they all fall under the fury of the Conflagration St. Peter hath exprest the manner of it in tragicall expressions filling the heart with terror and astonishment to think on The burning of a House a Towne a City is a lamentable sight At the burning of Jerusalem and the Temple Titus himself which was the executioner of it lamented greatly and was sore grieved and troubled at so lamentable a spectacleâ— But what was that in comparison to this not so much as the burning of a Cottage in comparison of it selfe The burning of Sodom and Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim foure Cities in the Plaine with fire and brimstone from Heaven was a Type of this burning but slenderly representing it as so many bonfires to a mighty burning The Prophet Isaiah fore-telling the horrible destruction of the King of Assyria shadows it forth under the type and title of Tophet or Hell Isay 30.33 in terrible termes as before remembred For Tophet 〈◊〉 prepared of old yea even for the King it is prepared meaning the King of Assyria which in his close siege against Jerusalem lay there with his Army and went off with the loss of one hundred fourescore and five thousand men he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord as a streame of brunstone doth kindle it This Tophet was a Valley on the South side of Jerusalem Josh 18.16 in which the Idolatrous Jews did burn their Children in the fire to offer them up in sacrifice unto Moloch contrary to the express command of God Levit. 20.1 It was called Tophet from Toph which in the Hebrew signifieth a Drumme from whence Tophet the diminutive of it signifying a little Drumme or Tabret because while these Children were burning the Idolatrous Priests beate upon these Drumms and playd on these Tabrets partly for the solemnity of the service and partly to drowne the crying and shreeking of the poor Innocents in the flames It was the Land of one Hinnom therefore called The Valley of Hinnom and in the New Testament Gehenna and taken for Hell Matth. 5.21 Matth. 8.9 Josiah had such indignation against this Idolatrous place that in his great Reformation 2 Kings 23.10 He defiled it he made it the very sinke and dunghill of the City a place for the execution of Malefactors and where those which were denyed buriall were cast out and lay unburied a place where to carry and cast all the noysom Carrion of the City where the Foules of the Ayre and the beasts might Prey upon them yet for feare they should corrupt the Ayre and cause infectious diseases there were continuall fires kept all-wayes burning to consume the bones and putrified Carkasses whether of men or beasts which were cast out there And for the loathsomness of the place and the continuall burnings in it it was called Gehenna Hell and Hell fire Unto which it is probable our Saviour alludes when describing Hell he saith The Worme never dyes nor the Fire never goeth out The Worme that is bred out of those putrefactions which farther gnawing causeth farther putrefaction never ceaseth to administer matter of burning to the fire nor the fire ever goeth out or ceaseth to feed it selfe upon it Yet as there are divers degrees of heate in the fire and the fiery furnace into which the three Children were cast was heat seven times hotter then at other times So it is cleere by the Scriptures That the torments of the damned are not all equall We reade of the Servant That knew his Masters wilt and did it not And of another That knew it not and did it not The former was to be beaten with many stripes The latter was to be beaten too but with fewer stripes The Stoicks were â—â—rr out in their Moralls when they taught Peccata esse aequalia That all sinns were equall Our Saviour his exposition of the sixth Commandement hath taught us otherwise Matth. 5.22 when he saith That whosoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly shall be in danger of the judgement and whosoever saith unto his brother Racha shall be worthy to be punished by the Councell but whosoever shall say unto his brother Thou foole shall be in danger of Hell fire Where under the forme of these three Courts among the Jews First The Court of three or the Triumviri here called The Judgement which had the hearing and punishing of smaller matters Secondly The Court of three and twenty here called The Councell which had the hearing and punishing of crimes of a higher nature And thirdly Of the highest Court of all consisting of threescore and eleven which they called their Sane drim which Judged the highest matters and punished by death it selfe whether by hanging beheading stoning or burning in Gehenna before mentioned he cleerly sheweth that there are great differences of sin and sinners and so there shall be also of punishments proportionably under which the damned shall be held and tormented in Hell for evermore Unto which the enlargement of Tophet by the destruction of this world in the great Conflagration shall be much conducing in giving convenient roome for it And as the punishment and torment of the damned in Hell shall be of divers and different measures and degrees Potentes potentèr cruciabuntur Mighty men shall be mightily tormented so that the joy and glory of the Caelestiall Inhabitants shall be as different in measure and degree is clearly revealed in Scripture They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turne many to righteousness shall shine as the Starrs for ever and ever Daniel 12.3 Which Saint Paul in 1 Cor. 15. further confirmes and more cleerly explicates this There is one glory of the Sunne another of the Moone and another glory of the Starrs for one Starr differeth from another Starr in glory ver 41. And then to prevent all mistakes and disputes about it he applyes it to this very purpose verse 42. Even so is the Resurrection from the dead And to this doth this Text of Saint Peter well agree where it sayes We look for new Heavens in the Plurall Number who knows how many Ethereall Heavens but he that made them but Heavens they are therefore more then one and this necessary for two Reasons First for the vast spaces that are required to dispose of the Caelestiall Inhabitants in spaces which no man can measure for multitudes which no man can number Secondly For the orderly disposing of them in those Heavens according to the dignity and glory the purity and holiness of those that shall be placed in them For as one Starr so one Heaven differeth from another in glory In my Fathers House are many Mansions those Mansions not of equall beauty and magnificence variety of Mansions for variety of Inhabitants to some are reserved Crowns to other Laurells some are clothed in White the immediate pedissequae of the Lambe which follows him whethersoever he goeth others attend at a farther distance In the second and third Chapters of the Revelation there are seven severall rewards assigned to them that overcome In the nineteenth of Saint Luke we see upon the Account given by the servants of the improvement of the Talents committed to their trust One is made Ruler over ten Cities another over five every one hath his reward according to his care and faithfulness proportioned unto him But what need we multiply words in a case so cleer consider but the present state of the Caelestiall Inhabitants the holy Angels now in glory and from thence you will easily collect what the state of the Saints shall be after the Resurrection you will finde them distributed into severall Classes or Orders of Angels in dignity and glory one above another For we reade of Angells and Arch-Angells of Cherubims and Seraphims of Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers c. all which are so many Orders and severall Degrees of Angells excelling one another in dignity and glory And if there be such graduall distinctions now of the Angells divided and distributed into so many Orders one above another in the Caelestiall Hierarchy certainly much more must it needs be so after the Resurrection when the number of the Caelestiall Inhabitants shall be so infinitely augmented by the access of all the Saints and elect people of God which have been from the beginning of the world and shall be to the last man that shall stand upon the Earth at that day And it were strange That all these should be limited to one Heaven to be disposed in which is all that some of you seem to allow but that Saint Peter hath better inform'd us in the Text when he sayes We look for new Heavens Heavens in the Plurall Heavens enough for the Creator to dispose of all his people in and to sort them so as that they shall all be in those Heavens which are most convenient for them and suitable to them and for them to be Inhabitants in and all these new too not because then newly Created but because we shall then newly take Possession of them and so they shall be new to us not in themselves For they were Created of old from the beginning from the foundation of the World Let our Saviours own words giving possession of them satisfie and silence all further dispute or questionings in this matter Mat. 25.34 with which I shut up this Discourse Come ye blessed Children of my Father enter into the Inheritance of the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World FINIS