Matth. 26.41 The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak It incumbers us with cares to provide for it and eats up time and thoughts but then it will be a Spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15.43 like to the Angels for manner of subsistence Luke 20.35 36. 1 Cor. 6.13 and which is the highest step of glory like unto Christs glorious Body Philip. 3.21 well therefore might the Father say Resurrectio mortuorum est Consolatio Christianorum The Resurrection of the Dead is the Consolation of Christians USE II. Of Reproof IN the next place let me press you to regulate your love to your Bodies by the rules of Religion and right Reason I must press you to love them though Nature it self teacheth you so to do but I press you to love them as Christians as men that understand the right use and improvement of their Bodies There are two sorts of errours in our love to the Body one in Defect the other in Excess both come fitly here to be censured and healed I. Some there be that offend in the Defect of love to their own Bodies who use them as if they had no love for them whose Souls act as if they were enemies to their own Bodies They do not formally and directly hate them but consequentially and eventually they may be said to hate them and that 1 By defiling them with filthy lusts so the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 6.18 Every sin that a man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Adultery sinneth against his own Body in other sins 't is the Instrument but here 't is both Instrument and Object not only God but your own Bodies are abused and wronged by it The Body may be considered two ways either 1. As our Vessels or 2. As the Spirits Temple 1. As our Vessel or Instrument for natural and Spiritual Uses and Services and on that account we should not injure or defile it 1 Thes. 4.4 5. but possess it in sanctification and honour The lusts of Uncleanness Gluttony and Drunkenness quench the vigour blast the beauty and destroy the health and honour of the Body and so render it both naturally and morally unfit for the service and use of the Soul 2. And the injury is yet greater if we consider it as the Spirits Temple On this ground the Apostle strongly convinceth and disswadeth Christians from these abuses of the Body 1 Cor. 6.15 16. He argues from the Dignity God will put upon our Bodies by the Resurrection ver 13 14. They are to be transformed and made like unto Christs glorious Body and from the honour he hath already put upon the Bodies of the Saints in their union with Christ ver 15 16. They as well as the Soul are ingrafted into him and joyned with him they are his Temples to be dedicated hallowed and consecrated to his service O let them not be made a sink for lusts or meer strainers for meat and drink 2 By macerating them with covetous lusts denying them their due comforts and refreshments and unmercifully burthening them with labours and sorrows about things that perish 1 Some deny their Bodies due comforts and refreshments which the natural and positive Laws of God both allow and command Their Souls are cruel Step-mothers to their bodies and keep them too short not out of a prudent and Christian design to starve their lusts but to advance their estates Of this evil Solomon speaks Eccles. 6.22 There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and it is common among men A man to whom God hath given riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it This is vanity and it is an evil disease Tenacity is a disease of the Soul like that of a Dyscracy in the stomach which so indisposeth it that it cannot receive with any appetite or delight the best refreshments at a plentiful Table 2 And others there are that wrong and abuse their own bodies by laying unreasonable and unmerciful loads upon them especially loads of grief and sorrow wasting and weakning them beyond all rules of reason or Religion If a friend or relation die they have less mercy on their own Bodies than a conscientious man hath on the Horse he rides Cares and sorrows are as deadly to the Body as a Sword 1 Tim 6.10 Intense and immoderate griefs about Worldly losses and crosses have slain their ten thousands and which is strange the Soul seems to take a certain kind of pleasure in loading and tormenting the Body There is a real truth in that strange expression of Seneca Inest quiddam dulce tristitiae Senec. Ep. 806. Sorrow it self hath a certain kind of pleasure attending it The Souls of some mourners do willingly excite and provoke their own griefs when they begin to abate which is like the whetting of the knife that grows dull to make it cut the deeper into the Body Cum occurrant Sermones corum jucundi conversatio hilaris officiosa pietas tunc ocali velut in gaudio relaxantur Sen. Ep. 806. Thus as Seneca observes Some Parents that have lost their beloved children willingly call to mind their pleasant sayings and pretty actions to find a kind of pleasure in a fresh shower of tears for them when poor hearts sorrow hath so broken them already that they need consolations under their present sorrows rather than irritations of new ones And the Souls unmercifulness to the Body is in such cases farther discovered by its obstinate refusal of all that is comforting and relieving So it is said of Rachel Jerem. 31.15 Rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted because they were not So the Israelites hearkened not unto Moses because of the anguish of spirit and the cruel bondage Exod. 6.9 Thus we studiously rake together and exasperate whatsoever is piercing wounding and over-whelming and shut our ears to all that is relieving and supporting which is cruelty to our own Bodies and that which hath so far broken the health and strength of some bodies that they are never like to be useful instruments to the Soul any more in this World Such deep and desperate wounds have their own Souls given them by immoderate grief as will never be perfectly healed but by the Resurrection Of those wounds the body may say as it is Zeth 13.6 These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house or by the hand of my friend thus my own Soul hath dealt cruelly and unmercifully with me II. Others offend in the Excess and extravagancy of their love to the Body and these are an hundred to one in number with those that sin in defect of love My friends upon a due search it will be found that the love of our Souls generally degenerates into fondness and folly There is but little well tempered and ordinate love found among men We make fondlings yea we
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
make Idols of our own Bodies we rob God yea our own Souls to give to the Body It is not a natural and kindly heat of love but a meer feavourish heat which preys upon the very Spirits of Religion which is found with many of us This feavourish distemper may be discovered by the beating of our pulse in three or four particulars 1. This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining appetites We give the flesh whatsoever it craves and can deny it nothing it desires pampering the Body to the great injury and hazard of the Soul Some have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh as it is Eph. 2.3 Trading only in those things that please and pamper the flesh They sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 i.e. all their studies and labours are but the sowing of the seeds of pleasure to the flesh Not an handful of spiritual Seed sowen in Prayer for the Soul all the day long what the Body craves the obsequious Soul like a slave is at its beck to give it Tit. 3. 3. Serving diverse lusts and pleasures attending to every knock and call to fulfil the desires of the flesh O how little do these men understand the life of Religion or the great design of Christianity which consists in mortifying and not pampering and gratifying the Body Rom. 14. 13 14. And according to that rule all serious Christians order their Bodies giving them what is needful to keep them serviceable and useful to the Soul but not gratifying their irregular desires giving what their wants not what their wantonness calls for So Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I beat it down and keep it under he understood it as his Servant not his Master He knew that Hagar would quickly peark up and domineer over Sarah expect more attendance than the Soul except it were kept under These two verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very emphatical the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffeting the other to bring it under by checks and rebukes as Masters that understand their place and Authority use to do with insolent and wanton Servants It was a rare expression of an Heathen Major sum ad 〈◊〉 natus quà m ut corporis mei sim mancipium I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a drudge or Vassal to my Body And it was the saying of a pious Divine when he felt the flesh rebellious and wanton Ego faciam aselle ut non calcitres I will make thee thou Ass that thou shalt not kick I know the superstitious Papists place much of Religion in these external things but though they abuse them to an ill purpose there is a necessary and lawful use of these abridgments and restraints upon the Body and it will be impossible to mortifie and starve our lusts without a due rigour and severity to our flesh But how little are many acquainted with these things They deal with their Bodies as David with Adonijah of whom it 's said 1 Kings 1.6 His Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so And just so our flesh requites us by its Rebellions and Treasons against the Soul it seeks the life of the Soul which seeks nothing more than its content and pleasure this is not ordinate love but fondness and folly and what we shall bitterly repent for at last 2. It appears by our sparing and favouring of them in the necessary uses and services we have for them in Religion Many will rather starve their Souls than work and exercise their Bodies or disturb their sluggish rest thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health oftentimes put by the duties of Religion or at least lose the fittest and properest season for them We are lazying upon our beds when we should be wrestling upon our knees The World is suffered to get the start of Religion in the morning and so Religion is never able to overtake it all the day long This was none of David's course he prevented the dawning of the morning and cryed Psal. 119.147 and Psal. 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshest and fittest parts of our time when our bodily Senses are most vigorous and we would do so except God by his providence disable us were our hearts fully set for God and Religion lay with weight upon our Spirits Some I confess cannot receive this injunction being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities but those tha◠〈◊〉 ought to do so But O how many slothful excuses doth the flesh invent to put off duty We shall injure our health c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas if profit or pleasure call us up we have no such shifts but can rise early and sit up late O Friends why hath God given you Bodies if not to waste and wear them out in his service and the service of your own Souls if your Bodies must not be put to it and exercised this way where is the mercy of having a Body If a stately Horse were given you on this condition that you must not ride or work him what benefit would such a gift be to you Your Bodies must and will wear out and it 's better wear them with working than with rusting we are generally more sollicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God if it had been less precious in our own eyes 'T is just with God to destroy that health with diseases which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness Think with thy self had such a Soul as Timothies or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine so strong and vigorous so apt and able for service they would have honoured God more in it in a day than perhaps you do in a year Certainly this is not love but laziness not a due improvement but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body to let it rust out in idleness which might be imployed so many ways for God for your own and others Souls Well remember death will shortly dissolve them and then they can be of no more use and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection use them for God now with a faithful self-denying diligence 3. It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that threaten them when the glory of God our own and others Salvation Here the Soul receives a deadly wound upon it self toward it â—ff from the Body So did Spira bid us expose and not regard them Some there are that rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man will hazard their Souls to the wrath of God They are too tender to suffer pain or restraint for Christ but consider not wâ—â—t
these fears accompany many of Gods People from their Regeneration to their Dissolution O what would they not give what would they not do yea what would they not endure to get full satisfaction in those things Every working of Corruption every discovery made by Temptation puts them into a fright and makes them question all that ever was wrought in them And as their fears are great about the inward man so also about the outward man especially when such bloody preparations seem to be making by the same Enemies that have acted such and so many bloody Tragedies already in the World But at death they enter into perfect peace and security Isai 57.2 No wind of fear shall ever ruffle and disturb their Souls and put them into a storm any more 7. From deluding shadows into substantial good This World is the World of Shadows and delusive appearances Here we are imposed upon and baffled by empty and deceitful Vanities All we have here is little else but a Dream at death the Soul awakes out of its Dream and finds it self in the World of Realities where it feeds upon substantial good to satisfaction Psal. 17.15 Now the advantages accrewing to the Soul by death being so great and many though the Medium be harsh and ungrateful in it self yet there is all the reason in the World we should covet it for the benefits that come by it Argument V. THe foretasts we have had of Heaven already in the Body should make all the Saints long to be unbodied for the full and perfect fruition of that Joy seeing it cannot be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the Soul till it hath put off the Body by death That there are Praelibations First-fruits and Earnests of future glory given at certain seasons to Believers in this life is put beyond all doubting not only by Scripture-Testimonies but frequent experiences of God's People I speak not only with the Scriptures but with the clear experience of many Saints when I say there are to be felt and tasted even here in the Body the Earnests of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 The first-fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 The sealing of the Spirit Eph. 1.13 The very Ioy of the Lord 1 Pet. 1.8 of the same kind though in a remisser degree with that of the glorified That the fulness of this joy cannot be in us whilst we tabernacle in Bodies of flesh is as plain When Moses desired a sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do continually behold and adore the Answer was No Man can see my face and live Exod. 33.18 19 20. q. d. Moses Thou askest a great thing and understandest not how unable thou art to support that which thou desirest should I shew thee my Glory in this compounded state thou now art it would confound thee and swallow thee up Nature as now constituted cannot support such a weight of Glory a Ray a glimpse of this light overpowers Man and breaks such a clay Vessel to pieces which is the reason why the Resurrection must intervene betwixt this state and that of the Bodies glorification And it is not to be doubted but one main end and reason why these foretasts of Heaven are given us in the Body is to embolden the Soul to venture through death it self for the full enjoyment of those Delights and Pleasures They are like the Grapes of Eshcol to the faint-hearted Israelites or the sweet Wines of Italy to the Gauls which once tasted made them restless till they had conquered that good Countrey where they grew Rom. 8.23 We which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption viz. The Redemption of our Bodies Well then reflect seriously upon those sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love in your sincere and secret addresses to him and converses with him What an holy forgetfulness of all things in this World hath it wrought How insipid and tastless hath it rendered the sweetest Creature-enjoyments What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it God this way brings Heaven nigh to your Souls out of design to overcome your Reluctancies at death through which you must pass to the enjoyment of it And after all those sights and tastes both of the truth and goodness of that state shall we still reluctate and hang back as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is O you may justly question whether you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ if that taste do not kindle Coals of fire in your Bosomes I mean ardent longings to be with him and to be satiated with his love If you have been priviledged with a taste of thaâ— hidden Manna with the sight of things invisible with Joys unspeakable and full of glory and yet are loth to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows certainly you herein both cross the design of the spirit in giving them and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God as thinking there is more bitterness in death than there is sweetness in his presence Yea it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts that after so many tastes and tryals as you have had you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible O what adoe hath God with his froward and peevish Children If he had only revealed the future state to us in his Word as the pure Object of Faith and required â—s to die upon the meer credit of his promise without such Pawns Pledges and Earnests as these are were there not reason enough for it But after such and so many wonderful and amazing Condescentions wherein he doth as it were say Soul if yet thou doubtest I will bring Heaven to thee thou shalt have it in thy own hand thy eyes shall see it thy hands shall handle it thy Mouth shall taste it how inexcusable is our Reluctancy Argument VI. IT should greatly fortifie the People of God against the fears of Dissolution to consider that death can neither destroy the being of their Souls by Annihilation nor the hopes and expectations they have of blessedness by disappointment and frustration Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death Though all earthly things fail at death upon which account dying is expressed by failing Luke 16.19 Yet neither the Soul nor the well grounded hopes can fail The Anchor of a Believers hope is firm and sure Hebr. 6.18 It will not come home in the greatest Storm that can beat upon the Soul For 1 God hath foreknown and chosen them to Salvation before the World was 1 Pet. 1.2 And this Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 His Decrees are as firm as Mountains of Brass Zâ—ch 6.1 2 God hath justified their persons and therein destroyed the power of death over them 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death
noble Souls in the manner of life with the Beasts that perish Our Tables differ little from the Crib at which they feed or our Houses from the Stalls and Stables in which they lie down to rest in respect of any Divine worship or Heavenly communication that is to be heard there Happy had it been for such men if so they live and dye that their souls had been of no higher Extraction or larger Capacity or longer Duration than that of a Beast for then as their comforts so also their miseries had ended at death And such they will one day wish they had been A Separate Soul immediately capable of Blessedness Inference II. THe Soul of Man being a Substance and not depending in its Being on the Body or any other fellow creature There can be no reason on the Souls account why its blessedness should be delayed till the Resurrection of the Body 'T is a great mistake and 't is well 't is so that the Soul is capable only of social Glory or a Blessedness in partnership with the Body And that it can neither exert its own powers nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the body The opinion of a sleeping interval took its riâ—e from this errour as it is usual for one mistake to beget another they conceived the Soul to be so dependent upon the Body at least in all its operations that when death rends it from the Body it must needs be left as in a swoon or sleep unable to exert its proper powers or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of separation But certainly its substantial Nature being considered it will be found that what perfection soever the body recieves from the Soul and how necessary soever its dependence upon it is * Anima rationâ—â—iâ— nihil 〈…〉 possâ—tâ—r 〈◊〉 Coâ—imâ—r Disp. 2. Art 3. The Soul receives not its perfection from the Body nor doth it necessarily depend on it in its principal operations but it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it Yea I doubt not but it enjoys it self in a much more sweet and perfect liberty than ever it did or could whilst it was clogged and fettered with a body of flesh Doubtless * Proculdubio cum â—i mortis expâ—imitur de câ—â—â—â—â—tione caâ—nâ—s ipsa eâ—pressiâ—ne colatu 〈…〉 to de oâ—panâ—o coâ—pore â—umpit in apertâ—m ad mâ—ram pâ—â—am sua◠〈◊〉 statim semetipsam in expeditione substantiae recognoscit ut de somno emergens ab imaginibas ad veritates Tertul. in lib. de Anima saith Tertullian when it is separated and as it were strained by death it comes out of darkness into its own pure perfect light and quickly finds it self a substantial Being able to act freely in that light Before the eyes of the dead body are closed I doubt not but the believing Soul with open eyes beholdeth the face of Jesus Christ Luk. 23.43 Philip. 1.23 but this will also be further spoken to hereafter II Immediately Created Inference III. THe Souls of men being created immediately out of nothing and not seminally traduced it follows That all souls by nature are of equal value and dignity One Soul is not more excellent honourable or precious than another But all by nature equally precious The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust is in its own nature of equal dignity and value with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne And this appears to be so 1. First because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain viz. the creating power of God They were not made better or worse finer or courser matter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing at all The same Almighty power was put forth to the forming of one as of another All Souls are mine saith he that created them Ezek. 18 4. The Soul of the Child as well as the Father the Soul of the Beggar as well as the King Those that had no praeexistent matter but received their beings from the same efficient cause must needs be equal in their original nature and value The bodies of men which are formed out of matter do greatly differ from one another some are moulded as we say è meliori luto out of better and finer Clay some are more exact elegant vigorous and beautiful than others but Souls having no matter of which they consist are not so differenced 2. Secondly All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God They need no other powers faculties or capacities than they are by nature endued with if these be but sanctified and devoted to God to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face We pass through the fields and take up an Egg which lies under a clod and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter yea but in that Egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious Lark as it may be at the same time we see mounting Heavenward and singing delicious notes above So 't is here Those poor despised souls that are now lodged in crazy despicable bodies on Earth have in their Natures a capacity for the same imployments and enjoyments with those in Heaven They have no higher Original than these have and these have the same capacity and hability with them They are Beings improvable by grace to the highest perfections attainable by any Creature If thou be never so mean base and despicable a creature in other respects yet hast thou a Soul which hath the same alliance to the Father of Spirits the same capacity to enjoy him in glory that the most excellent and renowned Saints ever had 3. Thirdly All Souls are rated and valued in Gods book and account at one and the same price and therefore by nature are of equal worth and dignity Under the Law the Rich and the Poor were to give the same Ransom Exod. 30.15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel The Redemption of Souls by the Blood of Christ costs one and the same price The poorest and most despised Soul that believes in Jesus is as much indebted to him for the Ransom of his Soul as the greatest and most illustrious person in the World Moses Abraham Paul c. did not cost Christ one farthing more than poor Lazarus or the meanest among all the Saints did The Righteousness of Christ is unto all and upon all that believe and there is no difference Rom. 3.22 But yet we must not understand this Parity of humane Souls universally or in all respects Though being of one species or common nature they are all equal and those of them that are purchased by the blood of Christ are all purchased at one rate Yet there are divers other respects and
this to us And to enquite of them things worthy of their Wisdom and Experience Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a Fool seeing he hath no heart to it Proverbs 17.16 The expence of one Minutes breath in season may if God concur with it be to you the ground of breathing forth praises to God to all eternity Inference VIII ARE Souls and Bodies tack'd together by so frail a thing as a puff of breath How vain and groundless then are all those Pleasures men take in their Carnal Projects and Designs in this World We lay the Plot and Design of our future earthly felicity in our own thoughts we mould and contrive a design for a long and pleasant life The model for raising an Estate is already formed in our thoughts and we have not patience to defer our pleasure till the accomplishment of it but presently draw a train of pleasing Consequents from this Chimaera and our thoughts can stoop to nothing less than sitting down all the remainder of our days in the very lap of delight and pleasure Forgetting that our breath is all the while in our Nostrils and may expire the next moment and if it do the structure of all our Expectations and Projects come to nothing in the same moment His breath goeth forth he returneth to his dust and in that very day his thoughts perish Psal. 146.4 The whole frame of his thoughts falls instantly abroad by drawing out this one pin his breath T is good with all our earthly designs to mingle the serious thoughts of the Dominion of Providence and our own frailty Iames 4.15 If the Lord will and we live 'T is become a common Observation that assoon as men have accomplished their earthly designs and begin to hug and bless themselves in their own Acquisitions a suddain and unexpected period is put both to their Lives and Pleasures as you may see Luke 12.19 20. Dan. 4.30 O then drive moderately you will be at the end of all these things sooner than you imagine We need not victual a Ship to cross the Chanel as they do that are bound to the Indies What is your life It is even a Vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away James 4.14 In one moment the Projects of many years are overturned for ever Inference IX IS it but a puff of breath that holds Man in life then build not too much hope and confidence upon any man Build not too high upon so feeble a foundation Cease ye from man saith the Prophet whose breath is in his Nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isai. 2.22 There are two things that should deter us from dependance upon any man viz. his falseness and his frailty Grace in a great measure may cure the first but not the last The best of men must die as well as the worst Rom. 8.10 't is a vanity therefore to rely upon any man It was the saying of a Philosopher when he heard how Merchants lost great Estates at Sea in a moment Non amo foelicitatem è funibus pendentem I love not that Happiness said he which hangs upon a Rope But all the happiness of many men hangs upon a far weaker thing than a Rope even the perishing breath of a Creature Let not Parents raise their hopes too high or lean too hard upon their Children say not of thy Child as Lamech did of Noah this Son shall comfort us Gen. 5.29 The World is full of the Laments and bitter Cries of disappointed Parents Let not the Wife depend too much on her Husband as if her earthly Comforts were secured in him against all danger God is often provoked to stop our friends breath that thereby he may stop our way to sin 1 Tim. 5.5 The trust and dependance of a Soul is too weighty to be hang'd upon such a weak and rotten pin as a Creatures breath is Inference X. TO conclude If this frail breath be all that differences the living from the dead Then fear not man whose breath is in his Nostrils There is as little ground for our fear of Man as there is for our trust in Man As death in a moment can make the best man useless and put him out of capacity to do us any good so it can in a moment make the worst man harmless and put him out of a capacity to do us any injury Indeed if the breath of our Enemies were in their power and ours at their mercy there would be just cause to tremble at them but they are neither Masters of their own or ours Who art thou that thou shouldest 〈◊〉 afraid of a man that shall die saith God to Iacob Isai. 51.12 The breath of the mightiest is no better secured than of the meanest nor never in more danger to be stopt than when they breath out threatnings against the Upright Iulian's breath was soon stopt after he threatned to root out the Galileans Queen Mary resigned her breath at the very time when she had filled the Prisons with many of Christs Sheep designed for the slaughter Read Isai. 17.12 and see what Mushromes we are afraid of The best way to continue your Relations and Friends to your comfort is to give God and not them your dependence and the best way to secure your selves against the rage of Enemies is to give God your fear and not them And thus of the nature of the Soul and its Tye with the Body TEXT Revel VI. 9 10 11. And when he had opened the Fifth Seal Ver. 9. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And they cryed with a loud Voice saying Ver. 10. How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth And white Robes were given unto every one of them Ver. 11. and it was said unto them That they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow Servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled HAving from the former Text spoken of the Nature of the Soul and the Tye betwixt it and the Body I shall from this Scripture evince the Immortality of the Soul which is a chief part of its Excellency and Glory And in this Scripture it hath a firm Foundation This Book of the Revelation compleats and seals up the whole Sacred Canon Revel 22.18 It also comprehendeth all the great and signal Events of Providence relating either to the Christian Church or to its Antichristian Enemies in the several Periods of time to the end of the World Chap. 1. v. 19. all which the Spirit of God discovers to us in the opening of the seven Seals the sounding of the seven Trumpets and the pouring out of the seven Vials The first five Seals express the State of the Church under the bloody persecuting Heathen Emperors Seal 1. The
Iohn saw II. Next he tells us what he heard and that was 1. A vehement Cry from those Souls to God 2. A gracious Answer from God to them 1. The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this How long O Lord Holy and True dost thou not avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the Earth A cry like that from the blood of Abel Yet let it be remembred 1 This cry doth not imply these holy Souls to be in a restless state or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the Body noâ— yet 2 that they carried with them to Heaven any malevolent or revengeful disposition but that which is principally signified by this Cry is their vehement desire after the abolition of the Kingdom of Satan and the Completion and Consummation of Christs Kingdom in this World That those his Enemies which oppose his Kingdom by slaying his Saints may be made his footstool which is the same thing Christ waits for in glory Heb. 10.13 2. Secondly Here we find Gods gracious Answer to the cry of these Souls in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways 1. By somewhat given them for present 2. By somewhat promised them hereafter 1. That which he gives them in hand White Robe were given to every one of them It is generally agreed that these white Robes given them denote heavenly Glory the same which is promised to all sincere and faithful ones who preserve themselves pure from the corruptions and defilements of the World Revel 3.4 and it is as much as if God should have said to them Although the time be not come to satisfie your desires in the final ruine and overthrow of Satans Tyrannical Kingdom in the World and Christs consummate Conquest of all his Enemies yet it shall be well with you in the mean time you shall walk with me in white and enjoy your glory in Heaven 2 And this is not all but the very things they cry for shall be given them also after a little season q. d. wait but a little while till the rest that are to follow in the same suffering path be got through the red-Sea of Martyrdome as you are and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his Enemies and justice shall fully avenge the precious innocent blood of all the Saints which in all Ages hath been shed for my sake from the blood of Abel to the last that shall ever suffer for Righteousness sake in the World From all which this Conclusion is most fair and obvious DOCTRINE THat the Souls of men perish not with their Bodies but do certainly over-live them and subsist in a state of separation from them Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments but their Souls were out of the reach of all those cruel Engines They were in safety under the Altar and in glory cloathed with their white Robes when the Bodies they lately inhabited on earth were turned to ashes and torn to pieces by wild Beasts The point I am to discourse from this Scripture is the immortality of the Soul for the better understanding whereof let it be noted that there is a twofold Immortality I. Simple and absolute in its own Nature II. Derived dependent and from the pleasure of God In the former Sense God only hath Immortality as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 our Souls have it as a gift from him He that created our Souls out of nothing can if he please reduce them to nothing again but he hath bestowed Immortality upon them and produced them in a nature suitable to that his appointment fitted for an everlasting life So that though God by his absolute power can yet he never will annihilate them but they shall and must live for ever in endless Blessedness or Misery Death must destroy these mortal Bodies but it cannot destroy our Souls And the certainty of this assertion is grounded upon these reasons and will be cleared by these following Arguments Argument I. THe first Argument for proof of the Souls Immortality may be taken from the Simplicity Spirituality and uncompoundedness of its Nature It is a pure simple unmixed Being * Interitus est discessus Secretio direptuâ— earum partium qâ—ae conjuctione aliqua tenebaâ—tur Tâ—lly Death is the Dissolution of things compounded where therefore no composition or mixture is found no death or dissolution can follow Death is the great Divider but it is of things that are divisible The more simple pure and refined any material thing is by so much the more permanent and durable it is found to be The nearer it approacheth to the nature of Spirits the farther it is removed from the power of death but that which is not material or mixed at all is wholly exempt from the stroke and power of death It is from the contrariant qualities and jarring humours in mixed Bodies that they come under the Law and power of dissolution Matter and Mixture are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the Creatures But the Soul of man is a simple spiritual immaterial and unmixed Being not compounded of matter and form as other Creatures are but void of matter and altogether Spiritual as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty which cannot be straitned by receiving multitudes of Truths into it It need not empty it self of what it had received before to make way for more truth nor doth it find it self clogg'd or burthened by the greatest multitudes or varieties of Truths but the more it knows the more it still desires to know It s capacity and appetite are found to inlarge themselves according to the increase of knowledge So that to speak as the matter is if the Knowledge of all Arts Sciences and Mysteries of Nature could be gathered into the mind of one man yet that mind would thirst and even burn with desire after more knowledge and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt and relished the sweetness of truth Knowledge as Knowledge never burthens or cloys the mind but like fire increases and enlarges as it finds more matter to work upon Now this could never be if the Soul were a material Being Take the largest Vessel and you shall find that the more you pour into it the less room is still left for more and when it is full you cannot pour in one drop more except you let out what was in it befoâ—e But the Soul is no such Vessel it can retain all it had and be still receptive of more so that nothing can fill it and satisfie it but that which is infinite and perfect The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it 〈◊〉 not but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimiâ—â—d it never
saith till it come to rest in God it is enougâ— because the faculty which produceth it is more 〈◊〉 spiritual and immaterial All matter hath its limits bounds 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 till we attain the desired end which is God and just measures beyond which it cannot be extended But the Soul is boundless and its appetitions infinite is rests not but in the spiritual and infinite Being God alone being is adaequate object and able to satisfie its desires which plainly proves it to be a Spiritual immaterial and simple being And being so two things necessarily follow therefrom 1. That it is void of any Principle of corruption in it self 2. That it is not liable to any stroak of death by any adverse power without it self 1. It cannot be liable to death from any seeds or Principles of Corruption within it self for where there is no composition there is no dissolution the Spirituality and simplicity of the Soul admits of no Corruption 2. Nor is it liable to death by any adverse power without it self No Sword can touch it No instrument of death can reach it 'T is above the reach of all adversaries Matt. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul The bounds and limits of creature-power are here fixed by Jesus Christ beyond which they cannot go They can wound torment and destroy the Body when God permits them but the Soul is out of their reach A Sword can no more wound it than it can wound or hurt the light and consequently it is and must needs be of an immortal nature But there seems to be a decay upon our Souls in our old Age Object and decaies argue and imply corruption and are so many steps and tendencies towards the death and dissolution thereof The experience of the whole world shews us how the Apprehensions Judgments Wit and Memory of old Men fail even to that degree that they become children again in respect of the abilities of their minds their Souls only serving as it were to salt their Bodies and keep them from putrefaction for a few days longer 'T is a great mistake Sol. there is not the least decay upon the Soul no time makes any change upon the essence of the Soul all the alteration that is made is upon the Organs and Instruments of the Body which decay in time and become inept and unserviceable to the Soul The Soul like an expert and skilful Musician is as able as ever it was but the Body its instrument is out of tune and the ablest Artist can make no pleasing melody upon an instrument whose Strings are broken or so related that they cannot be scrued up to their due height Let Hippocrates the Prince of Physicians decide this matter for us * Anima nostra quoad essentiam mutaâ—i non potest aut alterari siâ—â— cibi siâ—â— potus sive cujuscunque rei alterius accâ—ssu referends est enim omnium alterationum causa aut ad spiritus quibus se immiscet aut ad vasa sive organa que permeat Hippocrates lib. 1. de diaeâ—a The Soul saith he cannot be changed or altered as to its essence by the access of meat or drink or any other thing whatsoever but all the alterations that are made must be referred either to the Spirits with which it mixeth it self or to the Vessels and Organs through which it streameth So that this proves not its corruptibility and being neither corruptible in it self nor vulnerable by any creature without it self seeing man cannot and God will not destroy it the conclusion is strongly inferred that therefore it is immortal Argument II. THE Immortality of the Souls of Men may be concluded from the Promises of everlasting Blessedness and the Threatnings of everlasting miseries respectively made in the Scriptures of truth to the Godly and ungodly after this Life which Promises and Threatnings had been altogether vain and delusory if our Souls perish with our Bodies 1. First God hath made many everlasting Promises of Blessedness yea he hath established an everlasting Covenant betwixt himself and the Souls of the Righteous promising to be their God for ever and to bestow endless Blessedness upon them in the World to come Such a Promise is that Iohn 8.28 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish And Iohn 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting life And again Iohn 11.26 Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye And once more Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality eternal Life with multitudes more of like nature Now if these be no vain and delusory Promises as to be sure they are not being the words of the true and faithful God then those Souls to whom they are made must live for ever for if the subject of the Promises must fail consequently the performance of the Promises must fail too For how shall they be made good when those to whom they are made are perished Let it not be objected here That the Bodies of Believers are concerned in the promises as well as their Souls and yet their Bodies perish notwithstanding For we say though their Bodies dye yet they shall live again and enjoy the fruit of the Promises in eternal Glory And whilest their Bodies lie in the Grave their Souls are with God enjoying the covenanted Blessedness in Heaven Rom. 8.10 11. and so the Covenant-Bond is not loosed betwixt them and God by Death which it must needs be in case the Soul perished when the Body doth And upon this Hypothesis that Argument of Christ is built Matth. 22.32 proving the Resurrection from the Covenant God made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living q. d. If Abraham Isaac and Iacob be perished in Soul as well as in Body how then is God their God what is become of the Promise and Covenant-Relation for if one Correlate fail the Relation necessarily fails with it If God be their God then certainly they are in being for God is not the God of the Dead i.e. of those that are utterly perished Therefore it must needs be that though their Bodies be naturally dead yet their Souls still live and their Bodies must live again at the Resurrection by vertue of the same Promise 2. On the contrary many threatnings of eternal misery after this life are found in the Scriptures of truth against ungodly and wicked Persons Such is that in 2 Thes. 1.7 8 9. The Lord Iesuâ— shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming Fire to render Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with
Soul may be evinced from the everlasting habits which are subjected and inherent in it If these habits abide for ever certainly so must the Souls in which they are planted The Souls of good Men are the good Ground in which the Seed of Grace is sown by the Spirit Matth. 13.23 i. e the subjects in which gracious properties and affections do inhere and dwell which is the formal notion of a Substance and these implanted Graces are everlasting things So Iohn 4.14 It shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life i. e. the Graces of the Spirit shall be in Believers permanent habits fixed Principles which shall never decay And therefore that Seed of Grace which is cast into their Souls at their Regeneration is in 1 Pet. 1.23 called incorruptible Seed which liveth and abideth for ever and it is incorruptible not only considered abstractly in its own simple nature but concretely as it is in the sanctified Soul its Subject for it is said 1 Iohn 3.9 The Seed of God remaineth in him It abideth for ever in the Soul If then these two things be clear to us viz. 1. That the Habits of Grace be everlasting 2. That they are inseparable from sanctified Souls It must needs follow that the Soul their Subject is so too an everlasting and immortal Soul And how plainly do both these Propositions lie before us in the Scriptures As for the immortal and interminable nature of saving Grace it is plain to him that considers not only what the fore cited Scriptures speak about it calling it incorruptible Seed a Well of Water springing up into everlasting life But add to these what is said of these Divine qualities in 2 Pet. 1.4 where they are called the Divine Nature and Ephes. 4.18 The life of God noting the perpetuity of these Principles in Believers as well as their resemblance of God in Holiness who are endowed with them I know it is a great question among Divines An gratia in renatis sit naturà essentià suà interminabilis Whether these Principles of Grace in the Regenerate be everlasting and interminable in their own nature and essence For my own part I think that God only is naturally essentially and absolutely interminable and immortal But these gracious Habits planted by him in the Soul are so by vertue of Gods Appointment Promise and Covenant And sure it is that by reason hereof they are interminate which is enough for my purpose if they be not essentially interminable Though Grace be but a Creature and therefore hath a pesse mori yet it is a Creature begotten by the Word and Spirit of God which live and abide for ever and a Creature within the Promise and Covenant of God by reason whereof it can never actually dye And then as for the inseparableness of these Graces from the Souls in whom they are planted how clear is this from 1 Iohn 2.27 where sanctifying Grace is compared to an Unction and this Unction is said to abide in them And 1 Iohn 3.9 't is called the Seed of God which remaineth in the Soul All our natural and moral Excellencies and Endowments go away when we dye Iob 4.21 Doth not their Excellency that is in them go away Men may out-live their acquired Gifts but not their supernatural Graces These stick by the Soul as Ruth to Naomi and where it goes they go too so that when the Soul is dislodged by Death all its Graces ascend up with it into Glory it carries away all its Faith Love Delight in God all its comfortable experiences and fruits of Communion with God along with it to Heaven For Death is so far from divesting the Soul of its Graces that it perfects in a Moment all that was defective in them 1 Cor. 13.10 When that which is perfect shall come then that which is in part shall be done away as the Twilight is done away when the Sun is up and at its Zenith So then Grace never dyeth and this never-dying Grace is inseparable from its Subject by which it is plain to him that considers That as Graces so Souls abide for ever But this only proves the Immortality of regenerate Souls Object It doth so Sol. but then consider as there be gracious habits in the regenerate that never dye so there are vicious habits in the unregenerate that can never be separated from them in the world to come Hence Iohn 8.21 They are said to dye in their sins and Iob 20.11 Their iniquities ly down with them in the dust and Ezek. 24.13 They shall never be purged Remarkable is that place Revel 22. v. 11. Let him that is filthy be filthy still And if guilt stick so fast and sin be so deeply engraven in impenitent Souls they also must remain for ever to bear the punishment of them Argument V. THE Immortality of the Soul of Man may be evinced from the Dignity of Man above all other Creatures Angels only excepted and his Dominion over them all In this the Scriptures are clear that Man is the Master-piece of all Gods other work Psal. 8.5 6. For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou hast made him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet Other Creatures were made for his service and he is crowned King over them all One Man is of more worth than all the inferiour Creatures But wherein is his Dignity and excellency above all other Creatures if not in respect of the capacity and immortality of his Soul Sure it can be found no where else for as to the Body many of the Creatures excel man in the perfections of Sense greatness of Strength agility of Members c. Nos Aper auditu praecellit aranea tactu vultur odoratu linx visu simia gustu And for beauty Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of the Lilies of the Field The Beasts and Fowls enjoy more pleasure and live divested of those cares and cumbers which perplex and wear out the lives of men It cannot be in respect of bodily perfections or pleasures that man excels other Creatures If you say he excels them all in respect of that noble endowment of Reason which is peculiar to man and his singular excellency above them all 'T is true this is his glory but if you deprive the reasonable Soul of Immortality you despoil it of all both its glory and comfort and put the reasonable into a worse condition than the unreasonable and brutish Creatures for if the Soul may dye with the Body and man perish as the Beast happier is the life of the Beast which is perplexed with no cares nor fears about futurities our Reason serves to little other purpose but to be an engine of Torture a meer Rack to our Souls Certainly the Priviledge of Man doth not consist in that as abstracted from
to their preservation For were it not for this Propriety and Relation no Man would be at any more cost or pains for his own Body than for that of a Stranger 'T is Propriety which naturally draws Love Care and Tenderness along with it and these are ordered by the wisdom of Providence for the conservation of the Body which would quickly perish without it 2. The Body is the Souls antient Acquaintance and intimate Friend with whom it hath assiduously and familiarly conversed from its beginning They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows They may say to each other as Miconius did to his Colleague with whom he had spent twenty years in the Government of the Thuringian Church Cucurriâ—â—s certavimus laboravimus pugnavimus vicimus viximus conjunctissimé We have run striven laboured fought overcome and lived most intimately and lovingly together Consuetude and daily conversation begets and conciliates Friendship and Love betwixt Creatures of contrary Natures Let a Lamb be brought up with a Lyon and the Lyon will express a tenderness towards it much more the Soul to its own Body 3. The Body is the Souls house and beloved habitation where it was born and hath lived ever since it had a being and in which it hath enjoyed all its comforts natural and supernatural which cannot but strengthen the Souls engagement to it Upon this account the Apostle calls it the Souls home 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body 'T is true this house is not so comfortable an habitation that it should be much desired by many Souls we may say of many gracious Souls that they pay a dear rent for the house they dwell in or as it was said of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat their Souls are but ill accommodated but yet it is their home and therefore beloved by them 4 The Body is the Souls instrument by which it doth its work and business in the World both natural and religious Rom. 6.13 Through the bodily senses it takes in all the natural comforts of this World and by the bodily Members it performs all its Duties and Services When these are broken and laid aside by death the Soul knows it can work no more in that way it now doth Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 Natural men love their Bodies for the natural pleasures they are instrumental to convey to their Souls and spiritual men for the use and service they are of to 〈◊〉 own and others Souls Philip. 1.23 5. The Body is the Souls Partner in the benefit of Christs Purchaces It was bought with the same price 1 Cor. 6.20 sanctified by the same spirit 1 Thes. 5.23 interested in the same promises Matth. 22.32 and designed for the same glory 1 Thes. 4.16 17. So that we may say of it as it was said of Augustine and his friend Alippius they are sanguine Christi conglutinati glewed together by the bloud of Christ. And thus of the grounds and reasons of its Love Inference I. IS it so Learn hence the mighty strength and prevalence of Divine Love which over-powering all natural Affections doth not only enable the Souls of men to take their Separation from the Body patiently but to long for it ardently Philip. 1.23 While some need Patience to dye others need it as much to live 2 Thes. 3.5 'T is said Revel 12.11 They loved not their lives And indeed on these terms they first closed with Christ Luke 12.26 To hate their lives for his sake ie to love them in so remiss a degree that when ever they shall come in competition with Christ to regard them no more than the things we hate The love of Christ is to be the supream love and all others to be subordinate to it or quenched by it 'T is not its own comfort in the Body it principally and ultimately designs and aims at but Christs glory and so this may be furthered by the death of the Body its death thereupon becomes as eligible to the Soul as its life Philip. 1.20 O this is an high pitch of grace A great attainment to say as one did Vivere renuo ut Christo vivam I refuse life to be with Christ Or another when asked whether he was willing to dye answered Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Let him be loth to dye that is loth to go to Christ So 2 Cor. 5. We are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. 'T is not every Christian that can arrive to this degree of Lovâ—â— though they love Christ sincerely yet they shrink from death cowardly and are loth to be gone There are two sorts of grounds upon which Christians may be loth to be unbodied 1. Sinful 2. Allowable 1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these viz. 1 Guilt upon the Conscience which will damp and discourage the Soul and make it loth to dye It arms death with terrour the sting of death is sin 2 Unmortified affections to the World I mean in such a degree as is necessary to sweeten death and make a man a Voluntier in that sharp engagement with that last and dreadful Enemy It is with our hearts as with fewel if green and full of sap it will not burn but if that be dried up it catches presently mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to the Creature which is that that resists death as green Wood doth the fire 3 The weakness and and cloudiness of Faith You need Faith to dye by as well as to live by Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in faith The less strength there is in Faith the more in death A strong Believer welcomes the messengers of Death when a weak one unless extraordinarily assisted trembles at them 2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance in the Body warrantably and allowably as 1 To do him yet more service in our bodies before we lay them down This the Saints have pleaded for longer life Psal. 30.9 Psal. 88.11 12 13. and Isai. 38.18 19. 2 To see the clouds of Gods anger dispelled whether publick or personal and a clear light break out ere we dye Psal. 27.13 3 They may desire with submission to outlive the days of persecution and not to be delivered into the hands of cruel men but come to their Graves in peace Psal. 31.15 and 2 Thess. 3.2 That may be delivered from absurd men 3. But though some Christians shun death upon a sinful account and others upon a justifyable one yet others there are who seeing their Title clear their work done and relishing the Joys of Heaven in the praelibations of Faith are willing to be uncloathed and to be with Christ. Their love to Christ hath extinguished in them the love of life and they can say with Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready Ignatius longed to come to those Beasts that were to devour him and so many of the Primitive Christians Christ was so dear
is generally a burthened and a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 In this Tabernaele we groan being burthened Here the Saints feel 1 A burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 this is a dead and a sinking weight 2 A burthen of Affliction of this all are Partakers Hebr. 12. though not all in an equal degree or in the same kind yet all have their burthens equal to and even beyond their own strength to support it 2 Cor. 1.8 pressed above measure 3 A burthen of inward troubles for sin and outward Troubles in the Flesh both together so had Iob Heman David and many of the Saints Certainly this befals them not 1 Casually Iob 5.6 It rises not out of the Dust 2 Nor because God loves and regards them not for they are fruits of his love Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he correcteth 3 Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans Lamen 3. To tread under his feet the Prisoners of the earth the Lord hath no pleasure 'T is not for his own pleasure but his Childrens profit Heb. 12.10 And among the prâ—fits that result from these burthens this is not the least to make you less fond of the body than you would else be and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest And certainly all the Diseases and Pains we endure in the Body whether they be upon inward or outward accounts by Passion or Compassion from God or Men will be found but enough to wean us and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life Afflictions are bitter things to our taste Ruth 1.20 so bitter that Naomi thought a name of a contrary signification fitter for her afflicted condition Call me Marah i. e. bitter not Naomi pleasant beautiful And the Church Lam. 3.19 calls them Wormwood and Gall. The great design of God in afflicting them is the same that a tender Mother projects in putting Wormwood to her Breast when she would wean the Child It hath been observed by some discreet and grave Ministers that before their remove from one place to another God hath permitted and ordered some weaning Providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them which not only makes the manner of their departure more easie but the grounds of it more clear Much so it falls out in our natural death the comfort of the World is imbittered to us before we leave it The longer we live in it the less we shall like it We overlive most of our Comforts which engaged our hearts to it that we may more freely take our leave of it It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such Providences as these and answer the Designs of them in a greater willingness to die 1. Is thy Body which was once hail and vigorous now become a crazy sickly pained body to thee neither useful to God nor comfortable to thee a Tabernacle to groan and sigh in And little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper God hath ordered this to make thee willing to be divorced from it The less desireable life is the less formidable death will be 2. Is thy Estate decayed and blasted by Providence so that thy life which was once full of Creature-Comforts is now fill'd with Cares and Anxieties O 't is a weaning Providence to thee and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the World farewel The less comfort it gives you the less it should entangle and engage you We little know with what aking hearts and pensive breasts many of Gods people walk up and down though for Religion or Reputations sake they put a good face upon it but by these things God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better State 3. Is an Husband a Wife or dear Children dead and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust Why this the Lord sees necessary to do to perswade you to come after willingly 'T is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth that thou maist fall the more easily O how many stroaks must God give at our Names Estates Relations and Health before we will give way to the last stroak of death that fells us to the ground 4. Do the times frown upon Religion Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand Are desireable Assemblies scattered Nothing but Sorrows and Sufferings to be expected in this World By these things God will imbitter the earth and sweeten Heaven to his People 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian Society defaced and decayed That Communion which was wont to be Pithy Substantial Spiritual and Edifying becomes either frothy or contentious so that thy Soul hath no pleasure in it This also is a weaning Providence to our Souls Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus Theologorum odiis from the Wranglings and Contentions that were in his time Our fond affection to the Body requires all this and much more to wean and mortifie them Inference IV. HOW Comfortable is the Doctrine of the Resurrection to Believers which assures them of receiving their Bodies again though they part with them for a time Believers must die as well as others their Union with Christ priviledges them not from a Separation from their Bodies Rom. 8.10 Heb. 9.27 But yet they have special grounds of Consolation against this doleful separation above all others For 1. Though they part with them yet they part in hopes of receiving them again 1 Thessal 4.13 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die Husbandmen cast their Seed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly because they part with it in hope so should we when we commit our Bodies to the earth at death 2. Though death separate these dear Friends from each other yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ Luke 20.37 38. I am the God of Abraham c. Your very dust is the Lords and the Grave rots not the Bond of the Covenant 3. The very same Body we lay down at death we shall assume again at the Resurrection Not only the same specifical but the same Numerical Body Iob 19.25.26 With these eyes shall I see God 4. The unbodied Soul shall not find the want of its Body so as to afflict or disquiet it nor the Body the want of its Soul but the one shall be at rest in Heaven and the other sweet asleep in the Grave and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence The time will be long Iob 14.12 but if it were longer it cannot be afflicting considering how the Soul is cloathed immediately 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and how the Body sleeps sweetly in Jesus 1 Thess. 4.14 5. When the day of their re-espousals is come the Soul will find the Body so transformed and improved that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more but a singuler addition to its Happiness and Glory Now it clogs us
but myriads in the plural number and set down indefinitely too may note many millions of Angels and therefore we fitly tender it to an innumerable company of Angels They had the ministry of Angels as well as we thousands of them ministred to the Lord in the dispensation of the Law at Sinai Psal. 68.17 But this notwithstanding we are come to a much clearer knowledge both of their present Ministry for us on earth Heb. 1.14 and of our fellowship and equality with them in Heaven Luke 20.36 3 Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written or enrolled in Heaven This also greatly commends and amplifies the priviledges of New Testament-Believers the Church of God in former ages was circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small Kingdom which was as a garden inclosed out of a waste wilderness but now by the calling in of the Gentiles the Church is extended far and wide Eph. 3.5 6. It is become a great Assembly comprizing the Believers of all Nations under Heaven and so speaking of them collectively it is the general convention or Assembly which is also dignified and ennobled by two illustrious characters viz. 1 that it is the Church of the first-born i. e. consisting of Members dignified and priviledged above others Primogeniti Israelitarum scripti crant in matricula terrestri hi vero in albo coelesti as the first-born among the Israelites did excel their younger Brethreâ— 2 That their names are written in Heaven i. e. registred or enrolled in Gods book as Children and Heirs of the Heavenly inheritance as the first-born in Israel were registred in order to the Priesthood Num 3.40 41. 4 Ye are come to God the Iudge of all But why to God the Judge this seems to spoil the harmony and jar with the other parts of the discourse No no they are come to God as a righteous Judge who as such will pardon them 1 Iohn 1.9 crown them 2 Tim. 4.8 and avenge them on all their oppressing and persecuting Enemies 1 Thes. 1.5 6 7. 5 And to the Spirits of just men made perfect A most glorious priviledge indeed in which we are distinctly to consider 1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship 2. The way and manner of our association with them 1. The Quality of those with whom we are associated or to whom we are said to be come and they are described by three characters viz. 1 1 Spirits of Men. viz. 2 Spirits of just Men. viz. 3 Spirits of just Men perfected or consummated 1 They are called Spirits that is immaterial substances strictly opposed to Bodies which are no way the objects of our exteriour Senses neither visible to the eye nor sensible to the touch which were called properly Souls whilst they animated Bodies in this lower World but now being loosed and separated from them by death and existing alone in the World above they are properly and strictly stiled Spirits 3 They are the Spirits of just Men. Man may be termed just two ways 1 by a full discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all his sins and so believers are just men even whilst they live on Earth groaning under other imperfections Acts 13.39 or 2 by a total freedom from the pollution of any sin And though in this sence there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.22 yet even in this sense Adam was just before the Fall Eccles. 7.29 according to his original constitution and all believers are so in their glorified condition all sin being perfectly purged out of them and its existence utterly destroyed in them On which account 3 They are called the Spirits of just men made perfect or consummate The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely but synecdochically they are not perfect in every respect for one part of these just Men lies rotting in the grave but they are perfected for so much as concerns their Spirit though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour yet their Spirits being once loosed from the Body and freed radically and perfectly from sin are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God which is the culminating point as I may call it higher than which the Spirit of man aspires not and attaining to this it is for so much as concerns it self made perfect Even as a Body at last lodg'd in its centre gravitates no more but is at perfect rest so it is with the Spirit of man come home to God in glory 't is now consummate no more need to be done to make it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made which is the first thing to be considered viz the Quality of those with whom we are associated 2. The second follows namely the way and manner of our association with these blessed Spirits of just Men noted iâ— this expression we are come He saith not we shall come hereafter when the Resurrection hath restored our Bodies or after the general Judgment but we are come to these Spirits of just Men. The meaning whereof we may take up in these three particulars 1 We that live under the Gospel-light are come to a clearer apprehension sight and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate of the Souls of the righteous after death than ever they had or ordinarily could have who lived under the Types and shadows of the Law Eph. 3.4 5. And so we are come to them in respect of clearer apprehension 2 We are come to those blessed Spirits in our Representative Christ who hath carried our nature into the very midst of them and whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight By Christ who is entred into that holy place where these Spirits of just Men live we are come into a near relation with them For he being the common head both to them in Heaven and to us on Earth we and they consequently make but one Body or society Eph. 2.19 whereupon notwithstanding the different and remote Countries they and we live in we are said to sit together with them in Heavenly places Ephes. 3.15 and Ephes. 2.6 3 We are come That is we are as good as come or we are upon the matter come there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath a little space of time which shortens every moment we are come to the very borders of their Country and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us and by this expression we are come he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us and to look upon them as if they already were which is the highest and most comfortable life of Faith we can live on Earth Hence the Note is DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death are immediately perfected in themselves and associated with others alike
implanted in a weak and imperfect Soul go with it to glory where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting than ever they did here below The languishing spark of love is there a vehement flame the saint remiss and infrequent delight in God is there at a constant ravishing and transporting height 4 To conclude As all implanted habits of grace ascend with the sanctified Soul to Heaven for the Soul ascends not thither as a natural but as a new Creature so all the effects results and sweet improvements of those Graces which we gathered as the pleasant fruits of them on earth these accompany and follow the Soul into the other World also Their Works follow them Rev. 14.13 They go not before in the notion of merits to make way for them but they follow or accompany them as Evidences and comfortable Experiences I doubt not but the very remembrance of what past betwixt God and the Soul here betwixt the day of its Espousals to Christ and its Divorce from the Body will be one sweet ingredient into their blessedness and joy when they shall be singing in the upper Region the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. They were never given to be lost or left behind us And thus you see with what a rich Cargo the Soul sails to the other World though if it had no other it would never drop Anchor there PROP. VII The Souls of the just when separated from their Bodies do not wander up and down this World nor hover about the Sepulchres where their Bodies lie nor are they detain'd in any Purgatory in order to their more perfect Purification nor do they fall asleep in a benummed stupid State But do forthwith pass into glory and are immediately with the Lord. WHen once the mind of man leaves the Scripture-guidance and direction which is to it what the Compass or Pole-star is to a Ship in the wide Ocean Whither will it not wander In what uncertainties will it not fluctuate And upon what Rocks and Quick-sands must it inevitably be cast Many have been the foolish and groundless Conceits and Fancies of men about the Receptacles of departed Souls 1. Some have assigned them a restless wandering life now here now there without any certain dwelling place any where The only ground for this fancy is the frequent Apparitions of the Ghosts or Spirits of the dead whereof many instances are given and who is there that is a stranger to such Stories Now if departed Souls were fixed any where this World would be quiet and free from such disturbances I make no doubt but very many of these Stories have been the industrious Fictions and Devices of wicked and superstitious Votaries to gain reputation to their way speaking lies in Hypocrisie to draw Disciples after them And many others have been the Tricks and Impostures of Satan himself to shake the credit of the Saints Rest in Heaven and the imprisonment of ungodly Souls in Hell as will more fully appear when I come to speak to that Question more particularly 2. Others think when they are loosed from the Body at death they hover about the Graves and solitary places where their Bodies lie as willing seeing they can dwell no longer in them to abide as near them as they can just as the surviving Turtle keeps near the place where his Mate died and may be heard mourning for a long time about that part of the Wood. This opinion seeks countenance and protection from that law Deut. 18.10 11. which prohibits men to consult with the dead of which restraint there had been no need nor use if it had not been practised and such practices had never been continued if departed Souls had not frequented those places and given answers to their Questions But what I said before of Satans Impostures is enough for present to return to this also Bell. lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. 3. The Papists send them immediately to Purgatory in order to their more thorough Purification This Purgatory Bellarmin thus describes It is a certain place wherein as in a Prison Souls are purged after this life that were not fully purged here to the intent they may enter pure into Heaven and though the Church saith he hath not defined the place yet the School-men say it is in the Bowels of the Earth and upon the borders of Hell And to countenance this profitable Fable divers Scriptures are by them abused and misapplied as 1 Cor. 3.15 Matth. 5.25 26. 1 Pet. 3.19 all which have been fully rescued out of their hands and abundantly vindicated by our Divines who have proved God never kindled that fire to purifie Souls but the Pope to warm his own Kitchin 4. Another sort there are who affirm they neither wander about this World nor go into Purgatory but are cast by death into a Swoon or sleep remaining in a kind of benummed condition till the Resurrection of the Body This was the Errour of Beryllus and Irenaeus seems to border too near upon it when he saith The Souls of Disciples shall go to an invisible place appointed for them of God Discipulorum Animae abibunt in invisibilem locum definitam â—is à Deo ibi usqâ—e ad Resurrectionem commorabuntar sustinentes Resurrectionem Post recipientes corpora perfectè resurgentes i. e. corporaliter quemadmodum dominus resurrexit sic venlent ad conspectum Dei Iren. lib. 5. and shall there tarry till the Resurrection waiting for that time and the receiving their Bodies and perfectly i.e. corporally rising again as Christ did they shall come to the sight of God All these mistakes will fall together by one stroak for if it evidently appear as I hope it will that the Spirits of the just are immediately taken to God and do converse with and enjoy him in Heaven Then all these Fancies vanish without any more labour about them particularly Now there are four Considerations which to me put the immediate glorification of the departed Souls of Believers beyond all rational doubt 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them as ever it shall be 2 They are as ready and fit for Heaven as ever they shall be 3 The Scripture is plainly for it And 4 There is nothing in reason against it 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them when they die as ever it shall be Heaven is prepared for Believers 1 By the purpose and Decree of God and so far it was prepar'd from the Foundation of the World Matth. 25.34 2 By the death of Christ whose blood made the purchace of it for Believers and so meritoriously opened the Gates thereof which our sins had barred up against us Heb. 10.19 20. 3 By the Ascension of Christ into that holy place as our Representative and Forerunner Iohn 14.2 This is all that is necessary to be done for the preparation of Heaven and all this is done as much as ever God design'd should be
in point of knowledg concerning that great Question What is God Thus no man hath seen or can see God in this World Even Moses himself could not so see God Exod. 33.18 19 20. But the Spirits of the just made perfect have satisfying apprehensions though no perfect comprehensions of the Divine Essence 2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which they here rackt their thoughts upon but could not penetrate in this life There they will know what is to be known of the Union of the two Natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel and the manner of the subsistence of each person in the most glorious and undivided God-head Iohn 14.20 The several Attributes of God will then be unfolded to our understandings for his Essence and Attributes are not two things Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. O what ravishing sight will this be The mysteries of the Scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then Curiosity it self will be there satisfied 3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face will be infinitely more sweet and ravishingly plasant than any or all the views we had of him here by Faith ever were or possibly could be There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of Faith 1 Pet. 1.8 But it comes far short of the facial vision Who can tell the full importance of that one Text Rev. 22.4 The Throne of the Lamb shall be in it and they shall see his face O for such a Heaven said one as but to look through the key-hole and get one glimpse of that lovely face Earth cannot bear such sights This light overwhelms and confounds the inadequate faculties of imperfect and embodied Souls But there it is lumen confortans a chearing strengthening pleasant light as the light of the Morning star Rev. 2.28 4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative We there see him as our own God and portion Without a clear interest in him the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying Sight without interest is like the light of a gloworm light without heat All doubts and objections are solv'd and answer'd in the first sight of this blessed face 5. To conclude This perfect and most comfortable knowledge is attained without labour by the separate Soul Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains How many weary hours and aking heads did the acquisition of a little knowledg stand us in But then it flows in upon the Soul easily It was the Saying of a great Vsurer I once took much pains to get a little meaning the first stock but now I get much without any pains at all O lovely state of separation That Body which interposed clog'd and clouded the willing and capable Spirit being drawn aside as a Curtain by death the light of glory now shines upon it and round about it without any inâ—erception or lett PROP. XI The separated Souls of the Iust do live in a more high and excellent way of Communion with God in his Temple-worship in Heaven than ever they did in the sweetest Gospel-Ordinances and most Spiritual Duties in which they conversed with him here on Earth THAT Saints on earth have real Communion with God and that this Communion is the joy of their hearts the life of their life and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience as well as clearly revealed in the Word that there can remain no doubt about it among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of Religion This Communion with God is of that precious value with Believers that it unspeakably endears all those Duties and Ordinances to them which as means and instruments are useful to maintain it At death the people of God part with all those precious Ordinances and Duties they being only designed for and fitted to the present state of imperfection Eph. 4.12 13. but not at all to their loss no more than it is to his that loses the light of his candle by the rising of the Sun A Candle a Star is comfortable in the Night but useless when the Sun is up and in it's meridian Glory Christian Pray much hear much and drive as profitable a trade as thou canst among the Ordinances of God and duties of Religion For the time is at hand that you shall serve and wait on God no more this way But yet think not your Souls shall be discharged from all Worship and Service of God when you dye No you will find Heaven to be a Temple built for worship and the worship there to be much transcendent to all that in which you were here employ'd The Sanctuary was a pattern of Heaven in this very respect Heb. 9.23 And on this very account it is called Sion in my Text and the heavenly Ierusalem as denoting a Church-state and the spiritual Worship there performed by the Spirits of just men made perfect Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof by comparing it with that Worship and Service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them In this they agree that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to one and the same Object Father Son and Spirit all centers and terminates in God They also agree in the general quality and common Nature they are both spiritual Worship But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and other as will be manifest in the following collation 1. All our Worship on Earth is performed and transacted by Faith as the instrument and mean thereof Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe c. In Heaven Faith ceaseth and sight takes place of it 1 Cor. 5.7 There we see what here we only believe There are now before us Ordinances Scriptures Ministers and the Assemblies of Saints in the places of worship but if we have any communion with God by or among these we must set our selves to believe those things we see not By realizing and applying invisible things we here get sometimes and with no small pains a taste of Heaven and a transient glance of that glory In this service our Faith is put hard to it it must work and fight at once Resolutely act whilst sense and reason stand by contradicting and quarrelling with it And if with much ado we get but one sensible touch of Heaven upon our Spirits if we get a little spiritual warmth and melting of our affections towards God we call that day a good day and it is so indeed But in Heaven all things are carried at an higher rate the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour or pains of ours to procure it We may say of it there as the Prophet speaks of the dew and showres upon the grass Which tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men
and it's Body in the Grave This associated with Angels that prey'd upon by Worms Ioseph's case is the liveliest Embleme that occurs to my present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand He was advanced to be Lord over all Aegypt living in the greatest pomp and splendor there Gen. 43.29 30 31. but his Father and Brethren were at the same time ready to perish in the land of Canaan He had been many years separated from them but neither the length of time nor honours of the Court could alienate his affections from them O see the mighty power of Relation No sooner doth he see his Brethren and understand their case and the pining condition of Iacob his Father but his bowels yearned and his compassions rolled together for them Yea he could not forbear nor stifle his own affections though he knew how injurious his Brethren had been to him and betrayed him as the Body hath the Soul Yet all this notwithstanding he breaks forth into tears and outcries over them which made the house ring again with the news that Ioseph's brethren were come Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour and plenty until he had gotten home his dear and ancient Relations to him Thus stands the case betwixt Soul and Body Argument III. THE regret reluctancy and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it when it is actually separated from it For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately which fought strugled and disputed the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms should not when absent desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again Hath it lost its affection though it continue its relation that 's very improbable Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery that 's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us nor a good mans perferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour and that now out of sight out of mind Object But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons and sighed for deliverance by death and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting and inclinations to re-union Sol. The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point 2 Cor. 5.2 But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds which make iâ— consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting and inclination to a second meeting 1 This willingness to die doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love There is in every Christian a double love one natural to the Body and the things below the other supernatural to Christ and the things above the latter doth not extinguish though it conquer and subdue the other Love to the Body pulls backward love to Christ pulls forward and finally prevails This is so consistent with it that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part 2 The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved must not be understood absolutely but comparatively In that sense the Apostle will be understood 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. i. e. Rather than to live always a life of sin sorrow and absence from God Death is not desireable in and for it self but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin and its inlet to God So that the very best desire it but comparatively and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love The generality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven toward his people on earth from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World especially in the parting hour No considerations in all the World less than the more full fruition of God and freedom from sin could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body though but for a time and leave it in the dust Which is our third Argument Argument IV. AND as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it so doth the joy with which it receives it again at the Resurrection If it part from it so heavily and meet it again with joy unspeakable sure then it still retained much love for it and desires to be re-espoused to it in the interval Now that its meeting in the Resurrection is a day of joy to the Soul is evident because it is called the time of refreshment Acts 3.19 And they awake with singing out of the dust Isai. 26.19 If the direct and immediate scope of the Prophet point not as some think it doth at the Resurrection yet it is allowed by all to be a very lively allusion to it which is sufficient for my purpose And indeed none that understands and believes the design and business of that day can possibly doubt but there was reason enough to call it a time of refreshment a singing morning for the Souls of the righteous come from Heaven with Christ and the whole host of shouting Angels not to be speclators only but the subjects of that days triumph They come to re-assume and be re-espoused to their own Bodies this being the appointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the Grave to endow them with spiritual qualities at their second marriage to their Souls that in both parts they may be compleatly happy O the joyful claspings and dear embraces betwixt them who but themselves can understand And by the way this removes the objection forementioned of the miseries and prejudices the Soul suffered in this world in and from the Body For now it receives it a spiritual Body i.e. so
subdued to and fitted for the use of the Spirit as never to impede clog or obstruct its motions and inclinations any more 1 Cor. 15.44 In this hope it parted from it and with this consolation it now receives it again Argument V. THere are many Scriptures which very much favour if they do not positively conclude the Souls inclination to and desire to be re-united with its own body even whilst it is in the state of its single glorification in Heaven certainly our Souls leave not our Bodies at death as the Ostrich doth her Egg in the sand without any farther regard to it or concernment for it but they are represented as crying to God to remember aveâ—â—â— and vindicate them Rev. 6 1â— 11. How long Lord how long wilt thou not avenge our blood our blood speaks both the continued Relation and suitable affection they have to their absent Bodies And to the same sense a judicious and learned Pen expounds that place Iob 14.14 which is commonly but I know not how fitly accommodated to another purpose all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come which words by a diligent comparing of the Context appear to have this for their proper scope and sense Iob in the former verse had expressed his confidence by way of Petition Mr. How 's Blessedness of the Righteous p. 170 171. that at a set and appointed time God would remember him so as to recal him out of the Grave and now minded to speak out more fully puts the Question to himself If a man die shall he live again And thus answers it all the days of my appointed time that is of the appointed time which he mentioned before when God should revive him out of the dust will I wait till my change come that is that glorious change when the corruption of a loathsome Grave should be exchanged for immortal glory which he amplifies and utters more expresly Ver. 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thou shalt have a desire to the work of thy hands thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thine own Creature And surely this waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust but of that part which should be capable of such an action q. d. I in that part which shall be still alive shall patiently wait the appointed time of reviving me in that part also which Death and the Grave shall insult over in a temporary triumph in the mean time Upon these grounds I think the inclination of the separated Spirits of the just to their own Bodies to be a justifiable Opinion As for the damned we have no reason to think such a re-union to be desireable to them for alas it will be but the increase and aggravation of their torments which consideration is sufficient to over-power and stifle the inclination of nature and make the very thoughts of it horrid and dreadful To what end as the Prophet speaks in another case is it for them to desire that day It will be a day of darkness and gloominess to them re-union being designed to compleat the happiness of the one and the misery of the other But before I take off my hand and dismiss this question I must remember that I am Debtor to two Objections Objection 1. The Soul can both live and act separate from the Body it needs it not and if it don't want why should it desire it Solution The life and actings of the glorified are considerable two ways 1 Singly and abstractly for the life and action of one part and so we confess the Soul lives happily and acts forth its own powers freely in the state of separation 2 Personally or concretely as it is the life and action of the whole man and so it doth both need and desire the Conjunction or re-union of the Body for the Body is not only a part of Christs purchace as well as the Soul and is to have its own glory as well as it but it is also a constitutive part of a compleat glorified person and so considered the Saints are not perfectly happy till this re-union be effected which is the true ground and reason of this its desire Object 2. But this Hypothesis seems to thwart the account given in Scripture of the rest and placid state of separate Souls for look as Bodies which gravitate and propend do not rest so neither do Souls which incline and desire Solution There is a vast difference betwixt the Tendencies and Propensions of Souls in the way to glory and in glory we that are absent from the Lord can find no rest in the way but those that are with the Lord can rest in Jesus and yet wait without anxiety or self torturing impatience for the accomplishment of the promises to their absent Bodies Rev. 6.10 11. COROLLARY Let this provoke us all to get sanctified Souls to rule and use these their Bodies now for God this will abundantly sweeten their parting at death and their meeting again at the Resurrection of the just Else their parting will be doleful and their next meeting dreadful And so much for the Doctrine of Separation The USES of the Point OUr way is now open to the improvement and Use of this excellent Subject and Doctrine of Separation and certainly it affords as rich an entertainment for our affections as for our minds in the following Uses Of which the first will be for our information in six practical Inferences Inference I. IF this be the life and state of gracious Souls after their separation from the Body Then holy persons ought not to entertain dismal and terrifying thoughts of their own dissolution The Apprehensions and thoughts of death should have a peculiar pleasantness in the minds of Believers you have heard into what a blessed Presence and Communion death introduceth your Souls how it leads you out of a Body of sin a World of sorrows the Society of imperfect Saints to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just men made perfect To that lovely Mount Sion to the heavenly Sanctuary to the blessed Visions of the face of God O methinks there hath been enough said to make all the Souls in whom the well-grounded hopes of the life of glory are found to cry out with the Apostle We are conâ—ident I say yea and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 When good Musculus drew near his end how sweet and pleasant was this Meditation to his Soul Hear his Swan-like Song Melchior Adams in vita Musculi p. 385 386. Nil superest vitae frigus praecordia captat Sed tu Christe mihi vita perennis ades Quid trepidas anima ad sedes abitura quietis En tibi ductor adest Angelus ille tuus Linque domum hanc miseram nunc in sua fata ruentem Quam tibi fida Dei dextera restituet Peccasti Scio sed Christus credentibus
in se Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo Horribilis mors est Fateor sed proxima vita est Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat Praesto est de Satana peccato morte triumphans Christus ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra Which may be thus translated Cold death my heart invades my life doth flie O Christ my everlasting life draw nigh Why quiver'st thou my soul within my Breast Thine Angel's come to lead thee to thy rest Quit chearfully this drooping house of clay God will restore it in the appointed day Has't sinn'd I know it let not that be urg'd For Christ thy sins with his own blood hath purg'd Is death affrighting True but yet withal Consider Christ through death to life doth call He triumphs over Satan sin and Death Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath Much in the same chearful frame was the heart of dying Bullinger when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his reâ—â—val Si Deo visum fuerit mea opera ulterius in Ecclesia ministerio uti ipse vires suffiâ—iet libens illi parebo sin me voluerit quod opto ex hac vita evocare paratus sum illius voluntati obsequi ac nihil est quod jâ—cundius possit mihi contingere quam ex hoc misero corruptissimo seculo ad Christum Servatorem mâ—um migrare idem ibid. Why said he If God will make any farther use of my labours in the Ministry he will renew my strength and I will gladly serve him But if he please as I desire he would to call me hence I am ready to obey his Will and nothing more pleasant can befal me than to leave this sinful and miserable World to go to my Saviour Christ. O that all who are out of the danger of death were thus got out of the dread of death too Let them only tremble and be convuls'd at the thoughts and sight of death whose Souls must fall into the hands of a sin-revenging God by the stroke of death who are to breathe out their last hope with their last breath Death is yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 your Friend your Priviledge your passage to Heaven 't is your ignorance of it which breeds your fears about it Inference II. GAther from hence the absolute indispensable necessity of your Vnion with Christ before your dissolution by death Wo to that Soul which shall be separated from its Body before it be united with Christ none but the Spirits of just men are made perfect at death Righteous Souls are the only qualified Subjects of blessedness 'T is true every Soul hath a natural capacity of happiness but gracious Souls only have an actual meetness for glory The Scriptures tell us in round and plain words that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 that except we be regenerate and born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 You make the greatest adventure that ever was made by man indeed an adventure infinitely too great for any man to make when you shoot the Gulph of vast eternity upon terms of hazard and uncertainty What thinkest thou Reader darest thou adventure thy Soul and eternal happiness upon it that the work of Regeneration and Sanctification that very same work of Grace which the Spirit of God hangs all thy hopes of Heaven upon in these Scriptures is truly wrought by him in thy Soul Consider it well pause upon it again and again before thou go forth Should a mistake be committed here and nothing is more easie or common all the World over than such mistakes thou art irrecoverably gone This venture can be made but once and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards thou hast not another Soul to adventure nor a second adventure to make of this Well might the Apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure That can never be made too sure which is so invaluable in its worth and to be but once adventured Inference III. HOw prejudicial is it to dying men to be then encumbered diverted and distracted about earthly concernments when the time of their departure is at hand The business and imployment of dying persons is of so vast importance and weight that every moment of their time need to be carefully saved and applied to this their present and most important concern How well soever you have improved the time of life believe it you will find work enough upon your hands at death dying hours will be found to be busie and laborious hours even to the most painful serious and industrious Souls whose life hath been mostly spent in preparations for death Leave not the proper business of other days to that day for that day will have business enough of its own Sufficient for that day are the labours thereof Let a few Considerations be pondered to clear and confirm this Inference Consideration I. The business and imployment of dying persons is of the most serious awful and solemn nature and importance it is their last preparatory work on earth to their immediate appearance before God their Judge Heb. 9.27 It is their shooting the Gulph into eternity and leaving this World and all their acquaintance and interests therein for ever Isai. 28.11 It is therefore a Work by it self to die a Work requiring the most intense deep and undisturbed exercises of all the Abilities and Graces of the inner man and all little enough Consideration II. Timâ— is exceeding precious with dying men the last sand is ready to fall and therefore not to be wasted as it was wont to be When we had a fair prospect of many years before us we made little account of an hour or day but now one of those hours which we so carelessly lavished away is of more value than all this World to us especially if the whole weight of eternity should hang upon it as often times it doth then the loss of that portion of time is the loss of Soul Body and hope for evermore Consideration III. Much of that little precious time of departing Souls will be unavoidably taken up and imployed about the inexcusable pressing calls and necessities of distressed nature all that you can do for your Souls must then be done only by fits and snatches in the midst of many disturbances and frequent interruptions So that it is rarely found that a dying man can pursue a serious Meditation with calm and fixed thoughts for besides the pains and faintings of the Body the Abilities of the mind usually fail Here also they fall into a sad Dilemma if they do not with utmost intention of mind fix their hearts and thoughts on Christ they lose their comfort if godly and their Souls if ungodly and if they do Friends and Physicians assure them they will destroy their Bodies These are the straits of men bordering close upon eternity they must hastily
of God herein though submission be one of the lowest steps of duty in this case If it be hard to fix our thoughts but an hour upon such an unpleasing subject as death how hard mâ—st it be to bring over the consent of the will If we cannot endure it at a distance in our thoughts how shall we embrace and hug it in our bosoms If our thoughts flie back with distaste and impatience no wonder if our will be obstinate and refractory We must first prevail with our thoughts to fix themselves and think close to such a subject before it can be expected we chearfully resign our selves into the hands of death We cannot be willing to go along with death till we have some acquaintance with it and acquainted with it we cannot be till we accustome our selves to think assiduously and calmly of it They that have dwelt many years at deaths door both in respect of the condition of their Bodies and disposition of their minds yet find reluctancy enough when it comes to the point Objection But if separation from the Body be as it is an enemy to Nature and there be no possibility to extinguish natural aversation to what purpose is it to argue and perswade where there is no expectation of Success Solution Death is considerable two ways by the people of God 1. As an Enemy to Nature 2. As a medium to Glory If we consider it simply in it self as an Enemy to Nature there is nothing in it for which we should desire it but if we consider it as a medium or passage into glory yea the only ordinary way through which all the Saints must pass out of this into a better state so it will appear not only tolerable but desirable to prepared Souls Were there not a shore of glory on the other side of these black Waters of death for my own part I should rather chuse to live meanly than to die easily If both parts were to perish at death there were no reason to perswade one to be willing to deliver up the other It were a madness for the Soul to desire to be dissolv'd if it were so far from being better out of the Body than in it that it should have no being at all But Christians let me tell you death is so far from being a Bar that it is a Bridge in your way to glory and you are never like to come thither but by passing over it except therefore you will look beyond it you will never see any desireableness in it I desire to be dissolv'd saith Paul and to be with Christ which is far better To be with Death is sad but to be with Christ is sweet to endure the pains of death is doleful but to see the face of Christ is joyful To part with your pleasant habitations is irkesome but to be lodged in the heavenly Mansions is most delightful A parting hour with dear Relations is cutting but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting To be rid of your own Bodies is not pleasing but to be rid of sin and that for ever What can be more pleasing to a gracious Soul You see then in what sense I present death as a desirable thing to the people of God And therefore seeing nature teacheth us as the Apostle speaks to put the more abundant comeliness upon the uncomely parts suffer me to dress up death in its best ornaments and present it to you in the following Arguments as a beautiful and comely object of your conditional and well regulated desires And Argument I. IF upon a fair and just account there shall appear to be more gain to Believers in Death than there is in Life reason must needs vote death to be better to them that are in Christ than life can be and consequently it should be desireable in their eyes 'T is a clear dictate of reason in case of choice to chuse that which is best for us Who is there that freely exercises reason and choice together that will not do so What Merchant will not part with an hundred pounds worth of Glass Beads and Pendents for a Tun of Gold A few Tinsell Toyes for as many rich Diamonds Mercatura est amittere ut lucreris that is true Merchandize to part with things of lesser for things of greater value Now if you will be tried and determined by Gods Book of Rates then the case is determined quickly and the advantage appears exceedingly upon deaths side Philip. 1.21 To me to live is Christ and to die is gain Objection True it might be so to Paul who was eminent in grace and ripe for glory but it may be loss to others who have not attained the heighth of his holiness or assurance Sol. The true and plain sense of the Objection is this whether Heaven and Christ be as much gain to him that enjoys it though he be behind others both in grace and obedience as it is to them who are more eminent in grace and have done and suffered more for its sake and let it be determined by your selves but if your meaning be that Paul was ready for death and so are not you his work and course was almost comfortably finished and so is not yours his death therefore must needs be gain to him but it may be loss to you even the loss of all that you are worth for ever To this I say the Wisdom of God orders the time of his peoples death as well as all other Circumstances about it and in this your hearts may be at perfect rest That being in Christ you can never die to your loss die when you will I know you will reply that if your Union with Christ were clear the Controversie were ended but then you must also consider they are as safe who die by an act of recumbency upon Christ as those that die in the fullest assurance of their interest in him And beside your Reluctancies and Aversations to death are none of your way to assurance but such a strong aversation to sin and such a vehement desire after and love to Christ as can make you willing to quit all that is dear and desireable to you in this World for his sake is the very next door or step to assurance and if the Lord bring your hearts to this frame and fix them there it is not like you will be long without it But to return Paul had here valued life with a full allowance of all the benefits and advantages of it To me to live is Christ that is if I live I shall live in Communion with Christ and service for Christ and in the midst of all those Comforts which usually result from both Here 's life with the most weighty and desireable benefits of it laid in one scale and he lays death and probably a violent death too for of that he speaks to them afterwards in Chap. 2.17 thus he fills the Scales and the Balance breaks on deaths side yea it
where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The sting of death is sâ—n the strength of sin is the Law If all the hurtful power of death lies in sin and all the destructive power of sin rises from the Law then neither death nor sin have any power to destroy the Believer in whom the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled Rom. 8.4 Namely by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to them in respect of which they are as righteous as if in their own persons they had perfectly obeyed all its Commands or suffered all its Penalties Thus death loseth its sting its Curse and killing power over the Souls of all that are in Christ. 3 God hath sanctified their natures which sanctification is not only a sure evidence of their Election and Iustification 2 Thes. 1.5 6. Rom. 8.1 but a sure Pledge of their Glorification also 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Yea 4 He hath made a sure and an everlasting Covenant with Believers and among other gracious Priviledges thereby conferred upon them death is found in the Inventory 1 Cor. 13.21 Death is yours to die is gain to them it destroys their Enemies and the distance that is betwixt Christ and them 5 He hath sealed them to this Glory by the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 So that their hopes are too firmly built to be destroyed by death and if it cannot destroy their Souls nor overthrow their hopes they need not fear all that it can do besides Argument VII IT may greatly encourage and embolden the People of God to die considering that though at death they take the last sight and view of all that is dear to them on earth yet then they are admitted to the first immediate sight and blessed Vision of God which will be their happiness to all eternity When Hezekiah was upon his supposed Death-bed he complained Isa. 38.11 I shall see Man no more with the Inhabitants of the World We shall see thenceforth these Corporeal People no more We shall see our Habitations and dwelling places no more Iob 7.9 10 11. We shall see our Children and dear Relations no more Iob 14.21 His Sons come to honour and he knoweth it not These things make death terrible to men but that which cures all this trouble is that we shall neither need nor desire them being thenceforth admitted to the beatifical Vision of the blessed God himself It is the expectation and hope of this which comforteth the Souls of the Righteous here Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall behold thy face in righteousness Those weak and dim representations made by faith at a distance are the very joy and rejoycing of a Believers Soul now 1 Pet. 1.7 8. but how sweet and transporting soever these Visions of Faith be they are not worthy to be named in comparison with the immediate and beatifical Vision 1 Cor. 13.12 This is the very summ of a Believers blessedness and what it is we cannot comprehend in this imperfect state only in general we may gather these Conclusions about it from the account given of it in the Scriptures 1. That it will not be such a sight of God as we now have by the mediation of faith but a direct immediate and intuitive vision of God 1 Joh. 3.2 Lumen glorie est actualâ—s illustratio i. e. inflâ—xus Dei supernaturaliâ— elevans intellectum ad visionem essentiae divinae Smiâ—ing Tract 2. dis 6. N. 33. We shall see him as he is 1 Cor. 13.12 Then face to face Which far transcends the vision of faith in clearness and in comport this seems to import no less than the very sight of the divince Essence That which which Moses desired on Earth to see but could not Exod. 33.20 nor can be seen by any man dwelling in a Body 1 Tim. 6.16 nor by unbodied Souls comprehensively so God only sees himself our eyes see the Sun which they cannot comprehend yet truly apprehend God will then be known in his Essence and in the glory of all his Attributes this sight of the Attributes of God gives the occasion and matter of those ascriptions of Praise and Glory to him which is the proper imployment of glorified Souls Rev. 4.11 and Rev. 5 12 13. Which is the proper imployment of Angels Isai. 6.3 O how different is this from what we now have through Faith Duties and Ordinances See the difference betwixt knowledge by reports and immediate sight in that example of the Queen of the South 1 Kings 10.5 The former only excited her desires that latter transported and rapt her very Sâ—ul Some may think such a vision of God to exceed the abilities of nature and capacity of any Creature But as a learned man rightly observes Norton's Orthodox cvâ—n p. 329. if the divine Nature be capable of union with a Creature as its evident it is in the person of Christ it is also capable of being the object of vision to the Creature beside we must know the light of glory hath the same respect to this blessed vision that assisting grace hath to the acts of Faith and Obedience performed here on Earth It is a comforting-Soul-strengthening light not to dazle and over-power but comfort strengthen and clear the eye of the Creatures understanding Rev. 2.28 I will give him the morning star Lumen confortans and Psal. 36.9 in thy light we shall see light 2. It will be a satisfying sight Psa. 17.15 So perfectly quieting and giving rest to the Soul in all its powers that they neither can proceed nor desire to proceed any farther The understanding can know no more the will can will no more the affections of joy delight and love are at full rest and quiet in their proper center For all good is in the chiefest good eminently as all the light of the Candles in the World is in the Sun and all the Rivers in the World in the Sea That which makes the Understanding Will and Affections move farther as being restless and unsatisfied in all discoveries and enjoyments here is the limited and imperfect nature of things we now converse with as if you being a great Ship that draws much Water into a narrow and shallow River she can neither sail nor swim but is presently aground but let that Ship have sea room enough then she can turn and Sail before the wind because there is depth of Water and room enough So 't is here all that delighted but could never satisfie you in the Creature is eminently in God And what was imperfectly in them is perfectly to be enjoyed in him 1 Cor. 15.28 God shall be all in all the comforts you had here were but drop by drop inflaming not satisfying the appetite of the Soul But then the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and lead them unto fountains of living Waters Rev. 7.17 The object fills the faculties 3. It will be an appropriating vision of God you shall see him as your own God and proper
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
and perfect than when the Body in an Ecstasie is laid aside as to any use or assistance of the mind The Soul for that space uses not the Bodies assistance as the very words Ecstasie and Rapture convince us Si autem hoc non est ex natura animae sed per accidens hoc convenit ei ex to quod corpori alligatur sicut Platonics posuâ—runt de facili quaestio solvi possit Nam remoto impedimento corporis rediret anima ad suam naturam Aquin. p. 1. Q. 8. Art 1. 2. To understand by Species doth not agree to the Soul naturally and necessarily but by accident as it is now in Union with the Body Were it but once loosed from the Body it would understand better without them than ever it did in the Body by them A Man that is on Horse-back must move according to the motion of the Horse he rides but if he were on Foot he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth So here But though we grant the Soul doth in many cases now make use of Phantasms and that the agitation of the Spirits which are in the Brain and Heart are conjunct with its acts of Cogitation and Intellection Yet as a searching Scholar well observes The Spirits are rather Subjects than Instruments of those actions And the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits As when we use a Pen in writing or a Knife in cutting How 's Blessedness pag. 174 175. there is an operation of the Soul upon them before there can be any operation by them They act as they are first acted and so do these bodily Spirits So that to speak properly the Body is bettered by the use the Soul makes of it in these its noble actions but the Soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a Body It can do its own work without it its operations follow its essence not the Body to which it is for a time united In summ 'T is much more absonous and difficult to conceive a stupefied benumbed and unactive Soul whose very nature is to be active lively and always in motion than it is to conceive a Soul freed from the shackles and clogs of the Body acting freely according to its own nature I wish the favourers of this Opinion may take heed lest it carry them farther than they intend even to a denial of its Existence and Immortality and turn them into down-right Sâ—matists or Atheists PROP. VI. That the separated Souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earth and the Spirit having finished all his work of Sanctification upon them they do ascend to God with all the habits of Grace inherent in them and all the comfortable improvements of their Graces accompanying and following them THis Proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four Branches 1 When a gracious Soul is separated from the Body all its work of obedience in this World is finished Therefore death is called the finishing of our course Acts 20.24 the night when man works no more Iohn 9.4 There is no working in the grave Eccles. 9.10 for death dissolves the Compositum and removes the Soul immediately to another World where it can act for it self only but not for others as it was wont to do on earth I shall see man no more saith Hezekiah with the Inhabitants of the World Isaiah 38.11 that which was said of David's death is as true of every Christian that having served his Generation according to the Will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 I do not say this lower World receives no benefit at all by them after their death for though they can speak no more write no more pray for and instruct the Inhabitants of this World no more nor exhibit to them the beauty of Religion in any new acts or examples of theirs which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedience on earth Yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the Body still remains after they are gone as the Apostle speaks of Abel Hebr. 11.4 Who being dead yet speaketh This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth long after they are gone to Heaven And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us for the good of Posterity that after our decease as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.15 they may have our words and examples in remembrance But for any service to be done de novo after death it is not to be expected We have accomplished as an Hireling our day and have not a stroke more to do 2 As all our work of obedience is then finished by us so at death all the Work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory not a stroke more to be done upon it afterward which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory whereof I shall speak in another Proposition as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments which are totally laid aside as things of no more use after this stroke is given Adepto fine cessant media Means are useless when the end is attain'd There is no work saith Solomon in the Grave How short soever the Souls stay and abode in the Body was though it were regenerated one day and separated the next yet all that is wrought upon it which God ever intended should be wrought in this World and there is no preparation-work in the other World 3 But though the Soul leave all the means of grace behind it yet it carries away with it to Heaven all those habits of grace which were planted and improved in it in this World by the blessing of the Spirit upon those means though it leave the Ordinances it loseth not the effects and fruits of them though they cease their effects still live The truth dwelleth in us and shall be in us for ever 1 John 2.17 The Seed of God remaineth in us 1 John 3.9 Common gifts fall at death but saving grace sticks fast in the Soul and ascends with it into glory Gracious habits are inseparable Glory doth not destroy but perfect them They are the Souls meetness for Heaven Col. 1.12 and therefore it shall not come into his presence leaving its meetness behind it In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this World if we carry it not along with us into that World seeing all his works upon us in this life have a respect and relation to the life to come Look therefore as the same natural Faculties and Powers which the Soul had though it could not use them in its imperfect Body in the Womb came with it into this World where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life so the habits of Grace which by Regeneration are here