are exercised under them 2. Think not strange of those fiery tryalls and that the best men are so often under them it were strange if it were not so Christianus Crucianus the Crosse is the Christians badge the Cognisance of a Disciple our Lord himself the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings he carried the Cross upon his own shoulders up Mount Calvary upon which himself was Crucified and we may not think much that come after him with Symon the Cyrenian to carry one end of it Shew me the man of any standing in the profession of Christianity that hath been constantly free from sufferings and I will say He is either a Miracle or a Monster in Religion 3. Think not the worse neither of your selves nor others in this case Crosses are not Curses nor the greatest Sufferers therefore the greatest Sinners The sufferings of the Saints are so farr from being Arguments of Gods displeasure towards them that clean contrary they are rather evidences of his love and favour So St. Paul Argues Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he chasteneth and correcteth every sonne whom he receiveth St. Jerom never feared his estate worse then when for three years together he lived in peace and was free from all trouble and adversity If thou faint in the time of adversity thy strength is small Remember all promises of blessings and good things made to Gods Children are made with exception of the Cross against which even grace and goodness piety and obedience holiness it self is no protection Sanctity and suffering may stand together They were holy ones of whom God spake Ps 89.32.33 Their iniquity will I visit with the rod and their sins with scourges but my loving kindness will I never take from them nor suffer my truth to faile 4. Beware of murmuring by no means suffer your hearts to break out in any evill thoughts against God and his Providence even in his most severe proceedings against you as if he dealt too hardly with you this were to charge God foolishly But let him be ever justified in his sayings and doings and clear when he is judged and to silence all clamour murmurings and mutinous thoughts In this case take with you these two considerations First See sin in all let the means by which you suffer be what it will and the Instruments of it what they can doe but look well into it and you shall finde Sinne lyes at the bottome David saw this Psal 25.18 Look upon my adversity and my trouble and forgive me all my Sinne. Jeremy saw it in his Lamentations cap. 3.39 Why doth living man complaine man suffering for his Sinnes as if he should say There is no reason for it let him consider well of it and he shall find his Sinnes are greater then his sufferings his sufferings less then his deservings Secondly See God in all though sin be the cause of all 't is God that is the Judge of all Is there any evill in the City and the Lord hath not done it And if it be the Lord let him doe what he will he neither can nor will doe unjustly When Moses told Aaron in a grievous Affliction that befell him Levit. 10. That it was from the Lord The Text sayes Aaron held his peace ver 3. he had no more to say If it be the Lords doing let him doe what is good in his eyes his will be done at well upon us as by us and as well in taking away as giving Ever say with holy Job in the like case Blessed be the Name of the Lord Job 1.22 5. In the sufferings of the Saints and servanâ—s of God here in this world let wicked and ungodly men reade their own doome and certainly conclude That they have a heavy reckoning to make to God in the day of account that great is the wrath of the Allmighty against them and fearefull the Judgements that doe await them Behold saith the Lord I visit the City upon which my name is called and doe you think to escape you shall not escape And if the righteous be scarely saved where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appeare Surely if he doe so severely scourge his own Children with Scourges he will torment them with Scorpions Solomon observed in his time Eccles 8.11 That because Judgement was not speedily executed upon evill doers therefore the hearts of the sonnes of men were wholly set upon wickedness But there is no reason for it if they knew all alas they see not that their day is comming they may make a Covenant with the Grave and with Hell be at agreement but that Covenant will not stand they may cry â—â—ace peace unto themselves where there is no peace and so sleep a while in their security but their damnation sleepeth not they may sing Requiems to their souls Ede bibe lude Eat drink and be merry but they see not the hand-writing on the Wall Mene Mene c. Thou art weighed in the ballance and art found too light they heare not the dreadfull noyse Stulte hac nocte This night shall they fetch away thy soule With what derision doth the wisedom of God speak to such Eccles 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheere thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the sight of thine eyes and the wayes of thine heart but remember that for all these things God will bring thee into judgement But the Lord speaks terror to them by his royall Prophet David Psal 50.21 Thus and thus hast thou done and I held my tongue and thou thoughtest me such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee Beloved take this for a most certaine observation 'T is the most dangerous state in the world for a man to goe on in sinne and prosper to live in sinne and to live at ease free from adversity and affliction Ephraim is given unto Idols let him alone saith the Lord by the Prophet Hosea c. 4.17 Nolo istam misericordiam saith St. Jerom Lord let me have none of that mercy to be let alone in my sinne Scinde ure seca ut in aeternum parcas Let me suffer any thing in this life that thou shalt please to lay upon me that I may be spared in the life to come and have nothing to suffer in the other world Let all secure sinners know There is a Pit digging up for them a very significant expression of the Prophet Psal 94.13 Vntill the Pit be digged for the ungodly Now the longer the Pit is in digging the deeper it will be and the deeper it is the greater will be the fall into it and the more impossible the recovery out of it and so deep it may be that it may let the sinner down into Hell it self I conclude this Point with that Advertisement of Saint Paul which he gives to all such secure sinners Rom. 2.4 Know ye not that the patience and long
suffering of God should leade to Repentance But thou out of thine hardness and heart that cannot repent treasurest up unto thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and the declaration of the righteous judgement of God And what a miserable thing is this for a man to treasure up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and all his dayes to be carrying fuell to that fire in which himselfe is eternally to burne Lastly From this truth let all men certainly conclude a Judge to come for he that is the Judge of all the world hath said it That he will render to every man according to his works Rom. 2.6 But we see that is not done in this life in this life here are cross dispensations of Providence by which it falls out oft times clean contrary Solomon observed this in his time Eccles 8.14 That there be righteous Men to whom it cometh according to the working of the wicked and there be wicked Men to whom it cometh according to the work of the righteous The royall Prophet David before him observed the same â—sal 73. and complineth of it That the wicked flourish when the righteous perish they live at ease and have all things that their hearts can wish When the righteous are under the Cross and under the Rod chastised every Morning and visited every moment Hic pietatis honos Is this the reward of piety Is this to render to every man according to his works surely no and if things should rest thus then well might Saint Paul complain That of all men the Saints and servants of God were most miserable If in this life onely we have hope then are we of all men most miserable But say not so and think not so but possesse your souls with patience for a time and mark the end and you shall finde it is not so Remember that of St. Paul Acts 17.31 That God hath appointed a day wherein to Judge the world in righteousness by his Sonne Jesus Christ when he will make all these crosse reckonings right and streight wherein he will render tribulation to them that have troubled his and to those that have been troubled rest with him when he will say to all those secure and sensuall sinners as to the rich Epicure in the Gospel Sonnes remember you in your life time received pleasure and these my servants received pain now they are comforted and you are tormented that 's the day wherein this word shall be made good That he will render to every Man according to his works therefore called The day of refreshing Acts 3.19 The day of restauration The day of the righteous judgement of God Rom. 2.5 Gods Judgements are alwayes righteous but they are not alwayes declared to be so but then they shall be declared to be so in the sight of all the world men and Angels and they shall all confesse and say as in the Psalme Verely there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth And so we have done with the Prophets second Satis est the second of his enoughs spoken in reference to what he had suffered Satis Tuli I have suffered enough We now pass to the third spoken in reference to what he had done 3. Satis Feci I have done enough And this ariseth out of the first words of the 14. verse I have been very jealous or zealous for the Lord God of Hosts this word is very significant and comprehensive it containes in it much as the faithfull discharge of his duty in the Office of a Prophet whereunto he was called his care to maintaine the true Religion and Worship of God his courage in reproving the sinnes of the ten Tribes even in the greatest Ahab himselfe not excepted his zeale in convincing and silencing the Priests of Baall in those perillous times when they had the protection and countenance of Authority on their sides and much more and that he did not these things coldly negligently perfunctorily but with all earnestness and fervency as the word imports for it comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hisse as Iron doth when being red hot it is dipt in Water such was his activity in the performance of these his duties and fervency of affection Quicquid egit valide egit as the Italians are said to doe The zeale of Gods House did even consume him as another Prophet speaks he did these duties with zeale as hot as fire neither in this testimony did he arrogate to himselfe any thing at all more then due nor commend himselfe above his measure the Story of his Life and Actions evidently declares the truth of what he here asserts That he had been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts in doing his Will in seeking his Glory and in upholding and maintaining his true Worship against all opposers c. The Inferences from hence are these three The first Those that are for God must doe the will of God The second It is not enough to doe Operâ— operato but they must doe it as they should be done in due manner with due affections and they must doe it home or els it will never reach to Elijah's Satis est It is enough The third It shall be their greatest comfort in the evill day that they have done so the illation of these is cleare out of Elijah's Satis est in the Text compar'd with the first words of the 14. v. First Those that are for God must doe the will of God in that Place Calling and Condition of Life wherein God hath set them They must doe his will whether it be Prophet or Apostle or a common Christian Magistrate or Minister or common Beleever every one must in his Place doe the will of God It is our dayly Prayer That his will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And in this Prayer Is it fit that we should over-look our selves No as it is our dayly Prayer so it should be our dayly practise to doe his will Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified If you know these things blessed are you if you doe them Christianity calls for Action it is not Logicall but Morall not speculative but practique it consists not in saying nor in knowing nor in professing but in working there must be a Feci in it Regnum Dei non datur otiosis as St. Bernard speaks the Kingdom of God is not given to idle professors and pretenders the Calling of a Christian is a laborious Calling a Building a Husbandry a Warfare all these call to work there is somthing to be done whereby we may bring glory to God good to men and comfort to our own souls The very Heathen were sensible of this That they were bound to doe some good in the Generation wherein
from the time of it's first being in him whether by Creation or by infusion or by traduction generation I dispute not nor of the praeexistence of it before an Opinion that hath great Patrons too especially among the Philosophers the Gymnosophists of Egypt the Brachmans of India the Magi of Persia and the Jewish Cabalists and among them some Christians also Origen for one but I wave that dispute too But I date my discourse from the souls first being in the body from that beginning it passes it's immortality under three conditions or a three-fold estate every one of them different from other The first is the state of the foule during the time of it's being in the body which it doth actuate and informe The second is the state of it between the time of the separation of it from the body by dissolution and there union of it again with the body at the Resurrection the day of Judgement And the third is from that day to Eternity and for ever after That these three states of the soule are different one from the other is evident enough Of the first of these we have experience in this life while our souls are in our bodies which are given unto us to actuate and informe them and to use them as Organs or Instruments for glorifying God by them and doing good Glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits for they are his 1 Cor. 6.20 this is done by giving up the faculties of the one and the parts of the other Not as members of unrighteousness to unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness unto holiness and accordingly as we have so done shall we give an account unto God in the day of account For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ to render an account for the things done in the body whether they be good or evill 1 Cor. 5.15 Therefore now is the time of working now is the time of doing our selves good now is the time of laying a good foundation for the time to come now is the time of laying up that which may be for the furtherance of our account then now in this first estate of the soule while it is in the body must we provide for the well-being of it in the second estate and in the third and to Eternity Now as this first estate of the soule in the body is different from the second estate of it as it is separated from the body so is that second estate of it out of the body different from the third estate of it when it shall be re-united to the body again and put into that estate in which it shall remain for ever and to all Eternity It is the generall Opinion of men but withall a generall mistake That as soon as ever the soule is separated from the body it passes immediately into that estate either of joy glory or of misery and torment in which it shall remain for ever without any alteration True it is That at the separation of the soule from the body there is a particular judgement passes upon it by which it is made known to it what shall become of it Eternally and is presently put into the beginnings either of the one or the other and into a state previous to that third estate in which it is to remain for ever without alteration but that either the souls of wicked men are immediately upon their separation from the body cast into that extremity of misery and torment which is prepared for them Or that the souls of the just doe then pass into that heigth of joy and glory which God hath prepared for them I doe confidently deny and shall prove the contrary in both the parts of it And first for the souls of wicked men that they are not upon their separation from the body cast into that extremity of torment which is prepared for them I prove by an Argument à Majori thus The very Devills themselves are not yet cast into that extremity of torment that they are condemned unto Therefore the souls of wicked men are not immediately upon their separation cast into those torments The Consequence of this Argument is clear for no man will judge the state of wicked men to be worse then the state of Devills The Antecedent I prove by two clear testimonies of Scripture The first out of St. Mat. 8.29 where those fierce Devills which had possessed two men among the Gergesens seeing Christ comming towards them are stricken with terror at his presence and cry out What have we to doe with thee Jesus thou Sonne of God Art thou come to torment us before the time They knew they were condemn'd to torment but there was a time set when they should be cast into it but that time was not yet come and therefore seeing him comming towards them they cry out against him as if he came to antedate their misery by casting them into it before the time Art thou come to torment us before the time The other proofe is both a confirmation of the truth in hand and an illustration of this Text It is in the Epistle of Jude ver 6. The Angels also which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in chains of darkness unto the Judgement of the great day where you have the time when they shall be cast into that extremity of torment unto which they are condemned at the judgement of the great day and the estate that they are in in the mean time they are reserv'd in chains of darkness the chains noting the safe keeping and securing of them that thus can no ways make their escape And the darkness noting their dismall and uncomfortable condition all that while They are reserv'd in chains of darkness unto the Judgement of the great day an expression borrowed from the state of condemned prisoners which after they are condemn'd are secured in chains or fetters and cast into the dungeon and there reserved unto the day of Execution And this is a sufficient proofe of the truth of this assertion in the first part of it as touching the souls of wicked men That the state of their souls from the day of their separation from their bodies untill the day of Judgement is not the same that it shall be after that day though it be a woefull estate too as will farther appear in the sequel of this discourse We are now to make good this Proposition in the other part of it Concerning the souls of the just that they enter not presently upon their dissolution into the fullness of joy and glory intended them and prepared for them And for that I alledge Rev. 6.9.10.11 where at the opening of the fifth Seale St. John sees under the Altar the souls of them that were killed for the Word of God and for the testimony which they maintained And they cryed with a loud voyce saying How long Lord how long holy and
true dost thou not Judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth And long white robes were given to every one and it was said unto them that they should rest for a little season untill their fellow servants and their brethren that should be killed even as they were were fulfilled This Scripture makes for our purpose all along For first Who are they that here complain the Text sayes They were Martyrs and those are Saints of the first lift and if their souls were not received into the fulness of joy and happiness at their dissolution what souls are But that they were not it appears First By their complaint How Long Lord how long Secondly By the answer given unto them perswading still to waite for a season and to possess their souls with patience til the rest of the number of their brethren were accomplished without whom they could not be made perfect and that could not be till the Resurrection and the Generall Judgement at the great day Aquinas doth excellently describe Summum bonum or the highest felicity to be Quies Mentis or Acquiescentia Mentis in ultimo fine the rest or acquiescence of the mind in the last end beyond which nothing can be desired to make it more happy But those souls which yet cry How long Lord how long doe declare That they have not yet attained their ultimate end and therefore they doe not perfectly acquiesce but are in expectation of a farther degree of fuller happiness yet to be given unto them And thus I have made good this Proposition in both the Parts That the souls separated from the body by Death are not in the same state from the time of their separation to the time of their re-union again at the day of Judgement that they shall be in after that day to all eternity But then me thinks I heare you ask me In what state are they then during that time Where are they Or what becomes of them And to this Quaerie I shall endeavour to satisfie you too and that Ad partes to both the parts of it both as it concerns the souls of the just and the souls of the unjust and wicked men And first as to the souls of wicked men If you ask me where or in what state they are I answer They are in the same state and in the same places that the evill Angells are in and what that was you heard even now out of Jude 6. they are secured in prison they are with them reserved in chains unto the judgement of the great day For proofe of this take these two Scriptures the first in 1 Pet. 3.19 The second in Luke 12.20 In the first St. Peter speaking of the death of Christ saith thus ver 18. Christ also suffered for sinners the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God who was put to death as concerning the flesh but was quickned in the Spirit By which spirit also he went and Preach't to the spirits in prison v. 19. If ye ask What spirits he tells you ver 20. Those spirits which in time past were disobedient In what time In the times of Noah and before the Flood for so it followeth When once the long suffering of God abode in the dayes of Noah while the Ark was preparing wherein few that is eight persons were saved from perishing in the waters There you have St. Peter plainly interpreting himselfe that the spirits here mentioned are the spirits of the sinners of the old world which perished in the Flood but their spirits perished not neither were they presently sent to the Lake of everlasting Burnings but they are secured in Prison as the evill Angels are and so reserved unto the Judgement of the great day That place in St Luke speaks the same thing where the Voyce is heard speaking to the secure Epicure singing a requiem to his own soule Soule take thine ease eate drink and be merry thou hast goods layd up for many years Alas he dreams of many years when he hath not many hours to live Stulte hac nocte Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule then whose shall these things be Nay Whose shalt thou be This night shall they fetch away thy soule Which they The evill Angels When good men dye the good Angells are ready to receive their souls as they did the soule of Lazarus Luke 16. and carry them into Abraham's bosome But when wicked men dye the evill Angells fetch away their souls Thou foole this night shall they fetch away thy soule And whither think you were they to carry it but to their own Quarters to those Prisons in which themselves are secur'd as in chains unto the judgement of the great day But then here ariseth another Question What those Prisons are Or Where it is that they are secured unto that day And to this I Answer There are three vast large and spacious Prisons in which the evill Angells are secured and with them the souls of wicked men unto the Judgement of the great day And they are 1. The Aire 2. The Earth 3. The Sea First The Aire with all the severall Regions of it into which the Apostate Angells were banished When for their rebellion against their Creator they were expell'd out of Heaven For this see St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians cap. 6.12 You wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers and spirituall wickednesses in high places And what or who are those spirituall wickednesses but those evill spirits And what are those high places but the Regions of the Aire And therfore is the Principall of the Devills called The Prince that ruleth in the Aire for even amongst them there is Order and subordination We reade of a Prince among Devills Ephes 2.2 The second of those Prisons is The Earth and therein first The vast and howling Wildernesses and Places uninhabited where no foot doth tread but where Ostriches doe dwell where Ziim doth boade and the Satyres dance Secondly The vast caverns and concavities within the earth amongst which the hollow mountains of Aetna Vesuuius and in Ireland that hollow vault called Saint Patriarchs Purgatory famous in story But in America many such and more evident dens of Daemons But above all these the vast hollowness in the very heart and Center of the Earth for who knows what vast and spatious receptacles there may be for such spirits It is not unreasonable nor against any Article of Faith or of Scripture to conceive That there is in the very heart and Center of the Earth such a vast hollowness both for a fit receptacle for such spirits and by which that vast and weighty body is buoy'd up that it sink not any way towards the Circumference on any side though no way supported neither by Poasts nor Pillars What is it that sustains the vast and weighty Ships in the Sea with all the Anchors Ordnance and Fraught in them but the
hollowness of them What is it that sustains the Clouds in the Aire infinitely greater and more weighty then they so as they fly to and fro but as bottles in the Aire as Job speaks or like bladders full of winde that they fall not down in great dashes enough to make another Deluge but the hollowness of them That such a hollowness there is in them appears by the Lightning the Thunder and the Thunder-bolts and the spirituall vapour that proceeds out of them when they break of such force that it penetrates and burns and breaks and tears in peeces all that it lights upon And who can deny but it is agreeable to reason that there may be such a hollowness in the heart of the earth whereby it may by the power and providence of the Creator be susteined in the place which he hath appointed for it and also be a fit receptacle of evill spirits where they may be secured as in a Prison and reserved unto the Judgement of the great day In the Apostolicall Creed we profess to beleeve That Christ descended into Hell And St. Paul tells us He descended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lower parts of the Earth This cannot be understood of the descent of his body by his buriall that scarce went into the Earth at all but was layd in the Sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had made for himselfe in his Garden which was above the ground or at least the most part of it if any part at all of it were under or within the ground it was not so low as that we may say of it It was in the lower parts of the Earth How then will you understand this Article of our Lords descent into Hell except you understand it of his Soule and of his Spirit And where will you finde this Hell more agreeable to Scripture and Reason then as I have described it and that by his Spirit he went to Preach to the spirits in prison there The third vast Prison wherein the evill Angells are secured unto the day of the generall Judgement is The Sea for there are Sea Spirits as well as Land Spirits or Aeriall Spirits When the Disciples being in a Ship saw Christ coming towards them walking upon the Sea the Text sayes They were troubled and thought they had seen a Spirit Mat. 14.26 whereby it appears That there were Spirts that did appear in the Sea as well as on the Land And in St. Mathew 8. we reade That the Devills being cast out of the man which they had possessed entred into an Heard of Swine and carried them headlong into the Sea by which it seems there was their abode And in Mark 5. which by many circumstances seem not to be the same story with this of St. Matthew we reade Of a whole legion of Devills entring into a Heard of no less then two thousand Swine and carrying them with great violence into the Sea these were Sea Spirits whose abode was in the Sea which is the third Prison wherein these evill Angells are secur'd and confin'd unto the Judgement of the great day and with them the souls of wicked men both to be brought in and judged at that general Assizes which though they be not till then cast into the Lake of everlasting burnings yet is their condition in the mean time woefull and miserable 'T is miserable to consider how wilfully they have forsaken their own mercy and what opportunity they have lost of preventing this their misery never to be recovered nor recalled 'T is miserable to lye in Prison in such a Prison and for such Crimes of which they know themselves they shall be found guilty at that day and condemn'd to suffer the vengeance of everlasting sire 'T is miserable to see Hell open before them and ready to receive them 'T is miserable in the mean time to lye under the wrath of the Almighty and under the torments of a wounded soule Yet neither are the torments of the souls of wicked men during this time of their separation from their bodies all aequall as neither shall they be after the generall Judgement as shall be shewed in the sequel of this Treatise but in the mean while having shewed you the state of the souls of wicked men It now rests that I should shew you What is the state of the souls of just men from the time of their separation from their bodies till the time of their re-union again with their bodies at the day of the Resurrection And in answering to this inquiry the Scripture gives us some light in foure expressions When the body returns to dust from whence 't was taken the spirit returns to God that gave it saith Soloman Eccles 12.7 The Angells receive it and carry it into Abraham's bosome saith St. Luke cap. 16.22 It is layd under the Altar saith St. John Rev. 6.9 It is carried into Paradise saith our Saviour to the penitent theese upon the Crosse Luke 23.43 All these are most comfortable and heavenly expressions setting forth the blessed and happy estate of the souls of the just which they enter into when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh the great impediment of their perfection yet they doe not all amount to this That upon their separation they pass into the highest Heaven and into the fruition of the immediate vision of God and that fulness of joy and glory that they shall enter into at the last day when it shall be said unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For we cannot imagine that these words are spoken onely in reference to the bodies then newly raysed out of their graves but to the whole man body and soule united together and so to the entire persons of them Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom For that of Solomon That the soule returns to God that gave it it is true that is It is taken up into the higher Heavens and is in neerer communion with God then it was before it is admitted neerer into his presence it is taken into his more immediate care to dispose of it in a place and state of bliss and felicity of joy and glory even presently upon the separation of it from the body For that of Saint Luke That the Angells received the soule of Lazarus the meaning is That he was gathered unto the rest of the faithfull of which Abraham is said to be the Father and carried to a place of rest intimated by Abraham's bosome Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est quietis aeternae Ambr. For that of St. John Rev. 6. Where he sees the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar the meaning is That they were in a place of security where no evill should touch them as in the third of the book of Wisedom The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no evill shall touch them v. 1. The Altar
specious and so spacious between the Starry Firmament and the Empyrean Heaven stand voyd and empty without Inhabitants No it cannot be but they have their Inhabitants too and they are the souls of the Just when they are separated from their bodies by death and dissolution who being next unto the Angells in holiness are placed in receptacles next unto them in glory The Chrystalline Heaven next and immediately under the Empyrean Heaven and the Aqueall or Watry Heaven next immediately under it and as they have atteined to the degrees of purity here in this life so are they disposed of into the one or into the other of them neerer or farther off from the Throne of glory for as after the Resurrection there shall be severall and different degrees of glory so in this state of separation the souls separated shall be in severall and different degrees of joy and happiness according as they are prepared for it and have atteined to severall degrees of holiness and purity in this life while they were in the body Secondly If you enquire into the state of those souls separated it must needs be blessed and glorious suitable to the glory of those Heavens wherein they are Where first They are delivered from the burden of the Flesh the body the very prison wherein they were deteined and sole impediment of their perfection Secondly They are freed from all sin and sorrow concupiscence and corruption from all temptations and sollicitations from the world the devill and the flesh and from all the evill of this lower world which they have left behind them and which now As that glorious Woman Rev. 12.1 they trample under their feet all tears are wipt from their eyes all sorrow and grief and pain are flowne away they dyed in the Lord they are blessed they rest from their labours and so they are in Abraham's bosome They are in the hand of God as Solomon speaks Wisedom 3.1 so that no evill shall touch them they are got above the reach of the malice of men or Devills 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Proverbe hath it out of the danger of the dart And so their state agrees with that which St. John sayes of them Rev. 6. That he saw them under the Altar yet all this is but their privative happiness consisting in their freedom from all evill and their security from all danger but they are in present possession of a positive blessedness too in a great measure and high degree of present joy and glory Their very imployment is a part of their blessedness which is no less then Angelicall to laud and prayse and magnifie the living Lord to sing Hosanna to Hosannah's in the highest and Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the Threne to admire the glory and the greatness and the goodness and the power and the holiness of the mighty Lord God of which they have now a clearer sight and apprehension then before and in particular his singular and unspeakable grace and goodness unto them which hath done such great things for them as to bring them thither to triumph in the apprehension of it and to rejoyce and glory in the sence of it I know not whether I should rather ranke these things under their imployments or their enjoyments they are blessed duties which are both With what sweet contentation and selfe satisfaction doe they converse together in pure love and light With what joy and comfort can they now remember the difficulties and the dangers which they have past through in their comming thither What temptations what afflictions they have met withall What strong corruptions they have wrestled with What importunate lusts they have denied and subdued What sollicitations from the World from the Flesh and from the Devill they have resisted and rejected and how now they bless themselves that they have done so and God that gave them grace and strength to doe it With what joy and prayse doe they congratulate one another in their happy victories over sin and Satan Death and Hell and all the enemies of their salvation and in their safe passage through all the dangers and difficulties that stood between them and Heaven and that having escaped all the corruption that is in the world through Lust they are at length arrived to the Place where they would even to the top of Mount Syon the Place of their rest and joy where now they are taken into neerer Communion with God then they could be before they have more clear manifestation of him sweet influences from him and union with him they converse with Angels congratulating them in their happiness and with Euges of joy and prayse well-coming them into those Heavens the habitations of their happiness the Paradise of their joy and glory And now their Charity invites them to Pray for the whole estate of Christs Church militant here on Earth That the Lord would guide them and keep them in the way of Truth that he would bring them safe through all the dangers and difficulties that stand in the way between them and Heaven that the Gospel may have free passage through the world that it may runne prosper and be glorious that by it he would call in all that are yet uncalled that he would shortly accomplish the number of his elect and hasten his Kingdom that they with them and all others that shall depart out of this life in the faith and feare of his holy Name may have their perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soule in his eternall and everlasting glory Which is the third estate in which immortall souls doe pass their immortality which begins from the day of the generall Judgement and lasts from thence to all eternity Of which though we had the Tongue of Men or Angells it is impossible to speak to the full and as the subject requires O Aeternity Aeternity How is the Heart astonish't and the Mind swallowed up that enters into the thoughts of it with the state of the just and the unjust in it the joy and glory of the one and the misery and torment of the other both which being unexpressible I shall forbeare to enter into the description of them and in stead thereof onely referr you to the words of the sentences at the great day to be given upon them both the sentence of absolution to the just on the right hand and of condemnation to the wicked on the left both which the Judge himselfe that shall pronounce them hath told us before hand and left us in terminis upon record Mat. 25. And first The sentence of absolution because that shall be first pronounc'c that the wicked on the left hand may see Heaven opened and have a sight of the joy and glory of the Celestiall Paradise and see the just taken into it and set down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven and themselves cast out that they may see what happiness they have lost by wilfully forsaking
of his glorious appearing as it follows in the same Text When Christ shall appear in flaming fire to render vengeance 2 Thes 1.7 When the Sonne of Man shall come in the Clouds with power and great glory and all his holy Angels with him That 's the day of his appearing at that day shall St. Paul receive his Crowne not before till then it is layd up for him At that day shall those souls under the Altar before mentioned receive their Crowns of Martyrdome also for the present there were white Robes given to every one of them but not the Crowns till that day The same also doth he affirme of the state of the souls of wicked men separated from their bodies Sic puniri ut etiam reserventur in diem judicii longe aliis asperioribus paenis aeternis videlicet in corpore anima cruciandi That they are so punished here during the time of their separation that they are also reserved unto the Judgement of the great day then to be tormented in body and soul with farr more sharp and grievous punishments for evermore But if you would see more of Antiquity in these matters and will be at the pains of it doe but consult Athanasius in an Epistle of his cited by Epiphanius Haeres 77. and in his Book De Incarnatione Verbi St. Cyrill De râ—â—ta side ad Theodosium OeÌ„cumenius and divers others who in their Expositions of that Text in St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.19 Who was put to death as concerning the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which Spirit he went and Preach't to the spirits which are in Prison We prove first Christs descent into Hell and upon the words following That he Preach't unto the spirits or souls detained in that Prison As Saint Jude saith of the evill Angells That they are in prison and bound in chains of darkness reserved unto the judgement of the great day The evill Angells and the souls of wicked men both in the same condition both secur'd in Prison both in chains both reserv'd unto the judgement of the great day And it will follow by the rule of opposits That if the souls of the Saints and Martyrs be not yet in the fruition of their perfect and consummate happiness then neither are the souls of wicked men in that exquisite torment which they are condemned unto and into which they shall be cast at the judgement of the great day but that there is an intermediate estate though that very wretched and miserable under which they lye untill that day And I think this is sufficiently proved in both the branches of it by Scriptures strong and cleere for it and by the jugdements of holy and learned men commenting upon them and so is a sufficient answer to the first Part of the exception and enough to free me from Preaching New Doctrine and to declare that I am not alone in this Opinion Of the intermediate estate of souls separated from the body both of the just and the unjust nor walk in an untroden path where no foot is gone before me The second Part of the exception lyes in this That it is useless That admitting these tenents be true yet they are useless It demands therefore Whereto they are usefull To which I Answer Sol. The knowledge of them is usefull to many speciall purposes particularly to these First It is very satisfactory to the minde of every man I think that hath a soule to know the state of it both present and future yea to know as much of it as is knowable Knowledge is pretious and a great delight unto the soule When wisedom entreth into thy heart and knowledge delighteth thy soule saith Solomon Prov 2.10 So knowledge is a delight unto the soule and the more high and excellent the object is about which it is conversant the more excellent and pretious is the knowledge But what more high and pretious object can there be next unto God and the Angells then the spirits and souls of men What more worthy to take up our most serious thoughts and diligent studies then the disquisition of those high things that doe concerne them What more satisfactory then the attaining of them in all those things that are knowable Secondly 'T is usefull for preserving of men against Atheisme that bruitish sinne which doth so spread it selfe in the world and invaded so great a part of the Sonns of men for though they doe not speak out plainly with their Tongues yet how many of them say in their hearts and lives There is no God nor Devill nor Heaven nor Hell nor Angells nor Spirits nor souls of Men and all through their ignorance of this Point That they cannot satisfie themselves what becomes of the souls of men separated from their bodies through so long a tract of time as two three foure or five thousand years intermediate between the time of their dissolution by Death and their re-union again at the Resurrection Thirdly 'T is usefull to confirme men in the assurance of the Immortality of the soule while it informes them what becomes of it where it is and what it does or suffers where is the place of it what the state of it what the imployments what the enjoyments Concerning all which being before ignorant and in the dark they could not tell what to think of the souls of men more then of bruits of which Solomon takes notice Eccles 3.20 21. speaking in their Language Who knoweth whether the spirit of Man ascend upward and the spirit of a Beast descend downward All goe to one place c. and therefore rann away in their own fancies and vain imaginations into divers errors concerning the souls of men dying some imagining they were annihilated and altogether extinguished Some that they were layd asleep as the bodies were till the Resurrection Some that they were transmigrated out of one body into another Some one thing some another in the midst of these doubtfull varieties they began to question whether there were any difference between the souls of men and of bruits as Solomon here intimates and for want of some more distinct knowledge in this matter lived at a venture Against all these errors and evills the truths here delivered are a sure and soveraigne remedy the vain imaginations in which men rann away in the variety of their own fancies concerning the extinction annihilation sleeping transmigration c. of the souls of men dying all dye before these truths here delivered and vanish away and mens minds are setled and confirmed in the assurance of the immortality of the souls while they doe distinctly informe them what becomes comes of them into what receptacles they are received upon their separation and in what severall states they pass their immortality Fourthly It is usefull for admonishing of all men while they are in the body to take care of their souls and to provide for their future condition to preserve them pure that upon their separation they may