from Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their Labours c. pag. 36 SECT VI. The happiness of Just Mens Souls in the State of Separation vindicated pag. 39 SECT VII The Point improved for Confutation of Errors pag. 45 SECT VIII For trial of our selves whether we are of the number of those Just ones that may justly expect this approaching Felicity pag. 48 An Appendix to the Eighth Section being a Character of that Just person whose Soul shall shortly be so happy pag. 71 SECT IX Shewing the Usefulness of the Point in two other Particulars pag. 83. SECT X. Being a Perswasive to several great Duties pag. 88 SECT XI Containing the Resolution of two great Questions pag. 95 SECT XII Treating of the Nature of this Happiness and the Joy that attends it pag. 113 SECT XIII Shewing the Greatness of the Love of Christ which the Souls of his People all enjoy after Death pag. 132 SECT XIV Discovering the Greatness of Christ's Love in what he did or suffered for Sinners pag. 142 SECT XV. Being other brief Improvements of the Point page 150. SECT XVI Being a farther Improvement of the Doctrine aforesaid as an Antidote against the Fear of Death pag. 157 A POSTSCRIPT Attempting the Resolution of a Weighty Question with an Appendix to the 13th Section concerning Christ's Filiation in a Letter to a learned Authour pag. 185 Happiness at Hand The Introduction with some presuppositions relating to the Point THAT Godliness is great gain and the ways thereof peace and pleasantness is assured to us by the Authour of that blessed Book which may save our Souls but cannot deceive them And though Religion be so good in this Life that every good action may afford some degree of comfort as Dr. Sibbs was wont to say when the Soul is not under temptations and mistakes yet the best of Religion is reserved for another World and its strongest Consolations kept in store to be enjoyed in that high and holy place where there is joy without sorrow peace without trouble Sanctification without Sin and all without end And that thy Joy may be full consider Christian Reader what grounds thou hast to believe that this Happiness is at Hand also and shall be possessed in good part by thy Soul in its separated State most certainly the love of thy Lord is better than Life and will be better to thy Spirit than the life of thy Flesh and all the comforts of this lower World the discovery of which I am not presently to attempt but rather to premise a few particulars in order to it The first thing to be supposed as the Foundation of what follows is The immortality of Mens Souls which some have been so brutish as to call in question imagining that Men die in all respects as the Beasts that perish and therefore live as if Body and Soul should rot together Whose folly therein I need on this occasion no farther to shew than by considering the words of him who is the faithfull and true Witness and knows us better than we do our selves viz. Mat. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul. In which words our Saviour spake plain enough nor can any subtilty in the earth evade the force of them or obscure to any purpose the clearness of that Testimony which they give to the Souls Immortality For they are brought in as an incouragement to his Apostles to preach the Gospel an incouragement I say against the fury of Persecutours of whom he spake in the foregoing verses He would not have this dishearten them Fear not says he them that can kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul. q. d. As they can do nothing more against you than they are permitted to doe so the worst they can possibly do to you can kill no more than your Bodies your nobler parts your Souls are above the reach of all their violence therefore fear them not in any discouraging way Will not any one that readeth that Text with heedfulness and without prejudice be satisfied that this is the meaning of it And if it were designed by our Saviour to express the Souls immortality how could it be done more effectually and more plainly in a few words But nothing is plain enough to them that will not see the truth The strength of which as to this particular may appear by the weakness of those Interpretations which the contrary minded have put upon this Text. 1. Say some the killing of the Soul may be meant of Damning it They cannot kill it with Eternal Death or Damnation Ans That none of the greatest Persecutours could kill the Soul in that manner is very true but 't is not the meaning of that Text Mat. 10.28 For the Damning of the Soul is not spoken of in the word kill but in the word Destroying but fear him who is able to Destroy Body and Soul in Hell in the same verse now to kill and to Destroy are different words and as different things the disobedient are threatned with an everlasting Destruction 2 Thes 1.9 but no where with an everlasting killing 2. The killing of the Soul which is there denied to be in the power of Men is not to be understood of Damnation because that is never expressed by that word in Scripture Let any Man shew so much as one Text therein where the Damnation either of the Soul or of the Person is called a killing of the one or the other 3. The same word in the Original is used of both which shews it meant in the same sense of both So that as the word everlasting Mat. 25.46 spoken of the punishment of the wicked is the same that is spoken of the Life or Glory of the Righteous and therefore proves the perpetuity of the former as well as of the latter as is shewed elsewhere So the Original word for killing * Everlasting Fire no Fancy Cap. 1. Sect. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the same for substance that is used in the said Text concerning the killing of the Soul and of the Body it must needs be understood accordingly So that they can kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul must needs signifie to us that the Soul continues to live the life of a Soul when the Body ceaseth to live the life of a Body And I know not how any can deny it unless he be resolved upon perverseness and will offer violence to the plainest speeches imaginable 4. At that rate of Interpretation which these Objectors use our Saviour should therein have spoken no more of the Soul than may be said of the Body For Men we know cannot Damn the Body no more than the Soul. But there we see the killing which is denied as to the Soul is granted of the Body that can says our Lord kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul. And if any yet think the meaning
is that no Persecutors can damn the Souls of God's Servants I wou'd fain know why they suppose him to have taught so plain a truth in so dark a manner For how shall we be certain that killing means Damnation in that place when it signifieth no such thing in any other Scriptures Others can fancy the meaning is that men cannot kill the Soul for ever or for good and all as we say But that 's as vain as the former and appears to be so by the same reason for then there should be no more said of the Soul than may be said of the Body for they cannot kill the Body for ever it shall be alive after death has done its worst It shall be raised Incorruptible 1 Cor. 15. and this mortal must put on Immortality And that the word kill in St. Matthew must be meant of killing for ever no proof can be pretended to either from the phrase or circumstances or scope of the place and therefore it might be sufficient to deny it without confuting it Others again would evade the force of this Text of St. Matthew by comparing it with Luk. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body but after that have no more that they can do where there is nothing said of the Impossibility of killing the Soul. And indeed as a Kingdom is most in danger when it is divided against it self so Religion they perceive is most powerfully resisted when it is opposed by its own strength by that blessed word which is at once its rule and support But it cannot be used for so ill a purpose without gross ignorance or great perversness as may easily be exemplified in the said Objection For first both these Texts are from the same Spirit of Truth and however the latter be expressed yet the former is the word of Christ also and he really meaneth as he speaketh therein And if Men could any way make the Soul of Man to cease to be a living Soul it would signifie little to say that they cannot kill it since on that supposal they may do as much whether it be properly called killing or no nor would that Man well escape the imputation of a Blasphemer that should say the infinite wisedom would speak so vainly on any occasion Obj. But yet St. Luke doth not so express it and St. Matthew say some may be expounded by S. Luke Sol. 1. Though it be not so expressed by St. Luke yet where it is so expressed I desire the liberty of believing it true 2. There is no necessity in this affair of expounding the one by the other and if there were it may seem fitter to expound Luk. 12.4 by Mat. 10.28 than contrarily for that of Matthew is more special and particular than that of Luke And if any will say our Saviour did not intend to teach us the Souls immortality in the former because he did not mention it in the latter yet we must not suffer their confidence to carry it as we say or take their word for it Nor can they require us so to doe unless they should pretend to Mr. Hobbs's profoundness or a greater Man's infallibility Having supposed and in part proved that the Soul of Man remains alive after his Body is dead the next particular I would premise is this that it is a Subject capable of joy or sorrow after it leaves the Body according as it leaveth it in a State of Sin or a State of Grace It is not like some sort of Insects in the depth of Winter that have a vital principle without motion or operation that are alive and seem as insensible as if they were dead I know some would perswade us the Soul sleeps after Death but their great errors in other things may fully excuse us from believing them in this and I think it as strange a fancy as can enter into the Head of any Man that hath his understanding well awake for as the Psalmist says of God He that made the Eye shall he not see So we may say of the Soul that which gives sense to the Body shall not it perceive especially since it liveth after it leaves the Body as hath been proved SECT I. The Happiness of good Mens Souls in their Separation from the Body asserted and the probability of it discovered BEfore the proof and Vindication of this point it may be proper to shew the probability of it that they who are not perswaded 't is true may not be over confident that it is false by shewing the judgment of Eminent Writers that are presumed able to judge of a matter of this nature And if I were to satisfie a Romanist of it I might cite the noted Men of his Church i.e. 1. Aquin. their great Schoolman Sum. prim 2 dae quest 4. Art. 5. Aliqui dicunt quod Animae separatae ad beatitudinem non perveniunt c. Some says he tell us that good Mens Souls come not to Blessedness till the day of Judgment But this is plainly false In like manner goes Bellarmine in his tract de Arte Moriendi and especially in Lib. de ascens mentis grad 2 chap. 5. p. 35. Quid mirum ait si Angeli beatae Animae c. Where he joins together the Angels and Just Mens Souls doubting the happiness of the one no more than the other So grad 7. cap. 5. Quibus perpetuus Dies est c. Speaking of the same 'T is always day with them they know no darkness of sin or sorrow Tho. Ã Kempis de imitat Christi lib. 1. cap. 23. Sect. 6. Drexel Heliotrop l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. Cajetan in Philip. 1.23 most plainly in several passages that I need not transcribe But I leave these and rather cite our Protestant Worthies Musculus in Math. 17. Mors piorum Egressus est ex mundo ad patrem c. i. e. The death of Godly ones is a going out of this World to their Heavenly Father therefore to be desired more than to be dreaded Zanchius in Philip 1.23 Quanam sui parte c. In what respect did Paul desire after his dissolution to be with Christ Not in respect of his Body apparently therefore of his Soul therefore his Soul was capable of that Happiness immediately after death Others speak to the same purpose as follows D. Joh. Maccov de Anim. fept in explic Theorem 2. Ursin Catech. part 2. Resp ad quest 42. Paraeus in Rom. 6. Resp ad Dub. 9. Alsted Theol. Casuum p. 172. Piscator in Philip. 1. Essenius in Triumpho Crucis de satisf Christi lib. 1. sect 4 cap. 3 part 1. Dan. Chamiet lib. 25. cap. 2. de Beatitudine Jos Stegman Photin disp 52. q. 1. Jo. Scarpii curs theol de purgatorio Palan syntagmo l. 7 cap. 5. Arnoldus Lux. in Tenebr p. 418. D. Henr. Altingius L. C. Loc. 5. Controvers 2. To whom I may add a few of our English Worthies and those are as good as a great many Bp. Usher
that it can afford for my part I must needs say I do not admire it And now I shall take leave to declare my Sentiments herein with submission to better Judgments and a Willingness to be farther informed And 1. by way of Concession I grant that the perfection of happiness properly so called or in respect of the Compositum or whole Man is reserved to the day of Judgment Then the Lord will give his Righteous Servants the Crown of Righteousness and the eternal weight of Glory as St. Paul speaketh 2. I grant there is a state of Christians in this Life that may be called a Blessedness which yet is accompanied with no small imperfection because they daily lodge an Enemy of God and have sin dwelling in them If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves But 3. that a holy Soul after death has not the perfection of Happiness or less of Happiness than it needeth or desireth this I cannot comply with Here therefore I shall attempt to prove that the departed Souls of the Just are in a State of perfect Happiness and have all that spiritual comfort from the God of all comfort which on any account they have need of and such a Happiness I think we may justly call perfect and is all that I wish to my own Soul in its absence from the Body Now for this let us consider the state of Sanctified Souls after their removal from their Bodies They have certainly Life and Sense and Knowledge and all the essential perfections that belong to them as spiritual substances St. Stephen doubtless would not have said when his Enemies were killing him Lord Jesus Receive my Spirit if he had not believed that his Soul should continue in its spiritual Being after his Body was dead Now the Souls of such if they have not all the Happiness that they need then they must know so much or not if we say they do not know it we shall hardly prove that they know any thing else and so comply with the Socinian Dream of the Souls sleeping after death And in reason what are they more like to know than their own State But if then they know themselves destitute of any Happiness that they need that knowledge must be matter of trouble and dissatisfaction unto them and so at that rate the Souls of the Just shall be in part really unhappy which those that judge of them by the Scriptures will not believe 2. If in their separated State they have a perfect enjoyment of God they must be perfectly happy by the confession of all those that know wherein Happiness consisteth And that in that State they have a perfect enjoyment of God is one would think no hard matter to make evident For nothing but sin can hinder the Soul from a perfect Communion with God and comfort in Him. The Prophet tells the People of nothing but their Iniquities that could separate between them and their God he means apparently in point of comfort Esay 59.2 But their iniquities we have seen already do not follow them into the other World their Souls are not under the defilements of sin when they leave the Body and go into the glorious presence of the holy one The Apostle calls them the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Heb. 12. and the Psalmist tells us no evil shall dwell with him 3. To be ever with the Lord in his special glorious presence is spoken of as the very top of our Felicity and the principal matter of a Christian's Comfort 1 Thes 4.17 18. And this Happiness the departed Spirits of the Just do partake of To depart and be with Christ says St. Paul Phil. 1.23 and in 2 Cor. 5.8 Desiring rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. If therefore the one proveth the complete Happiness of the whole Man as such the other as well proveth the perfect Happiness of the Soul as such Go on therefore O Faithfull Christian in thy Christian course with Faithfulness and Diligence with Christian courage and Resolution and let thy Soul magnifie the Lord for it shall shortly want for no Felicity SECT XII Treating of the Nature of this Happiness and the Joy that attends it BEing come unto these points I am in the depths indeed and may well say as St. Paul who is sufficient for these things But having engaged in this Service 't is fit I should go on with it and perform it as God shall enable me Here then I am to consider the happy privileges of a Sanctified Soul in its state of Separation And 1. its Sanctification I mean full and perfect by which it is freed from all the evil of sin for the present and all the danger of it for the future as the Apostle calls them the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Heb. 12.23 That this is meant of the Souls of the faithfull is generally granted and 't is common in Scripture for the Soul to be spoken of under the name of Spirit The dust the Body shall return to the Earth but the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 And St. Stephen in like sort commended his Soul to his Saviour Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts. 7.59 And in that Text to the Hebrews The Spirits of Just Men can signifie nothing but their Souls because mention is made of Angels in the verse before from whom therefore they are plainly distinguished And their being made perfect must needs be meant of perfection in Grace and Holiness for as to any perfection in a natural sense they had it as much before in this World yea the state of the Soul in its Separation without the perfection of Grace in it may be thought to be a state of greater imperfection than before it was in Now ponder with thy self Reader of this particular and think what a blessed condition this must be If he is stiled Blessed whose Iniquity is forgiven Psal 32.1 How Blessed then may they be accounted that have all their Iniquities pardoned and removed also What a Happiness is it to be freed from all possibility of sinning If St. Paul so much lamented the In-being of Sin complaining that when he would do good evil was present with him Rom. 7. and called himself Wretched Man for that very reason How glad may we think would he have been if at that very hour he could have assured himself that he should never be troubled with it any more a privilege which after death his Soul was perfectly instated in If the poor Man that I have read of was so much delighted to behold the Face of that Physician that had cured him of his fainting Sleeps and frightfull Dreams O then with what transcendent Joy and Gladness will a gracious Soul reflect upon the Love of its Redeemer when he hath freed it from all degrees of sinfulness and healed all its Infirmities for ever Oh what sacred and satisfying Irradiations will it receive from the Sun