Vessels of Mercy all will acknowledg that when it is spoken of as in relation to Heaven as here it is that importeth Souls their being set apart to be immediately filled with the Love and Mercy of God that as God is Love so that they as Vessels swim in that Ocean for ever That they dwell in God immediately and are filled with fulness of him And why should not then this other of being Vessels of Wrath be intended in the same Sense also and that Sense be urged accordingly Especially seeing it is evident that one scope of the Apostle here was to make a Parallel between the eternal Glorification of the one and eternal Destruction of the other and accordingly between what are to be the Causes of them And if so the Law of this Parallel will also carry it to this that as the Saints in Heaven have an immediate Participation of God that likewise in Hell there shall be oppositely an immediate Participation of God's Wrath. In Heaven they are not said to be Vessels of Mercy because God shews them Mercy only by created Benefits or Gifts bestowed or because they have God's Mercy communicated by Creatures though it must be affirmed that there is a confluence of these but because God himself appears all in Love Mercy and Kindness to them And it is not nothing that according to the same Analogy of Speech unto this Particular in multitudes of Scriptures in the New Testament This Destruction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Singularity Eminency and simply stiled Wrath and the Wrath of God And so it bears away that Denomination from all other Punishments by Creatures except that by Magistrates in God's stead and who bear the Image of God Rom. 13. 5. so bearing the Name of its immediate Cause The Baptist he began that stile in the New Testament The Wrath to come Mat. 3. by way of destinction from all that is executed in this Life And the whole New Testament afterwards much useth that Phrase As when the day of Judgment is stiled the day of Wrath Rom. 2. And elsewhere It is equivalent to say a Child of Hell Mat. 23. 15. And a Child of Wrath Eph. 2. 3. To say fitted to Destruction as Rom. 9. and ordained to Wrath 1 Thess 5. 9. To say Damnation hasteneth 2 Pet. 2. 3. And the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Col. 3. 6. As in like manner on the contrary Saved from Wrath Rom. 5. Delivered from Wrath through Christ 1 Thess 1. ult is all one and saved from Death and Hell elsewhere And this is usually termed the Wrath of God so Joel 3. ult Col. 3. 6. and Eph. 5. 6. Rom. 9. 22. That which I would observe from both is that according to the general Analogy of common Speech in all Languages the punishment as the Effect bearing the Denomination of that which is the immediate Instrument of the principal Agent in that Punishment Thus the torture by the Rack is called the Rack whipping the Rod. So in Deaths Crucifying was termed the Cross Hanging the Gallows Thus 't is in the Punishments which Men execute That in like Analogy of Speech this ultimate Punishment should so generally be termed Wrath and the Wrath of God by way of eminency and difference from all other fore-running effects of Wrath executed by Creatures in this Life this still strengthens the former Notion that it is indeed the Wrath of this God it self in a way of eminent difference from what by Creatures he doth in Wrath pour out that is the inflicter of that Punishment I shall for the close of this cast in one Scripture-Testimony more both to confirm this Interpretation of Wrath given upon Rom. 9. and the whole of the Point in hand It is IV. Rom. 2. 8 9. Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish unto every Soul of Man that doth evil c. I observed afore from the second Verse of this Chapter how that this Punishment was termed both the Judgment of God ver 2. as denoting God to be the Judge and also Wrath as of God the Avenger Now in these Words ver 8 9. the Apostle pursueth the latter more fully when he says Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish to every Soul of Man These are two pairs or Conjugates of Causes and Effects 1. Indignation and Wrath as the Causes 2. Tribulation and Anguish as the two Effects and that on the Souls of Men which are the Vessels of this Wrath and Indignation and Subjects of that Tribulation and Anguish thence arising And truly his instancing in the Soul which though it often signifies the whole Person yet here seems purposely done as being that in or of Man which alone is immediately capable of this Indignation and Wrath of God and the Impressions or Effects of Anguish there-from and is the proper seat of that Anguish and Tribulation And that Phrase of Wrath its being said to be treasured up in the 5th verse suits this For what is the Treasury or Magazine thereof but the Heart and Bosom of God Himself in which it lyes hid as Treasures use to do in some secret place Even as the Saints Life is said to be hid in God Col. 3. 3. compare Deut. 32. 24. I shall but further superadd that noticed Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium Damnatorum Famed by Gerard in his Common Place De inferno Sect. 30. out of Luther's Enarrations or Commentary upon Genesis Chap. 45. upon the 14 15. ver Also by Fabritius saying of Luther which out of deep experience of the Wrath of God in his Soul at his first Humiliation and Conversion he had learned The Wrath of God is Hell the Hell of Devils and all damned Spirits CHAP. IV. That this immediate Wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto us under the Similitude of Fire and fiery Indignation The Examples of Persons devoured by Fire in the Old Testament Shadows of this Punishment by the immediate Wrath of God This the Fire wherein the Devil and his Angels are tormented THere hath been nothing more divertive of the Thoughts of Men from apprehending or so much as imagining God's immediate Wrath to be a cause of that Punishment in Hell then that the Scriptures do so often make mention of Fire c. as the Instrument thereof and so Mens conceptions do terminate therein and go no further But I shall rather on the other hand make an Argument of it Namely that indeed the Scriptures do set out this immediate Wrath of God under the Similitude Resemblance and Representation of Fire and that sometimes when Hell-fire is spoken of the Wrath of God is intended thereby Unto which I yet Preface this That I must not nor dare I say that there is no material Fire in Hell ordained for Punishment to Mens Bodies but that it is Rational that the Body having sinned as well as the Soul it should have a meet recompence of Reward suited thereto
Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
Spirit and in the substantial Faculties of it assimulated to him made in his Image a Spirit as God is that hath an Understanding and other Faculties to receive and take in from him what he is pleased to pour forth into it by them and is accordingly more sensible thereof than the Senses of the Body are or can be supposed to be from Creatures The Prophet Nahum seems to have considered this chap. 1. v. 5 6. When setting out God's Wrath to Men in the effects of it he first considers how it works upon inanimate Creatures that are at such a distance in respect of the kind of their being from God's It kindleth a Fire says he which maketh the Hills to melt and the Eaath is burnt up at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein which he will one day burn up with Fire Now from these the Prophet infers and raiseth up our thoughts Doth he work thus upon insensible Creatures as the Hills and the Earth and the whole World Do the Elements melt with fervent heat Are the Heavens shrivel'd up as a Scrole of Parchment afore him by the violence of that Fire which he sends forth Consider then O consider ye Sons of Men how will the Fire of his Wrath work upon your intellectual Souls And as unto this Scope and Coherence with the former I understand what follows verse 6. Who can stand afore his Indignation who can abide in the fierceness of his Anger He here turneth his Speech and applieth it to Men. For the Souls of Men being in their beings and kind nearer of kin to him Spirits as he is the great Spirit and the Father of Spirits which were made only for God and to be filled with God have accordingly a more intimate sense of his Workings on them And 't is as if he had said If then he sends forth such a Fire as melts and dissolves the Earth Mountains of Iron or Brass how much more will it be able to melt Wax And such are Mens Souls to God comparatively to other Creatures Christ speaking of his Soul when he had thus to do with God in the Day of his Anger Psal 22. 14. that Psalm was all made of him My Heart is melted like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels And towards this Sence doth Sanctius seem to understand that Complaint of Job's uttered to his Friends concerning those Terrors of God which he felt within him Job 6. 4 11. verses compared Is my Strength the Strength of Stones Or is my Flesh my Nature or Constitution of Brass that I should be able to encounter with this Indignation of the Almighty Stones and Brass have no sense in them or but a dull sense if their Opinion should hold true de sensu rerum they have no Blood nor Spirits to make them sensible of these Arrows of God's Anger he had spoken of vers 4. Ay but Job meaneth to say I have a Soul made of other Metal suited to God the great Spirit whose Arrows I feel which is exquisitely sensible of all his Actings Take the Statue of a Man made of Brass or cut out of Stone and slash and cut him and he feels it not but cut the same Limbs that answer to these in a living Man made of Flesh and Blood with the same knife and what Torture is it You may see this and aggravate it to your selves by what inferior Spirits to this great Father of Spirits as Angels and Devils can work upon Man's Soul that is a Spirit like themselves being yet inferior to them When Saul had but one evil Spirit sent from the Lord how distracted and terrified was he tho in the midst of the enjoiments of a Kingdom 1 Sam. 16. 14. Also that great Apostle that had his Spirit fortified as having been newly feasted with the Joys of Heaven and that not as at a distance only but as a Spectator that stood by present there 2 Cor. 12. Yet one Angel Satan buffeting him he was so disturbed and put to it as he knew not what to do or how to bear it only God told him My Grace is sufficient for thee Well but do Mens Souls in Hell fight with Flesh and Blood yea or with Principalities and Powers chiefly No that is but whilst they are the Rulers of this World as there 't is added And yet if these Spirits have such power over our Spirits to buffet and terrify them what hath God the Father of them Again consider how the Soul is capable of more Joys and Sorrows than the Bodily Senses are and this by how much it doth exceed them in its Eminency and Capacity The Soul is able to drink up all the Pleasures the whole Creation can afford the Bodily Senses or they bring in to drink them up I say even at one Draught and yet would in the midst of it still cry Give Give Now as it is in the Body of a Man look whatever part is capable of more Pleasure it is also capable more of Pains So the Soul proportionably look how capable it is of greater Joys as it is from God it is as much of Sorrows also unto the same extention and intention of them Add II. As to this Point That as the Soul is thus vastly capable of more Sorrow and Anguish So further that these Souls to be punisht are filled with Sin and in that respect termed Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Rom. 9. 22. Take a Barrel of Wood and of it self it will burn as it is Wood but if withal it be Pitcht within and full of Tar and combustible Matter it will burn more rageingly Of unfruitful Branches Apostatizing from Christ it is said John 15. 6. That they are cast into the Fire and they are burned that is they burn to purpose make a mighty Fire That Clause And they are burned is added by way of Auxesis or Emphasis else it needed not We see when Sins were but laid upon Christ by Imputation who in himself was separate from Sinners and had no Conscience of Sin how yet the Anger of God against Sin dealt with him as undertaking to be a Surety for Sin And can you drink says Christ the Cup that I am to drink of that is so as to bear it and not be overcome with it Now in Luke 23. 31. you may see how Christ infers from his Sufferings as being the Sufferings of one who had not been himself personally guilty of Sin what therefore with difference those in whom Sin is inherent must expect Weep for your selves says he for if they do those things to the green Tree what will be done in the Dry that is who are fit combustible Matter for the Fire and as the Prophet says are as Stubble fully dry Nahum 1. 10. And of the terribleness of God's Anger he had afore discoursed as was even now observed in all that Chapter Again III. In the Soul some Faculties are more capable of Anguish from his
to avoid the Terror of thy Looks Now all this I can do says God with a meer Look whenever I please And I can as easily save also as I can thus destroy which thou canst not do thine own Soul as the next Verse insinuates Then will I confess thine own hand can save thee You see he resolves saving and destroying into the same Power of his and maketh the same estimate of either which the Apostle also doth chap. 4. 12. There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy My Exhortation therefore in fine is Let us not fear Creatures but fear Him and make him your dread and learn to know what a God ye walk before every day and have for ever to do withal Christ that came out of his Bosom knowing him doth Luke 12. 4. 5. compared with Mat. 10. 26. 28. upon knowledg of this God make this same Exhortation I say to you says he and I will forewarn you he says it twice and it is as if he had said Take it from me that know him Fear him that is able to destroy Body and Soul The Apostle succenturiates We know him that hath said Vengeance is mine so here Heb. 10. And again We knowing the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. which they know by an estimate taken from his Goodness that his Wrath must be answerable And Moses also that had seen his Back-parts and his Glory He cries out Who knows the power of thine Anger Hypocrites and carnal Professors as those were whom God professedly takes to task Psal 50. think to play with the great God and deal with him any how as we say as with a Man that is their Fellow They know him not Psal 50. 21. These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And what things they had done and were guilty of see if thou hast not been guilty of the same or like the 18 19 20 verses shew When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been partaker with Adulterers Thou givest thy Mouth to Evil and thy Tongue frameth Deceit Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother thou slanderest thine own Mothers Son And God was silent or long-suffering The like you have Isa 57. 11 12. Of whom hast thou been afraid that thou hast lied and hast not remembred me nor laid it to thy Heart Have not I held my peace even of old and thou fearest me not c. But mark what is the issue of all this in Psal 50. 21. it follows But I will reprove thee and set them in order afore thee They had never felt the smart of his Anger in all their Lives and little thought that the Lion was in him but it follows Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in peices and there be none to deliver Oh take heed and turn to him or on the sudden he will start up like a mighty Lion and tear your Souls in pieces as a Giant might do Cobwebs and prey upon the Blood of your very Souls and break the Bones thereof as a Lion could of the most silly Creature Add to this MEDITATION Consider What it is to die and what the State and Condition of the other World is It is to have to do with God immediately either in Wrath or Love and from his own hands as well as from the immediate Sentence of his Mouth to receive thy Weal or Woe That we come naked into this World and go as naked out of it was Job's Meditation first after that David's Psal 49. 15. We shall carry nothing away that is of what belongs to this World then after him Solomon the Son Eccles 5. 15. As he came forth of his Mothers Womb speaking of Man naked shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his Labour which he may carry away in his Hand The Effect of which divine Meditation comes to this To put secure and careless Man upon the consideration of his immortal Souls Condition which first cometh into this World naked as well as his Body And poor thing the meaning of its first cry if the Soul it self could then speak out its mind is I am an empty thing and have brought nothing with me who will shew me any good But after its being grown up it begins to find a World richly furnished with all things to enjoy as the Apostle's Phrase is 1 Tim. 6. 17. But yet again when he goes out of this World he is then turned out of House and Home as perfectly naked as he came into it and as Rev. 18. 14. The Fruits that thy Soul lusted after and all things which are dainty and goodly are departed from thee and thou shalt find them no more at all Death is therefore compared unto the breaking or failing of a Merchant or Tradesman proving Bankrupt Luke 16. 9. That when ye fail c. says Christ of which I have elsewhere spoken Now if this be thy case as to this and that other World think with thy self what thine eternal Soul must then betake it self unto and also unto whom in that other World My Doctrinal part hath informed you that it is God himself God immediately Eccl. 12. 7. The Spirit returns unto him that gave it To explain which There was that evident difference put in the making man's Soul at first from that of his Body That God made the Body out of the Earth but the Soul was breathed in by God and therefore not out of any preexistent matter as the Souls and Forms of all other living things are And upon this dissolution or separation of each from other it is that Solomon says Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Soul to God that gave it that is to say the same common Law befalls either in their kind that to other things in their kind they are reduced unto their first Principles And so look as the Body is materially resolved into the Earth which was the first matter of it so according to some kind of Analogy thereunto and so far as the Soul is capable of a like return unto God the Soul returns to God that gave it as having been the immediate Original of it not materially as a Spark is out of the Fire but as the immediate Efficient It came from God by way of Gift God gave it that is freely and voluntarily produced it by a sole single free Act of his Will and Power whereby he created it out of nothing and so in the whole of it it was an entire and meer Gift of his And therefore in the beginning of his Exhortation verse 1 of this Chap. he had aforehand laid this as a Foundation for it Remember thy Creator or Creators and is so stiled because he is in a more special manner thy Creator than of our Bodies or of other Creatures and that because himself
Graces set in opposition unto our Outward Man the Body with its Appurtenances which he saith daily perisheth that is is in a mouldring and decaying condition Chap. 5. ver 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens In this first verse of this fifth Chapter he meets with this Supposition But what if this outward Man or earthly Tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pull'd down what then shall become of this inner Man And he resolves it thus That if it be dissolved we have an House a Building of God in the Heavens And what is the We but this inner Man he had spoken of renewed Souls which dwell now in the Body as in a Tabernacle as the Inmates that can subsist without it And it is as if he had said If this inward Man be destituted of one House we have another God that in this Life was so careful over this inner Man to renew it every day hath made another more ample provision against this great Change It is but its removing from one House to a better which God hath built As your selves to speak in your own Language if Wars should beset you and your Country-House were plundered and pull'd down you would comfort your selves with this I have yet a City-House to retire unto Neither is the terming the Glory of Heaven and that as it is bestowed upon a separate Soul an House alien from the Scripture-Phrase Luke 16. 9. That when you fail they may receive you into everlasting Habitations Death is a Failing 't is your City-Phrase also when a Man proves Bankrupt a Statute of Bankrupts comes forth then upon your old House Statutum est omnibus semel mori and upon all you have and then it is a receiving or entertaining that otherwise desolate Soul into everlasting Habitations that is into an House eternal in the Heavens as the Text. Nor yet is the Phrase of terming Heaven a City-House remote neither for Heb. 11. 13. Abraham and the Patriarchs died in Faith Mark that In Faith or Expectation of what He had told us ver 10. He looked for a City whose Builder is God What is a City but an Aggregation and Heap of Houses and Inhabitants Multitudes had died afore Abraham and gone to Heaven from Adam Abel Seth downwards and God promiseth him Peace at his Death and a being gathered to those Fathers Gen. 15. 15. There was then a City built and already replenish'd with Inhabitants and amongst others an House provided for him that is his Soul built of God and ready furnished against this Removal Verse 2. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven In this Verse he utters the working of the Affections of Christians towards their being cloathed upon with this House and so in order to this enjoiment of it their desiring even to be dissolved which Paul also utters of himself Phil. 1. Now if the first Verse speaks of the Glory of a separate Soul when he calls it an House this second verse must intend the same Verse 3. If so be that being cloathed we shall not be found naked In this Verse he gives an wholesom Caution by the way and withal insinuates why he used the word cloathed upon in the fore-going Verse thus speaking of the Glory of such a separate Soul even because it is absolutely necessary that all our Souls be found cloathed first and renewed with Grace and Holiness and not be found naked at our Deaths that is not devoid of Grace and so exposed to Shame and Wrath as Rev. 16. 15. Verse 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life The fourth Verse gives a genuine and sincere Account why a Christian doth thus groan and that after dissolution it self in order to this Glory which he sets out with an accurate distinction of their desires of dissolution in difference from like desires in all other Men First Negatively not for that being burthened we desire to be uncloathed or dissolved that is simply for ease of those Burthens nor out of a despising of our Bodies we now wear as their Heathen Wise-men and Philosophers did and others do No. But secondly Positively For this as the top-ground of that Desire That we would be cloathed upon with that House spoken of Verse 1. and that still taken in the Sence spoken of in the second Verse to the end that this mortal animal Life which the Soul tho immortal in it self now leads in the Body full of Sins clogg'd with a Body of Death and Miseries each of which hath a Death in it and so it lives but a dying Life that this Life may be exchanged yea swallowed up by that which is Life indeed the only true Life the knowing God as we are known and enjoying him All which as to our Souls is truly performed at our Dissolution although the final swallowing up the Mortality of our Bodies also doth yet remain to be accomplished which will be done at the latter day at that Change both of Body and Soul tho in respect of the Body it will be compleated as then more fully This Interpretation and the suting of all the Phrases used in this 4th Verse to hold good of this Exchange at Death I cannot through straitness of time give an account of now I have lately and very largely done it elsewhere This for the Coherence I hasten to my Text. TEXT Verse 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit THe Current of the four former Verses running thus steadily along in this Chanel the Stream in this Verse continues still the same There is one word in this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this self-same thing God hath wrought us which serves us as a Clue of Thread drawn through the Windings of the former Verses to shew us that one and the same Individual Glory hath been carried on all along and still is in this Verse also So then we see where we are What this self-same thing should be ask the first Verse and it will tell you it is that House eternal in the Heavens a Building of God prepared by him against the time that this earthly House is dissolved Ask the second Verse it is the same House we groan to be cloathed upon with when the other is pulled down Ask the fourth Verse and more plainly It is that Life which succeeds this mortal Life the Soul now lives in this Body and swallows up all the Infirmities thereof And then here it follows Even for this self-same thing c. So then if the Glory of the separate Soul be the Subject of any of these Verses then of all and so of this Verse
Temple of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us And that it is the Soul the Apostle hath here in his Eye in this Discourse of his in my Text as that which he intends the Subject here wrought upon appears if we consult the Well-head of his Discourse about the Soul which is the 16. ver of the 4. Chap. Our inward Man says he is renewed c. there is your wrought upon here whilst the outward the Body perisheth Which Soul in being call'd the inward Man connotates at once both Grace and the Soul conjunct together and distinct from the Body as well as from Sin and Corruption Elsewhere it is declared the subject first and originally wrought on Eph. 4. 23. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Look round about the Text and what is the Vs wrought on plainly this Inward Man by the Coherence afore and after Ask yet 1. If our earthly Tabernacle that is our Body be dissolved we have c. that is This inner Man our Souls have for the Body is supposed dissolved So likewise ver 4. We in this Tabernacle that is our Souls in these Bodies More expresly after ver 8. our very Souls not only whilst in our Bodies but when separated from our Bodies have the We given them We are willing to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. The We present with the Lord and absent from the Body is nor can be no other than a separate Soul in its estate of Widowhood And so here ver 5. Hath wrought Vs the Soul bears the Person carries away the Grace with it Add to this the Time here specified in Observa quôd non in futuro dicit Parabit â—s Non demumparabitur ubi jam induendum est c. Musc in locum the Text in which we are wrought upon It is but this Life and during the term thereof Hath wrought us says the Apostle not in the future Who shall work us for it That hath wrought referring to the work of Conversion at the first Who hath made us meet to be partakers c. Col. 1. 12. and who doth continue still to work us the Peterperfect being often put by the Apostle for the Present God renewing the inner Man Day by Day Chap. 4. 16. So working upon it in order to this self-same thing continually Unto which Words there these here have an evident aspect yet so as that time of working is but during this Life For it is whilst the outward Man is mouldring and that by Afflictions which during this moment work an eternal weight of Glory ver 17. and that is expresly said to be but this present time Rom. 8. So then there is no Parabit in that other World But as Solomon says of Man There is no work after this Life No remembrance Eccl. 9. 10. says David namely which Psal 6. 5. hath any influence into a Man's Eternity So there is no working upon us in order thereunto after Death God hath done his Do hath wrought and Man hath finished his course as Paul of himself and in this Chapter of my Text ver 10. Every Man receiveth the things done in his Body be they good or evil Those things that are done in this Body only therefore only what in this Life he hath wrought And for this he hath wrought us says the Text. §. These things premised I come to the Argument to be raised out of them to prove the Point in hand First that Grace or Holiness because they are immediately wrought in the Soul that therefore when the Body dies the Soul shall be taken up into Life That this is a meet and congruous Ordination of God the Scripture it self owns and seems so to pitch the reason of it in Rom. 8. 10 11. And if Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you He gives an account of what is to become hereafter both of the Bodies and Souls of them in whom Christ is 1. First for the Body that is condemned to die The Body is dead because of Sin By Body I understand the same which he in the 11th Verse terms the mortal Body to be raised up which says he is dead that is appointed to die as one sentenced to Death you term a dead Man And this because of Sin It was meet that that first threatning of dying should have some effect to evidence the Truth of God therein Only God is favourable in his Ordination in this that he arresteth but the Body the less principal Debtor but that to be sure shall pay for it It is appointed to all Men once to die even for Men that are in Christ as this place of the Romans hath it Then 2. follows what remains the Soul of such an one when the Body dies But says he speaking by way of exception and contrary fate too The Spirit is Life because of Righteousness The Spirit is the Soul in contradistinction to the Body this when the Body dies is Life He says not Living only or immortal but is swallowed up into Life And why because of Righteousness which is Christ's Image and so preserves and by God's ordination upon dying elevates the Soul which is the immediate and original Subject of it which is the Point in hand For this thing it is God hath wrought it But then because the Query would be Shall this Body for ever remain dead because of this first Sin and bear this Punishment for ever No Therefore 3. he adds He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies So at last and then bringing both Body and Soul together unto compleat Glory And the congruity of Reason that is for this appointment is observable something like to that 1 Cor. 15. As by Man came Death so by Man came also the Resurrection from the Dead For that Sin that condemned us to this Death we had from the first Adam by bodily Generation as the channel or means of conveying it who was as other Father of our Flesh The Arrest therefore goes forth against the Body which we had from that Adam because of that Sin conveyed by means of our Bodies for tho I must not say the Body defiles the Soul or of it self is the immediate Subject of Sin yet the original Means or Channel through which it comes down and is derived unto us is the Generation of our Bodies The Body therefore congruously pays for this and the Death thereof is a Means to let Sin out of the World as the propagating it was a means to bring Sin in But an holy Soul or Spirit which is the Off-spring of God having now true Holiness and Righteousness from the second Adam communicated to it
contradict He that believeth hath eternal life c. and shall never no not for Joh. 9. 51. 11. 26. a moment die and in those Promises it is not simply a sluggish Immortality but to live and act and enjoy God which is our life must needs be meant Or we must on the other side affirm That the life of Faith ceasing and God yet having that way wrought all that ever he intendeth That then Sight of God face to face must come in its place which indeed the Apostle in that 1 Cor. 13. affirms in saying ver 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is but in part is done away There is not an utter ceasing of the imperfect and then an interval or long space of time to come between and then that which is perfect is to come but the imperfect is done away by the very coming of that which is thus perfect And in the 12th Verse he explains himself That the imperfect is this our seeing Now in a glass darkly that is by Faith and that perfect to be that seeing God face to face as that which presently entertains us in that other world Nay the Apostle admits not so much as a moment of cessation but sayes That the imperfect is done away ver 10. and vanisheth as ver 8. by the coming in of the perfect upon it and so the imperfect namely Faith is swallowed up of the perfect namely Sight And then further if we thus grant as we must this separate Soul to have this sight or nothing now left it to enjoy God any way by Then it can be no other than Glory it is admitted unto For the sight of God face to face and to know as we are known is the very essence of Glory as it differs from Faith Neither is that ultimate Enjoyment or happiness in God which Souls shall have after the Resurrection any other in Name or Thing than the sight of God as it is thus distinguished from Faith although it shall be then raised and intended unto far higher degrees of Perfection § And for a Conclusion of this first Point that which follows in that place lately cited out of 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls may as fitly serve for the confirmation of all these latter fore-going Notions as to any other sense Interpreters have affixed I am aware how these words Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls are interpreted of that joy unspeakable and full of glory which the Verse afore had spoken that many Saints through believing do in this life enjoy as being salvation imperfect and the earnest of it in the same kind and so a part of the Reward of Faith received in hand as we say or aforehand and vouchsafed over and above the ordinary way of living by Faith This interpretation I no way gainsay nor will go about to exclude for I know it doth consist with that other I am about to give and is subordinate to it And I have learned to take the most comprehensive sence the holy Ghost may be supposed to aim at in any Scripture But if this sence should directly alone obtain yet by consequence and at the rebound it doth strongly argue the Point in hand For if whilst Faith continues God is pleased to vouchsafe the Soul through believing such joys much more when Faith ceaseth he will vouchsafe the same Soul a fuller enjoyment of himself at the ending of Faith For why else are these present joys termed Salvation and that as distinct from that right to salvation which otherwise Faith at all times estates us into but for this that these joys are an entrance into and a taking possession of Glory over and above what ordinarily Faith giveth And therefore they have the name given them as being the earnest of the same kind unto that greater fum is to be paid as in all Contracts it useth to be at the end of that performance on one part which end is when Faith ends And so that is made the set Date or time when this full payment is to begin which this earnest aforehand bindeth God unto And it were hard to suppose that God would give such a part of these joys even whilst Faith continues for so long a time as until the Resurrection and then withdraw all communication of himself both in Joy and Faith also But I leave the prosecution of this Argument till I come to those words Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit I also know that by this phrase The salvation of our souls the Soul being the eminent part of man is often in Scripture by a Synecdoche put for the whole person And I must not deny but that ultimately it is intended here it extending it self to the whole of Salvation first and last after Faith ended Which sense on the other hand many interpreters are for I only contend for this That the salvation of the soul is intended also of that Salvation which falls out in the midst between these joys the earnest in this life and that ultimate Salvation at the Resurrection that is the Salvation of the Soul whilst separate as being the next It hath a weight in it that Salvation and Damnation should so often be said to be of the soul by Christ himself as Mat. 26. 16. What shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and so provide for his body and lose his own Soul And again in speaking of the Soul as considered apart from the Body Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that are able to kill but the body and are not able to kill the soul But that which is more conjunct to my purpose it is observable that this our Apostle Peter should choose to use in this Epistle more than any other Apostle this phrase of Soul in relation to Salvation either as being the eminent subject and sometimes as the single subject both of Grace and Salvation So in this Chapter You have purified your souls c. as the immediate susceptive of the incorruptible seed as was observed Then again in chap. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul and 8. 25. Ye are returned to the Bishop of your Souls Which he speaks as being the eminent part and upon separation from the body the special charge he hath pastoral care of And more directly to our purpose ch 4. last v. he exhorts them when they come to die to commit their souls to God as then being to be separate from their bodies Now it were hard to think that this Salvation to come should bear the title and name of the salvation of the soul in this and other Scriptures and Heb. 10. v. last Jam. 5. v. last that yet when this Soul shall in the other World come to subsist for a long time single and alone and then be properly and without figure A meer soul without a
body a lonesome soul That during that state it should not be the subject of this Salvation and so intended here when more properly and literally if ever it is the salvation of the Soul And it would be yet more strange that the phrase salvation of the Soul should be wholy restrained unto that estate of the Soul when remitted to the body at Resurrection and onely unto that And that word the soul should serve onely synecdochically as a part put to signifie the whole man as then it is to be raised up but especially it were strangest of all if it should be confined and limited in this place of Peter wherein this salvation of the soul is set forth for the comfort of such as were to lay down their tabernacles of their bodies for Christ as this Peter speaks of himself in the next Epistle and whose faith was then to cease with their lives whose expectations therefore he would in this case certainly pitch upon that salvation of the soul next which is this of the soul separate To confirm all which That which further invited me to this place was this phrase The end of your Faith especially upon the consideration that he speaks it unto such Christians who in these times were as he foretells ch 4. ver 4. shortly to be martyred and at present were sorely tried v. 7. of this Chapter and in the last verse of the fourth he thereupon instructeth and exhorteth them to commit their souls when they die to be kept by God And so understood in a proper and literal sence this salvation of their souls is in all respects termed The end of their Faith First in that it is the next and immediate event that Faith ends and determines in as Death is said to be the end of life So noting forth that when Faith ends this Salvation of the Soul begins and succeeds it The end of a thing signifies the immediate event issue period thereof As of wicked men it is said whose end is destruction Phil. 3. Heb. 10. last v. Apostacy and unbelief are said to be a drawing back unto perdition And on the contrary there Faith is termed a believing to the salvation of the Soul And both note out the final event onsequent of each and salvation of the soul to be the end of faith when men continue and go on to believe until their faith arrive at and attaineth this Salvation of the Soul To this sence also Rom. 6. 22. You have your fruit in holiness and the end everlasting life And the Apostle Peter having in the foregoing verses celebrated the fruits and workings of their faith in this life as in supporting them gloriously under the sorest trials v. 7. and then sometimes filling their hearts with joy unspeakable and glorious v. 8. he here at last concludeth with what will be the end or issue of it in that other life when faith it self shall cease and what it is that then they shall receive Receiving after all this the end of your faith the salvation of your souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present by a frequent and usual Enallage of time being put for the future for ye shall receive or being about to receive to shew the certainty of it that when Faith shall end you may be sure on 't even of that Salvation that great Salvation so spoken of by the Prophets v. 10. of your souls which as it hath no end to be put unto it as Faith hath so no interruption or space of time to come between during which your souls should not be actually saved A salvation of your souls singly whilst through death they shall so exist as well as of the same souls primarily and more eminently when both soul and body shall be reunited 2. The end of your Faith that is of your aims and expectations in your Faith the end importing the aim or expectation which is also proper and a literal sence of that word And upon this account also the salvation of the soul when they should die that being the very next thing their eyes must needs be upon is therefore here intended And 3. The end of your faith that is as being that for which the great God who keeps us by his power through faith unto salvation v. 5. hath wrought this faith in you Accordingly we find it termed the work of faith 1 Thes 1. 3. Which when God hath fully wrought and brought to that degree he aimed at in this life or to use the Apostles own expression of it 2 Thes 1. 11. when God hath fulfilled the work of faith with power he then crowneth it with this Salvation of the Soul without end As James speaks of Patience when it hath had its perfect Work chap. 1. 4. compared with verse 12. And so speaks my Text for this self-same thing he hath wrought us And therefore when this Faith shall cease which he wrought for this he will attain his end without delay and you says he shall attain your end also and Faith thus ceasing if this salvation of the soul did not succenturiate and recruit it anew the end of this Faith were wholly and altogether present destructive losse unto the soul in its well-being until the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The End signifies the perfection and consummation of any thing as Christ is said to be the End of the Law Rom. 10. 4. and so the meaning is That your faith which is but an imperfect knowing God shall then when it ceaseth be swallowed up of sight which is all one with that salvation here tanquam perfectibile a perfection as that which is imperfect is said to be by that which is perfect 1 Cor. 13. 10. Thus much for the literal and proper import of the word End Now then If we take the word End in its proper meaning and the word Soul likewise in its native proper meaning also which sence in Reason should be first served when the scope will bear it then it makes for that purpose more fitly which we have had in hand §. That nothing may be wanting in this last place cited to make up all the Particulars in the foregoing Sections insisted on So it is that the Apostle Peter doth further plainly insinuate That this Salvation here consisteth in the Sight and Vision of Christ which was one Particular afore-mentioned accompanied with Joy unspeakable and glorious The Coherence if observed makes this forth clearly For whereas in the Verse immediately foregoing he had commended their present State of Faith by this Whom now though you see not yet believing rejoice with Joy unspeakable and glorious That Now you see not in this Life is set in opposition and carries a promise with it of a time to come wherein they should see even as Christ said to his Disciples Joh. 13. 33. 36. compared Whither I go I Now say to you ye cannot come but thou shalt
As unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed ver 10. As sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things ver 11. O ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you our heart is enlarged What a glorious Embroydery upon the Soul of a poor Believer will in all these things appear when finished Psal 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her Cloathing is of wrought Gold she shall be brought unto the King in Rayment of needle-work 2. For his Art and Workmanship bestowed in the glory of the Soul in the other World if any work but Christ God-man be his Master-piece it is the framing of that House and building spoken of ver 1. of this chap. We have a building of God a house not made with hands And the 11. of the Hebrews v. 10. expresly useth two artificial words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Artificer in it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Artificer in it and the Builder of it that is who hath shewn his Art and Skill in building of it So then in each his Workmanship appears I do but add this towards the confirmation of the main point in hand Hath the Great God perfected both Works upon the Soul as much as he means to work in Heaven Also prepared a Building for it And will he then think we let both lie empty of the one sayes Heb. 11. 16. He hath prepared for them a City of the Soul in like manner He hath wrought us for this self-same thing will God think we leave this his House to stand desolate when he hath been at such cost in both Doth any Man or Landlord build or repair an House and then let it lie empty when he hath a Tenant fit for it God is said not to be a foolish Builder in respect to perfecting and he is much less a careless Builder to neglect to take his Tenants into it when both are ready and fitted each for other This for the first viz the consideration of each singly §. Let us consider them next joyntly that is as they are in such a manner wrought apart so as to suit and match one the other when brought together in that manner as it must be said of them For this thing hath God wrought us Yea and therein it is he hath appeared to be the great God For therein even to wonderment doth the Glory of God in his Works appear and that he is wise in counsel and wonderful in working when he hath hiddenly contrived one thing for another when as each are in themselves and apart glorious It is said by David of himself and it is true of all men in their measure Psal 139. 15. I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth that is in my Mother's Womb as the context shews which are termed the Lower parts of the Earth as when Christ is said Eph. 4. to have descended into the lower part of the Earth that is to be conceived in the Womb of a Virgin when a Child is born a lump of flesh animated with a Soul comes forth curiously wrought c. but wrought for what in David's person in which this was spoken it was for a Kingdom the supremest condition of enjoyments in this World But in every other man that is born it is that he was curiously wrought in a fitness and capacity to all things that are in this World made and prepared exactly for it long afore it came into the World you may see it in Adam our first pattern more lively God was busie for six dayes in making this World the Angels all that while stood wondring with themselves to what end or for whom all this was prepared At Job 36. 7. the end of the sixth day they saw God to set down into the World this little thing called Man and then they ceased their wonderment for they saw all this World prepared aforehand set in Man's heart and all in Man curiously wrought and fitted for all things made in in this World richly to enjoy as 1 Tim. 6. 17. We may apply that in the text to this it appeared That he that hath made Man for this self-same thing is God both works of wonder apart and yet as fitted to each other All wonderment exceeding I might much more enlarge upon the suiting of Christ the Head and Husband and the Church his Body and Wife wrought and growing up to him in all ages both apart secretly and hiddenly prepared and each so glorious in themselves and yet put together Let us defer our Admiration hereat until the latter day Just thus it is in fitting the Soul for that glory and again that glory in Heaven for that Soul God works the one for the other apart The very similitude in the former verses do import so much He styleth Glory in Heaven a being clothed upon and Holiness here he compares to an under-garment which that of Glory is to be put over or upon There was never a curious Artist in making Garments that ever took measure of the proportions of an upper and under Garment to fit the one to the other as God hath in proportioning his work upon us here and his preparation of Glory for each of us in the World to come He hath took exact measure and his Law is that designed his own workings on both hands aforehand that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. Now the Artifice of God in both these lies in this That each are hiddenly contrived apart and yet so gloriously matcht as wrought one for the other which is an argument as of two Artificers the one in the East-Indies the other in the West should the one make the Case the other make the Watch unbeknown each to other and both Workmanships of the highest curiosity in their kind and when both brought together they exquisitely fit the one the other §. And what Have I been telling you all this while an artificial pleasant Story Doth not this Scripture tell the very same For a close do but now at last take a view and prospect of our Apostle's whole Discourse The Round and Circle whereof begun at chap. 4. ver 16. and endeth with my Text and do you not find it speak to use the Text's Language the very self-same thing 1. He tells us there of an inward Man renewed whilst the outward is a perishing to the end it may live and subsist alone when the body is wholly dissolved there he lays his Foundation And is not this all one with what the Text sayes God works Us these Souls day by day Even as the Child is curiously wrought in the Womb to subsist of it self alone in this World so this inward Man in that other 2. He then immediately subjoyns v. 17. That all Afflictions which are nothing else
for the Devil and his Angels as Christ says And what it should be that should torment them or be the immediate Executioner of vengeance on them the imagination of Man confined to worldly Agents and Instruments cannot divine or take in Other Scriptures go Metaphorically to work in setting out this Punishment by things outwardly sensibly dreadful But these Scriptures of all other that are my Texts do more plainly and without parables declare it to us in its immediate Causes and from them do leave us to infer the fearfulness For instance other Scriptures set it out to us as a Prison 1 Pet. 3. 19. large enough to be sure to hold Men and Devils The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God Psal 9. 17. As also by their being retained in Chains of Darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4. where Men must lie till they have paid the utmost farthing Mat. 5. 26. where is nothing but darkness utter darkness blackness of darkness Jude 4. that is an emptiness of all Good not a Beam of Light to all Eternity Also a place of torment Luke 6. 48. where there is not admitted one drop to cool ones Tongue Luke 15. in the midst of the most raging scorchings Also I find it elsewhere expressed by the most horrid Punishments and Tortures that were found amongst the Nations cutting Men in peices dividing them in the midst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 24. 49 51. tearing them in peices Psal 50. last cutting them up to the Back-Bone Heb. 4. 12 13. * See for this The interpretation hereof in the Child of Light c. pag. 49 50. drowning Men in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. and that with Milstones about their Necks as Christ adds Mat. 18. 6. to make sure they never rise again also unto a being cast bound Hand and Foot Mat. 22. 13. into Fire to be burnt alive a Furnace of Fire twice in one Chapter Mat. 13. 42 49 50. A Lake of Fire and so drowned over Head and Ears for ever A Lake fed with a Stream of Brimstone which of all matter that feedeth Fire is the most fierce Then again Eternal Fire and that never to be Rev. 14. 19. Rev. 19. 20. Chap. 20. 10. 14. 25. chap. 21. 18. Mat. 3. 1. Mat. 18. 8. Mat. 25. 41. slackt or extinguisht And you may with the like Analogy go over what ever else of torment is most exquisite to outward Sense But these and all else you can imagine are but Shadows and Similitudes as I my self heard one upon the Rack of terror of Conscience cry out in a like comparison These are but Metaphors to what I feel and indeed unto what the thing it self is As to say of Heaven there are Rivers of Pleasures a City whereof the Strees are of Gold the Gates of Pearl and such like they are but metaphorical Descriptions for it is God himself that is the Fountain of Life and oppositely it is said of the Wrath to come That God is a consuming Fire Heb. 12. last But these Scriptures which I have read they all speak essences quintessences And as Hell is said to be naked before the Lord Job 16. 16. and without a covering so do these words lay Hell open nakedly not unto our senses but to the understanding of us and then they leave us to infer how fearful And although these Scriptures consist of words that differ yet they conspire together in the same scope and matter viz. to set out Damnation to us in the true and proper Causes and the real horridness thereof argued from those Causes CHAP. I. The Subject of this Discourse set out and reduced to two Heads The first That God's Wrath is the immediate Cause of the Punishment of Sin in Hell I Shall confine my self to these two Heads And in handling thereof what the one of these Scriptures is wanting in the other will supply in what the one is dark the other explains The Heads themselves I shall take as I find them in the first of these Scriptures Heb. 10. 31. First that God himself by his own Hands that is the power of his Wrath is the immediate Inflicter of that Punishment or Destruction of Men's Souls in Hell It is a falling into the Hands of God Secondly the dreadfulness of that Punishment inferred and argued there-from It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God Which two are the Doctrinal parts of this Discourse For the first That God himself is the immediate Inflicter c. For Explication We must distinguish how that God performs two parts herein 1. Of a Judg to give forth the Sentence by his Authority 2. Of an Avenger a party injur'd and provoked and as such the Inflicter My scope in this distinction is that we may in reading the Scriptures that speak of this Punishment know how to put a difference and not transfer the whole of God's Agency in this matter unto that of sentencing it as a Judg only And besides that many Scriptures do apart shew this distinction there are some that still carry along with them both these Agencies or Hand of God in it together and yet as distinct the one under the term of Wrath and Vengeance the other under the Notion of its being a Judgment the Judgment of God and the Judgment of Hell-Fire * Quid à justo Dei infligitur Gerard de inferno Sect. 30. as Mat. 23. 33. Thus first the Text Heb. 10. terms it some while Vengeance and fiery Indignation ver 30. 27. then again Judgment as ver 27. a fearful looking for of Judgment and ver 30. The Lord will judge c. The like Rom. 2. 5 8 9. where all is reduced in like manner to these two God's righteous Judgment and his Wrath and Indignation treasured up Also 2 Thess 1. The righteous Judgment of God ver 5 6. there is the Sentence and destroyed from the glory of his Power as the inflicting cause ver 9. likewise Rom. 9. as Soveraign Lord he shews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authority in this Punishment ver 21. and then as the immediate Inflicter Wrath and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Power of his Wrath. And ver 22. that speech of our Saviour about this matter One Evangelist Luke 12. 5. records it Who is able to cast into Hell * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely as a Judg who casts a Malefactor into Prison The other Mat. 10. 28. Who is †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 able to kill the Soul and to destroy Body and Soul in Hell Noting thereby that he useth his Intrinsick Power and Force as the Inflicter I shall be large in handling and proving this latter as a great Truth concerning which I further premise That I would not be understood to exclude other Miseries as inflicted by Creatures used as God's Instruments accompanying this but that which I contend for is that principally and eminently above all such it is
as well as that the Soul should But yet so as either of them have this meeted out to them according to their vastly differing share and hand and acting which they had in sinning in which the Soul is always the principal Actor and in some Sins the sole Agent and Subject To be sure in Heaven there is a confluence of created Excellencies suited to the Bodies of Saints made Spiritual as well as God Himself the Happiness of their Souls and sure I am that on the contrary it is distinctly said of each and apart That God destroys both Body and Soul in Hell Mat. 10. 28. And accordingly each of them with a Punishment suited unto each The Passage of Scripture unto which the gathering will be of several others for the proof of this my present Assertion which is the subject of this Chapter is that of our Apostle in the 28. ver of this Heb. 10. a little afore my Text he there setting forth the Judgment to come in the Causes and Effects of it to be A fiery Indignation devouring the Adversaries I did but touch upon it before when I drew out other Arguments from this Text but then reserved a fuller handling of this by it self The Original hath it The Indignation of Fire But Indignation is in and from the Heart of an intelligent Person provoked which is God as the Text shews Grotius therefore interprets it The Anger of God but adds putting forth it self by Fire I suppose he means by corporeal Fire as its Instrument But why not rather The Anger of God Himself Devouring his Adversaries as Fire and so to relate to the manner of his Anger its working as represented under the Similitude of Fire seeing God Himself is in this Epistle stiled a Consuming Fire which interprets this And in this Expression of fiery Indignation which Devoureth He hath particular reference unto those of all other the most extraordinary Judgments upon Nadah and Abihu Lev. 10. 2. There came out Fire from the Lord and devoured them They are in terminis the very Words of the Apostle here And Respici videtur Historia quae est Numb 16. 35. Lev. 10. 2. Grotius we may take in also that so we may have two Witnesses too to confirm this our Interpretation of the Apostles Allusion That two hundred and fifty Princes perished by Fire from the Lord in the Rebellion of Corah Numb 16. 30. This as for what examples is referred unto Now to raise up our Thoughts unto how much a sorer Punishment the fiery Indignation that remained for these Gospel-Adversaries should be he suggests how transcendently the Gospel exceeds the Ministration of Moses Law in these Words that follow He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace Moses Law the old Covenant as joined with the Law Ceremonial was sprinkled or consecrated with the Blood of Beasts Chap. 9. 19 20 21. But the Gospel of the New Covenant and the Persons enlightned thereby have been sanctified by the Blood of the Son of God If then such an extraordinary fiery Judgment befel the despisers of this Moses Law thus sprinkled c. what fiery Indignation proportionably must it be that shall befal the treaders down both of the Book Covenant and sacred Blood of Christ And in this lies the weight and strength of the Apostle's Argument That Maxim of the Judicial Law which is annexed that Despisers died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses is brought in for that grand Circumstance's sake whereby the Apostle heightneth both the Iniquity of those Persons destroyed by Fire who sinned afore many thousand Witnesses the whole Congregation of Israel As likewise this other far transcending guilt of these Adversaries who had renounced Christ and his Blood openly afore the whole World and Christian Church So Chap. 6. 6. 'T is said they did put the Lord Jesus to an open shame and they are the same Persons whom he threatens this against here and speaks of there But still by what surpassing Proportion may we estimate or suppose as the Apostle calls us to do how much this fiery Indignation is sorer then that outward devouring them by Fire 'T is certain that Moses Law and that sprinkling with Beasts Blood c. which he argues from held but the proportion of Types †As he had expresly called them in that chap. 9. 9. and again in this chap. 10. ver 1. Figures and Shadows But the New Covenant and Christ's Blood c. of the Substance and Reality comparatively to these Then in like manner his intent in proposing these examples of Judgments by Fire was as of those that hold the Proportion but of a Type a Figure of this fiery Indignation that is to come upon the treaders down of the Blood of Christ For indeed a meer bodily Death the sharpest as those by Fire were is but as the Shadow of Death unto the second Death the thing intended here which is utterly another kind of thing In Heb. 10. ver 1. He says of the good things of the Gospel that what the Law held forth were but the Shadows of those good things to come as Canaan of Heaven Chap. 4 c. the like 2 Col. 17. And why may it not be also said that as all the good things under the Law the best were but shadows of those good things to come so that the highest and worst of outward evil things executed then were in like manner but shadows of those evil things which the Gospel brings to Light as the Punishment of Sin And we may see in his succeeding Discourse in this same Chapter how he having first instanced in the Good he after instanceth in the highest of Evil in these Words I am upon ver 27 28 29 30 31. And in like manner the like extraordinary Judgments then are expresly said to have happened to them as Types so in the Greek and Margin 1 Cor. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rudiores imagines perfectioris 11. Types not meerly monitory of like Events but withal prefigurative of Punishment of an higher kind c. What Death could be outwardly sorer than See Lucan of the Effects of the stingings by African Serpents upon Cato's Souldiers Lib. 9. to be destroyed of Serpents ver 9. and those fiery too Numb 21. 6. the Effects of whose Stings are described to be as dolorous as being burnt alive But under the Gospel Sin and the Law and so God's Wrath these as the substance are set out to be the Sting of that Death to come 1 Cor. 15. 55. * As the brazen Serpent was the shadow of Christ John 3. So the stingings of those fiery Serpents the like Figures of the stinging of Sin
and God's Wrath. Again ver 10. destroyed of the Destroyer Who was the Destroyer then Angels So Heb. 11. 28. And what Destruction or Destroyer under the Gospel is it that is typified out by these even God Himself who as by Christ is said to kill the Soul and destroy Body and Soul in Hell So ere the Apostle took off his Pen from prosecuting that Argument in the very same Chapter he in full effect says as much in setting afore them how it was God's Power and Wrath instead of those other Destroyers with which Sinners have now to do ver 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousie are you stronger than he I might confirm this Notion from other Types 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. This fore-laid To approach nearer to our purpose in hand there are two things further to be done 1. as touching the Type it self what kind of Fire that was which devoured them And the manner of their Deaths The Fire was another manner of Fire than this our Elementary common Fire This was Fire from Heaven and therefore said to be a Fire from the Lord that devoured them it was such a Fire as blasts of Lightning are which strike and blast and shrivel the Spirits of a Living Body in an instant which is evident by the manner of their Deaths The Hebrew Doctors say of it that it was a Fire which burnt their Souls not their Bodies their meaning is their Bodies were not consumed or devoured by it for Lev. 10. 5. 't is said They carried their Bodies and Coats into the Tent as untouch'd It was therefore such a Fire as Lightning is from Heaven which useth to strike and lick up Mens Spirits in an instant when yet in the mean time it consumes not breaks not so much as Skin or Flesh which our Elementary Fire preys first and most upon It was therefore a far subtiller Fire then Culinary or Kitchin Fire which suitably served as the fittest and nearest Type of this fiery Indignation and of the vengeance which it executes And this was but the Shadow The second is What the substance answering to these Types should be This I shall set out by two things 1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery Indignation It is the immortal Souls of Men these are the Fewel which this Fire doth prey upon As to the truth of the thing it self I need not insist on it But the Analogy of that as the Shadow and this as typified thereby that is the matter afore me Let it be considered that the Death and Destruction of the immortal Soul in Man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by such a devouring as Moses word is or licking up the vital and animal Spirits that run in the Body when yet the Body it self remains unburnt Thereby demonstrating that it was such a Fire as struck immediately at that which is the Fountain of Life it self in the Body and at that which is the Bond the Vinculum the Tye of Union between Soul and Body for such are those Spirits And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the Body There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of Nature to have born a resemblance so near to shadow forth the Immortal Soul as those spirits running in Man's Blood and Arteries do which some affirm to be the very Animal and Vital Soul in Man Sure I am they are as the Oyl whereby Life is preserved and fed and in the Blood is the Life says Moses our best Interpreter in this Neither doth this Shadow hold a Similitude in this particular only but in another like case as evidently The pouring forth of the Blood of the Beasts that were Sacrificed under the Old Law was particularly ordained to signify Christ his pouring forth his Soul unto Death as Esay speaks As well as in general that the Sacrifice of those Beasts did typifie forth Christ's Sacrifice in the whole of it And this was as near a Representation of that Particular as could any way be made by what was corporeal in Beasts or else in the whole Creation for a Sacrifice of Mankind or the Blood of Men God liked not to be made to him in his Worship could possibly have been found to pourtray it forth The second thing is that the substance shadowed forth by that Fire was no other than the Indignation or Wrath of the great God Himself which is termed Fiery Indignation here For Proof of which I insist not that some Shim thereof this Shadow it self doth cast in Moses his saying again and again in Terminis that a Fire from the Lord c. which hath a great Emphasis and Resemblance of this in it But for proof I ask First Where shall we find or how Omnes ignes hujus Mundi sunt ut ignis Pictus ad ignem 〈◊〉 shall we imagine any created Fire so to exceed that Fire from Heaven recorded in that Story and so far exceeding it as the Substance doth a Shadow or such as should melt down Immortal Souls You may sooner invent or imagine a Fire so much comparatively hotter than that of the Sun it self which is the contract of Fire and Light and so much exceeding it as should be able to shrivel up this Sun into a burnt black Coal as to imagine any such created Fire so transcending this of Lightning from Heaven as shall thus devour reasonable Souls and Immortal Spirits that in the substance of them as being Spirits do bear the image of God In what Furnace will you think to find such a Fire No where but in the Bosom of him who hath here said Vengeance is mine even of God himself 2. To confirm this What created Fire can be conceived more subtile or powerful than the Angels themselves are conceived to be whom as Heb. 1. 7. out of the Psalms the Apostle compareth to Flames of Fire that is in our European Language to Lightning Now then I ask when Christ says Mat. 25. 41. Go into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shewing that Man's Punishment shall be from the same hand that the Punishment of those evil Angels is what Fire can be supposed such that can work on Angelical Natures who themselves have Power over Fire of Fire of Lightning from Heaven as in Jobs case was seen None other but that which as the Apostle resolves us if we will rest in it That our God is a consuming Rev. 14. Fire Heb. 12. ult So that considering the State and Condition of the Devil I cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive Speech of Luthers Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium damnatorum It is the Wrath of God that is the Hell of the Devil and of all the damned For there can be no other Fire in which the Devils can be tormented Outward washings may as soon reach Conscience as Heb. 9. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 21. as such created
his mighty Angels in flaming Fire but not spoken of as the Causes of the Destruction it self that follows The Angels further serve to gather Men from all the four Corners of the World Mat. 13. 41 42. to hale and bring them afore the Judge and after Sentence to cast them into the place of Torment called there A Furnace of Fire but not of their making but God's They do but deliver them into the dreadful place wherein Execution is acted and performed 2. This Fire which he appears with is to burn up this visible World as a fore-running Sign to shew the fierceness of the Fire of that Wrath which shall after prey and seize upon the invisible World that is Mens Souls and Devils for ever Not that Mens Souls are to be burnt up with no other Fire than what the World is burnt withal but that which burns the visible World is an Example and Demonstration of that other Fire that is kindled in his Anger that shall in the end Burn to the bottom of Hell This as to Deut. 32. 22. what may be objected out of that place 3. I deny not from other Scriptures a created Fire in Hell Let but that also be allowed which some of the Antients also speak of that there is a double Fire there One inward in Mens Souls Another outward Gerson aptly applyeth Vermis ignis uterque duplex interior exterior Interior qui urit rodit cor exterior qui rodit urit corpus Innocentius Damnati ab intus extra Erunt in acerbissimo cruciatuum genere foris devorati ab igne ab intus ut Clibanus ignis positi Gerson Ser. 1. de Sanctis that place of the Psalmist fore-cited Psal 21. 19. unto that of this inward Fire Thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven the Lord shall swallow them up in his Wrath and the Fire shall devour them The Fire of an Oven is a fit similitude of a Fire within as into which Fire is put to heat it and the heat made more intense by the cavity or hollowness of the place Whereas to be cast into a Furnace of Fire as Christ speaks or into a Lake of Fire as Apoc. imports a Fire without into which the Matter or Persons to be burnt are cast And thus much for bare Scripture-Testimonies many other there are which might be here collected to confirm this but are scattered in several parts of this Discourse in a duer place CHAP. V. A second sort of Proofs Demonstrations from Instances both of Wicked Men and Holy Men who have felt in this Life Impressions of God's immediate Wrath And that such Impressions are Evidences of what in the fulness is in Hell A Second sort of Proofs are Demonstrations from Instances in Scripture of Persons in this Life who have felt Impressions of this Wrath of God in their Souls upon God's rebuking them for Sin And these Instances of Experience upon Record being added to those fore-gone Scripture-Testimonies will serve as ruled Cases joined unto Maxims in Law alledged both of them for the proof of one and the same thing and will give yet more clear Demonstration what is meant by Wrath and what Hell is in the fulness of it And being joined to the former do altogether give an abundant evidence of this great Truth I say 1. Of Men in this Life And if any should deny the Truth hereof or that which we have been prosecuting themselves perhaps ere they dye may be made miserable Examples verifying of both and out of their own woful Experience live to confess and acknowledg the Truth herein For God doth in this Life single out some both of his Children and others to whom he gives a taste what the one should for ever have undergone but that Christ did it for them and of what the other must under-goe for ever without Repentance Whereof those Instances that follow are undeniable Evidences And 2. These Terrors are wrought by God's immediate Hand And from immediate Impressions and Representations of his Wrath made by him on their Souls and to their Consciences For as God puts Joy into the Hearts of his Children in this Life by the immediate Light of his Countenance as Psal 4. ver 6. Lord lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us and ver 7. Thou hast put Gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased And again whom though we see not yet believing we rejoice with Joy unspeakable and glorious as the Apostle speaks of those Primitive Saints Even so when he is pleased to rebuke Man for Sin he doth the like in a way of Contraries on Men both Good and Bad correcting them by and with Anguishments from the like immediate Stroaks of his own Anger God is the Father of all Spirits and of the Spirits of his own Children upon a double Creation And if the Fathers of our Bodies Heb. 12. 9. See for these things more largely The Child of Light walking in Darkness corrected us and had power to do it with bodily Punishment by bodily Instruments do we think that our Souls which lie naked afore God Heb. 4. 13. are not as immediately subject and exposed to his Correction as a Father of Spirits And if so that then he may and doth sometimes choose to correct even his own Children with no other Rods but of his own which are the immediate Emanations streamings and dartings of his own Displeasure Which when they feel they wax pale and wan and wander up and down like unto Ghosts in Hell as if they were cut off by his Hand And that those Anguishments which either of these feel are from God's immediate Hand alone those that have felt the smart thereof do readily acknowledg for it is not in the power of any Creature to strike so hard a stroak And you shall hear some of themselves by and by speak out so much whilst they were under the present sense thereof These things premised There are two things to make this Demonstration compleat First the Instances themselves of Persons in this Life On the evidence of which the main stress lies for the proof of the Assertion The second is that such immediate Impressions of Divine Wrath are Evidences of what kind of Torment it is which in the fulness of it befalleth Men in Hell and that both proceed from the same immediate Cause The Instances are of two sorts That so we still may have under two or three Witnesses this Word established 1. Of Good and Holy Men. 2. Of Bad and Wicked Men. 1. For Instances of Holy Men there are divers of them As of Job see his complaints Chap. 6. ver 2 3 4 8 9 10 11 12. The Arrows of the Almighty are within me the Poison whereof drinks up my spirit The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me Oh that it would please God to destroy me that he would loose his hand
lusting after or enjoyment of things created or sinful Comforts in Creatures yet that the great and Foundation evil of it lieth in an aversion or turning off from God and therein and thereby there is a reflecting upon God an immediate slight or undervalue to an infiniteness of dishonour and contempt cast upon his Goodness Blessedness that is to be had in him as also to his Soveraignty Prerogative Supremacy Holiness c. which are shewn forth and laid at Stake of every of his Laws whereof Sin is the Transgression Now if indeed it could have been supposed that Sin were nothing else but that gross and crass part spoken of the enjoyment of Creatures than a punishment by Creatures only might equivalently have been even with that its obliquity of debasing its own excellency unto Creatures But it being an immediate reflection upon God Himself none can fill up the proportion of a meet and full Punishment which Justice doth require for this but God Himself I may make use of Eli's speech 1 Sam. 2. 25. If one Man sin against another the Judg shall judg him and revenge it but if against God who shall intreat for him Thus he And upon the same or like ground of Reason I infer if one Creature wrong another a Creature of the same kind can revenge it If a Man shed Man's Blood so far as it is wrong to the bare Creature By Man shall his Blood be shed so says the Law in relation to Man's day in this World But if Man sin against God who shall recompence it when God's day comes wherein he is to be glorifyed none so as to give satisfaction to his most exact Justice but God Himself Yea further if we retained to that opinion of many Learned Men That Adam's enjoyment of God for ever in that holy Estate of Innocency should have been of God but as manifested in and by Creatures and his holy Law and not as in Himself or as in Heaven c. yet this would not serve for a Rule whereby to estimate or make proportion that therefore this Punishment should oppositely be only from God by and through Creatures For whatever his enjoyment should have been whether of God mediately or of God as in Himself immediately I dispute not yet to be sure when God was cast off by him or is by us immediately and directly reflected upon even God as God which is that whereby every Man's Sin is heightned in Rom. 1. 21. the meaning whereof is that God as in Himself is debased by Sin So that as the Apostle says in the like case Rom. 5. 15. Not as the Offence so is the free Gift On the contrary upon the like ground Not as was the case or merit of Adam's Righteousness so is the demerit of Sin and so nor of Punishment Because there is so transcendent an undueness yea an injury done to the great God Himself by the Creature in Sinning over and above the proportion of all created Grace or Obedience For all Obedience was due and all Man's Reward in obeying was from the meer goodness of God which He and his Obedience and all depended upon and so the proportion thereof is no way to be lookt at either as the measure of the evil of Sin or of what is to be the Punishment thereof Sin we are sure is so great an Evil as no meer Creature but Christ God-Man and his Obedience or Suffering could have satisfied God for in the behalf of another And why may it not also be said that as none but He that was subjectivè God could satisfy God for the demerit of Sin committed against God objectivè so that Sin is such an evil as cannot in the Sinner himself be throughly punished unto the satisfaction of Justice but by God Himself efficiently that is God to be the inflicter thereof immediately A second equitable rule of Proportion that Justice requiring the fullest satisfaction that may be had will exact is that the principal Author and Actor in the Sin should principally bear the Punishment This not only Vengeance which is the second Topick doth in a more eminent manner aim at and affect but Justice doth call for it also The Justice both of God and Men. Now the principal in Sin is known to be the Soul of Man Which I shall urge when I come to shew how Vengeance also seeketh to wreck it self thereon That which serves to my present purpose which is this that in the point of satisfaction to be made unto God's Justice it is most proper for God Himself to punish Sin in the Soul in order thereunto is First to enquire What is it in Soul or Spirit of Man which God when he comes to deal strictly and down-rightly as a Judg of Mens Souls hath principally to do withal All must acknowledg that it is Conscience that hath to do with God as a Judge for it must be that in Man which is the most proper seat of the guilt of Sin which guilt is the obligation unto Judgment and Punishment And this to be Mens Consciences the Scriptures hold forth and every Man 's own Soul feels Hence also to be purged from an evil Conscience is all one and to be perfectly acquitted from the Guilt of Sin And for God no more to remember our Sins or to be atoned with us as a Judg is all one as to say that we on our parts have no more Conscience of Sins Heb. 10. 2 3 10 11 17. verses compared Conscience is that part of the Soul whereby God as the Judg arraigneth every Man It is the Hand which a guilty Soul holds up at God's Bar for all the rest of Man and is God's Witness within Man against himself Rom. 2. 15. and that in order unto Judgment as follows in verse 16. Again 2. I enquire when it shall come to the execution of the Punishment sentenced What is it in the Soul or Spirit of Man that is most directly and naturally capable of Anguish and Torment and what that part is which God may most properly strike a Man's Soul in when he would rebuke him for Sin Certainly still a Man's Conscience All Beasts have one tender part above any other that most grieves them if smitten This in guilty Man is Conscience We see it in Cain and Judas God burnt them both in this Hand in the Hand of Conscience in this World Having by these two Enquiries stated the Principal both in Guilt and in being the Seat of the Execution I shall for the Proof hereof as also in order to the clearer making forth the Argument afore us namely that Justice requires God's immediate Hand c. I shall in a more ample manner set together these five ensuing Assertions The First That Conscience and the intellectual or understanding Power in Man's Soul are God's Engagee and the Principal in a double respect 1. Conscience is responsible for the whole in Man or if you will principal in the Obligation As being that
proportions of Justice fore-mentioned which are most near and sacred to him 2. The second Assertion That it is also requisite yea necessary I speak it as in relation to Justice attaining its ends For all mediate Punishments executed by Creatures being deficient as unto that wherein the very Essence of this Punishment lies they all not reaching the Inwards of the Spirit of the Mind and Conscience and seeing that without God's wrath revealed therewith by God himself all such Punishments would not compleat the Justice of God in a Punishment in any tolerable measure suitable Then if Justice will have its perfect work and bring its Suit against the Sinner unto the ultimate issue it is requisite God himself put his immediate hand to the execution For otherwise this Work of Justice will not be perfect as yet every of his Works in their kind are said to be And so he should not only fall short of satisfying his Justice but also by not doing that towards it which is in his power to do and which he is Lord of he should not in any tolerable measure content it Especially if we further consider that when all is done that can be done this Punishment will not arise to a perfect satisfaction for the Creature 's punishment will not afford it and therefore it doth for ever suffer but only unto what may be had out of them towards it I shut this Point up therefore with this that If God be Judg Himself he will do this work Himself which none else can perform for him and without which all else would be utterly imperfect and defective For upon what hath been afore argued I may say of all other Punishments and Punishers although set by God upon a Man what the Apostle says of those legal Ordinances though instituted by God for his Worship That they could not make the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience So nor all outward Torments take them alone without God's Wrath accompanying them they cannot make a perfect or compleat Punishment as pertaining to the Conscience And all this also shews one sufficient reason of Difference why earthly Kings and Judges leave the Execution of Traytors and Offenders wholly unto others Because they have no more Power as in respect of Execution to inflict a condign Punishment than other Men but others can do it as exquisitely and their Justice be as fully satisfied thereby but it is not so here And for these causes God is so far from staining his Glory thereby which other Judges would esteem to be so as that it is the only way fully to recover his Glory And so much for that Argument drawn from satisfying of Justice A second Reason is drawn from satisfying of Vengeance or Avenging Wrath as against Enemies which heightens Justice Thus in many places in the Old and New Testament Deut. 32. Rom. 12. 19. 2 Cor. 10. 6. Rev. 6. 10. In which last place God is stiled both a Judg and an Avenger Judg and Avenge say the Saints there A Judg most commonly doth acts of Justice in the behalf of others but an Avenger is one that doth or seeks Justice in his own Cause and in his own behalf and Interest therefore the next a-Kin seeking the Life of a Murtherer was termed an Avenger of Blood Now God is more nearly concerned in this than any Creatures can be in what may concern Vengeance in them for what ever Injury This is therefore poena vindictae as of one enraged and provoked Patience having been abused as Rom. 9. 22. and so is turned into Fury Now there are two properties of Vengeance from whence I argue this being put together First that it is the property of Revenge to vent it self upon that which is principal in the Injury and to make that the Vessel of its Wrath it will never be satisfied else Now that is the Soul of Man which is the chief seat and subject of the Corruption of Sin the chief Cause of the Act proceeding from thence and that in which the Guilt arising from both doth principally abide The Body is but instrumental in what the Soul doth yea and in some and the greatest Sins the Soul hath the sole and immediate Hand This Soul therefore which is the chiefest Vessel of Sin must be the chief Vessel of Wrath. Indignation and Wrath upon every Soul of Man that doth evil Rom. 2. 8. whereof this undeniable Instance is given by God that the Soul is it that suffers for the whole Man until the Resurrrection as the Instance of the Rich Man shews And it must be no less an immediate Sufferer although not the alone Sufferer but much more after the day of Judgment unto Eternity A second thing which Vengeance affecteth is that the person that wrought the Injury dye by the hand of himself that is the Avenger It loves to do that work it self And this especially holds good in this cause of God's and seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing Vengeance He comes to be glorified rendring Vengeance from the glory of his Power I need not go about to form up any Argument from hence for these two things especially the latter do speak home unto the Point And being added unto what hath been spoken in the former Head of Justice may be sufficient There is a third thing which as I said both Divine Justice and Vengeance do conspire in and that is the utter Destruction of that which is the principal Offendor which is the Soul it is the nature of Vengeance to work the Destruction of that it is set against And in this case of Sin God's Justice also doth the same the demerit of Sin is such as it exciteth Vengeance to it And therefore in both these places which are my Texts Destruction is mentioned as the issue and product of this Revenge and Wrath. So in 2 Thess 1. 6 7. To render Vengeance on them who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction and Rom. 9. 22. to make known the power of his Wrath on those Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Destroyed they shall be though not in regard of being for they are to be Vessels of Wrath and therefore to be still kept whole in respect of being else they could hold no Wrath And that is another property of Vengeance to have the Party made sensible of its Misery and that his Enemy is even with him And therefore God upholds their Being but destroys their Souls in regard of well being Now that is never till it be stript of every Comfort and every corner of the Soul be filled with Misery For if any corner be empty it is not destroyed it will not die Now this third or last thing doth of it self afford at least a Demonstration ab effectis from the event and effects of this Punishment That therefore it is God's immediate hand that inflicts this Punishment Which Demonstration is to be added unto the former Reason which was drawn from the Causes
of it For I argue asking this Question What is able to fill the Soul of Man with good or evil The Soul which was created in so large a Capacity as to be filled with God and with none but God himself He only is able to fill the vast corners of it with either Creatures like it self may afflict and torment it much especially whilst in the Body so much as to cause it to desire Death and a being out of the Body but the Soul they are never able to destroy The Soul is a Castle so strong built as it can bear the Assaults of all its fellow-Creatures and sustain it self and not sink into Destruction Nothing can destroy the well-being of the Soul but God's Power For it is said They may kill the Body but God only can kill the Soul And else according to that Argument of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body only c. they were to be feared as God himself is if they could kill the Soul as God can do For Christ says God is therefore to be feared and only to be feared because he can destroy both Body and Soul And he redoubleth it with an Emphasis Fear him yea I say unto you Fear him Luke 12. 5. Indeed one Evangelist says Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell which expresseth no more but an act of Authority to sentence and cast into Hell as the Judge doth into Prison Yet the other Evangelist puts it upon this because he is able to kill the Soul and that only he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell He says not barely to cast into Hell as by way of Authority but adds kills and destroys in Hell when they are cast thither For God is both Judg and Avenger And therefore if it be Destruction 't is evident He only can and must do the execution And therefore in the Text 2 Thes 1. 8 9. their being punished with everlasting Destruction is attributed to the glory of his Power These are some of the Reasons of this great Point CHAP. VII A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other Divine Truths I Shall in the last place cast in some Harmonies or Congruities and Correspondencies which this holds and makes up with other Divine Truths And in such Harmonies and Concords there is much of Reason at least to confirm if not demonstrate Truths in Divinity 1. To begin where I left Hereby it comes to pass that as the Souls of Men and other Spirits were immediately made and created by God who is therefore in a peculiar respect and with an opposite distinction to the Fathers of our Bodies said to be the Father of Spirits and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh So that their last termination or end should be into and by his immediate Hands also This makes up a congruous and suitable Dispensation That look as they receive their first Being from him likewise they should return to him as Ecclesiastes speaks as to their sole and immediate Author and Creator and so receive from him as a Father of Spirits their Portion at his immediat Hands And Man 's ultimate end either way is called their Portion Psal 11. 6. Mat. 24. 51. whether it be in blessedness as their Inheritance out of his Love or Misery as the wages of their Sin And thus hereby God himself is made the end and the beginning or terminus the Alpha and Omega of Souls to whom be Glory for ever 2. Thereby also there comes to pass an answerableness and a proportion held between the two conditions of Heaven and Hell Which the Apostle seems to make the ultimate aim and determination of God's Counsels Unto which all in this World are but preparations as he calls them Thus Rom. 9. 22 23. for the shewing forth of his own immediate Glory What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory And thirdly also It is said that after that Christ the Judg of All hath delivered up his Administration and Kingdom unto his Father then God should become all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. not in respect of Being that is not as if the Being of all things shall return into God again as some have wickedly dreamed Or that God's blessed Being and the Creatures should become one that can never be 'T is a contradiction to say a Creature made out of nothing should come to be of it self and such God in his Being is But all in all in respect of immediate Dispensation And so look as to the Vessels of Mercy he will then be all in all so that they shall not need the light of the Sun and the Moon c. that is the comfort of any Creature though all created Excellencies in the Spirit and quintesence of them shall be there why should it not be also meant that the same God which makes up a Parallel seeing Mens Sins deserve it shall be all in all in Hell too in a contrary way to the other 4. And the rather this may be thought because when God shall have caused this visible World to pass away the Earth and the Heavens we now behold as some judicious Divines have inclined to think from Job 14. 12. and other Scriptures either by turning them into nothing or into their first Chaos And so there being none that is of this old World left but pure Heaven and Hell which are as two spiritual Places or Worlds and therein these two sorts of Creatures rational either those who are wholly Spirits as Angels good and bad or the Spirits of Men whose Bodies are raised Spiritual and so fitted for that other kind of World both of which are capable of Happiness or Wo from him That then these two sorts of intelligent Natures God and they being left thus alone the bruitish part of the World being done away should have to do with him for ever immediately either in a way of Wrath or Blessedness And so God shall be all in all in either Worlds and this to be the final ending and Catastrophe of all But these I urge not but only mention THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN in HELL SECT II. The dreadfulness thereof argued from all and each of the Particulars treated of in the former Section HEB. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THe second thing at first propounded to be handled was the dreadfulness of this Punishment It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God Which being an inference from the foregoing words and not a simple affirmation only do come in with an amazing kind of implication wherein the Apostle leaveth it to our own Thoughts to conceive
of and is as if he had said How dreadful must it needs be which I leave to your own Thoughts to conceive of I not being able says he to utter or express the Terror of it Hence the genuine and natural way of handling this part is to set it forth by way of Inference or Corollary from that former Point which we have dispatch'd I shall therefore accordingly draw forth Demonstrations of the dreadfulness thereof from those fore-cited Scriptures or Grounds already laid in the fore-gone Section which doth afford sufficient Topicks unto this Head SECT I. The first Head of Demonstrations from this in General That it is a falling into the Hands of God immediately FIrst let us take the main Doctrine it self as in the General it is uttered here That it is a falling into the Hands of God Himself and not of Creatures only And a being punish'd from his Presence and the Glory of his Power immediately as 2 Thess 1. 9. And then extend and widen your apprehensions to take in how fearful this must be which I shall demonstrate by a comparative Gradation raised thus I. If it were but a giving us up into the Hands of meer Creatures to afflict and they assisted by God but with the common and ordinary concurrence of his Power which joins with and upholds the Agency of all things in their workings whether in comforting us or in distressing of us this is the lowest degree of supposition And yet consider how dreadful this Supposition would render to our Thoughts such a punishment to be if God should be but as the looker on and withal the setter of them on or as in the Scripture phrase Mat. 18. 34. but only deliver us up to these Tormentors As when it is termed a being cast into a Lake of Fire and Brimstone suppose it were a Lake of material corporeal Fire only wherein thy Body is cast and thy Soul no otherwise to suffer than by what the Spirits of that Body it is united to and dwells in is by that Fire made sensible of And suppose withal the Spirits thereof were kept up in their utmost sensibleness of what torment that Fire could inflict and thy Body continually flaming as the Bush in Exodus and yet never burnt up how terrible is it for Flesh and Blood to think but this of it Or to use another comparison If a Man were bound Hand and Foot with his Mouth set open and were cast into a Pit wherein as in the Apostles Sheet let down from Heaven were all manner of Creeping things Toads Serpents of all sorts fiery Scorpions Cockatrices Vipers Adders Snakes c. Flies Hornets Lice Pismires and Frogs c And that these should bite and sting thee with exquisite Pain and Torment also creep in at thy Mouth down into thy Inwards gnaw and swell thee there How did but one sort of these Creatures when sent by God afflict Pharaoh and all the Aegyptians A Man in this case should endure not only the Pains mentioned but beyond them the torture which Antipathy cotrariety and natural abhorrency Works which is of all other most exquisite and turns nature backward as of Jordan it is said into a recoyl and wresteth it against it self and throws it off its hinges I need not instance how by this way of Antipathy a Cock makes a Lion roar a Mouse the Elephant to tremble a Serpent or a Toad a Spider sets the whole of nature in Man into an inconsistency a Man knows not how to bear up sustain himself or be himself But besides what Pains or Torments these or any of these can inflict II. Let us proceed in our Supposition a step further If God should so far further assist as to set his Wisdom a-work and that only to find out and invent what mixture of Torments from Creatures would be most exquisite of all others As if a King whose Wrath is compared to the roaring of a Lion who yet sets but others to Torment should but order ten Men to invent Torments for one poor Man as the Sicilian Tyrants did Hence Majus tormentum siculi non invenire Tyranni And then consider for the exaggeration of this unto your Thoughts 1. That the nature of Man is so framed as it is capable to recieve discomfort as well as comfort from every Creature the least Creature hath a sting in it as well as Honey unto something or other in Man's Nature if it be applyed and turned against it 2. God knows all the Ingredients in the Creatures Natures as also it is said he knows our frame and so there with the suitableness of Sense in Man's Nature thereunto Think then what Punishment from their mixture can he invent and temper and put all the Venoms the dregs into one Cup as the Psalmist speaks And as by some lesser proportion we may estimate this by what those that know the secrets of Nature can effect above what other Men as Solomon did Now 3. Raise up your apprehensions from these two steps of comparison thus first laid If as the Psalmist says He that made the Eye shall not he see speaking of that infinite Omniscience in God Himself above what is in the Creatures Say I then in this case if the Creatures that God hath made may thus be supposed able to work anguish to a Man Dolour and Misery what then can God the great God that made all these himself immediately inflict As the Prophet Isaiah slighteth the Aegyptians and their Assistance Isa 31. 3. Thus Their Horses are Flesh not Spirit and the Aegyptians that ride them are Men and not God So we may of all these Suppositions and still say these are but of what Creatures can do who are Creatures and not God Flesh and not Spirit III. That we may yet heighten the dreadfulness of this immediate Hand of God let us make a third Supposition beyond the former that God not only should use his ordinary concurrence with Creatures but as sometimes he hath done arm those Creatures with his own Wrath over and above the activity of their ordinary Sphere of Workings heating that Sword of created Powers he strikes with red hot in the Furnace of his fiery Indignation And so intending the power of Creatures beyond their Strength yet still so as to use them as the sole Instruments of that anguish wrought conveying his Anger with them but as at second hand And so as the Man so afflicted is sensible not of the Stroke of the Creatures only but of God and his Wrath accompanying and seconding it through them This would be yet more dreadful than the former and yet still fall short of what the Doctrine hath held forth that Himself is the Avenger and strikes immediately 1. This latter is more dreadful to suppose than the former yea is not a bare supposition for if God conveys his Wrath with the least Affliction and in his Providences fight against a Man and the Heart is thereby made sensible of
Correction he adds By the Breath of his Nostrils that is still measuring it as spoken after the similitude and manner of Men by the most ordinary and weakest putting forth of his Power And yet we see if he puts forth no more he blows us to Destruction when his intent is to destroy And why For of us the Scriptures use a comparison suitable thereto in saying that We are but as the Dust of the Ballance Isa 40. 15. Yea all the Nations put all together are but as the small Dust of the Ballance As that little that is left in the Ballance when what is weighed is taken forth which is easily blown away with a Man's Breath Again yet lower in Man his Nod is of less force than his Breath and yet Lo at the rebuke of his Countenance we perish Psal 80. 16. He can look on one that is proud and abase him and his Eye can cast about Rage and Destruction Job 40. 11 12 13. He had said before ver 9. Hast thou an Arm like God He riseth from the Power of his Nod the weakness of his Power unto the Power of his Arm And so may we from his Looks to his Breath from that to his little Finger from that to his Fist from that to his Arm and Hands in which his Strength is said to lie Luke 1. 51. O think how dreadful then it must needs be to fall into those Hands as here in the Text into those Hands I say that measure the Waters in the hollow of them that span the Heavens and at the same time comprehend also all the Dust of the Earth in one grasp as one of us doth a little Pebble And verse 15. Takes up the Isles as a very little thing as you would do Hazel-nut-shells out of a Pail of Water Now for thee a poor Grashopper to be taken into those hands and to be grip'd and crush'd and squeezed with the might thereof But the Scripture expressions go further yet to have this God like a Mill-stone fall upon thee with his whole weight which is Christ's comparison Mat. 21. 44. Thy Wrath lies hard upon me said Heman You see in Summer little green Flies creeping upon green leaves which if a Man doth but touch they die such a slight Creature art thou in comparison to this God Or further as Job's comparison is that this Great and Mighty God should run upon thee as a Mighty Giant with his full force the utmost of his Force as a Man doth upon his Enemy yet so Job speaks of it Chap. 16. 14. And in another place the same Job that he should take thee about the Neck and throttle thee O what do we poor Potsheards of the Earth striving with our Maker as Isaiah speaks chap. 45. 9. Or as Christ spake from Heaven will Flesh think to kick and spurn against such Iron Pricks and Pikes which run up into the Soul whilst it strikes upon them And that we may yet further have a through sensibleness of our obnoxiousness and exposedness to this Great God let us withal consider his absolute Sovereignty over us as well as his Power What an inconsiderable portion doth any one Soul and every one is singly to deal with him for his own particular bear unto this Infinity of Being and Glory to whom not one Nation but all Nations and not only all Nations that are now extant in the World but that ever have been or shall be are counted as nothing yea less than nothing What a little thing is this Island of ours to the whole Body of Nations And yet all Isles are to him but a little thing as Isaiah speaks Lord think thou what am I to Thee or any Man that thou shouldest regard him Yea and being sinful why should any Man as he is of himself think that God should have any stick or demurr within him to withhold himself from destroying him every moment For lo even the greatest of Men that have been of greatest Wisdom Parts being Sinners he hath in his distance and greatness laid them aside and regarded them not at all Job 38. last He regards not the Wise in Heart What is all or any Excellency in thee to him There is therefore no way but to turn unto him and seeing you must fall into his hands prevent him by putting your selves into his hands This great Arm of his may be held Isa 27. 5. Let them take hold of my Strength Fury is not in me There is an Arm also of another one that is Christ who can deal with God for thee and overcome him Isa 53. 1. To whom is the Arm of the Lord so he termeth Christ revealed Thus you have seen and heard something of the Greatness of this God and that but in general as he is the Author of this Punishment and thereby this Punishment aggrandized unto us and yet how little do we know of him as Job speaks §. II. The second Head of Demonstrations from the Capacity of the Soul the Subject of this Punishment And from this that it is the Destruction of the Soul II. SUbjoin hereunto the consideration of what is the eminent Subject of this Punishment the Soul of Man and that the Issue of this Punishment is no less than the Destruction of that Soul And these two which I join together will afford further Reflections to help us to conceive of the fearfulness of this Punishment And the Consideration hereof cometh in most pertinently next unto the foregoing wherein the Power of the Agent was spoken to but now in this the Capacity of the Subject or Patient and the Receptivity thereof of Impressions from this Worker That the Soul is the immediate Vessel of this Wrath that I spake to afore Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell The former part of which words evidently import 1. That the Soul alone and immediately in it self and not only in respect of what it suffers with or from the Bodies suffering is the Subject of this Punishment tho the Body also is And 2. Christ concludes that it is the Destruction of both Body and Soul You know also the Rule That the Measure of every Agent 's working upon another must be taken from the Capacity of the Subject which the Impression is made upon as well as from the Power of the Agent that works Fire works more fiercely upon Oil and Brimstone than upon Stones or upon Dust or Sands You may discern this in the parts of your own Body Rheum falling upon the Lungs doth not torture so as falling upon a Tooth a Joint or Eye How also are the inward parts capable of more exquisite Torment as by the Stone c. bred in them than the outward are by any Cuttings or Wounds Now the Soul of Man is capable of more exquisite Impressions from God's hand in that it is an intelligent
Wrath than other even as in the Body some Parts are more of Pain If a Man would avoid a scalding drop to be let fall upon any Part of all other he would fence his Eye You see how a Mote a Flie troubleth it a scalding drop of Oyl would much more So it is in the Faculties of the Soul You read there is the Spirit of the Mind Eph. 4. 23. Now God will wound even that and aims at it in this Punishment A wounded Spirit who can bear says Solomon If a Man's Flesh be torn and cut he may yet bear up himself but if his Bones be broken who can stand Now the immediate Stroaks of God are so compared by David as unto the breaking of the Bones in comparison of other dealings of God with and Inflictions from God towards us The next thing which I mention but as an Appendix to this Head is that it is the Destruction of the Soul So Christ and the Apostle again and again They are said to be lost and though Men may Metaphysically dispute that it is better to Be though in Hell than not to Be Yet Christ hath said it were better not to have been born I shall say no more as to this Head than what the Apostle expresseth this by in the 1 Tim. 6. 9. in saying That Men are drowned in Perdition and Destruction one would think for him to have expressed Death and Destruction it might have been enough to have said that a Man were drown'd or sunk down to the bottom of Waters or the like Materials that would suffocate a Man But to say he is drowned in Perdition it self or that Perdition and Destruction are the Pit the Lake he is plunged into what can be said beyond it And yet here he is not content with one single Word to express that by neither as to have said drowned in Perdition but must double it and add another Word Destruction also Destroyed therefore over and over Drowned over Head and Ears as we say and all that is in them drowned and sunk into Perdition the whole Soul yea the whole Man No part above Water Destroyed with a double Destruction both for Object double and also for the Subject of it both Body and Soul So Christ says §. III. A third Head of Demonstrations drawn from the final Causes formerly mentioned As 1. The Glory of God 2. The Manifestation of his Power THe third Head that affords matter of Exaggeration to our Thoughts whereby to infer the fearfulness of this Punishment is taken from the Ends or Final Causes mentioned in that first Section The Ends I say which God hath in and is provoked by unto this Punishment And as I then singly argued from each of them the immediateness of God's Hand therein so now I shall from each of the same The dreadfulness hereof There were three Attributes of God in Special and his Glory in Common which God aimeth at the Manifestation of in this ultimate Guerdon or Reward for Sin 1. The Manifestation of the Glory that 's in Common then particularly 1. Of his Power 2. The satisfying of his Justice 3. Of his Wrath. The Scriptures I then had recourse to do specify all these I shall speak to these in this Section and to the other in the following 1. In General that he aimeth at his Glory in it which is God's general aim and is common to these and all other Attributes is evident His Glory as it is to be manifested to us is but the result or shine of all or any of his Attributes manifested In that place of Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself that is for his Glory for that is himself My Glory I will not give to another it follows yea even the wicked for the day of evil The day of evil there is the day of Punishment the Wicked themselves also making and preparing themselves by Sin thereto but so as thereupon God manifests his Glory upon them as well as upon all things else which he hath made in their several seasons and kinds And Solomon doth mention this of Punishment as one Eminent Instance of all things else whatever that are for his Glory and which will be ordered then by him thereunto in a special manner And because it being so great an evil Men might think otherwise Yea but says Solomon God seeks and will have a Glory out of this Punishment as well as out of all things else of which ye all acknowledg that God made them for himself And so in that 2 Thess 1. 9. They are said to be punisht from the Glory of his Power that is from his Power glorifying himself on them as I afore expounded it And as it is for the Glory of this his Power so by the same reason of all or any of those other Attributes he is pleased to put forth therein I shall premise two Maxims from whence fore-laid the Inference for the dreadfulness of this will more readily rise in an infinite height unto our more serious and sober Apprehensiions The first That all things which God doth for his own Glory he will perform them like himself that is like God and so make the utmost of every thing that that subject Matter whatever it be will afford of Glory to him This Rule is ascertained to us as from the Nature of God so from that saying of the Apostle Rom. 1. 21. where he condemns the Gentiles that they glorified him not as God that is in such a manner as was worthy of him they came not up to that height of Glory so great a God must have given unto him from Creatures Now if it be the Sin of Creatures that they fall short in glorifying God as God then be assured that if God himself undertakes and professeth to do a thing for his Glory he will in the whole of it and issue thereof either glorify himself as God or never begin to essay or meddle with it but would have let it alone for ever 2. From hence take this also along with you to carry it in your view through each particular that follows That then if God seeks to glorify himself in a way of Punishment that Punishment must be answerably great and proportioned to raise up a Glory unto God such as shall glorify him As God in that way For it is the Punishment or the Judgment it self which he executes as the Psalmist says out of which this Glory must spring This Punishment as it is a Punishment is that wherein God will be glorified as God That is it is the Soil which this Crop of his Glory is to grow up out of and the Crop or Harvest of Glory can be but what the fertility of that Soil as such affords These things in general fore-laid Now 3. The greatness or vast comings in of that Glory God reckons upon from this may rise up in your view by these Particulars 1. Had it not been that in comparison of
the King of terrors Job 18. 19. were setting down his siege about him and that all the Iniquities of his heels or ways which are Deaths strongest Forces The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 5 6. were as an Army formed up encompassing him round which out of Psal 40. 12. I have shewed to have been his case and the very Metaphor he there also useth But now David was so steeled as though he placed himself thus aforehand in the full view and face of all these single and alone in the midst of them he yet outdares them all as the Apostle did Rom. 8. ult strengthned with this for the Lord will receive my Soul which Phrase of Speech to be the same that a dying Saint useth you all know And this part of his Speech v. 5. might have come in as comfortable an Use as any other of that former Doctrine the innumerable number of Sins but that this other part that now follows doth properly belong unto what hath been now last insisted on and so I rather placed both here The second thing is The opposite state of wicked Men in their Lives and in relation to their dying and also at and after Death by which he both illustrates and expounds his meaning in ver 5. to be to utter his own blessed condition at his Death v. 15. and to that purpose it is he further dilates upon the death of wicked Men in the rest of the Psalm And which is indeed a kind of Summary of what in the former Meditation I have prest During their Lives they trust in their Wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their Riches v. 6. and yet they see as the word is v. 10. that they cannot redeem their own or others precious Souls from bodily Death or obtain of God by a Ransom that they should live for ever For he sees the wise Man die like as the Fool and so leave their Wealth to others Thus in v. 7 8 9 10. That which therefore miserable Wretches they relieve themselves with against this is Their inward thought is that their Houses shall continue for ever and their Dwelling-places to all Generations They call their Lands after their own Names and their Posterity approve their Sayings v. 13. Tho when he dies he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him c. And whither goes he when he dies His Soul so 't is in the Original and varied in the Margin shall go to the Generation of his Fathers to the Company of those Giants of the Old World from whom Hell hath its Name so oft in the Proverbs And where are they all The Spirits in Prison So the Apostle resolves us speaking of the Men of the old World 1 Pet. 3. 19. And they shall never see Light or comfort more says the Psalmist But as for me says David v. 15. God shall receive me into the bosom of his Love and Bliss And then again upon their dying They are laid as Sheep in the Grave Death shall feed on them and prey upon them The first Death upon their bodies in the Grave the second Death upon their Souls And their Beauty shall consume in the Grave so as at the morning as there of the Resurrection the greatest Personages that have had such a Gleam of Glory to attend them whilst they lived accompanied perhaps also with dominion over others shall then rise such ugly shabby Death-eaten and Hell-eaten Creatures as we use to say Moth-eaten all their Beauty being preyed upon that 's his word and consumed And such shall they appear in Judgment where the upright whom they despised shall have dominion over them ver 14. But says David God shall redeem my Soul from the power of the Grave For he shall receive me Selah And for the further illustration of all this and how it relates unto Death I shall only cast in a manifest parallel between what David here had meditated about the condition of wicked Men at Death with what our Lord himself hath seconded it withal in expressions fully herewith agreeing treating of wicked mens dying also Luke 12. 16. unto ver 21. 'T is the Parable of that rich Man whose Soul was taken away that night 1. Says David Their inward thought is c. ver 11. And says Christ He thought within himself so ver 17. 2. Whilst he lived he blessed himself so David ver 18. namely in those his inward Thoughts about his Goods and Posterity And the like speaks Christ to be the inward speech and applauding himself of his rich Man He says to his Soul Soul thou hast many Goods laid up for many years take thine ease and be merry Again 3. of this Man Christ says Thou Fool this night c. ver 20. And David of his This their way is their Folly ver 10. 4. And finally the reason of that their Folly which both Christ and David give do center in one and the same This Night thy Soul shall be required thee then whose shall these things thou hast provided be Thus Christ ver 20. and David correspondently His Soul shall go c. They shall never see light ver 19. and he shall carry nothing away but leave his Wealth to others verses 10 17. But still withal let us remember what David's conclusion is concerning himself at his Death and which he placeth in the midst as the center of his Discourse which hath all this other about wicked Men round about it to the end to magnify the Mercy thereof to himself But God shall redeem my Soul and shall receive me Selah The Mercy of both which the last Use of all that next follows doth concern and so shuts up this Discourse USE Let all Believers from hence learn how to set a due and full value upon that Salvation which they profess to expect and which God hath designed to give them Our great and gracious God the more to bind and oblige the redeemed of the Sons of Men unto himself hath twisted their Salvation of a double Cord of Love 1. A privitive one seen in what they are snatcht out of which is termed a being saved from Wrath Rom. 5. A delivering from Wrath 1 Thess 1. 10. An escaping the Damnation of Hell Mat. 23. 33. A not so much as entring into Condemnation John 5. 24. 2. The other a positive part The Glory to be revealed the greatness of which no Tongue can utter or Heart conceive That Blessedness or Glory conferred on the elect Angels and that favour shewn them hath not this privative part of Salvation to greaten it further then as by way of prevention in that God upheld them from falling into the Merit or Desert of it Whereas we Men are all become guilty afore God were actually under Wrath Children of Wrath even as others one as well as another Ephes 2. And the weight of this he in that Scripture would have them put
also And to be sure it cannot be that extraordinary way of entrance into Glory by such a sudden Change both of Soul and Body into Glory at once without dissolution should be the self-same thing here aimed at For it was not the Lot of any of those Primitive Christians of whom the Holy-Ghost here speaks this He hath wrought us for this thing that they should be in that manner changed and so enter into Glory but the contrary For they all and all Saints since for these 1600 years have put off their Tabernacles by Death as Peter did and speaks of himself 2 Pet. 1. 14. and therefore the Scripture or Holy Ghost foreseeing as the Phrase is Gal. 3. 8. this change would be their fate would not have uttered this of them God hath wrought us for this whom he knew God had not designed thereunto Neither is it that those groaning desires spoken of in the foregoing verses 2 3 4. is that self-same thing here as some would for indeed as Musculus well If the Apostle had said He that hath wrought this thing in us c. that Expression might have carried it to such a Sense But he saith He that wrought us for the self-same thing And so 't is not that desire of Glory in us is spoken of But us our selves and Souls as wrought for that Glory If it be asked what is the special proper scope of these words as touching this Glory of the Soul The answer in general It is to give the rational part of this Point or demonstrative Reasons to evidence to Believers That indeed God hath thus ordained and prepared such a Glory afore the Resurrection And it is as if the Apostle had said Look into your own Souls and consider God's dealings with you hitherto viz. First the operation of his hands For what other is the meaning or mystery says he of all that God is daily so at work with you in this Life What else is the end of all the workings of Grace in you and of God that is the Worker This is his very design He that hath wrought us that is our Souls for this very thing is God Besides the evidence the work gives there is also over and above the earnest of the Spirit given to your Souls now whilst in your Bodies in Joy full of Glories of the same kind as Earnests are of what fulness of Glory they are both capable of then and shall be filled with when severed from your Bodies Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit §. We Preachers have it in use as to allege Proofs of Scripture for the Points or Subjects we handle So to give Reasons or Demonstrations of them And so doth our Apostle here of this great Point he had been treating of and such Reasons or Demonstrations run often upon Harmony and Congruity of one Divine Thing or Truth kissing another Also upon Becomingnesses or Meetnesses that is what it becometh the great God to do For instance In giving an account why God in bringing many Sons to Glory did choose to effect it by Christ's Death rather than any other way It became him says he Heb. 2. 10. For whom are all things and by whom are all things c. And so in the point of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by Man came Death by Man came also the resurrection of the dead that is it was congruous harmonious it should thus be the one answering correspondently to the other The like congruity will be found couched here in God's bringing Souls to Glory afore that Resurrection Now there are two sorts of harmonious Reasons couched in the fore-part of these Words He that wrought us for this is God I. That it is Finis operis opérantis The End of the Work it self upon us and of God as an Efficient working for an End God hath wrought on us for this very thing II. It is Opus Dignum Deo Authore A Work as he is the great God and as a thing worthy and becoming of God as the Author of it He that hath wrought us for this thing is God There is a third point to be superadded and that is It is the Interest of all three Persons Which how clearly evidenced out of the Text will appear when I have dispatched these former Doctrines I. Doctrine That it is a strong Argument that God hath provided a Glory for separate Souls hereafter That He hath wrought us and wrought on us a Work of Grace in this Life Ere the Reason of this will appear I must first open three things natural to the words which will serve as materials out of which to make forth that Argument First that the thing here said to be wrought is Grace or Holiness which is a preparation unto Glory 1. Grace is the Work And so Phil. 1. 6. termed The good Work A frame of Spirit created to good works Eph. 2. 10. We are his Workmanship created unto good Works The Text here says Who hath wrought us There similarly We are his Workmanship And 2. Secondly this Work is a preparation to Glory For for one thing to be first wrought in order to another is a preparation thereunto Now saith the Text He hath wrought us for this thing and Rom. 9. 23. it is in terminis The Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared to Glory which was by working Holiness for it follows ver 24. Even us whom he hath called Likewise Col. 1. 12. Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light Meet by making us Saints So then Had prepared Hath made meet is all one with Who hath wrought us for this thing Here The second what is the principal Subject wrought upon or prepared and made meet for Glory 'T is certainly the Soul in Analogy to the Phrase here We use to say when we speak of our Conversion Since my Soul was wrought on And though the Body is said to be sanctified 1 Thess 5. 23. yet the immediate Subject is the Soul and that primitively originally the Body by derivation from the Soul And hence it is the Soul when a Man dies carries with it all the Grace by inherency All Flesh is Grass which withers that is the Body with all the appurtenances saith Peter 1 Pet. 1. 24. But you having purified your Souls being born again of incorruptible Seed our Bodies are made of corruptible Seed which is the opposition there by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever And this is the Word he says he means which by the Gospel is preached every day unto you ver 25. and by preaching is engrafted in your Souls purifying your Souls ver 22. In no other Subject doth that Word as preached for ever abide For the Body rots and in the Grave hath not an inherent but a relative Holiness such as the Episcopal Brethren would have to be in Churches consecrated by them because once it was the
and abiding in it and being not only the immediate Subject thereof but further the first and original Subject from and by which it is derived unto the Body the Womb into which that immortal Seed was first cast and in which the inward Man is formed and in respect of a constant abiding in which it is that Seed is termed incorruptible Hence therefore says God of this Soul It is Life It shall live when this Body dies There is nothing of Christ's Image but is ordained to abide for ever Charity never fails His Righteousness 1 Cor. 13. 8 2 Cor. 9. 9. endures for ever and therefore is ordained to conserve and elevate unto Life the Subject it is in and that is the Soul This as a Foundation of the substantial parts of this first Reason out of this one Scripture thus directly and explicitly holding this forth §. I come 2. to the Argumentation it self which ariseth out of these things laid together 1. That the Soul is the immediate Subject of Grace 2. The first and primitive Susceptive thereof 3. And it self is alone and immediatly capable of Glory which Grace is a preparation to And 4. that God afore our Deaths hath wrought all of Grace he intends to work in preparation to Glory Out of all these a strong Argument doth arise That such a Soul upon Death shall be admitted unto Glory and not be put to stay till the time of the Resurrection when both Soul and Body shall be joined again together And that this holdeth a just and meet conveniency upon each or at least all these grounds when put together First consider the Soul as the immediate Subject of this working and preparation for Glory Hence therefore this will at least arise That the Inherency or Abiding of this Grace wrought in this Soul depends not upon its conjunction with the Body but so as it remains as an everlasting and perpetual Conserver of that Grace stampt on it yea and carries it all with it self as a rich Treasure innate unto it wherever it goes when separate from the Body I say it either hath in it or appertaining unto it all that hath been wrought for it either in it or by it Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord And their Works do follow them They go to Heaven with them and after them And in what Subject else is it that the Seed 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. of God remains incorruptible or the Word of God abides for ever Or how else comes that Saying to be performed 1 John 2. 17. He that doth the Will of God endures for ever Having therefore all these Riches by it and as complete as here it shall be meet it is it should partake the benefit thereof and live upon them now when it is single and alone and in its Widow's condition And it is an opportune season that by a Glory given it for that Holiness this should now appear That it was the Soul which was the sole intrinsick and immediate Receptive of all this Holiness This is the first Add also Secondly It s being the first and primitive Subject of Holiness from vhich it is derivatively in the Body Meet it was this Soul should not be deferred till Magis conveniens videtur ut animae inquibus per prius fuit culpa meritum prius etiam vel puniantur vel praemientur Aquinas cont Gent. lib. 4. cap. 19 § 3. the Appurtenance of it be united to it but be served first and admitted into that Glory ordained and by having it self first possession given of that Inheritance the Body might in its season be admitted derivatively thereinto from it after that renewed Union with it by the Resurrection Reason good that look as in Priority Grace the preparation unto Glory was wrought so in that Order of Priority Glory it self should be communicated And therefore seeing its Fate is to abide a while alone therefore first to enjoy and drink both the Juice and Fruit of that Vine it is the Root of And 3. it being in it self when separate as immediatly capable of this Glory as when it shall be again united to the Body For what is the Essential of Glory the Substance of that Life that swallows up all but as we said on v. 4. God's immediate Presence and our knowing him face to face as we are known Now of this the Apostle doth in these 6 7 and 8 Verses expresly inform us That the separate Soul is not only capable thereof but that it then begins to enjoy it Therefore says he we are always confident knowing that whilst we are in the Body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by Faith not by Sight We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. Where to be present with the Lord and to live by Sight is expresly made the Privilege of a Soul absent from the Body which can mean no other State than that of the Soul between the Death of the Body and the Resurrection For whilst it is present in the Body afore Death it is absent from the Lord and when it shall be present with the Lord after the Resurrection it shall not then be any more absent from the Body This Conjunction therefore of absent from the Body and present with the Lord falls out in no State else but only in that Interim or space of time between Let us withal view this Place in the Light by bringing the one to the other which that Passage 1 Cor. 13. 12. doth cast upon it For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known To see as in a Glass darkly there is to walk by Faith here But to see face to face and to know God as we are known so there is all one and to attain to sight and be in Christ's presence here And to be sure the Body is in no estate whatever capable of knowing God as we are known of him None durst ever affirm that For besides that the Spiritual Knowledg of God is proper to an intellectual Nature Further so to know God as God knows us and so to be elevated to the Similitude of God's Understanding is not communicable to the Body We may as well dare to affirm God himself to be a Body as that our Bodies are capable of ever being raised up thus to know God Hence therefore whether the Soul be out of the Body as after Death or so in the Body as it shall be after the Resurrection yet still it is the Soul that is immediately alone capable of that Sight and Knowledg of God And therefore seeing it depends not on the Body it is as well capable of it afore the Resurrection without the Body as after the Resurrection in the Body Only this must be added That whilst indeed the Soul is
at home in this Body this earthly Tabernacle it is not capable of this Sight of the Glory of God i. e. as to continue in the Body and enjoy it for it would crack this earthen Vessel as 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God And altho Paul as a Stander-by was an Over-hearer 2 Cor. 12. and an Eye-witness by way of Revelation and Vision of what the Spirits of Just Men in Glory do enjoy Even as on the contrary the Angels are often Standers-by on Earth and Overseers of us what is therein done as the Phrase is Zech. 3. 7. yet he was not estated into it or admitted a Possessor thereof himself no more than Angels into an earthly estate and therefore could not say whether the Revelation vouchsafed him might not be in the Body as well as out of it Whereas God had otherwise long since peremptorily determined that Question That no Man could see God and live that is at once continue in this Body and see him face to face And Paul here in my Text also determines it That whilst we are at home in the Body as now we are absent from the Lord. They are two incompatible Estates But still when that which thus lets this Body is taken out of the way the Soul it self is sufficiently capable as truly as ever it shall be §. But if this Argument from these be yet judged not home enough but short Then let us in the fourth place add what Force the third Premise will give to it concerning the Time of God's working on us to drive all closer home namely That God hath wrought upon the Soul in this Life all that ever he means to work by way of Preparation for Glory For this thing God hath wrought us which tho it might with the Enlargements and Sub-Arguments that now shall follow be made an Argument alone yet I choose to cast it into this Total to make the whole the more strong Therefore 4. gather up the Demonstrations thus If the Soul be the immediate and first Subject of Grace which is a preparation to Glory and capable of this Glory when out of the body And God the great Agent or Worker hath wrought all that ever he means to work in it this way by way of preparation to Glory Then as Peter said in the case of admitting the Gentiles to Baptism What should hinder that these Souls should not be glorified Act. 10 47. instantly when out of their bodies If indeed as the Papists and corrupted Jews and Heathens have feigned there were any work to be after wrought a Purgatory or the like Then a Demurre or Caveat might be yet put in to suspend this their admission into Glory But the contrary being the truth then c. Now the strength of the Argument from this latter superadded to the rest stands upon two strong Grounds First if we consider what is common to God in this with all other but ordinarywise Efficients or Workers that are intent upon their Ends which must be given to him the only Wise All-powerful God who is here said as an Efficient to work us for this End When any ordinary Efficient hath brought his Work to a period and done as much to such or such an End as he means to do he delays not to accomplish his End and bring it to execution unless some over-powring impediment do lie in his way to it If you have bestowed long great Cost upon any of your Children to fit and prepare them for any Imployment The Vniversity suppose or other Calling Do you then let these your Children lie Truants idle and asleep at home and not put them forth to that which you at first designed that their Education unto Will you suffer them in this case to lose their time Do you know how to do good to your Children and doth not God We see God doth thus in Nature We say when the Matter is as fully prepared as ever it shall be that the forms enter without delay Now Grace is expresly termed a preparation to Glory Also God doth observe this in working of Grace it self when the Soul is as fully humbled and emptied and thereby prepared for the Lord by John Baptists Ministry as he means to prepare it the work of justifying Faith presently follows In all his Dispensations of Judgments or Mercies he observes the same When mens sins are at full as of the Amorites he stays not a moment to execute Judgment So in answering the Faith of his People waiting on him for Mercies And thus it is for Glory I have glorified thee on earth the only place and condition of our glorifying God I have finished the work thou gavest me to do And now what now and presently now remains there follows Glorifie me c. Thus spake Christ our Pattern Secondly there is this further falls out in this Case and Condition of such a Soul as doth indeed call for this out of a kinde of necessity and not of congruity only For whereas by God's Ordination there are two ways of Communion with him and but two unto all Eternity either that of Faith which we have at present and of Sight which is for hereafter Into these two the Apostle resolves all God's Dispensations to us ver 7. of this Chapter We walk by faith namely in this life not by sight And again 1 Cor. 13. 12. Now we see in a glass Then face to face These two Now and Then do divide the Dispensations for Eternity of time to come The like in Peter 1 Epist 1. 8. In whom though Now you see him not as you one day shall yet believing If therefore when the Soul goes out of the Body that way of communion with God by Faith utterly ceaseth (a) 2 Cor. 13. 8 13. that door and passage will be quite shut up God having (b) 1 Thes 1. 11. John 6. 28. fulfilled all the work of faith The work of God with power that ever he intendeth Then surely Sight must succeed according to God's Ordination or otherwise this would inevitably follow That the Soul would be for that interim until the Resurrection cut off from all communion with God whatever having yet all its acquired holiness of Sanctification abiding in it and Righteousness accompanying of it all that while Look therefore as a Childe hath two and but two wayes of living and when the one ceaseth the other succeeds or Death would follow In the Womb it lives by nourishment from the Navel without so much as breathing at the mouth but it no sooner comes into the world but that former means is cut off and it liveth by breath and taking in nourishment by the mouth or it must instantly die So stands the case with the Soul here between Faith and Sight So that we must either affirm That the Souls dies to all spiritual actings and communions with God until the Resurrection which those Scriptures so much do
follow me AFTERWARDS So here NOW believing which is the Principle at the present which you live upon you see him not but when the end of your faith shall come you shall then see him and in this it is consisteth the salvation of your soul So that still it carries on what I have afore spoken unto That when Faith ceaseth Sight cometh yea perfects and swallows it up as was said even now out of 1 Cor. 12 13. And let me add this That the Apostle on purpose doth bring the mention of this supereminent fruit of faith Even now when we see not that believing ye yet rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious On purpose I say to make way for the raising up their thoughts apprehensions how infinitely transcending that salvation of their souls must be when Faith ending they attain to Sight to see him face to face whom their souls have loved It is implicitly as if he had said unto them Oh! think with your selves what Joy what Glory that must needs be which exceedeth and surpasseth this that now accompanies your faith in an answerable proportion as much as sight of Christ's presence and face to face must be supposed to excel the knowledge of him by faith which sees him but as absent darkly And further give me leave to improve this Notion You may take this assured evidence That your souls shall then see and enjoy God when your faith shall CEASE which will be when once your souls shall come to be separate from your bodies by death In that even now in this life it is your Souls and Spirits that are the immediate receptives or partakers and subjects of such glorious Joys The soul enjoys them though in the body yet without the help or concurrence of the body or the phantasms of it yea such Raptures do pass understanding that is the common way of understanding which by the use and help of the body or images in the fancy the Mind exerciseth in other things and which do concur with the understanding ordinarily in faith But this joy falls into and is illapsed within the soul it self immediately yea the weakness of your bodies and bodily spirits will not permit you to have so much of this joy as otherwise the soul is now capable of by faith And therefore by this experimental taste aforehand in your own souls you may be ascertained That your souls when separate from your bodies by death as well as when united again unto their bodies shall enjoy this great Salvation And thus much for the first Point raised out of the words which did undertake an Argumentation for a separate soul's Glory and Happiness 1. From the Condition of the Soul as the immediate subject of Grace wrought in it 2. From God's Ordination of the Work wrought To raise the soul up to life whilst Sin should bring Dissolution upon the Body 3. From the Scope of the Worker God himself who as an Efficient will accomplish the End when his Work for that end is finish'd And all these as comprehended in what the very first view and front of the words of my Text hold out God hath wrought us for the self-same thing §. But lo a greater matter is here It is not simply said God hath wrought us for this but He that hath wrought us for this thing is God Thereby calling upon us to consider How great an Hand or Efficient is here even God who hath discovered in a transcendent manner his Glory in the ordaining and contriving of this Work unto this great end Take it not therefore as a bare Demonstration given from God's working Vs to this end such as is common to other Agents as hath been said But further a Celebration of the Greatness and Glory of God in his having contrived this with so high an Hand like unto the Great God And is as if he had said There is a Design in this worthy of God He hath shewn himself in this to be the Great God indeed He that hath wrought us for this is God When God's ordinary Works are spoken of it sufficeth himself to say God did thus or this But when God's Works of Wonder then often you find such an illustrious Note of Reflection upon and pointing at Him to have done as God And it is ordinary among Men when you would commend the known Worth of the Artist to say He that wrought this is such a Man so to commend the Workmanship And thus both when the Holy-Ghost speaks of this Glory it self which is the End for which here his stile is Wbose Maker and Builder is God Heb. 11. 10. And in like equipage here of Preparation to that End he saith He that hath wrought us for this thing is God In this very Chapter 2 Cor. 5. to go no further when the great Work of Salvation in the whole of it is spoken of he prefaceth thus to it All things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself c. That is in this Transaction he hath appeared like that God of whom all things else are and so more eminently in this than in all or at least any other Work What there is said of Salvation in the whole is here of that particular Salvation of a separate Soul You have the like Emphasis put Heb. 2. 10. of bringing many Sons to Glory It became him says the Text. Now put all together and the result is The Second Point That to have provided a Glory for separate Souls of Just Men wrought upon in this Life is a Dispensation becoming the Great God yea and that there is an Artifice and Contrivement therein worthy of God and like unto himself such as he hath shewed in other his Works of Wonder There are two Branches of this Doctrine which I set otherwise out thus 1. That it is a thing becoming the Great God thus to deal with such a separate Soul having been wrought upon 2. That God hath designed and brings forth therein a glorious Artifice and Contrivement such as argue him a God Wise in Counsel and Wonderful in Working I. First Branch of this second Doctrine That it becomes God The Account of this Becomingness is best made forth by comparing and bringing together into an Interview both the inward and outward Condition of such a Soul and then the Relations which God bears to it such as should thereupon move him through his good pleasure thus to deal with it You know I at first undertook chiefly Reasons of Congruity or Becomingness and such always consist of two parts and when the one answereth and suiteth to the other then the Harmony of such a Reason is made up Let Us therefore consider 1. What is on the Soul's part 2. What is on God's part §. I. On the Soul's part Therein two things 1. The Species the Kind and intrinsecal Rank of Being which this Creature we call the Soul thus wrought upon stands in afore God 2. The outward Condition or Case this
which he had on Earth then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven But this only in general shews what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition §. But I having undertaken to proceed by way of congruity I must further more particularly shew how in a correspondency to this inward and outward state of this Soul he shews himself God and how meet and becoming a thing it is for God to receive it into Glory upon the consideration of many Relations which he professedly beareth to such a Soul 1. God is a Spirit and thereupon in a special manner as Wisd 11. 26. The Lord is a lover of Souls above all his other Creation So it is there Thou art merciful to all because they are thine O Lord thou lover of Souls God is a Spirit when therefore this naked and withal sublimated Spirit by its being born again by his own Spirit and so assimulated to God himself a pure Spark now freed and severed from its Dust and Ashes flying up or is carried rather by Spirits the Angles out of their like spiritual Love to Luke 26. 22. Heb. 1. ult it as a Spirit unto that great Spirit that element of Spirits it will surely find union and coalition with him and be taken up unto him for if as Christ speaks John 4. 23. God being a Spirit therefore seeks for such as worship in Spirit and Truth that is he loves delights in such as a Man doth in a Companion or Friend who suits him And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him and have such a grand occasion and indeed the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him in such a manner and upon such a change as this as they never did before these Spirits also having been the Seat the inner Temple of all this spiritual Worship and sanctifying of him in this World surely God who sought such afore will now take them into his Bosom and Glory We also read Isa 57. 16 17. of the regard he bears to Persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration that they are Souls and Spirit and so thereby allied to him the lofty One. Hear how in this case he utters himself The Spirit would fail afore me says he and the Souls which I have made He speaks of their very Souls properly and respectively considered And them it is which he considering and it moves him unto pity for he speaks of that in Man whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator The Spirit which I have made says he and it is one of the eminent Titles he takes into his Coat The framer of the Spirit of Man within him Zech. 1. 12. as in many other places This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in Man which is the subject sensible of his immediate Wrath. I will not contend for ever nor Child of Light walking in Darkness will I be always Wrath. This I have observed in what is publick of mine Now what moves him to remove his Wrath from such an one The Spirit would fail says he Now doth God thus profess to have a regard to them in this Life and that upon this account that they are Spirits lest they should fail or faint and shall we not think that when indeed otherwise they do fail as after Death you have heard even now Christ himself expresseth they would and would upon all these considerations before-mentioned sink into utter desolation unless they were received into everlasting Habitations as Christ there also speaks Do we think that God will not now entertain them The time is now come the full time to have pity on them 2. God at this season forgets not but full well remembers his Relation of being Their Creatour both by the new and also first Creation the new reviving and ingratiating the remembrance of the first The Souls which I have made said he in Esa But in St. Peter this is more express and mentioned as that which indeed moves God and should be accordingly a support to our Faith to take care of our Souls when we come to die even upon this account that he is the faithful Creatour of them 1 Pet. 4. last Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the Keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator He speaks this specially unto such as were continually exposed unto persecution unto death for Christ in those Primitive times which therefore v. 12. he terms the fiery trial and ver 17. forewarns them of a time of judgment was begun and going on upon the of house God such as they had not yet felt who yet Heb. 10. 32 33 34. had suffered reproach and spoyling of their Goods as Peter writes to the same Jews hereupon Peter pertinently instructs them to commit the keeping of their Souls unto God At death you know it is that when Mens bodies are destroyed and so the season when their Souls to be separated therefrom should be committed to God's care as our Darling as our Translation or lovely Soul when separate Psal 22. See Ainsw as others as Christ in David speaks Ps 22. And Peter had in his eye Christ's example and pointed them thereunto who at his death committed his separate Soul or Spirit into the hands of God Luk. 23. 46. and the word commit is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same in both these places onely there is this difference that whereas Christ sayes Father I commit Peter substitutes another title of God's there being more than one Relation moving God and strengthening our Faith to this even of faithful Creatour And I understand not the first Creation onely or chiefly here meant by Peter but the second Creation chiefly which brings into repute and acceptation with God the first again together with its own and so God is thereupon engaged to be faithful in his care and provision for such Souls according to his promises And faithfulness doth always respect and refer unto Promises and my reason why thus I understand it is because I find God's faithfulnesse still annexed unto his calling of us that is converting us which is all one with this new Creation Faithful is he that hath called you that is made you new Creatures 1 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Thes 5. 24. And I find that David also urges it upon God as a motive as in other Psalms So Ps 138. 8. Forsake not the works of thine own hands that is this double workmanship of thine of the first and then superadded unto that of the second creation which he urgeth thereby to move him to perfect the work begun and to be merciful unto him for ever in the former part of that verse 3. God professeth himself the Father of Spirits which relation though it speaks his being the Creatour of them at the
of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant Reward which respected the Life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of God's unto us unto two Inferences drawn from Abraham's Instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christ's Inference from thence That therefore Abraham's Soul lives and Abraham both Soul and Body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's Collection from the same Promise is That God had provided in the mean time for Abraham's Soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the Story and Case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver 8 9. whereupon ver 13. it is said That these all died in Faith not having received the Promises being Strangers in the Land yea not having a foot of Land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their Faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose Maker and Builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his Faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their Faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from God's having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his Reward and his Friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the Story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Countrey that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their death The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their God did import and carry this with it That he had provided this Estate for them at their death even an heavenly and that otherwise as the Apostle glosseth upon it he had not come up unto the amplitude of nor filled full this covenanted Engagement and Profession of His being their God Will you have it in plain English as we speak if he had not made this provision for their Souls he would have been ashamed to have been called their God thus deeply doth this oblige him That he is our God and Father which is the point in hand And judge of this in the light of all that Reason we have hitherto carried along and again let this inference of the Apostle mutually serve to confirm us in all that Reason For poor Abraham to be driven out of his own Country by God who called him to his foot and said no more but as a Master to his Servant Take your Cloke and follow me who must presently without more ado trig and foot it after his Master as Isa 41. 2. and then to live a stranger in the Land of Promise upon the faith that God would be his God which faith in him was also to cease when he came to die If this God in this case should not have taken care to answer his faith in some greater way in stead of the possession of Canaan and that after upon his being turned out of that Country too which he sojourned in during this life if God had not provided another House or Country or City for his Soul that was to live to bring it into when it should be deprived of all in this World The Apostle tell us God in this case would have been ashamed to have been called his God which now having provided so abundantly for him upon dying there is superabundant cause to say God is not ashamed for that is a diminutive imploying That he infinitely exceedeth that their expectation could be supposed to be Let us but view the force of this inference of the Apostle's and so of all the reasonings hitherto read But according to man or what is found amongst men and God will be sure infinitely to surpass men in his ways of favour Take an ordinary friend if his freind be turn'd out of house and home plundred banished driven out of all as the Steward in that parable Luk. 16. was and comes to his Friend at midnight as in that other Parable Luk. 11. 5 6. will not his friends entertain him into their houses as ver 9 of Luk. 16. yea and rise at midnight to do it as ver 5 6. in that Parable of Luk. 11. Shall profession of friendship engage and oblige men to do this and shall not God's professing himself to be our God Father Friend engage his heart much more Nay will he not so entertain them as shall exceed all wonderment What need I say more than this Wherefore He is not ashamed to be called their God He will therefore give you an entertainment that shall be worthy of his being your God The fifth and last Consideration is That these separate Souls having done and finish'd all their work that in order to Glory God hath appointed them for ever to do they now at death appear afore him as a Judge and Rewarder And that is the fifth Relation moving God to bestow at this season such a Glory on them How that then the Soul returns to God you have heard again and again out of Eccl. 12. 7. and that it is upon the account of his being the Judge thereof at the end of their work in this life The Chaldee Paraphrase hath long since glossed upon it It returns to God that it may stand in Judgment afore him In this life it came unto God by Faith as the Apostle speaks believing that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently Heb. 11. 6. seek him and now at the end of its Faith it comes unto God for the Reward of its Faith as some interpret that 1 Pet. 1. 9. which we so largely have insisted on This is certain That in that Promise to Abraham to be his God he intended and included his being to him an exceeding
but the Perishings of this outward Man as also All things and dispensations else that do befal us they are secretly at work too all that while so set to work by God who works the inner Man daily unto such a measure of Grace and these to work and by his Ordination procure a proportionable Weight for God works all these things in Weight and Measure our light Affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory as shall in a comely and in the exactest manner answer and suit that curious Workmanship on the inward-man and it is observable that the same Word for working is used in that verse that is used in my Text but yet these are but outwardly a work as inferiour Artificers or Instruments Therefore 3. He further declares verse 1. of this Chapter that God himself is at work about this Glory who as the Master-workman that hath the draught and platform of all afore him drawn by his own designing he viewing the inward work on us the outward work of means and dispensations and knows afore-hand what degree of holiness to bring us ultimately unto he according unto these as patterns is a framing a Building for us in Heaven exactly suited to the working of all the other which building he prepares and makes ready for this inner Man to entertain it when the body is dissolved If our earthly House were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with hands of either Men or Means or of our own Graces but of God But every Soul hath a State of Glory proportioned to all these ready built for it against this time even as Statues in Stone are framed and carved to be set up in such a curious Arch framed for them by the Builder Now then 4. Add but the Words of my Text which is the close of this his discourse And it opens all the Scene He that wrought us for this self-same thing is God The Apostle's Conclusion answers his beginning he began in chap. 4. ver 16. and the circle ends in my Text. And this is God who is wise in working and wonderful in counsel §. But there is a third point yet remains Doctrine III. That it is the interest and engagement of all Three Persons to see to it that a righteous separate Soul be brought to Glory at dissolution And this carries it yet higher even to the highest and gives the most superabundant security and assurance of this thing that can be given and superadds above all the former But you will ask me How I fetch this out of my Text Thus 1. You see here are Two Persons expresly named God the Father namely and the Spirit That 's a Rule that where the name God and then some besides other of the Two Persons Christ or the Spirit are mentioned therewith as distinct There God is put personally not essentially only to express the Father Now here the Spirit or holy Ghost is mentioned distinct from God For it is said That this God hath given the Spirit which also Christ so often speaketh of the Father as I need not insist on it 2. It is another Rule that in any Scripture where Two Persons are mentioned as concurring in any thing or matter There the other Third Person also must be understood to have his special share therein also as when he wisheth Grace and Peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ 'T is certain the holy Ghost is as specially understood as indeed we find him in that Apostolical Blessing as distinctly spoken of as the Father or Christ Thus it must be here Christ must be taken in who also in John is so often said to give the Spirit when the Father gives him as it is said here he hath For this same thing But 3. You have even Christ also not far off interested in this self-same thing in the next verse and ver 8. Absence from the Lord whilst in the body ver 6. and present with the Lord when separate from the body ver 8. This Lord is Christ the Phrase of the New Testament concerning Christ runs in this stile To be with Christ This day with me To be where I am and see my Glory So Christ To be with Christ is best of all and we shall be ever with the Lord. So Paul Use I. Doth God work Us for this thing ere he brings us to it What hath God wrought hitherto upon Thee or Thee in order to this end 'T is a blunt question but the Text puts it in my mouth How many Souls are there living in the profession of Christianity that know not what this means to have a work wrought on them anew upon them over and above what moral Honesty which was Nature's portion and the common profession of Christianity adds thereunto by custom and meer Education An honest Turk professing also and observing the Principles of his Religion upon the ground of his Education onely and a Religon every Man must have will as soon go to Heaven as Thou for all thy Religion is founded but upon the like Foundation that his is I tell thee that Christian Religion is not a thing so cheap nor Salvation by Christ at so low a rate Thou must have a Work upon thy Soul suited unto all the Truths thus professed in the power and efficacy of them They must enter thy Soul by a spiritual Faith and Frame and mould it anew to a likeness to them Carry home therefore the Caveat our Apostle hath put in ver 3. If so be that being clothed we be not founded naked of Grace and Holiness wrought and Christ's Righteousness by spiritual efficacious Faith applied Faith in earnest bowing the Soul to be obedient unto Christ as heartily and as honestly as it expects Salvation by Christ as without which thou wilt never be saved This is our Religion and when at death thy Soul thy poor lonesome Soul being stript of all things in this World even the Body and all shall come afore the great God and Jesus Christ what will the enquiry be as Mat. 22. 11. When the King came in to see the Guests he saw a Man had not the Wedding-garment he spied him out And the Man was speechless ver 12. Take him and bind him says he and cast him into utter darkness ver 13. The other that were clothed were admitted unto the Marriage and as the Psalmist the words of which are here alluded unto She was brought unto the King the very Title which in both these places is given to Christ see ver 11. in Rayment of Needle-work and this clothing is of God's working and so my Text falls in with both There is no admission unto Christ without it This the first Vse Use II. Hath God began to work this good work in thee he will perfect it whereof the Text gives this assurance that he hath wrought it for this thing that is for this end and God will not lose his
immediately gave thy Soul in such a manner as he produced not our Bodies nor material Substances And hence it is it returns to him as the immediate Judg or Arbiter of its eternal Condition It returns to Elohim which as A Lapide and Ferdinandus Ad Deum qui dedit Tanquam ad suum uti Factorem sic Judicem hunc enim significat Heb. Elohim ut illi actionum suarum per omnem vitam exercitarum rationem reddat A Lapide in Eccles 12. 7. In Hebraeo ponitur nomen Elohim Judex Inspector Testis unde Chald. vertit ut stet in Judicio ante Dominum Ferdinandus in verba have observed in their Comments signifies also a Judg as well as a Creator and so was chosen out here as a word more fitly serving that his scope than any other Name of God's Now then think what it is to die it is to return to God so as eternally and immediately to have to do with him And then withal consider the different Dispensations of this Great God towards you in this World and that next In this World Mens Souls having Creature-Comforts God communicates himself unto them thereby and by reason of his Patience and Long-suffering to them added hereto they hear not of nor from him immediatly the most of Men do not otherwise than in these mediate ways I was altogether silent says God Psal 50. He answers them neither good nor bad And thus tho he is not far off from any of us but Men live and move in him in respect of his Power to uphold them as Acts 17. 28. or as verse 25. He giveth Life and Breath unto all things which Clause doth interpret that other v. 28. Yet as to converse with or intimate knowledg of him he is the unknown God v. 23. and Men live without God in that respect in this World as Eph. 2. 12. But altho Men thus live without God here they shall not live I might say not die rather for it is a Death without God in the World to come I beseech you think with your selves how that your Converse with this Great God in this World is I express it by that of Men with a Lion comparatively but as through a Grate as that of the Spouse's with him is said to be but through a Lettice Cant. 2. 9. And he keeps to the Laws of his ordinary Providence he breaks not forth immediatly but lies still and quiet and through his patience suffereth and permitteth Men to walk by him and do all their Hearts desire and lets them alone But Brethren when you come to die it is as if one were turned in unto that Lion with the Grate open and those Repagula of his Patience removed your poor Souls your naked Souls are upon him immediatly and must in a clean contrary way to what the Saints do dwell with him for ever The Consideration of this struck dread and horror into the Hearts of the Sinners of Sion as it may well do in any Soul that hath not Communion with God Isa 33. 14. The Sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring Fire Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings I opened that place afore and shewed that this devouring Fire was God himself These speak one to another as Men affrighted use to do and as struck on the sudden with apprehensions of the greatness of that God whom their Consciences now awakened told them they had to do withal for ever And they look trembling one on the other and the common cry and voice among them thereupon is Whose Portion will this prove to be For it will be the Portion of some or Who of us or all Creatures is able to bear it or endure it And upon this Conference as I may term it and inquisition among themselves God by the Prophet steps out and answers them but in a clean contrary way and to their further confusion and tells them There are those that shall dwell with me thus immediately unto whom I will be Glory and Happiness who shall walk in the comfort of this Fire which you thus dread and who like the three Children in that fiery Furnace shall be refreshed therein So it follows He that walks righteously and speaks uprightly he shall dwell on high And therefore it further follows 1. as a Promise to the upright and pure in Heart ver 17. Thine Eyes shall see the King in his Glory And 2. with a further threatning to the Hypocrites Thine Heart who art an Hypocrite shall meditate Terror ver 18. Now then again seeing you have thus to do with the great God alone for ever let every one of us prepare to meet our God Amos 4. This necessarily puts you upon seeking of him here in this World and to seek that Face and favour of his in which alone is Life You must therefore also give up your Souls unto him here to live in him as in your chiefest Good and not in your Lusts and to live to him as your highest End and constant Interest and as whose Glory should act and steer you in all your ways and not unto your selves And therefore you that have neglected this great God or served him but in Formality and Hypocrisy which in Scripture hath the denomination of those that forget God who never knew what it is to have intimate Communion and Fellowship with him through Faith in Prayer and other Converses joined with hearty Love unto him and to the Interest of his Glory Think O think with your selves when you come to die that you must go to him and be with him for ever in that sence I have given Think with thy self thus My Soul will be turned naked out of this World and there is nothing no not a Rag of any of the Comforts I pursue after here which shall be carried with it from hence but it is the great God I must be turned naked unto and appear afore and if my Soul be found naked of his Image too which to have renewed in me was the only Errand he sent my Soul for into this World and if I bring not that along with me as my current Token Ticket and Pass into the other World there will not be a dwelling-place of Bliss for me to receive me into not such an one as the Apostle speaks of for the Comfort of the Saints 2 Cor. 5. 1 3. We know that if our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God if so be we shall not be found naked v. 3. that is devoid of his Image as also of Christ's Righteousness But instead thereof this great God will be unto me as a Furnace and I must dwell with those everlasting Burnings spoken of even for ever And then think with thy self again What communion or correspondency hath my Soul kept and held with God what acquaintance hath it had with him For otherwise it will be strange