the soul which is nothing else but its conformation and likeness to himself is righteousness and then peace The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That notion and judgment and sâ—vour of things that excellent temper of mind and heart for that is the extent of the expression whereof the holy Spirit of God is both the author and pattern is life and peace involves them in it self When one thing is thus in casu recto predicated of another it speaks their most intimate connexion as Rom. 14. 7. above so 1 Joh. 5. 3. This is love that c. So here such a mind is life and peace though the copula be not in the original it is fitly supply'd in the translation you cannot separate q. d. life and peace from such a mind It hath no principle of death or trouble in it Let such as know any thing of this blessed temper and complexion of soul compare this Scripture and their own experience together when at any time they find their souls under the blessed Empire and dominion of a Spiritual mind when wholly spirituality rules and denominates them are not their souls the very region of life and peace both these in conjunction life and peace not raging life not stupid peace but a placid peaceful life a vital vigorous rest and peace 't is not the life of a furie nor peace of a stone Life that hath peace in it and peace that hath life in it Now can the soul say I feel my self well all is now well with me nothing afflicts the Spiritual mind so far and while 't is such 'T is wrapt up and cloath'd in its own innocency and purity and hereby become invulnerable not liable to hurtful impressions Holiness under the name of light for that is by the context the evident meaning of the word there is by the Apostle spoken of as the Christians armour Put on saith he the armour of light in opposition to the works of darkness which he had mentioned immediately before strang armour that a man may see through A good mans armour is that he needs none his armour is an open breast that he can expose himself is fearless of any harm Who is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good It should be read imitators so the word signifies and so where as following is either of a pattern or an end the former must be meant hear by the natural importance of that word and hence by that which is good is not to be understood created goodness for 't is not enough to imitate that goodness for so we must be good but the words are capable of being read him that is good or which is all one the good And so 't is the increate good the blessed God himself formally considered under the notion of good Nothing can harm you if you be like God that 's the plain sense of this Scripture Likeness to God is armour of proof i. e. an imitation of him viz. in his moral goodness which holiness as a general name of it comprehends A person truly like God is secure from any external violence so far as that it shall never be able to invade his Spirit He is in Spirit far raised above the tempestuous stormie region and converses where winds and clouds have no place Nor can so far as this temper of soul prevails any evil grow up to such a mind within it self It is life and peace It is light and purity for 't is the image the similitude of God God is light and with him is no darkness at all Holy souls were darkness â—ut they are light in the Lord. He the Father of lights They the children of light They were darkness not in the dark but in the abstract darkness as if that were their whole nature and they nothing else but an impure masse of coâ—globated darkness So ye are light as if they were that and nothing else nothing but a Sphere of light Why suppose we such a thing as an entire Sphere of nothing else but pure light what can work any disturbance here or raise a storm within it A calm serene thing perfectly homogeneous void of contrariety or any self-repugnant quality how can it disquiet it self We cannot yet say that thus it is with holy souls in their present state according to the highest literal import of these words ye are light But thus it will be when they awake when they are satisfied with this likeness They shall then be like God fully and throughout O the joy and pleasure of a soul made after such a similitude Now glory is become as it were their being they are glorified Glory is revealed into them transfused throughout them Every thing that is conceivable under the notion of an excellency competent to created nature is now to be found with them and they have it inwrought into their very beings So that in a true sense it may be said that they are light they not only have such excellencies but they are them As the Moralist saith of the wise or vertuous man that he not so properly hath all things as is all things 'T is said of man in respect of his naturals he is the image and glory of God As for his supernatural excellencies though they are not essential to man they are more expressive of God and are now become so inseparable from the nature of man too in this his glorified state that he can assoon cease to be intelligent as holy The image of God even in this respect is not separable from him nor blessedness surely from this image As the divine excellencies being in their infinite fulness in God are his own blessedness so is the likeness the participation of them in the soul that now bears this image its blessedness Nothing can be necessary to its full satisfaction which it hath not in it self by a gracious vouchsafement and communication The good man in that degree which his present state admits of Solomon tells us is satiâ—fied from himself he doth not need to traverse the world to seek his happiness abroad He hath the matter of satisfaction even that goodness which he is now enrich't with in his own breast and bosom yet he hath it all by participation from the fountain-goodness But that participated goodness is so intimately one with him as sufficiently warrants and makes good the assertion he is satisfied from himself viz. from himself not primarily or independently but by derivation from him who is all in all and more intimate to us than we to our selves and what is that participated goodness but a degree of the divine likeness But when that goodness shall be fully participated when this image and imitation of the divine goodness shall be compleat and intire then shall we know the rich exuberant sense of those words How fully will this image or likeness satisfie then And yet more
hinder God and the holy soul of the most inward fruitions and injoyments no animosity no strangeness no unsutableness on either part Here the glorified Spirits of the just have liberty to soâ—â—ce themselves amidst the rivers of pleasure at Gods own right hand without check or restraint They are pure and these pure They touch nothing that can defile they defile nothing they can touch They are not now forbidden the nearest approaches to the once inaccessible Majesty there 's no Holy of Holies into which they may not enter no dore lockt up against them They may have free admission into the innermost secret of the divine presence and pour forth themselves in the most liberal effasions of love and joy as they must be the eternal subjects of those infinitely richer communications from God even of immense and boundless love and goodness Do not debase this pleasure by low thoughts nor frame too daring positive apprehensions of it 'T is yet a secret to us The eternal converses of the King of glory with glorified Spirits are onely known to himself and them That expression which we so often meet in our way It doth not yet appear what we shall be seems left on purpose to check a too curious and prying inquisitiveness into these unrevealed things The great God will have his reserves of glory of love of pleasure for that future state Let him alone a while with those who are already received into those mansions of glory those everlasting habitations He will find a time for those that are yet pilgrims and wandring exiles to ascend and enter too In the mean time what we know of this communion may be gathered up into this general account The reciprocation of loves the flowing and reflowing of everlasting love between the blessed soul and its infinitely blessed God Its egress towards him his illapses into it Unto such pleasure doth this likeness dispose and qualifie You can no way consider it but it appears a most pleasurable satisfying thing Thus far have we shewn the qualification for this blessedness and the nature of it What it prerequires and wherein it lyes and how highly congruous it is that the former of these should be made a prerequisite to the latter will sufficiently appear to any one that shall in his own thoughts compare this righteousness and this blessedness together He will indeed plainly see that the natural state of the case and habitude of these each to other makes this connexion unalterable and eternal so as that it must needs be simply impossible to be thus blessed without being thus righteous For what is this righteousness other than this blessedness begun the seed and principle of it And that with as exact proportion or rather sameness of Nature as is between the grain sown and reaped which is more than intimated in that of the Apostle Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption there is the same proportion too but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Which though it be spoken to a particular case is yet spoken from a general rule and reason applicable a great deal further And as some conceive and is undertaken to be demonstrated that the seeds of things are not vertually only but actually and formally the very things themselves so is it here also The very parts of this blessedness are discernable in this righteousness The future vision of God in present knowledge of him for this knowledge is a real initial part of righteousness The rectitude of the mind and apprehensions concerning God consisting in conformity to his revelation of himself Present holiness including also the future â—ssimilation to God And the contentment and peace that attends it the consequent satisfaction in glory But as in glory the impression of the divine likeness is that which vision subserves and whence satisfaction results so is it here visibly the main thing also The end and design of the Gospel revelation of whole Christianity I mean Systematically considered of all Evangelical Doctrines and knowledge is to restore Gods likeness and image from whence joy and peace result of course when once the Gospel is believed The Gospel is the instrument of impressing Gods likeness in order whereunto it must be understood and received into the mind Being so the impression upon the heart and life are Christianity haâ—itual and practical whereupon joy and pleasure the belief or thorough reception of the Gospel thus enterveining do necessarily ensue So Aptly is the only way or method of seeing Gods face so as to be satisfied with his likeness said to be in or thorow righteousness CHAP. X. The season of this satisfaction which is twofold at Death Resurrection The former spoken to wherein is shewn That this life is to the soul even of a Saint but as a sleep That at death it awakes As to the latter that there is a considerable accession to its happiness at the resurrection 3. THe season of this blessedness comes next to be considered which as the words when I awake have been concluded here to import must in the general be stated beyond the time of this present life Holy souls are here truly blessed not perfectly or their present blessedness is perfect only in nature and kind not in degree 'T is in this respect as far short of perfection as their holiness is Their hunger and thirst are present their being filled is yet future The experience of Saints in their best state on earth their desires their hopes their sighs and groans do sufficiently witness they are not satisfied or if they be in point of security they are not in point of enjoyment The completion of this blessedness is reserved to a better state as its being the end of their way their rest from their labours the reward of their work doth import and require Therefore many Scriptures that speak of their present rest peace repose satisfaction must be understood in a comparative not the absolute highest sense More particularly in that other state the season of their blessedness is twofold or there are two terms from whence in respect of some gradual or modal diversifications it may be said severally to commence or bear date Viz. The time Of their entrance upon a blessed immortality when they shall have laid down their earthly bodies in death Of their consummation therein when they receive their bodies glorified in the general resurrection Both these may not unfitly be signified by the Phrase in the Text when I awake For though Scripture doth more directly apply the term of awaking to the latter there will be no violence done to the Metaphor if we extend its signification to the former also To which purpose it is to be noted that it is not Death formally or the disanimating of the body we would have
in the name of the same person and particularly of the winged stati of the good soul when apart from the body carried in its triumphant flying Chariot of which he gives a large description somewhat resembling Solomons rapturous Metaphor Before I was aware my soul made me as the Chariots of Aminnadib But being in the body 't is with it as with a Bird that hath lost its wings it falls a sluggish weight to the earth Which indeed is the state even of the best in a degree within this Tabernacle A sleepy torpose stops their flight They can fall but not ascend the remaines of such a drowsiness do still hang even about Saints themselves The Apostle therefore calls upon such to awake out of sleep from that consideration as we know men are not wont to sleep so intensely towards morning that now their salvation was nearer then when they believed i. e. as some judicious Interpreters understand that place for that they were nearer death and eternity than when they first became Christians though this passage be also otherwise and not improbably interpreted However 2. The holy souls release and dismission from its earthly body which is that we propounded next to be considered will excusse and shake off this drowsie sleep Now is the happy Season of its awaking into the heavenly vital light of God The blessed morning of that long desired day is now dawned upon it the cumbersome night-vail is laid aside and the garments of salvation and immortal glory are now put on It hath past through the trouble darkness of a wearisome night and now is joy arrived with the morning as we may be permitted to allude to those words of the Psalmist though that be not supposed to be the peculiar sense I conceive my self here not concern'd operously to insist in proving that the souls of Saints sleep not in the interval between death and the general resurrection but enjoy present blessedness It being besides the design of a practical discourse which rather intends the propounding and improvement of things acknowledg'd and agree'd for the advantage and benefit of them with whom they are so then the discussing of things dubious and controversible And what I here propound in order to a consequent improvement and application should methinks pass for an acknowledg'd truth among them that professedly believe and seriously read and consider the Bible For meer Philosophers that do not come into this account 't were impertinent to discourse with them from a Text of Scripture and where my design only obliges me to intend the handling of that and to deliver it from what may fitly be supposed to have its ground there unless their allegations did carry with them the Species of demonstrating the simple impossibility of what is asserted thence to the power of that God whose word we take it to be which I have not found any thing they say to amount to That we have reason to presume it an acknowledged thing among them that will be concluded by Scripture That the Soul doth not sleep when it ceases to animate its earthly body many plain Texts do evince which are amassed together by the reverend Mr. Baxter some of the principal whereof I would invite any that waver in this matter seriously to consider As the words of our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That of the Apostle We are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And that I am in a straight having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. That passage The Spirits of just men made perfect c. Which are expressions so clear that it is hard for an industrious Caviller to find what to except to them and indeed the very exceptions that are put in are so frivolous that they carry a plain confession there is nothing colourable to be said Yea and most evident it is from those Texts not only that holy souls sleep not in that state of separation but that they are awaked by it as out of a former sleep into a much more lively and vigorous activity than they enjoyed before And translated into a state as much better then their former as the tortures of a Cross are more ungrateful then the pleasures of a Paradise these joyes fuller of vitalitie then those sickly dying faintings As the immediate presence and close imbraces of the Lord of life are more delectable then a mournful disconsolate absence from him which the Apostle therefore tells us he desired as far better and with an Emphasis which our English too faintly expresses for he uses a double comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by much more better and as a perfected i. e a crowned triumphant Spirit that hath attained the end of its race as the words import in the agonistical notion is now in a more vivid joyous state then when lately toyling in a tiresome way it languished under many imperfections And it is observable that in the three former Scriptures that phrase of being with Christ or being present with him is the same which is used by the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 17. to express the state of blessedness after the resurrection intimating plainly the sameness of the blessedness before and after And though this phrase be also used to signiâ—ie the present injoyment saints have of Gods gracious presence in this life which is also in nature and kind the same yet it is plainly used in these Scriptures the two latter more especially to set out to us such a degree of that blessedness that in comparison thereof our present being with Christ is a not being with him our presence with him now an absence from him While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and I am in a strait betwixt two desiring to depart or having a desire unto desolution and to be with Christ c. How strangely mistaken and disappointed had the blessed Apostle been had his absence from the body his dissolution his release set him further off from Christ or made him less capable of converse with him then before he was And how absurd would it be to say the spirits of the just are perfected by being cast into a stupifying sleep yea or being put into any state not better then they were in before But their state is evidently far better The body of death is now laid aside and the wights of sin that did so easily beset are shaken off flesh and sin are laid down together the soul is rid of its burdensome bands and shackles hath quitted its filthy darksome prison the usual place of lasiness and sloth is come forth of it's drowsie dormitory and the glory of God is risen upon it 'T is now come into the world of realities where things appear as they are no longer as in a drean or vision of the night
immediately meets it presenting its self to him It onely views him instead of it self and would not now change its state for any thing not if one could give it the whole heaven in exchange And else where discussing whether life in the body be good and desirable yea or no he concludes it to be good not as it is an union of the soul and body but as it may have that vertue annex't to it by which what is really evil may be kept off But yet that that death is a greater good That life in the body is in it self evil but the soul is by vertue stated in goodness not as enlivening the body with which it is compounded but as it severs and so joyns it self from it meaning so as to have as little communion as possible it can with it To which purpose is the expression of another That the soul of an happy man so collects and gathers up it self out from all things into it self that it hath as it were separated it self from the body while it is yet contained in it And that it was possest of that fortitude as not to dread its departure from it Another gives this character of a good man that as he liv'd in simplicity tranquility purity not being offended at any that they believed him not to live so he also comes to the end of his life pure quiet and easie to be dissolved disposing himself without any constraint to his lot Another is brought in speaking thus If God should grant me to become a Child again to send forth my renewed infant-cries from my Cradle and having even run out my race to begin it again I should most earnestly refuse it for what profit hath this life and how much toil Yet I do not repent that I have lived because I hope I have not liv'd in vain And I now go out of this life not as out of my dwelling house but my Inn. O blessed day when I shall enter into that Council and Assembly of souls and depart from this rude and disorderly rout and crew c. I shall adde another of a not much unlike strain and rank that discoursing who is the Heir of Divine things as being either not an open or no constant friend to Christianity Saith he cannot be who is in love with this animal sensitive life but only that purest mind that is inspired from above that partake of an Heavenly and Divine portion that onely despises the body c. with much more of like import Yea so have some been transported with the desire of immortality that being wholly ignorant of the sin of self-murder they could not forbear doing violence to themselves Among the Indians two thousand years ago were a sort of wise men as they were called that held it a reproach to dye of age or a disease and were wont to burn themselves alive thinking the flames were polluted if they came amidst them dead The story of Cleombrotus is famous who hearing Plato discourse of the immortality of the soul by the Sea side leapt from him into the Sea that he might presently be in that state And 't is storied that Nero refused to put Apollonius to death though he were very much incenst against him only upon the apprehension he had that he was very desirous to dye because he would not so far gratifie him I onely make this improvement of all this Christian Principles Rule do neither hurry nor misguide men but the end as we have it revealed should much more powerfully and constantly attract us Nothing is more unsuitable to Christianity our way nor to that blessedness the end of it then a terrene Spirit They have nothing of the true light and impress of the Gospel now nor are they ever like to attain the Vision of the blessed face of God and the impress of his likeness hereafter that desire it not above all things and are not willing to quit all things else for it And is it not a just exprobration of our earthliness and carnality if meer Philosophers and Pagans shall give better proof then we of a spirit erected above the world and alienated from what is temporary and terrene Shall their Gentilism outvy our Christianity Methinks a generous indignation of this reproach should inflame our souls and contribute somewhat to the refining of them to a better and more Spiritual temper Now therefore O all you that name your selves by that worthy name of Christians that profess the Religion taught by him that was not of the earth earthly but the Lord from heaven you that are partakers of the heavenly calling Consider the great Apostle and High-priest of your profession who only took our flesh that we might partake of his Spirit bare our earthly that we might bare his heavenly Image descended that he might cause us to ascend Seriously bethink your selves of the Scope and end of his Apostleship and Priesthood He was sent out from God to invite and conduct you to him to bring you into the Communion of his glory and blessedness He came upon a Message and Treaty of peace To discover his Fathers love and win yours To let you know how kind thoughts the God of love had conceived to you-wards And that however you had hated him without cause and were bent to do so without end he was not so affected towards you To settle a friendship and to admit you to the participation of his eternal glory Yea he came to give an instance and exemplifie to the world in his own Person how much of heaven he could make to dwell in mortal flesh how possible he could render it to live in this world as unrelated to it How gloriously the divine life could triumph over all the infirmities of frail humanity And so leave men a certain proof and pledge to what perfections humane nature should be improv'd by his grace and Spirit in all them that should resign themselves to his conduct and follow his steps That heaven and earth were not so far asunder but he knew how to settle a commerce and intercourse between them That an heavenly life was possible to be transacted here and certain to be gloriously rewarded hereafter And having testifi'd these things he seals the Testimony and opens the way for the accomplishment of all by his death Your heavenly Apostle becomes a Priest and a Sacrifice at once That no doubt might remain among men of his sincerity in what even dying he ceased not to profess and avow And that by his own propitiatory bloud a mutual reconciliation might be wrought between God and you that your hearts might be won to him and possest with an ingenuous shame of your ever having been his enemies And that his displeasure might for ever cease towards you and be turned into everlasting friendship and love That eternal redemption being obtained heaven might be opened to you and you finally be received to the
glory of God Your hearts being bent thitherward and made willing to run through whatsoever difficulties of life or death to attain it Do not think that Christ came into the world and dyed to procure the pardon of your sins and so translate you to heaven while your hearts should still remain cleaving to the earth He came and returned to prepare a way for you and then call not drag you thither That by his Precepts and Promises and Example and Spirit he might form and fashion your Souls to that glorious state And make you willing to abandon all things for it And low now the God of all grace is calling you by Jesus Christ unto his eternal Glory Direct then your eyes and hearts to that marke the Prise of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus 'T is ignominious by the common suffrage of the civiliz'd world not to intend the proper business of our Callings To your Calling to forsake this world and mind the other make hast then to quit your selves of your entanglements of all earthly dispositions and affections Learn to live in this world as those that are not of it that expect every day and wish to leave it whose hearts are gone already 'T is dreadful to dye with pain and regret To be forced out of the Body To dye a violent death and go away with an unwilling refluctant heart The wicked is driven away in his wickedness Fain he would stay longer but cannot He hath not power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death He must away whether he will or no. And indeed much against his will So it cannot but be where there is not a previous knowledge and love of a better state where the Soul understands it not and is not effectually attempered and framed to it O get then the lovely Image of the future glory into your minds keep it ever before your eyes Make it familiar to your thoughts Imprint daily there these words I shall behold thy face I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And see that your souls be inrich't with that righteousness Have inwrought into them that holy rectitude that may dispose them to that blessed state Then will you dye with your own consent and go away not driven but allur'd and drawn You will go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon their heads As those that know whether you go even to a state infinitely worthy of your desires and choice and where 't is best for you to be You will part with your souls not by a forcible separation but a joyful surrender and resignation They will dislodge from this earthly Tabernnacle rather as putting it off then having it rent and torn away Loosen your selves from this body by degrees as we do any thing we would remove from a place where it sticks fast Gather up your spirits into themselves Teach them to look upon themselves as distinct thing Inure them to the thoughts of a dissolution Be continually as taking leave Cross and disprove the common maxime and let your hearts which they use to say are wont to dye last dye first Prevent death and be mortifi'd towards every earthly thing beforehand that death mave have nothing to kill but your body And that you may not die a double death in one hour and suffer the death of your body and of your love to it both at once Much less that this should survive to your greater and even incurable misery Shake off your Bands and Fetters the terrene affections that so closely confine you to the house of your bondage And lift up your heads in expectation of the approaching Jubilee the day of your redemption when you are to go out free and enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When you shall serve and groan and complain no longer Let it be your continual song and the matter of your daily praise that the time of your happy deliverance is hastening on that ete long you shall be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That he hath not doom'd you to an everlasting imprisonment within those closs and clayie walls wherein you have been so long shut up from the beholding of his sight and glory In the thoughts of this while the outward man is sensibly perishing let the inward revive and be renewed day by day What Prisoner would be sorry to see the walls of his Prison House so an Heathen speaks mouldering down and the hopes arriving to him of being delivered out of that darkness that had buried him of recovering his liberty and injoying the free air and light What Champion inur'd to hardship would stick to throw off rotten rags rather expose a naked placid free body to naked placid free air The truly generous soul to be a little above never leaves the body against its will Rejoyce that it is the gracious pleasure of thy good God thou shalt not always inhabit a Dungeon nor lie amid'st so impure and disconsolate darkness that he will shortly exchange thy filthy Garments for those of Salvation and Praise The end approaches As you turn over these leaves so are your days turned over And as you are now arrived to the end of this Book God will shortly write Finis to the Book of your Life on Earth and shew you your names written in Heaven in the Book of that Life which shall never end FINIS Senec. * Pruritus disputandi scobies Ecclesia * Ut ulcera quaedam nocituras manus apoetunt tactu gaudent faedam corporum scabiem delectat quicquid â—xâ—sperâ—t Non alitè◠dixerim his mâ—ntibus in quas voluptates velut mala ulcera crupê unt voluptati esse laborem vexâ—tionemque Sâ—n. de tranquillitate anâ—â—â— Sen de Brev. vit * Nihil est Deo similius aut gratius quam vir animo perfectè bonus c. Apul. de Deo Soâ—â—atis * Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est conciliante virtute amicitiam dico etiam necessitudâ— similitudâ— c. Sca de prov * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Minâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dyonys Halicar Antiq. Rom. lib. 8. Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. * Rom. 16 18. Phil. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vâ—lgar Latine Eâ—oautem 〈…〉 appaâ—câ—o â—oâ—spectui 〈◊〉 satiabo◠〈◊〉 â—â—pâ—â—uâ—riâ— gloâ—ia tua Exactly following the Seventy as doth the Ethiopique the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little the Arabique lesse the Syâ—iâ—ck mistook it seem◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so read that word saith which we read likenesse Hieronymus juxta Hebr. reads the words exactly as we do Ego in justiâ—iâ viâ—â—bo faciâ—m tuam implebor cum evigilavero similitudine tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seems best to be rendered here by or through righteousness as by the condition
intermingled frowns the light of that pleasing countenance be obscured by no intervening cloud when goodness which is love issuing into benefaction or doing good grace which adds freeness unto goodness mercy which is grace towards the miserable shall conspire in their distinct and variegated appearances to set off each other and enhance the pleasure of the admiring soul when the wonted doubts shall all cease and the difficulty vanish of reconciling once necessary fatherly severity with Love When the full sense shall be unfolded to the life of that description of the divine nature God is Love and the soul be no longer put to read the love of God in his name as Moses was when the sight of his face could not yet be obtained shall not need to spell it by letters and syllables but behold it in His very nature it self and see how intimately Essential it is to the divine Being How glorious will this appearance of God be we now hear something of the glory of his grace and how satisfying the intuition of that glory Now is the proper season for the full exercise and discovery of Love This day hath been long expected and lo now 't is dawned upon the awaking soul It 's now called forth its senses unbound all its powers inspirited on purpose for love visions and enjoyments 't is now to take its fill of loves The Apostles extatical prayer is now answered to the highest degree possible with respect to such a one He is now according to the riches of divine glory strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height to know the love that passeth knowledge c. He shall now no longer stand amazed spending his ghesses What manner of love this should be and expecting fuller discoveries further effects of it that did not yet appear but sees the utmost all that his soul can bear or wish to see He hath now traced home the rivulets to their fountain the beams to the very Sun of Love He hath got the prospect at last into that heart where where the great thoughts of love were lodg'd from everlasting where all its counsels and designs were formed He sees what made God become a man what cloathed a Deity with humane flesh what made Eternity become the birth of time when come to its parturient fulness what mov'd the heart of the Son of God to pitch his Tabernacle among men what ingaged him to the enterprize of redeeming sinners what mov'd him so earnestly to contest with a perishing world led him at last to the Cross made him content to become a sacrifice to God a spectacle to Angels and men in a bitter reproachful death inflicted by the Sacrilegious hands of those whom he was all this while designing to save The amazed soul now sees into the bottom of this design understands why it self was not made a prey to Divine revenge whence it was that it perish't not in its enmity against God that he was not provoked by the obstinacy of its disobedience and malice of its unbelief beyond the possibility of an atonement why he so long suffered its injurious neglects of him and unkind repulses of a merciful Saviour and perswaded till at last he overcame made the averse heart yield the careless disaffected soul cry out Where is my God now a Christ or I perish All this is now resolved into love And the adoring soul sees how well the effects agree to their cause and are owned by it Nothing but heaven it self that gives the sense can give the notion of this pleasure 4. Nor will the glory of holiness be less resplendent that great Attribute which even in a remote descent from its original is frequently mentioned with the adjunct of beauties What loveliness will those beauties add to this blessed face Not here to insist which is besides my purpose upon the various notions of holiness Real holiness Scripture states in purity an alienation from sin 't is set in opposition to all filthiness to all moral impurity and in that notion it best agrees to God and comprehends his righteousness and veracity and indeed whatever we can conceive in him under the notion of a moral excellency This may therefore be styl'd a transcendental attribute that as it were runs through the rest and casts a glory upon every one 'T is an attribute of attributes Those are fit predications holy power holy truth holy love c. And so it is the very lustre and glory of his other perfections He is glorious in holiness Hence in matters of greatest moment he is sometimes brought in Swearing by his holiness which he is not wont to do by any one single attribute as though it were a fuller expression of himself an adaequalior conceptus than any of the rest What is of so great account with him will not be of least account with his holy ones when they appear in his glorious presence Their own holiness is a conformity to his the likeness of it And as their beholding it forms them into that likeness so that likeness makes them capable of beholding it with pleasure Divine holiness doth now more ravish than affright This hath been the language of sinful dust Who can stand before this holy God when holiness hath appeared arm'd with terrors guarded with flames and the Divine Majesty been represented as a consuming fire Such apprehensions sin and guilt naturally beget The sinners of Sion were afraid But so far as the new man is put on created after God and they who were darkness are made light in the Lord he is not under any notion more acceptable to them than as he is the holy one They love his Law because holy and love each other because holy and hate themselves because they are no more so Holiness hath still a pleasing aspect when they find it in an Ordinance meet it in a Sabbath every glimpse of it is lovely But with what triumphs hath the holiness of God himself been celebrated even by Saints on earth Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness There is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee Sing unto the Lord all ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness What thoughts will they have of it when their eyes can behold that glory when they immediately look on the archetypal holiness of which their own is but the image and can view that glorious pattern they were so long in framing to How joyfully will they then fall in with the rest of the heavenly hoast and joyn in the same adoration and praise in the same acclamation and triumphant song holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth How unconceiveable is the pleasure of this sight when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first pulchritude the original beauty offers it self to view
satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it may do so is not altogether unapprehensible Admit that a Spirit had it never been imbodied might be as well without a body or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials 't is no unreasonable supposition that a connate aptitude to a body should render humane souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations And how much doth relation and propriety endear things otherwise mean and inconsiderable or why should it be thought strange that a soul connaturallized tâ— matter should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof So as that it should appropriate such a part and say 't is mine And will it not be a pleasure to have a vitalitâ— diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me to have every thing belonging to the Supposition perfectly vindicated from the Tyrannous dominion of death The returnâ—ing of the Spirits into a benumb'd or sleeping toe or finger adds a contentment to a maâ— which he wanted before Nor is it hence neâ—cessary the Soul should covet a re-union wiâ—â— every effluvious particle of its former body A desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient not whâ— shall be cumbersome or monstrous And how pleasant will it be to comtemplatâ— and admire the wisdom and power of thâ— great Creatour in this so glorious a change when I shall find a Clod of Earth an Heaâ— of Dâ—st refined into a Celestial purity anâ— brightness when what was sown in corruptiâ—â— shall be raised in incorruption what was sown 〈◊〉 dishonour is raised in glory what was sown in weakness is raised in power what was sown a natural body is raised a Spiritual body When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal an immortality and death be wholly swallowed up in victory So that this awaking may well be understood to carry that in it which may bespeak it the proper season of the Saints consummate satisfaction and blessedness But besides what it carries in it self there are other more extrinsical concurrents that do further signalize this season and import a great increase of blessedness then to Gods holy ones The body of Christ is now compleated the fulness of him that filleth all in all and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in perfection and reflected glory of the whole There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner though he have a troublesome Scene yet to pass over afterwards in a tempting wicked unquiet world how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together The designes are all now accomplished and wound up into the most glorious result and issue whereof the Divine Providence had been as in travel for so many thousand years 'T is now seen how exquisite wisdom govern'd the world and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed Methods of Providence had to one stated and most worthy end Specially the constitution administration and ends of the Mediatours Kingdom are now beheld in the exact aptitudes order and conspicuous glory when so blessed an issue and success shall commend and crown the whole undertaking The Divine Authority is now universally acknowledged and adored his Justice is vindicated and satisfied his Grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost The whole assembly of Saints solemnly acquitted by publique sentence presented spotless and without blemish to God and adjudged to eternal blessedness 'T is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation upon the finishing of all Gods works from the creation of the world wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe Upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediatours Kingdome all the ends being now attained that the Father â—imself may be immediately all in all How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God the more glorious display of all his Attributes the larger and more abundant Effusions of himself reserv'd as the best Wine to the last unto this joyful day Created perfections couldnot have been before so absolute but they might admit of improvement Their capacities not so large but they might be extended further and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so CHAP. XI An Introduction to the use of the Doctrine hitherto proposed The Use divided into Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty 1. Inference That Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment 2. Inference The Spirit of man since 't is capable of so high a Blessedness a Being of high excellency AND now is our greatest work yet behind the improvement of so momentous a truth to the affecting and transforming of hearts That if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing they may taste the sweetness feel the power and bear the impresse and image of it This is the work both of greatest necessity difficulty and excellency and unto which all that hath been done hitherto is but subservient and introductive Give me leave therefore Reader to stop thee here and demand of thee ere thou go further hast thou any design in turning over these leaves of bettering thy Spirit of getting a more refined heavenly temper of soul art thou weary of thy dross and earth and longing for the first fruits the beginnings of glory dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described What is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton rolling eye hunting for novelties or what may gratifie a prurient wit a coy and squeamish fancy Go read a Romance or some piece of Drollery know here 's nothing for thy turn and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious Spirit read not another line till thou have sighed out this request Lord keep me from trifling with the things of Eternity Charge thy soul to consider that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day 'T is amazing to think with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of Religion are entertained amongst Christians Things that should swallow up our souls drink up our Spirits are heard as a tale that is told disregarded by most scorned by too many What can be spoken so important or of so tremendous consequence or of so confessed truth or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection and this by persons avowing themselves Christians We seem to have little or no advantage in urging men upon their own principles and with things they most readily and professedly assent to Their hearts are as much untouch't and void of impression by the
Worship Some possibly can say they are sober just Charitable Peaceable and others that can boast lesse of their Vertues yet say they are sorry for their sins and pray God to forgive them And if we urge them concerning their Translation from the state of Nature to that of Grace their becoming new creatures their implantation into Christ. They say they have been Baptized and therein regenerate and what would we have more But to how little purpose is it to equivocate with God to go about to put a fallacy upon the Judge of Spirits or escape the animadversion of his fiery flaming eye or elude his determinations and pervert the true intent and meaning of his most established Constitutions and Laws Darest thou venture thy soul upon it that this is all God means by having a new heart created a right Spirit renewed in us by being made Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works by becoming new creatures old things being done away all things made new by so learning the truth as it is in Jesus to the putting off the old man and putting on the new which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness by being begotten of Gods own will by the word of truth to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief excellency the prime glory as certainly his new creature is his best creature the first fruits or the devoted part of all his creatures by having Christ formed in us by partaking the divine nature the incorruptible seed the seed of God by being born of God Spirit of Spirit as of earthly parents we are born flesh of flesh When my eternal blessedness lies upon it had I not need to be sure that I hit the true meaning of these Scriptures especially that at least I fall not below it and rest not in any thing short of what Scripture makes indispensably necessary to my entring into the Kingdom of God I professedly wave controversies and 't is pity so practical a business as this I am now upon and upon which Salvation so much depends should ever have been incumbred with any controversie And therefore though I shall not degress so far as to undertake a particular and distinct handling here of this work of God upon the soul yet I shall propound something in general touching the change necessarily previous to this blessedness wherein that necessity is evidenceable from the nature of this blessedness which is the business I have in hand that I hope will pass among Christians for acknowledged truth not liable to dispute though the Lord knows it be little considered My design being rather to awaken souls to the consideration of known and agreed things than to perplex them about unknown Consider therefore First that the holy Scriptures in the forementioned and other like passages do plainly hold forth the necessity of a real change to be made in the inward temper and dispositions of the soul and not a relative only respecting its state This cannot be doubted by any that acknowledge a real inherent depravation propagated in the nature of man No nor denyed by them that grant such a corruption to be general and continued among men whether by imitation only or what way soever And willing I am to meet men upon their own principles and concessions however erroneous or short of the truth they may be while they are yet improvable to their own advantage Admit that regeneration or the new birth includes a change of our relation and state God-ward doth it therefore exclude an intrinsique subjective change of the inclinations and tendencies of the Soul And if it did yet other termes are more peculiarly appropriate to and most expressly point out this very change alone As that of conversion or of turning to God of being renewed in the spirit of the mind of putting off the old man that is corrupt by c. and putting on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness c. of partaking the Divine nature It matters not if this or that expression be understood by some more principally in another sense the thing it self of which we speak is as clearly expressed and as urgently pressed as there was cause as any other matter whatsoever throughout the whole Book of God But men are slower of belief as to the great Article of the Christian Doctrine then to most I might say any other This Truth more directly assaults the strong holds of the Devil in the hearts of men and is of more immediate tendency to subvert his Kingdom Therefore they are most unwilling to have it true and most hardly believe it Here they are so madly bold as to give the lie to all Divine Revelations and though they are never so plainly told without holiness none shall see God they will yet maintain the contrary belief and hope till go ye cursed vindicate the Truth of God and the flames of Hell be their Eternal confutation Lord that so plain a thing will not enter into the hearts of men that so urgent inculcations will not yet make them apprehend that their Souls must be renewed or perish That they will still go dreaming on with that mad conceit that whatever the Word of God says to the contrary they may yet with unsanctified hearts get to Heaven How deplorable is the case that when men have no other hope left them but that the God of truth will prove false belie his word yea and overturn the nature of things to save them in their sins Thou that livest under the Gospel hast thou any pretence for thy seeming ignorance in this matter couldst thou ever look one quarter of an hour into the Bible and not meet with some intimation of this truth What was the ground of thy mistake What hath beguiled thee into so mischievous a delusion How could such an imagination have place in thy soul that a Child of wrath by nature could become a Child of God without receiving a new nature That so vast a change could be made in thy state without any at all in the temper of thy Spirit Secondly consider That this change is in its own nature and the design of God who works it dispositive of the soul for blessedness 'T is sufficiently evident from the consideration of the state it self of the unrenewed soul that a change is necessary for this end such a soul in which it is not wrought when once its drowsie stupifying slumber is shaken off its reflecting power awakened must needs be a perpetuall torment to it self So far it is remov'd from blessedness it is its own Hell and can flie from misery death no faster then from it self Blessedness composes the soul reduces it to a consistancie it infers or rather is a self-satisfaction a well-pleasedness and contentment with one self self in rich't and fill'd with the divinefulness Hence 't is at rest not as being pent in but contentedly
best seen what a mans belief is by his practice For when any profess to believe this or that practical truth relating to their salvation if they believe is not practically i. e. with such a belief as will command their suitable practice it matters not what belief they are of or whether they were of that judgment or no. Yea it will prove in the issue better for them they had been of another when their own professed belief shall be urged against them But let us cosider a little how in practical matters of less concernment we would estimate a mans belief You meet a Traveller upon the way who tells you the Bridge over such an unpassâ—ble River is broken down and that if you venture you perish if you believe him you return if you hold on he reasonably concludes you believe him not and will therefore be apt to say to you if you will not believe me you may make trial Your Physician tells you a disease is growing upon you that in a short time will prove incurable and mortal but if you presently use means he shall prescribe ' tâ—s capable of an easie remedie How would you your self have your belief of your Phisitian judged of in this case would you expect to be believed if you should say you do not at all distrust your Phisitians integrity and judgment but yet you resolve not to follow his directions unless you would have us believe too that you are weary of your life and would fain be rid of it There is no Riddle or Mystery in this How ridiculous would men make themselves if in matters of common concernment they should daily practice directly contrary to their professed belief how few would believe them serious or in their wits But however call this believing or what you will we contend not about the name the belief of such a thing can no further do you good you can be nothing the better for it further then as it ingages you to take a course suitable and consequent to such a belief To believe that there is a Hell and run into it that unrighteousness persisted in will damn you and yet live in it To what purpose is it to make your boasts of this Faith But since you are willing to call this believing all the foregoing reasoning is to ingage you to consider what you believe Do you believe that unrighteousness will be the death of your soul will eternally separate you from God and the presâ—nce of his glory and when you have reason'd the matter with your self you find it to be certainly so should not such a thing be more deeply pondered The bare proposal of an evident truth commands present assent but if I further bend my mind to reason out the same thing to my self I am occasioned to take notice of the grounds dependencies the habitudes of it what it rests upon whither it tends and thence more discern its importance and of what moment it is then I should have done if upon first view I had assented only and dismist it my thoughts And yet is it possible you should think this to be true and not think it a most important truth Is it a small matter in your account whither you shall be blessed or miserable for ever whether you be sav'd or perish eternally Or is it considered by you according as the weight of the matter requires that as you are found righteous or unrighteous so will it everlastingly fare with you You may possibly say you already conclude your self righteous therefore no further imploy your thoughts about it But methinks you should hardly be able how ever to put such a thing out of your thoughts while as yet the final determination is not given in the case If a man have a question yet depending concerning his life or estate though his business be never so clear he will hardly forget it the trial not being yet past And though in this matter you have no reason to suspect errour or corruption in your Judge through which many honest causes may miscarry in an humane Judicature yet have you no reason to suspect your self If the holy Spirit hath assured you it hath not stupified you but as you have then the less of fear you have the more of love and joy Therefore you will not thence mind such a concernment the less but with the more delight and therefore also most probably with the more frequency and intention What a pleasure will it be to review evidences and say â—o here are the Mediums by which I make out my title to the Eternal Inheritance Such and such characters give me the confidence to number my self among Gods righteous ones And do you lead that heavenly raised life do you live in those sweet and ravishing comforts of the Holy Ghost that may bespeak you one whom he hath sealed up to the day of redemption If you pretend not to any such certainty but rely upon your own judgment of your case are you sure you are neither mistaken in the notion of the righteousnesse required nor in the application of it to your own souls Possibly you may think your self because in your ordinary dealings you wrong no man your self being judge a very righteous person But evident it is when the Scripture uses this tearm as discriptive of Gods own people and to distinguish betweeen them that shall be saved and perish it takes it in that comprehensive sense before explained And however it requires at least much more of thee under other expressions as thou canst hardly be so ignorant but to know And do but use thy reason here a little and demand of thy self Is he to be accounted a righteous person that thinks it fit to avoid wronging a man but makes no conscience at all of wronging God More particularly Is it righteous to live all thy dayes in a willing ignorance of the Author of thy being never once to enquire where is God my Maker Is it righteous to forget him dayes without number not to have him from day to day in all thy thoughts Is it righteous to estrange thy self from him and live as without him in the world while thou liv'st mov'st and hast thy being in him not to glorifie him in whose hands thy breath is to be a lover of pleasure more then God a worshipper in thy very soul of the creature more then of the Creatour Is it righteous to harden thy heart against his fear and love to live under his power and never reverence it his goodness and never acknowledge it to affront his Authority to belie his Truth abuse his Mercy impose upon his Patience desie his Justice to exalt thy own interest against his the trifling petite interest of a silly worm against the great all comprehending interest of the common Lord of all the world to cross his will to do thy own to please thy self to the displeasing of him whence hadst thou thy measures of
in the same Apostacy and Condemnation and labours to keep them fast in the bands of death The great Redeemer of Souls makes this his business to lose and dissolve the work of the Devil With that wicked one thou complyest against thy own Soul and the Redeemer of it while thou neglectest to desire and pursue this blessedness This is thy debasement and his triumph thy vile succumbency gives him the day and his will upon thee He desires no more then that he may suppress in thee all heavenly desires and keep thee thus a slave and a prisoner confin'd in thy Spirit to this low dark dungeon by thy own consent While thou remainest without desire after Heaven he is secure of thee as knowing then thou wilt take no other way but what will bring thee unto the same eternal state with himself in the end He is jealous over thee that thou direct not a desire nor glance an eye Heaven-ward while thou dost not so thou art entirely subject and givest as full obedience to him as thy God requires to himself in order to thy blessedness But is it a thing tollerable to thy thoughts that thou should'st yeild that heart obedience to the Devil against God And this being the state of thy case what more significant expression canst thou make of thy contempt of Divine goodness O the love that thou neglectest while the most glorious issue and product of it is with thee an undesired thing Yea this the thing it self speaks were there no such competition What that when eternal love have conceived and is travelling to bring forth such a birth that when it invites thee to an expectation of such glory shortly to be reveal'd the result of so deep counsels and wonderful works this should be the return from thee I desire it not Is this thy gratitude to the Father of Glory the requital of the kindness yea and of the blood of thy Redeemer If this blessedness were not desirable for it self methinks the offerers hand should be a sufficient endearment But thou can'st not so deride or abstract it consists in beholding and bearing his Glorious likeness who invites thee to it and therefore in the neglect of it thou most highly affrontest him Yea further is it not a monstrous unnaturalness towards thy self as well as impiety towards God not to desire that perfect final blessedness Doth not every thing naturally tend to its ultimate perfection and proper end what creature would not witness against thee if thou neglect in thy own capacity and kind to aim at thine Surely thou canst not allow thy self to think any thing beneath this worthy to be owned by thee under that notion of thy highest good and thy last end But that thy Spirit should labour under an aversion towards thy highest good towards thy blessedness it self is not that a dismal token upon thee If thou did'st disaffect and nauseate the things in which thy present life is bound up and without which thou can'st not live would'st thou not think thy case deplorate what dost thou think will become of thy soul whose everlasting life is bound up in that very good which thou desirest not Which cannot live that life without that good nor with it if thou hast no desire to it O the Eternal Resentments thy Soul will have of this cruelty To be withheld from that wherein its life lies would'st thou not judge him unnatural that should kill his Brother assassine his Father starve his Child what shall be said of him that destroys himself How may that soul lament that ever it was thine and say O that I had rather been of any such lower kind to have animated a Fly to have inspirited a vile Worm rather then to have serv'd a reasonable beast that by me knew the good it would never follow and did not desire But if thou hast any such desires in a low degree after this blessedness as thou thinkest may intitle thee to the name thou bearest of a Saint a Christian. Is it not still very unnatural to pursue a good approved by thy stated judgment as â—ast in it self and for thee with so unproportionable so slothful desires For the same reason thou dost desire it at all thou should'st desire it much yea and still more and more till thou attain it and be swallowed up into it Thy best and last good thou canst never desire too much And let it be considered by thee that the temper thou thinkest thy self innocent of an habitual prevalent disaffection to the true blesedness of Saints may for ought thou knowest be upon thee while it appears thou art so very near the borders of it and it appears not with such certainty that thou partakest not in it It is not so easie a matter critically to distinguish and conclude of the lowest degree in Hypothesi or with application to thy own case of that desire which is necessary to qualifie thee for the enjoyment of this blessedness And is it not a matter both of shame and terrour that thou should'st desire thy blessedness so faintly as not to know whether thou truly desire it at all 'T is true that a certainty amongst such as may be sincere is very little common but whence proceeds it but from their too common induldulged sloth out of which all this is designed to awaken thee And the commonness whereof doth as little detract from the reproach and sinfulness as from the danger of it 't is but a poor defence for what is intrinsically evil in it self that it is common But further as the case is this is so reproachful a thing even in common estimate not to desire Heaven and Eternal Glory or to desire it with very cold and careless desires that there are few will profess it or own it to be their temper much fewer that will undertake to excuse or justifie it 'T is so evilly thought of that among meerly sober rational men it can never find an advocate or any that will afford it Patronage The generality pretend a desire of going to Heaven and being with God If any be so observant of themselves as to know and so ingenious as to confess it otherwise with them they complain of it as their fault and say they would fain have it redrest but are far from assuming that confidence to defend or plead for it Consider then wilt thou persist in such a temper and disposition of mind as all men condemn and be guilty of so odious a thing as shall be censured blamed by the common concurrent vote and judgment of mankind Thou would'st be ashamed to stand forth and profess openly to men that thou desirest an earthly felicity more then a blessedness in Heaven or at least that thou art so indifferent and the scales hang even with thee that thou canst hardly tell which way they incline most And art thou not ashamed that this should be thy usual temper how much soever thou conceal it from
visions of this Makers face that chuses thus to entertain it self on earth rather then partake the effusions of Divine glory above That had rather creep with Worms then soar with Angels associate with Bruits then with the Spirits of just men made perfect who can solve the Phaenomenon or give a rational account why there should be such a Creature as man upon the Earth abstructing from the hopes of another world who can think it the effect of an infinite wisdom or account it a more worthy design then the representing of such a Scene of actions and affairs by Puppets on a Stage for my part upon the strictest enquiry I see nothing in the life of man upon earth that should render it for it self more the matter of a rational election supposing the free option given him in the first moment of his being then presently again to cease to be the next moment Yea and is there not enough obvious in every mans experience to incline him rather to the contrary choice and supposing a future blessedness in another world to make him passionately desirous with submission to the Divine pleasure of a speedy dismission into it Do not the burdens that press us in this earthly taâ—ernacle teach our very sense and urge opprest nature into involuntary groans while as yet our consideration doth intervene And if we do consider is not every thought a sting making a much deeper impression then what only toucheth our flesh and bones Who can reflect upon his present state and not presently be in pangs The troubles that follow humanity are many and great those that follow Christianity more numerous and grievous The sickness pains losses disappointments and whatsoever afflictions that are in the Apostles language humane or common to men as are all the external sufferings of Christians in nature and kind though they are liable to them upon an account peculiar to themselves which there the Apostle intimates are none of our greatest evils yet even upon the account of them have we any reason to be so much in love with so unkind â— world Is it not strange our very Bridewel should be such a Heaven to us But these things are little considerable in comparison of the more Spiritual grievances of Christians as such that is those that afflict our Souls while we are under the conduct of Christ designing for a blessed eternity if we indeed make that our business and do seriously intend our spirits in order thereto The darkness of our beclouded minds The glimmering ineffectual apprehension we have of the most important things the inconsistency of our shattered thoughts when we would apply them to Spiritual Objects The great difficulty of working off an ill frame of heart and the no less difficulty of retaining a good our being so frequently tost as between Heaven and Hell when we sometimes think our selves to have even attained and hope to descend no more and are all on a suddain plung'd in the Ditch so as that our own Clothes might abhor us fall so low into an earthly temper that we can like nothing Heavenly or Divine and because we cannot are enforced justly most of all to dislike our selves Are these things little with us How can we forbear to cry out of the depths to the Father of our Spirits that he would pity and relieve his own Off-spring yea are we not weary of our crying and yet more weary of holding in How do repell'd Temptations return again and vanquished Corruptions recover strength We know not when our work is done We are miserable that we need to be always watching and more miserable that we cannot watch but are so often surprized and overcome of evil We say sometimes with our selves we will seek relief in retirement but we cannot retire from our selves or in converse with Godly friends but they sometimes prove snares to us and we to them Or we hear but our own miseries repeated in their complaints would we pray How faint is the breath we utter How long is it ere we can get our Souls possest with any becoming apprehensions of God or lively sense of our own concernments Would we meditate We sometimes go about to compose our thoughts but we may as well assay to hold the Windes in our fist If we venture forth into the world how do our Senses betray us How are we mockt with their impostures Their neerer objects become with us the onely realities and eternal things are all vanisht into airie shadowes Reason and Faith are laid asleep and our Sense dictates to us what we are to believe and do as if it were our only guide and Lord. And what are we not yet wearie Is it reasonable to continue in this State of our own choice Is misery become so natural to us so much our element that we cannot affect to live out of it Is the darkness and dirt of a dungeon more grateful to us then a free open air and sun Is this Flesh of ours so lovely a thing that we had rather suffer so many deaths in it then one in putting it off and mortality with it While we carry it about us our Souls impart a kind of life to it and it gives them death in exchange Why do we not cry out more feelingly O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Is it not grievous to us to have so cumbersome a yoke-fellow to be tied as Mezentius is said to have done the living and the dead together Do not we find the Distempers of our Spirits are mostly from these bodies we are so in love with either as the proper Springs or as the occasion of them From what cause is our drowsy sloth our eager passions our aversion to Spiritual objects but from this impure Flesh or what else is the Subject about which our vexatious cares or torturing fears our bitter griefs are taken up day by day And why do we not consider that 't is onely our love to it that gives strength and vigour to the most of our temptations as wherein it is more immediately concern'd and which makes them so often victorious thence to become our after-afflictions He that hath learn'd to mortifie the inordinate love of the Body will he make it the business of his life to purvey for it Will he offer violence to his own Soul to secure it from violence will he comply with mens Lusts and humors for its advantage and accommodation or yeild himself to the tyranny of his own avarice for its future or of his more-sensual Lusts for it s present content Will it not rather be pleasing to him that his outward man be exposed to perish while his inward man is renewed day by day He to whom the thoughts are grateful of laying it down will not though he neglect not duty towards it spend his days in its continual Service and make his Soul an hell by a continual provision for the flesh and
homini datum est quando primum creatus est rectus potuit non peccare sed potuit peccare Hoc autem novissimum eâ— potentius erit quò peccare noa potuit Aug de Civitat Dei lib. 22. c. 30. Libertas nâ—stâ—a inhaerâ—t divina ut exemplari in pâ—â—pâ—luâ ejus imitatâ—one versatur sive ortum sive pâ—â—gressum sive conâ—â—mmâ—tionem ejus intue 〈◊〉 libertas nostra in oâ—tu est capacitas Dei In progressu libertas res est longe câ—arâ—or progress â—senim atâ—â—nditur pâ—nes accessâ—m hominis ad Dâ—â—m qâ—i quidem 〈…〉 sed imitatione â—ssâ—â—latione câ—nstâ—t eâ—t utiquc imâ—â—atioâ—e assiâ—il itioâ— secuadum quam siâ—ut Deus est sablimis excelsus seipso ita homo est sublimis excelsus Deo altitudo ejus Deus est ut inquit D Augustinuâ— Consummatio denique libertatis est cum homo in Deum felicissimo gloriae coelestis statu transformatur deus omnia illi esse incipit Qui quidem postremus status co dissert à priore quippe homo tum non modo inalligatus est creaturis sed nec circaillas negotiatur etiam referendo in finem nec in creaturis se insundit nec per illas procedit ut faciâ—bat cum esset viator sed in solo Deo conquiescit effundit se placidissimè motits ejus cum sit ad presentissimum conjunctissimum bonum similior est quieti quà m mâ—tui Gib l. 2. c. 14. Omnes turbulae tempestates quae procul à Deoâ—rum coelestium tranquilitate exulant c. Apuleius de Deis Sâ—câ—atis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyâ— disser 1. Quod desideras autâ—m magâ—â—m summum 〈◊〉 Deoque vicinum noa concuti Sâ—n. de trâ—nquil Animi Psal. 116. Sen. de tranquill anim Phil. 4. 7. Act. 20. 24. Isa. 26. 3. Psal. 112. 7. Rom. 15. 13. 2 Cor. 5. 5. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Prov. 4 18. Phil. 2 7. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Psal 126. 6. * I would fain know what the Tertium shall be resulting from the Physical union some speak of Joh. 17. 11. ver 11. Ver. 21. 1 Cor. 6. 16. Gal. 6 7 8. Dr. Hâ—rv de Ovo * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15. 13. Gâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in Christa â—â—â—â—â—mus homâ—â—â—â— c. Orat. 1 Matth. 5. 6. 1 Thes. 5 6. Ephes 5. 14. * So well doth the Apostles watchword suit our case awake to righteousness and sin not c. 1 Cor. 15 34. Cant. 5 2. Psal. 39 6. * Viz. 〈◊〉 Who at the time of his death sprinkled water upon the servants about him addita voâ—e se liquorem illâ—m libare Joâ—i lâ—beratori Tacit Annal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In Phaedro Cant. 6. 12 Rom. 13 11. Arelius Beza c. Psal. 30. 5. * In his Saints rest p. 2. c. 10 Luke 23. 43. 2 Cor. 5 8. Phil. 1. 23. Heb. 12. 23. 'T is true that divers of the Fathers and others have spoken some dubiously some very diminishingly of the blessedness of separate souls many of whose words may be seen together in that elaborate Tractate of the learned Parker de descens lib secâ—nâ— p. 77. Yea and his own assertion in that very page be it spoken with reverence to the memory of so worthy a person argues something gross and I conceive unwarrantable thoughts of the souls dependance on a body of Earth His words are Tertium vulnus speaking of the prejudices the Soul receives by its separation from the body omnes operationes etiam suas quae sunt praesertim ad extra extinguit Where he makes it a difficulty to allow it any operations at all as apears by the praesertim inserted He first indeed denies it all operations and then more confidently and especially those ad extra And if he would be understood to exclude it only from its operations ad extra if he take operations ad extra as that Phrase is wont to be taken he must then mean by it all such operations as have their objects not only those that have their terms to which without the Agent i. e. not only all transient but all immanent acts that have their object without them As when we say all Gods acts ad extra are free we mean it even of his immanent acts that have their objects without him though they do not poâ—â—re terminum extra deum as his election his love of the elect And so he must be understood to deny the separate souls and that with a praesertim too the operations of knowing God of loving him and delighting in him which are all operations ad extra as having their objects extra animam though their terminus ad quâ—m be not so which makes the condition of the separate souls of Saints unspeakably inferiour to what it was in the body and what should occasion to dismal thoughts of that state of separation I see not Scripture gives no ground for them but evidently enough speaks the contrary Reason and Phylosophy offers nothing that can â—ender the sense we put upon the forementioned plain Scriptures self contradâ—ctions or impossible Yea such as had no other light or guide have thought the facility of the souls operations being separate from its earthly body much greater by that very separation And upon this score doth Saint Augustine with great indignation inveigh against the Pâ—ilosophers Plaâ—o more especially because they judg'd the separation of the Soul from the body necessary to its blessedness Quia videlicct ejus perfectâ—m beatitudinem tunc illi fieri exâ—stimâ—at cum omni prorsus corpore exuta ad Deum sâ—nâ— lex solâ— quodommodo nuda redierit De civit Dei l. 13 c. 16. unto which purpose the words of Philolâ—us Pythâ—goricus of Plato of Porphyrius are cited by Ludovicus vives in his Comment upon that bovementioned passage The first speaking thus Deposito corpore hominem Deum immortalem fieri The second thus Trahi nos à corpore ad ima à cogitatione superarum rerum subinde revocari ideo relinquendum corpus hîc quantum possumus in alterâ vitâ vitâ prorsum ut liberi expediti verum ipsi videamus optimum amemus The third denies Aliter fieri bâ—atum quenquam posse nisi relinquat corpus affigatur Deo I conceive it by the way not improbable that the severity of that Pious Father against that Dogma of the Philosophers might proceed upon this ground that what they said of the impossibilitie of being happy in an earthly body he understood meant by them of an impossibilitie to be happy in any body at all when 't is evidently the common opinion of the Platonists that the soul is alwayes united with some body or other and that even the Daeâ—oâ—s have bodies aereal or etherial ones which Plato himself is observed by St. Augustine to affirm whence he would fasten a contradiction on him ibid. not considering 't is likely that
he would much less have made a difficultie to concede such bodies also to humane souls after they had lost their terrestial ones as his sectators do not who hold they then presently become Daemons In the mean time 't is evident enough the doctrine of the separate souls present blessedness is not destitute of the patronage and suffrage of Philosophers And 't is indeed the known opinion of as many of them as ever held its immortality which all of all Ages and nations have done a very few excepted for in as much as they knew nothing of the resurrection of the bodie they could not dream of a slâ—epiâ—g interval And 't is at least a shrewd presumption that nothing in reason lies against it when no one instance can be given among them that professedly gave up themselves to its only guidance of any one that granting the immortality of the soul and its separableness fâ—om its terrestrial body ever denied the immediate blessedness of good souls in that state of separation Nor if we look into the thing it self is it at all more unapprehensible that the soul should be independent on the body in its operations then in its exist 〈◊〉 If it be possible enough to form an unexceptionable notion of a spiritual being distinct and separable from any corporeal substance which the learned Doctor More hath sufficiently demonstrated in his Treatise of the immortalitie of the Soul with its proper attributes and powers peculiar to it self what can reasonablely with-hold me from assenting that being separate from the body it may as well operate alone I mean exert such operations as are pâ—oper to such a being as exist alone That we find it here de facto in its present state acting only with dependence on a bodie will no more infer that it can act no otherwise then its present existence in a body will that it can never exist out of it neither whereof amounts to more then the trifling exploded argument à non esse ad non posse and would be as good sense as to say such a one walks in his clothes therefore out of them he cannot move a foot Yea and the very use it self which the soul now makes of corporeal organs and instruments plainlie â—vinces that it doth exert some action wherein they assist it not For it supposes an operation upon them antecedent to any operation by them Nothing can be the instrument which is not first the subject of my action as when I use a pen I act upon in order to my acting by it i. e. I impress a motion upon it in order whereunto I use not that or any other such instrument And though I cannot produce the designed effect leave such characters so and so figured without it my hand can yet without it perform its own action proper to it self and produce many nobler effects When therefore the soul makes use of a bodily organ its action upon it must needs at last â—e without the ministry of any organ unless you multiply to it bodie upon bodie in infiniâ—um And if possibly it perform not some meaner and grosser pieces of drudgerie when out of the body wherein it made use of its help and service before that is no moâ—e a disparagement or dimunution then it s to the Magistrate that law and decency permit him not to apprehend or execute a Malefactor with his own hand It may yet perform those operations which are proper to it self that is such as are more noble and excellent and immediately conducive to its own felicitie Which sort of actions as Cogitation for instance and Dilection though being done in the body there is conjunct with them an agitation of the Spirits in the brain and heart It yet seems to me more reasonable that as to those acts the Spirits are rather subjects then instruments at all of them that the whole essence of these Acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits and that motion certainly but accidentally consequent only by reason of the present but soluble union the soul hath with the body And that the purity and refinedness of those Spirits doth only remove what would hinder such acts rather than contribute positively thereto And so little is the alliance between a thought and any bodily thing even those very finest Spirits themselves that I dare say whoever sets himself closely and strictly to consider and debate the matter with his own faculties will find it much more easily apprehensible how the acts of intellection and volition may be performed without those very corporeal Spirits then by them However suppose them never so indispensably necessarie to those more noble operations of the soul it may easilie be furnisht with them and in greater plentie and puritie from the ambient aire or aether than from a dull torpid body with some part of which air if we suppose it to contract a vital union I know no rational principle that is wronged by the supposition though neither do I know any that can necessarily infer it As therefore the doctrine of the souls activitie out of this earthly body hath favour and friendship enough from Philosophers so I doubt not but upon the most strict and rigid disquisition it would be as mâ—ch befriended or rather righted by Philosophie it self And that their reason would afford it as direct and more considerable defence then their Authority In the mean time it deserves to be considered with some resentment that this Doctrine should find the generality of Learned Pagans more forward Advocates then some learned and worthy Patrons of the Christian Faith which is only imputable to the undue measure and excess of an otherwise jâ—st zeal in thâ—se latter for the resurrection of the body so far transporting them that they became willing to let go one Truth that they might hold 〈◊〉 the â—â—ster and to ransome this at the too deare and unnecessary expence of the former Accounting they could never make sure enough the resurrection of the bodie without making the souls dependence on it so absolute and necessarie that it should be able to do nothing but sleep in the mean while Whereas it seems a great deal more unconceiveable how such a being as the soul is once quit of the entanglements and encumbrances of the body should sleep at all then how it should act without the body * See Dr. Hammonds annot in loc Dan 12 2 Joh. 14 12. 2 Cor. 15. 2 Thes. 4. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil 3. 20 21. 1 Thes. 4. 14 15 16. Chap. 14. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 2 Thes 1. 1 Cor. 15. Use. Dissoluti est hominis in rebus sâ—riis quaerere voluptatem Arnob. â—cientiam qui â—idicit faâ—enda viâ—nda percepit â—â—dum sapiens 〈◊〉 nisi in ea quae â—dicit transfiâ—ratus est aniâ—â—s Sen. Ep. â—4 Non prodest cibus nec corpori accedit qui statim sumptus emittitur Sen Epist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epitlet Psal. 49. *