And when he sees that they are utterly lost by their own Madness and Folly and that it is in vain to follow them any farther he casts a sorrowful Look upon them and like a grieved Friend after the utmost strugglings and extream Efforts of his affronted Goodness unwillingly leaves them to their own sad Fate and gives them up as it were with the Tears in his Eyes And can you think this blessed Spirit would be so industrious as he is in his Ministry for Souls that he would take such infinite Pains to save them be so extreamly urgent and solicitous for their Welfare if He did not know them to be a sort of Beings of an inestimable Worth and Value O blessed God what are not our Souls worth that are worth all the Pains thy blessed Spirit takes to save and make them happy That not only thou thought'st worth all those vast Thoughts and Counsels which thou hast spent upon them that not only thy Son thought worth all those vast Condescentions he stooped to to put those Thoughts in Execution but thy blessed Spirit also thinks worth all that unwearied Pains and Endeavour all that incessant Care and Importunity which he employs about them to save and rescue them from Sin and Misery Doubtless those Beings must needs be exceeding precious for whose Safety and Welfare all the blessed Trinity are so unspeakably concerned 4. Let us consider the vast Price which the Holy Angels put upon Souls For tho they are the Crown and Top of all the Creation of God and do by their essential Perfections border nearest upon him yet such is their Opinion of the Souls of Men that they think it no Disparagement to converse with and minister to them but from the begining of the World till now have been always ready to maintain a close Intercourse and intimate Correspondence with them and so far forth as they are permitted by the Laws of their invisible World they are continually attending to stretch forth a helping Hand to them in all their Needs and Necessities Tho they are the most Illustrious Courtiers of Heaven yet they disdain not to be the Life-Guards of Souls to pitch their Tents round about them as the Psalmist expresses it Psal. 34. 8. And interpose between them and their Danger to prompt them to and assist them in their Duties to strengthen them against or to remove their Temptations to comfort them in their Sorrows and chase away from them those malignant Spirits that are always about them watching all Opportunities to seduce and destroy them Hence Heb. 1 14. They are said to be ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And how much they are concerned for the Safety and Welfare of these precious Beings they are charged with is evident by that Passage Luke 15. 16. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner that repenteth So Considerable are the Lives of Souls to the Angels of God that tho they are always entertained with the most ravishing Pleasures yet Heaven it self cannot divert them from being overjoyed at the Repentance of a Perishing Soul and celebrating its Recovery with a new Festival And when-ever the happy News is brought them that such a dying Soul is revived they not only attend to it in the midst of all their Joys and Triumphs but upon the hearing of it they shout for Joy and fill the Heavens with a new Acclamation And when-ever such a Penitent Soul hath bidden adieu to the Body those blessed Spirits stand ready to recieve and guard it through those Legions of malignant Spirits that do always infest these lower Tracts of Air and to conduct it safe to those happy Abodes where it is to lodge till the Resurrection for it is said of Lazarus's Soul Luke 16. 22. That it was carried by Angels into Abraham ' s Bosom All which is a clear Demonstration of the vast Esteem which those blessed Angels have of Souls For can it be thought that such noble Beings who have a God and themselves to converse with and have so immediate a Prospect both of his Beauty and their own to exercise their Faculties and employ their Contemplation would be so ready and willing as they are to attend upon Souls and minister to their Safety and Happiness if they had not a mighty Value and Estimation of them Surely if these immortal Spirits within us were not unspeakably dear and precious those Angelical Beings who have always the most sublime and enravishing Objects before them to employ and entertain their Faculties would never have thought it worth the while to stickle so zealously in their Affairs and concern themselves so much about them And thus our Saviour himself argues Mat. 18. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven that is do not undervalue any Soul for how mean or little soever some of them may appear to you they are under the Guardianship of those blessed Angels that are the Courtiers of God and do always attend upon his Majestick Presence 5. And Lastly Let us consider the vast Price which the Devils themselves do put upon Souls for ever since those malignant Spirits through their own Pride and Ambition revolted from God and conspir'd to make War with Heaven and revenge their Expulsion thence the constant Drift of all their Designs and Actions hath been to seduce and ruin them being conscious that of all the Beings that are within the reach of their Power there are none so dear to God as these and that by seducing from him these his most precious Creatures they shall do him the greatest spight and most effectually revenge upon him their own Damnation For doubtless were there any Beings below the Moon more dear to God than these they would bend their Force and Malice against them and not make these as they do the only Centers of their mischievous Activity Had they any nobler Game to fly at their ambitious Malice would disdain to stoop to the Quarry of Souls but because of all others These are the noblest and best worth the ruining therefore do these malignant Spirits turn all their Artillery upon them and level all their fiery Darts against them And how ambitious they are of seducing our Souls and training them on to Perdition is evident by the infinite Wiles and Snares and Stratagems they contrive against them by their unwearied Diligence to watch all Opportunities against them to surprize them where they are careless and assault them where they are weakest and cheat them with disguised Suggestions to inspect their Humours and apply themselves to their Interest and nick their Tempers with convenient Temptations And if after all their Labour Craft and Contrivance they can but seise the Game they hunt for the Blood of a Soul is so rich a Draught that
a Mind to stear and manage it it would be an equal Chance whether we did well or ill with it So that unless there were some Vnderstanding either within or without us to conduct our active Powers and determine them to our Good we were as good be altogether without them because while they act by Chance it is at least an equal Lay whether they will injure or advantage us Since therefore Vnderstanding is the Rule and Measure of all our other Powers it necessarily follows that it self is the greatest and noblest of them all What an excellent Being therefore must a Soul be in which this great and Sovereign Power resides a Power that can collect into it self such prodigious Numbers of simple Apprehensions and by comparing one with the other can connect them into true Propositions and upon each of these can run such long and curious Descants of Discourse till it hath drawn out all their Consequents into a Chain of wise and coherent Notions and sorted these into such various Systems of useful Arts and Sciences That can discern the Harmonious Contextures of Truths with Truths the secret Links and Junctures of coherent Notions trace up Effects to their Causes and sift the remotest Consequents to their natural Principles That 〈◊〉 Abroad its sharp-sighted Thoughts over the whole Extent of Beings and like the Sun with it s out-stretched Rays reach the remotest Objects That can in the Twinkling of an Eye expatiate through all the Vniverse and keep Correspondence with both Worlds can prick out the Paths of the Heavenly Bodies and measure the Circles of their Motion span the whole Surface of the Earth and dive into its Capacious Womb and there discover the numerous Offsprings with which it is continually teeming That can sail into the World of Spirits by the never-varying Compass of its Reason and discover those invisible Regions of Happiness and Misery which are altogether out of our sight whilest we stand upon this hither Shore In a word That can ascend from Cause to Cause to God who is the Cause of all and with its Eagle-Eyes can gaze upon that glorious Sun and dive into the infinite Abyss of his divine Perfections What an excellent Being therefore is that Soul that is endowed with such a vast Capacity of Vnderstanding and with its piercing Eye can reach such an immense Compass of Beings and travail through so vast an Horizon of Truth Doubtless if humane Souls had no other Capacity to value themselves by but only this this were enough to give them the Preheminence over all inferiour Beings and render them the most glorious Part of all this sublunary World 2. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Moral Perfection For by the Exercise of those humane Vertues which are proper to it in this state of Conjunction with the Body it is capable of raising it self to the Perfection of those Angelical Natures which of all Creatures do most nearly approach and resemble the great Creator and Fountain of all Perfection For by keeping a due Restraint upon its bodily Appetites and thereby gradually weaning it self from the Pleasures of the Body it may by degrees be educated and trained up to lead the Life and relish the Joys of naked and immortal Spirits it may be contempered to an incorporeal State so as to be able to enjoy it self without eating and drinking and live most happily upon the Fare of Angels upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation And then by governing its own Will and Affections by the Laws of Reason and Religion it may be degrees improve it self so far in all these Moral Endowments which are the proper Graces of every reasonable Nature as to be at last as perfectly wise and reasonable in its own Choices and Refusals in its Love and Hatred in its Desires and Delights as the Angels themselves are For though it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state a Soul should arrive to such a Pitch as this yet even now it may be growing up and aspiring to it which if it doth as I shall shew you by and by when this is expired it hath another Life to live which being antecedently prepared for by those spiritual Improvements it hath made here will furnish it with Opportunites of improing infinitely faster than here it did or possibly could For in that Life it shall not only be freed from those many Incumbrances which do here retard it in its spiritual Progress nor shall it only be associated with a World of pure and blessed Spirits whose holy Example and wise Converse will doubtless wonderfully edifie and improve it but be also admitted into a more intimate Acquaintance with God who is the Author and Pattern of all Perfection the sight of whose ravishing Beauty will inflame it with a most ardent Love to him and excite it to a most vigorous Imitation of him All which considered it is not to be imagined how much the state of Heaven will immediately improve those happy Souls that are prepared and disposed for it But then considering that Moral Perfection is as infinite as the Nature of God in which there is an Infinity of Holiness and Iustice and Goodness within this boundless Subject there will be Room enough for Souls to make farther and farther Improvements in even to Eternity And then when they shall still be growing on so fast and yet be still forever improving to what a transcendent Height of Glory and Perfection will they at last arrive For tho no finite Soul can ever arrive to an infinite Perfection yet still it may be growing on to it because there will still be possible Degrees of it beyond its present Attainments and when it is arrived to the farthest imaginable Degree yet still it will be capable of farther and so farther and farther to all Eternity And if so O blessed God of what a Capacious Nature hast thou made these Souls of ours which tho they will doubtless improve in Goodness as fast in the other Life as is possible for them with all the Advantages of a Heavenly State yet will never attain to an utmost Period but still be growing perfecter and perfecter forever 3. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its immense Capacities of Pleasure and Delight For its Capacity of Pleasure must necessarily be as large and extensive as its Capacity of Vnderstanding and of Moral Perfection because the proper Pleasure of a Soul results from its own Knowledge and Goodness from its farther Discoveries of Truth and farther Proficiency in inward Rectitude and Vertue and consequently as as it Improves farther and farther in Vnderstanding and in Moral Perfection it must still gather more and more Fuel to feed and encrease its own Joy and Pleasure For the Pleasure of every Being consists in the vigorous Exercise of its Faculties about convenient and agreable Objects but the Faculties of a Soul are Vnderstanding and Will to which
they think it a sufficient Recompence for all their painful and mischievous Devices for St. Peter tells us that they go about like roaring Lyons seeking whom they may devour And to be sure those malignant Spirits would never be so impertinently mischievous as to spend their time in catching Flies and did they not know our Souls to be noble Preys they would never go so far about as they do nor take so much Care and Pains to Catch and insnare them So that from their unwearied Diligence to seduce and ruin us we may most certainly conclude either that they are very foolish Devils or that our Souls are very precious Beings but howsoever their Diligence to destroy them is a plain Argument that they esteem them precious it being by no means to be supposed that such Wise and intelligent Beings as they are would so much concern themselves as they do about things which they had little or no Esteem for And thus you see at what a vast Rate our Souls are valued by the whole World of Spirits how from the highest to the lowest those best and wisest Judges of the just Worth of Souls do all unanimously concur in a great and high Estimation So that whether we value them by their own natural Capacities or by the Estimation of those who are best able to judg of their Worth and Excellency we have abundant Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings And now I shall conclude this Argument with some Inferences 1. From hence I infer by what it is that we ought to value our selves and estimate the Dignity of our own Natures viz. by our rational and immortal Souls those excellent Beings that are so invaluable in themselves and so highly esteemed by the best and wisest Judges 'T is this intelligent and immortal Nature within us that is the Crown and Flower of our Beings 't is by this that we are exalted above the Level of meer Animals by this that we are allyed to Angels and do border upon God himself And he that values himself by any thing but his Soul and those things which are its proper Graces and Ornaments begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Jewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber And yet good God what foolish Measures do the Generality of Men take of themselves Were we not forced by too many woful Experiments it would be hard to imagine that any Creature that believes a rational and immortal Soul to be a Part of its Nature should be so ridiculous as to value it self by the little trisling Advantages of a well-coloured Skin a suit of fine Cloths a Puff of popular Applause or a few Baggs of white and red Earth and yet God help us these are the only things almost by which we value and difference our selves from others You are a much better Man than your Neighbour he alas is a poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicable Thing not worthy to be looked upon or taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the Name of God what is the Matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath not he a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and to be as happy as yours Yes yes 't is true indeed but notwithstanding God be thanked you are another-guess Man than he for you have a much handsomer Body your Apparel is much more fine and fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and your Name forsooth is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Noise in the World And is this all the Difference between your mighty selves and your pitiful Neighbours Alas poor Men A few Days more will put an End to this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all those little Trifles by which you value your selves Where will be the Beauty or Wealth the Port or Garb which you are now so proud of Alas Now that lovely Body looks as pale and ghastly that lofty Soul is left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours Should you now meet his wandering Ghost in the wide World of Spirits what would you have to boast of more than he now your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor shrouded in the Horrors of a silent Grave Now you will have nothing distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls and by so much as you were more respected for your Beauty and Wealth your Garb and Equipage in this World by so much you will be more despised for your Pride and Insolence your Covetousness and Sensuality in the other Let us therefore learn to value our selves by that which will abide by us by our immortal Souls and by those heavenly Graces which do adorn and accomplish them by our Humility and Devotion by our Charity and Meekness by our Temperance and Iustice all which are such Preheminences as will servive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls forever But for a rational and immortal Creature to prize it self by any such temporary Advantages is altogether as vain and ridiculous as it was for the Emperor Nero to value himself for being an excellent Fidler 2ly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged to live up to the Dignity of our Natures Should a stranger to Mankind be admitted into this busy Stage of humane Affairs to survey our Actions and the paltry Designs we drive at certainly he would hardly imagine that we believed our selves to be such a noble sort and strain of Beings as we are If you saw a Man seriously imploying himself in some sordid and beggarly Drudgery could you imagine that he believed himself to be the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury who would think that we believed our selves to be immortal Spirits that must live forever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery When we consider the high Rank which we hold in the Creation the vast Capacities which there are in our Natures and the noble Ends which we were made and designed for are we not ashamed to think how poorly we prostitute our selves and vilify our own Faculties by the sordid Drudgeries wherein we exercise and imploy ' em When we think what a Reputation we have throughout all the World of Spirits what a vast Rate we are valued at by God and Angels and Devils are we not confounded to think how we under-value our selves by those low and inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all
Souls with such dreadful Imaginations as are far more sharp and exquisite than any bâ—dily Torment And if now they have such Power over us when God thinks fit to let them loose what will they have hereafter when these our wretched Spirits shall be wholly abandoned to their Mercy and they shall have a free Scope to exercise their Fury upon us and glut their hungry Malice with our Vexations and Torments It seems at least a mighty probable Notion that that horrid Agony of our Saviour in the Garden which caused him to shriek and grone and sweat as it were great Drops of Blood was only the Effect of those preter-natural Terrors which the Devils with whom he was then in Combat impressed upon his innocent Mind And if they had so much Power over his pure and mighty Soul that was so strongly guarded with the most perfect and unspotted Vertues what will they have over ours when God hath abandoned us to them and thrown us as Preys into their Mouths with what an hellish Rage will they fly upon our guilty and timorous Souls in which there is so much Tinder for their injected Sparks of Horror to take Fire on When therefore our guilty Spirits shall not only be liable to the Scourge of God but Devils and damned Ghosts too shall have their full Swing at them doubtless the Hell within them will be far more intollerable than any Hell of Fire and Brimstone without them 4ly The Soul of Man is also liable to be confined to the most dismal and uncomfortable Abodes What or where the Abode of wicked Spirits is till the Morn of the Resurrection is no where expressly determined in the Holy Scripture but since wheresoever they are they are doubtless under the Power and Dominion of the Devil who as the Scripture assures us is Prince of the Power of the Air it is highly probable that their present Residence is in these lower Regions of the World that either being chased by those infernal Powers under whose Tyranny they are they are continually hurrying about in these inferior Tracts of Air or which perhaps is more probable that they are imprisoned by those invisible Ministers of the divine Justice vvithin the dark Abysses and under-ground Vaults of the Earth and not permitted but upon special Occasions to come abroad into this upper Region of Light and Liberty But vvheresoever they are it is doubtless in some such horrid and dismal Prison as is fit only to receive such vile and desperate Malefactors and secure them till the great Assizes vvhen they shall be brough forth to receive their Tryal and final Judgment And then being united to their Bodies and thereby made liable to corporeal Torments the Scripture expresly affirms that they shall be shut up in everlasting Flames and be tormented for ever in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone for then the Lord himself shall come in Flames of Fire to render Vengance to all those that obeyed not his Gospel and having vvith those raging Flames set every Part of this lower World on Fire he vvill re-ascend vvith all his Train to the celestial Mansions and leave the Wicked vveltring for ever in this burning Vault belovv for it is plain that the everlasting Fire to vvhich he vvill then Sentence them is the Conflagration of the World vvhich after the Iust are raised and caught up into the Clouds above the Reach of its aspiring Flames shall break forth on every side and turn all this Atmosphere into a Furnace of inquenchable Fire and therein shall those wicked Miscreants that vvould not be reclaimed be condemned to live for ever For the Judgment being ended the Judg and all his Retinue shall return and leave them in the midst of a burning World surrounded vvith Smoak and Fire Darkness and Confusion and vvrapt in fierce and merciless Flames vvhich shall stick close to and pierce through and through their Bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And vvhat an intolerable Mulct this is I leave every Mans natural Sense to judg 5ly The Soul of Man is also liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross wild and furious Passions We have sufficient Experience in this Life how vexatious our cross and excessive Passions are for when our Passions are divided and contrary Objects have raised contrary Desires and Appetites in us how do they rend and distract our Souls and cause perpetual Mutinies and Tumults within us But by Reason of those many sensual Gratifications with which we now make a shift to stop the Mouths of those Daughters of the Horse-Leech when they cry out give give we cannot be so sensible of the Trouble and Vexation of them but unless we now subdue and mortifie them we shall be forced to carry them into Eternity along with us For by being separated from their Bodies the Souls of Men are never separated from their prevailing Tempers but in their separated State are for the main of the same Disposition as they were here and do retain the same Passions and Appetites 'T is true they cannot be supposed to retain their bodily Appetites after they have thrown off their Bodies but when they have wholly accustomed themselves in this Life to fleshly Pleasures and have never Experienced spiritual ones it is impossible but that in the other they should be tormented with an outragious Desire of being imbodied again that so being incapable of relishing any other they may repeat those fleshly Pleasures which heretofore they were accustomed to and act over the brutish Scene anew And this vehement Hankering of these carnalized Souls to return into their Bodily State is perhaps the only Sensuality that a seperate Soul is capable of but it is such a Sensuality as must necessarily render such Souls extreamly miserable for in that State it will be like the Hunger of a Starving Man that is Immured between two dead Walls that is it will be a fierce Desire without Hope of Satisfaction a corroding Hunger sharpened with Despair of Food than which there is nothing more intolerably grievous and tormenting For how will it vex the wretched Spirit to look back from the Shores of Eternity into this corporeal World and to ruminate thus with it self O miserable Creature that I am here am I cast away for ever upon a strange and desolate Shore where I must Famish for want of Food pine away a long Eternity and wander to and fro for ever tormented with restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desires where there is not one Pleasure that I can relish not an Object that I can taste any sweetness in Wo is me yonder are all my Ioys and Comforts all that is dear and precious to me O that I might go back again and be once more restored to the Injoyment of them but alas between me and them there runs an impassible Gulph that deprives me of all hope of returning For thus will the unhappy Soul torment it self with an outragious Longing for
that which it can never hope to enjoy But then besides this Appetite of Sensuality which it will there be vexed with it will also carry along with it all that Envy and Malice that Wrath and Impatience Pride and Insolence which it here contracted which black and Hellish Passions will prove perpetual Furies in its Bosom For in that wretched State it will not only have Objects always present to excite them but such Objects too as will excite them all at once to the most outragious Excesses For when all at once it shall see others advanced to the greatest Heights of Glory and Happiness and it self not only rejected but abandoned to endless Misery the Sense of this must necessarily irritate all its devilish Passions to the highest Extremities and cause its Pride to swell its Envy to burst and its Wrath to boil into a Diabolical Fury and what a continual Hell must this create in the Soul to be perpetually worried with so many black and rabid Passions to have all its inferiour Parts and Affections like those of the Monster Scylla whom the Poets talk of as so many Dogs continually barking and snarling at one another and yet remain unseperable as being Comparts of the same Substance 6ly The Soul of Man is also liable to the intolerable Anguish of its own guilty Conscience The Spirit of a Man says Solomon can bear his Infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Intimating that of all the Passions which humane Nature is liable to there are none so grievous as that of a Mind awakened with a sense of Guilt And of the Truth of this we have some Experience even in this Life tho now we can make a shift either to divert our selves by our sensual Mirth and Jollities from listening to the Clamours of our guilty Minds or else to deceive our selves into a groundless Peace by indulgent and fallacious Principles but unless we expiate our Guilts here we shall carry them into Eternity with us where all those sensual Pleasures with which we now divert our selves from reflecting on our Actions will be removed and all those fallacious Principles with which we cheat and deceive our selves will be baffled by a woful Experience So that then our Souls will be nakedly exposed to the Lash of its own furious Thoughts and having nothing to guard or defend it self against the cutting Reflections of a guilty Conscience which being roused up and kept awake by the unintermitting sense of our Misery will be always clamouring upon us and continually torturing our wretched Minds with sharp and vexatious Reflections and besides whilst our Soul doth act by bodily Instruments and work in this Mire of Flesh it is impossible it should be so nimble and expedite in its Motions as it will be when it is a naked Spirit For then its Perceptions will be much clearer its Convictions more strong and evident and all its Reflections active as the Lightning and quick as the Wing of an Angel So that whereas now the sharpest Stings of our Conscience have an Intermixture of Fancy and Imagination in them being gross and material Powers do dull and rebate the Edg of them and render them less pungent and sensible when we are stripped out of our Flesh and sent naked into the other World we shall have no Clog about us to break or allay those sharp Reflections with which we shall be forced to lash our selves for ever And then our Conscience will cut to the quick and sting with a corroding Venom then will the Remembrance of those Guilts which brought our Miseries upon us rouze up such a Swarm of Horrors in our Minds as we shall be able neither to avoid nor indure For the Sense of our Misery will be every Moment suggesting those Guilts to our Minds that were the Cause of it and continually upbraiding us with those desperate Follies by which we ran our selves into it the Consideration of which will cause us to hate and curse our selves for ever and to discharge our Fury upon our own Heads which will make our Soul turn Devil to it self and force it to be its own Executioner For it being now conscious to it self that its Miseries are nothing else but the rueful and pitiless Deserts of its own Folly and Madness it will be continually meditating horrible Reflections and singing Satyrs on it self So that while it is wandring among wretched Ghosts through the dismal Shades below it will never cease lashing it self with its own sharp and stinging Thoughts till it hath chafed it self into a Fury and boiled up its self-condemning Rage into everlasting Madness 7ly And lastly The Soul of Man is also liable to endure all these dismal things for ever For that our Souls are naturally immaterial and immortal I have already proved so that if God in his infinite Justice shall think fit to sentence wicked Souls irrecoverably to all these above named Miseries they must by the Constitution of their own Natures live in and undergo them for ever And that he doth think to pronounce and execute such a Sentence upon them he himself hath assured us for so in Scripture he hath plainly declared that their Punishment shall be everlasting Matth. 25. 7. These saith he speaking of the Wicked shall go away into everlasting Punishment and accordingly the Fire in and with which they are to be punished is called everlasting fire Matth. 25. 41. and that they shall subsist for ever in this Fire and be co-eternal with it is evident by those Passions and Actions that are attributed to them in it for Rev. 14. 11. they are said to have no rest day nor night in it but to be in a continual unintermitting Fever that will necessarily burn and scorch them and not allow them the least Intervals of Ease or Comfort And in Matth. 13. 42. the bitter Anguish vvhich they shall endure in this Fire is described by their weeping and wailing and gnashing their Teeth vvhich Actions are plain Indications not only of their subsisting in this everlasting Fire but of the extream Horror and Anguish that they shall therein endure And indeed vvhen God sentences any immortal Being to Misery its Misery must be supposed to continue as long as it lives and consequently to continue for ever since it is to subsist and live for ever And what a fearful Accession is this to all those above named Miseries If we were to endure the softest and most gentle Pain without any Interval for thirty forty or a hundred Years the Prospect of that which is to come would render that which is present so intolerable that we should quickly grow weary of our Lives and wish our selves in our Graves Lord what shall we then do when we come to languish out a long Eternity in the tormenting Agonies of damned Ghosts How will it imbitter every present Torment to us to think of that never-ending Duration of Torment to come that after we have consumed Millions of Millions of
shewed you already how it was as the Glory of the only begotten Son by shewing you the great Agreement and Similitude there was between the Glory of Christ when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Tabernacle of our Nature And when I consider how plainly this Text doth allude to the Shechinah or Divine Presence of the Word in that ancient Tabernacle I am very much induced to think that we ought not to exclude this Sense of it namely that as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of our Nature like as he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses so that Glory of his which they beheld in the Tabernacle of our Nature was like unto that Glory in which he appeared in the ancient Tabernacle But then this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes also taken for a Note of Confirmation So Psal. 73. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly God is good to Israel And thus St. Chrysostome understands it here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not a Note of Similitude and Comparison but of Confirmation and unquestionable Distinction as if the Evangelist had said we saw his Glory such as became and was fit for the only begotten and truly natural Son of God For my Part I see no Reason why the Words may not be fairly understood in both Senses since they are no Ways opposite to nor inconsistent with one another and if so then this must be the Meaning of the Words We beheld his Glory which was like unto that Glory in which the only begotten Son appeared in the old Tabernacle and which was such as was every Way becoming the only begotten Son to appear in The first of which Senses I have proved to you already that the Glory of Christ in the Tabernacle of our Natures was like unto his Glory in the Tabernacle of Moses and therefore now I shall only prove the second that it was such as became and was every Way worthy of the only begotten Son of the Father and this I doubt not will plainly appear by considering the several Particulars of it 1st That visible Splendor and Brightness in which he appeared at his Baptism and Transfiguration was such as became him and was worthy of him For in all Probability that Splendor consisted of Angelical Beings clothed in bright and luminous Bodies because as I have formerly proved to you that Brightness in which he appeared upon the Mount and which he displayed from between the Cherubims was nothing else but those Angels of Light or ministring Spirits which he made to appear as Flames of Fire round about him and therefore that Train of Angels whom Esay saw filling the Temple Esay 6. 1. Our Saviour calls the Glory of the Lord Jo. 12. 41. that is that visible Glory in which the Lord appear'd from between the Cherubims And if that visible Glory consisted in a Train of Angels appearing in glorious Forms then there is no doubt but that visible Glory of our Saviour at his Baptism and Transfiguration was the same since as I have already shewed you it is described by the same Name and in the same Manner of Appearance and if so how well did it become the only begotten Son to be surrounded with the illustrious Guards of his Father's Court and attended on with those high-born Spirits whose Office it is to minister before the Throne of the most High For never was the most glorious Potentate upon Earth attended with such a splendid Train and Retinue the meanest of which was far more illustrious than the greatest and most high-born Monarch in the World So that as the most High God did by a Voice from Heaven both at his Baptism and Transfiguration declare him to be his beloved Son so by the glorious Train of Attendants he sent him he manifested the Truth of his Declaration for we must needs suppose him to be the Son of the most High when we see the most glorious Beings in all the Creation so willingly submit themselves to his Service and Attendance And when we see the most High adorning his Outside with the luminous Bodies of Angels we may reasonably conclude that there was a Divinity within and that the Iewel was God because the Casket was Angels But whatsoever this glorious Splendor was in which he was clothed at his Baptism and Transfiguration it was apparently such as very well became the only begotten Son not only because as the Philosopher saith that if God would ever take upon him a Body it would be certainly Light which is a Vestment most suitable to his Glory and Majesty but also because that miraculous Splendor was an infallible Token of the Presence of the Divinity in him for it never was but where God was present and therefore it is called the Glory of God it being the inseparable Concomitant of his more peculiar Residence For thus as I have shewed you upon the Mount and in the Tabernacle it was a visible Demonstration of the special Presence of the invisible God and wheresoever in all the Old Testament any Mention is made of its Appearance you shall find that there God himself did peculiarly reside And therefore it is not to be imagined that God would have communicated to our Saviour this inseparable Token of his own Presence unless the Divinity had resided in him For Iesus Christ was the only Person upon whom this visible Glory descended never did the Hand of Heaven put such a Robe and Diadem of Glory upon any Person in the World as this which our Saviour wore at his Baptism and Transfiguration which plainly denotes that he was the only Person in whom the Divinity was substantially united and did essentially dwell So that as this visible Glory was a certain Token of God's peculiar Residence in the Tabernacle and Temple so it was also of his special Presence in Christ for the History of his Baptism tells us that it did not only make a transient Appearance but that it remained on him signifying that the Divinity whose Presence was denoted by it had made him his Habitation and Place of constant Abode For though that visible Glory after some Time disappeared and went off from him yet the Thing signified by it viz. the Divine Presence always remained in him for by that outward Glory he was clearly manifested to be the Holy One of God the Tabernacle and Sanctuary in which God was and where he had taken up his Residence for ever that his Humane Nature was that sacred Temple where the Divinity intended to dwell and from whence for the future he would deliver all his Oracles and communicate all his Blessings to Mankind So that in this Respect this visible Glory was such as highly became the only begotten Son because it plainly denoted that the Fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in him and had chosen him for his Habitation for ever and therefore Iohn Baptist tells us that though he knew him not yet this God had revealed