to be always conformed to that exemplar shine forth together the created in subordination to the increated Of all which Body is altogether insensible and utterly incapable In the original therefore of man there is according to Scripture a clear distinction betwixt Spirit and Body 2. That the Scripture doth plainly own the distinction of the Soul from the Body in a state of conjunction with it I argue especially from the powers of mind and the actions of those powers wherein are laid and to which are directed continually all the Discourses and those pressing Reasonings Exhortations Admonitions and Reproofs we find in sacred Writings These powers according to the universal speech of mankind it calls Vnderstanding Faculty of Reason Conscience Judgment and the actions proceeding from these it names Thought Apprehension or Perceiving Consideration Reasoning Accusation and Apologie or Defence of Conscience Judging of Things and all these powers working out into these acts it comprehends in this word the Spirit of man and unites these acts with it speaking of these powers as the Essence of a man and of the acts as most connatural to that Essence to which also every mans knowledge and feeling within himself give as clear testimony and as full as the parts of Body give of themselves to Sense For the Spirit of a man knows the things of a man within him Now it is plain All these things are most improper to Body or so much as a brutal Spirit especially when they lift up themselves to the sense of a God and extend themselves to religious concernments when they receive those high proposals of the Gospel and Mysteries that lye out of the whole region of Sense so that though the organs and instruments of the body are sometimes spoken of and to in these cases yet it is only upon this account because they are such as by which the mind acts or are symbols and representations of this rational sense and motion These things being then so well known and every where met with in inspired Writings they are as great a demonstration of their consciousness to another greater and more excellent Being in man than Body as can be required seeing Body hath no fitness nor possible sublimation to these things that Scripture so wholly insists upon in relation to man There must be therefore another man a more excellent man within or else all thus spoken must have been in vain such powers and actions cannot be ascribed originally to the most excellent temper of Body or Tune of motions but must have a proper and peculiar substance to reside in and that whatever any one else will call it is that Scripture and common speaking calls Spirit And this being so plain and clear and of so general consent the Scripture without any industry as in a case presumed speaks of Spirit as one thing and Body as another distributes 1 Thess 5. 23. man into Body Soul and Spirit Body is well enough known Soul is either Spirit as it contains within it self the faculties of sensitive nature and takes the Government of them upon it self and the care and feeling of things that concern Body and the life of it or as it moves in the most excellent parts of Body that mediate betwixt body and mind and are fittest for the more immediate motions of Spirit in Body and so called Spirits Spirit is pure mind exalted to its own objects and the highest of those objects Divine Things This Spirit is that Inward Man holy 2 Cor. 4. 16. Writing speaks of renewed and repaired every day not in its substantial nature but in gracious and heavenly qualities of which it is the only residence and receipt and which are its true health and strength Lastly In this distinction of Soul and Body is founded that excellent discourse of the Apostle Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. of Being in the flesh and in the Spirit of being carnally minded or of the carnal mind and of being spiritually minded or of the spiritual mind By which on one side he describes this mind allured and drawn down to Body and Flesh which comes to pass first through nearness to Body and closest sympathy with all those natural and sensitive motions which it self inspires Body with but chiefly by degeneracy the Soul comes to feel it self and places its enjoyments wholly in flesh and makes that the Center of its reigning passions and affections and so it self becomes carnal and sensual and cannot please God On the other side is described Mind lifted up above Body and out of Flesh by Grace and the Divine Spirit to an inseparable adherence to God and Christ and eternal things to which it advances its own motions in Body also presenting them a living and acceptable Sacrifice which is the rational service of a man consisting of Soul and Body Thus the Flesh and the Heart together cry out for the living God In the mean time this Spirit of the mind subdues and restrains its own motions arising from unholy Bodily inclination and affection Now to be carnally minded is death The mind unpurged and glued to Body dyes in that sense a Spirit can dye that is a death of separation from God and deprivation of Divine Beauty and Happiness and the Body whose ministery it uses and makes it the seat of its carnal pleasures and sensualities perishes also leaving no possible satisfaction any longer from them and yet that Body because it was the Body of that unpurged Soul and retains its order to it remains guilty and foul dust and rises again so that the Soul may suffer and its misery may be seen in a Body even as it sinned in Body which is the second death But to be spiritually minded is life and peace For Mind renewed and made the habitation of the Holy Spirit and its righteousness cannot it self dye no not as Spirits dye because of that blessed and immortal allyance for it lives in the enjoyment of God likeness to him lively motions of it self in all goodness and blessedness And though the Body is dead that is is under the sentence of death to be unavoidably fulfilled in the separation of the Soul from the Body upon which the Body becomes a dead lump and further it must dye that the Soul may obtain a perfect purification from sin which it cannot have while cemented with Body sin being so lodged in that Cement that there can be no perfect purification till that Cement be dissolved Then when that Cement is dissolved the separated Soul becomes perfect Spirit and Divine through the almighty efficacy of the Divine Spirit resiant in it and bearing it up to the perfection of the Divine life for ever Thus the Spirit is life because of righteousness And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you That is The Body that
turns them for Creation Conservation or the Change of Things as he pleases What is his Favour or Displeasure but the highest Efficacies of Kindness or Severity of Joy unspeakable and full of Glory or of weeping and wailing without all ease or remedy How do all Spirits Good and Holy cast their Crowns before him and laud him with eternal Acknowledgments of both their Being and Happiness to his Grace and Goodness and Acclamations to his Praise And that Stream from himself that feeds with Being and Spirituality those so unhappy and wretched Spirits deposed from their Glory and Perfection necessitates them to survive the Instances of his Justice and Holiness to the admiration and everlasting wonderment of the Blessed yet with profoundest Reverence of unstain'd Holiness and their own astonishment and horror without end 2. If the Soul is a Being so excellent how foul is Sin that defiles it like a Poyson that presently darkens a Diamond or infects the very Beams of the Sun or soils the Light We should ever resist Temptations to sin with the sad consideration of defiling so excellent and immortal a Spirit 3. It shews how excellent the Price must be that redeems such a Spirit Great is the Redemption of the Soul by Christ the Renovation of the Soul by the Holy Spirit 4. We should consider this Spirit that though now it is enclos'd in the Body yet seeing it is prepar'd to much higher and more excellent motion it must burst out it cannot be always held it must have a freedom that it may expatiate it self Else so great Powers having so little Action now must have been prepar'd in vain 5. We should meditate much upon this great Character of a Spirit It cannot die It is so it-self that it cannot die It s very Being is Intellect Life and Motion so that it cannot cease to live except it cease to be God who alone hath power over it hath design'd it to be for ever and fram'd it for perpetuity and so that it can have no Adversary of its Life or Being It is so separate from all things else that nothing of Body can come near its Essence or Life What Sword or Fire can cut off or consume Thought much less the Soul the Original or Spring of it What most subtle thing in Nature can destroy the Affection of Love or Fear much less so attaque the Judgment or Reason as forcibly to suppress them They can kill the Body but they have no more that they can do No created Spirit how principal soever can come near the Being of the lowest orbed Soul thus to touch it Sathan the great Enemy of Spirits knows this so hopeless an attempt as never once to plot it All his intendments against Humane Spirits are onely to sway them to Evil and so precipitate them into Misery but yet they cannot be master'd by the highest Archangel so much as in the Government of themselves except they surrender and betray their own Absoluteness One Spirit may imprint Thought upon another offer Argument endeavour to induce Affection but the Soul is at its own choice for acceptation and whether it accept or not its Being is still the same its Power of Self-reservation the same so double-guarded is the Soul in this great Privilege of being It self Guarded in its Essence or Life guarded in its Liberty and Freedom which argues it a Being of greatest account Now in that it must always live Holiness and Happiness the enjoyment pleasure and perfection of its Life are with greatest earnestness and upon greatest necessity to be sought Sin and Misery such a degradation of its Life that the Scripture calls them Death are by all means to be avoided and escaped from And seeing it hath a Secret of its own Freedom that no Spiritual Principality or Power can enter into or invade it can onely charge its Ruine upon it self But in the Supreme Spirit God himself is all its strength who perpetuates his first Inspiration maintains its Immunities guides its Motions aright when it had lost it self redeems it from that great Enemy-Spirit by his Son the Lover and great Friend of Souls governs it by his own Holy and Good Spirit and is the Happiness and Glory of it for ever Oh the care that is due to such a Soul as this A care due from it self to it self yet miserably neglected by it self in its true self for it self as engag'd in a Body out of which it is yet always hasting and leaves it in death it self being in greatest danger of a death exceedingly worse though of another nature in the bringing about of which the malice of Hell is always busie and employ'd chusing that as a much higher effect of its spite and cruelty than Annihilation if it had been within the Power of Devils to turn a Soul into nothing 6. Lastly What unspeakable Sentiments of Happiness or Misery doth a self-moving a self-communicating Spirit enter into when it enters into its own place For there it meets those immense Objects God his Favour or Displeasure the true appearances of Sin and Holiness the General Assembly of Spirits happy and miserable with their universal and endless Condition It self appearing to it self in its full extent of Nature Duration and Relation to all these Now its self-motion and self-communication which are its very Being and therefore perfect in its own native Element are active to the highest Self-motion turns it every way with unutterable swiftness upon these Objects and Self-communication makes all its own converts unintermittingly all its Observations upon them into most beatifying or afflictive Resentments according to the Order it stands in to those Objects of Happiness or Misery Two principal Accounts of the Soul of Man are now dispatch'd the first of Invisible Beings the second of the Nature of a Spirit in which I laid down for a Ground That the Right apprehension of the Divine Nature and Being is the Key of the Knowledge of Mans Soul As therefore I endeavour'd to explain those two Points by it so I come now more fully to pursue the Resemblance the Soul of Man hath with God and in this next place to speak of it in the Potency Force and Excellency of its Being and Faculties first taking occasion to make this industrious Reflexion upon the Souls likeness to God It is an usual Observation That every Creature resembles God in that very regard that it hath a Being however obscure it be and the more any Creature advances in Being the clearer the Representation of God till the Scale of Creatures leads us up to those that God hath exalted into the nearest likeness to himself that Created Natures are capable of and these are Rational Spirits Angels and Souls of Men of which Angels are a higher Order and at greater Freedom being out of Bodies and the Souls of Men a lower Order being under the disadvantage of Bodies yet in themselves like to God and like to Angels Now it is the Privilege
to sleep the description of an endless and incurable Sloath Prov. 24. 33. If the Body be a Composure more lively and spirituous and apt to overheat the Soul presently finds this and committing it self to the Inclinations of Body such Propensions are promoted and inraged according to the mighty Force of a Soul into the Excesses of Lust Rage and all Intemperance beyond the very Bruitish Nature that hath no such Spirit to act it and thus also the Might of the Soul is lost as the Force of the Fire with the Powder in a crack'd or foul Gun that is scatter'd and recoils with mischief or as an over-measure of Powder taking fire without direction the Effect of which is the slaughter and destruction of all about it So that every way nothing is atchieved worthy the Greatness of this Spirit Thus the Soul is doubly disabled by Matter wherein it is set both because that Matter is subject to so many disorders that can no way be perfectly cured and so it is unfit for the Souls use and also because the Soul crowds up its own Activities into a contentment with what it finds most natural and ready in that Matter with which it is joyned complies with it and troubles it self no further to amend it and the longer things continue so the more stiff and unreformable the Evil grows All which put together is a plain Reason why there are no greater Effects of a Soul in the World and how it comes to pass that the multitude of People in it give no other evidence of a Soul but in a provision of Natural Life and the Sensualities of Life somewhat above the Rank of Beasts Now upon the utmost stretch of this Reason there would be no Examples of greater Vertue or Heroickness among Men But because this State both of the Body and the Soul is below the Graciousness of the first Creation and that there are most merciful Relaxations of the Punishment due to the Sin of Man and many Advantages for the betterment of both Soul and Body vouchsafed by God through Christ the Mediator whose Benefits extend to them that do not know him hence it is that the State of Mankind excells it self in many great Instances For the Soul retaining its primitive Vigour and Life which are its very Nature and Being and Body being capable of Refinement to better use by the care of the Soul in the Sublimation of it even as Art polishes the Rude Matter directs it into the usefulness of any Instrument as Chymistry purifies and exalts it as the Skill of the Apothecary corrects and makes it medicinable so the Soul designing to mend the Body sets the Characters of Wisdom Virtue and good Ingeny upon it formes it to a graceful Mine and Deportment turns and twists the Motions of it to the Curiosities of Artifice chastises and reforms it to the Precepts of Virtue and subdues it to the Industry of Study and Contemplation hardens it to the fearless and resolv'd Actions of War quickens it to Service in greatest Works and Undertakings with whatever else we see in the World worthy of consideration to this purpose being the Inspiration of Mind and the Performance of Body commanded by it Now that which under such Pressures excites the Souls of Men to these Aspirings must chiefly be acknowledged to Divine Impressions awakening some Mens Spirits to the exercise of their richer and worthier Faculties of which Scripture gives abundant Testimony in all kinds And under this they may be ascrib'd to the different Magnitudes of Souls or the more advantageous Bodies Providence hath contriv'd for some rather than for others and then to the Instruction and Examples that fall from such Persons as Influences from the Heavenly Bodies and have their Effects upon many not onely of one Age or Country but of far distant Places and succeeding Times so that there have been still springing up great and incomparable Persons Mirrours of the Greatness and Potency of a Humane Spirit and their Actions as Monuments of it and under them multitudes of others though not of so high a degree yet endeavouring to raise themselves somewhat towards the Excellencies of Humane Nature But why upon these so fair Advantages the Excellency of Mans Soul is not more generally retrived may receive this farther Resolution As the Soul working by Body must have a well fitted and prepared Body to work immediately by so it 's further necessary to its Operations by Body that there be a conveniency and an accommodation of several Instruments and Materials besides and beyond Body for it to employ the Ministeries of Body upon and to work at a distance by that the Action may be memorable and great He that will build must first sit down and count the Charge The King that goes to War must consider the strength of his Armies the number of his Men the Conduct and Resolution of his Captains the sufficiency of his Treasure He that separates himself to intermeddle with all Knowledge must be furnish'd with the external as well as the internal Means of Science else his Success can never amount to Eminency Now the present State of the World is so impoverish'd by the Sin of Man that it can supply but Few in comparison of the Many so that the strait and low Condition the unattempting Education and manner of Life that very many the most of Mankind are confin'd to by reason of Want fore-prizes the nobler Darings of their Mind and plunges them so low that they cannot easily rise The Experiments of this Case have been very notable in sundry Persons whose Souls have been kept low and suppress'd by the lowness and narrowness of as they are call'd their Fortunes but have spread and soar'd aloft when their Sphere of Action hath been made more ample and high by accession of those Fortunes and we need not make any doubt but that if the Train had been laid in their Youth to Generous Employment they would have much more excell'd seeing their Souls have as it were started out in their riper years to worthy Menages being encourag'd by plenty of Means when their Education had been sordid And the same thing is proportionably to be believ'd of very many who yet live and die obscure and conceal'd and their name in darkness through Prejudices of a poor Condition while their Souls are in themselves as great as any And indeed it is not intended by God the degenerate State of this World should be so noble or free as to bear up the true and native Greatness of Souls in a Multitude and at their full extent of Action any more than he hath prepar'd the Firmament for many Suns A World of Personages Great for their Prowess Vertue Learning and Wisdom would exalt this State too high It is therefore so ordered that the Spirits of the most lie still and contracted by the very closeness of their Condition besides other Misadventures and are so diverted upon the little things they
of the coursness and thickness of matter as Breath Wind Air. This way of expressing these Beings hath been common to Language in general and particularly to Scripture which attributes to God that he is a Spirit and to Angels and the Souls of men under him And yet it may without injury to the cause be granted that this name may not have been original to these natures but derived from those things that have been more removed from Sense than others and from thence transferred to the most excellent part of the Temperament or whatever is most vigorous in any Being and yet least under the cognisance of Sense and so at last ascribed to Beings supposed to be wholly removed from Sense and all this doth but still enlighten the main notion of a Spirit for hereby it was intended to represent them in their native purity and separation from Body by those things that had least of the dregginess of matter and yet were well known so comprehending at once both their spirituality and reality their spirituality expressing them by things most refined their reality in that those things how fine soever were yet sufficiently known to be and to be of greatest reality and effect Hereunto may be reduced the mention Scripture makes of the Spirit of a Eccl. 3. 21. Beast Touching which leaving to Philosophical Disputes the abstrusity of its nature whether it be the highest of material or lowest of spiritual natures I only observe It deserves not the name of a Spirit in compare with the Soul of man in that it is most evident the Scripture speaks nothing of its likeness to God power of Reason moral action or immortality but degrades it from these when it says while the Spirit of a man goes upward the Spirit of a Beast goes downward that is as it is prepared for lowest uses so its state motion and last rest are altogether here below and therefore it cannot correspond in what is now to be spoken of a Spirit yet because it extends it self to actions beyond the measure of other material Beings unaccountably to Sense it is called a Spirit and yields light also to the general notion of a Spirit and shews the infinite Wisdom and Architecture of the Author of all created Beings who formed these Spirits so as to excel the possibilities of matter supposing they do excel them so little as to be disputed with some appearance of Reason whether they are any more than matter mechanized with highest and most curious skill that is to say the handy-work of God in matter But to return Whatever can be spoken in relation only to the word Spirit is of smaller moment the greatest concern is what is intended by it Whether it be no more than a meer mode notion or manner of speaking used to express the lively Temperament vigour or force of a Body only Or whether it mean a substance of an excellent nature distinct and separate from a Body In answer to which That the generality of those that have or do use this word Spirit concerning the Soul of man have and do understand it in this latter Sense is of very little dispute and that the Scriptures do as much as words or expressions can do to assure us they mean so also I shall endeavour to make good by observing what the Scriptures say concerning 1. The original of mans Soul and its first entrance into the Body 2. What expressions it makes use of to shew the distinction of the Soul from the Body while in it 3. How it expresses its distinction from Body and separation from it in death For the first The original of mans Soul we must have recourse to the History of mans Creation and we shall Gen. 1. 24 26. Gen. 2. 7. find that the wisdom of Scripture puts a great difference between the Creation of man and the other Creatures of life in that God consults and resolves to make him in his own Image and likeness and by an immediate hand first builds a Body as a receptacle for the life he intended him and when his Body was framed raised and contrived with all its organs offices and ministeries so that there wanted nothing that should complete and sum up the perfection of a Body he breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life and from that breathing of God he became a living Soul A Soul living that life that proceeded from himself a life that proceeded from God and entered into that prepared Body and quickened it whereas God only commanded the Earth and it brought forth every other living Thing That and its life together The Command of God impregnated the Earth and then as at once it brought forth the living Creature and its life so that in the creation of this lower life and the subjects of it there appears nothing of that method and solemn order observed in mans creation nor did the Breath of God pass into them as it did into man when it filled all the several organs and instruments of the Humane Body with the motions proper to a Body and such a Body and which is far beyond all this The same Breath of God gives man Reason and understanding as we have already expounded this Breath out of Elihu's words and as he speaks in another place The Spirit of God made him and the Breath of the Almighty gave him life This inspiration of the Almighty comprehends this lower life in man that sensitive Beings live and that yet higher life of Religion and obedience to the Creator with which Body hath least to do For in the very Creation God put Wisdom into the inward parts and gave understanding to the heart and by the word of Creation he said to man The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding That is As God created all things by saying Let it Be and pronouncing it good in confirmation of his Creation so he said to man by implanting it in his heart and approving it for very good The fear of the Job 28. 28 Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding As in the universal Creation he saw and declared he prepared and searched out wisdom that is he found out v. 27. within his own understanding fit natures for all things This was his preparing and searching out wisdom and then he gave the proper natures he had designed that was his declaring wisdom thus at the same time he both made up the beauty of the Universe and proclaimed his own infinite understanding And so particularly in the frame of man he was infinitely wise forming man into the propriety of such a nature as man should be that is a Soul whose perfection it should be to fear God and to depart from evil that was made with a power to do so upon Reason and Counsel in which at once the wisdom of God the original wisdom and the wisdom of man the derivative wisdom
was the habitation of the Spirit or Soul renewed and purged from sin that Spirit or Soul being it self the habitation of the Divine Spirit this Body because it hath still a relation to such a Soul loses its sinful taint while it moulders into dust and is raised a Body incorruptible and spiritual that is a habitation fit for the Spirit now made perfect and is filled thereby with the glory of life and immortality which is eternal life and all by virtue of that Divine Spirit that dwelt in that Soul while it was lodged and dwelt in that Body And herein lying the true substantial sense of this most weighty Paragraph of the Apostle how plainly doth it express the distinction of the Soul from the Body and that the Soul is a substance of it self independent upon Body and Body altogether dependent upon it even while it is most immers'd into Body For first The Soul it self gives all the life to its own impure pleasures and sinful reposes in bodily delights to which else Body is able to contribute no more than Oyl to the Flame which of it self we know always lyes still and dark 2. Spirit it self assisted by Grace retires into spiritual enjoyments and quenches and dryes up its own sensual affections to Body and blasts the satisfactions received from thence even before that Oyl be wasted by the decays of Body or dryed up by death Lastly It self carries its own fate if I may so call it and the fate of the Body along with it into eternity for according to what the Soul it self is so is its own happiness or misery and the Body of necessity follows its condition so that it self is plainly All and the Body only a Cypher attending the state of this principal Figure 3. The distinction of Spirit and Body in death is conveyed to us in very plain and easie terms and such as carry their meaning very open if not disturbed and prevented by ill interpretation Let us take a view of the clearness of Scripture herein First Solomon in his Ecclesiastes having considered with some passion and vehemency the little or no apparent preheminence of men above Beasts in their death that as one dies so dies the other they send out one common vital breath and go all to one place he then casts the account of this into the common heap of vanity and comes to a very warm enquiry Who knoweth Eccl. 3. 21. the Spirit of a man that goes upward and the Spirit of a Beast that goes downward Yet thereby resolving the main case enough viz. that these outward appearances laid so much to disadvantage are but only in the Body and outside the difference between the Spirit of a man and the Spirit of a Beast is still very great as great as between Heaven and Earth and the motion as contrary when they dye as upward and downward but still he complains that this is not possible to be seen by Sense and there are very few that reach it to any purpose by Reason and Religion and this saith he is one of the great points of the vanity of all worldly condition that both so great a principle of Truth and so great a dignity of Humane Nature should lye so far off be so indiscernable Here is then an equality in the outside or Bodies of men a dying and Beasts but a great inequality or excellency of men above Beasts which comes home to what we are asserting And thus Solomon understood of the Spirit of a man as is now explained he makes us more certain when after his travel over all things he comes to describe man in his end and does it thus The Dust returning to the Earth Eccl. 12. 7. as it was and the Spirit returns to God that gave it he allots to the several parts into which he distributes man a several motion and a several rest according to the several originals of each The Dust or Body returns to the Earth from whence it was taken the Spirit survives and hastens back to God that gave it Agreeably the care of holy men at death or in any great apprehensions of danger that presented death to them was to commend their Spirit to God as David Into thy hand I commend Psal 31. 5. my Spirit which words were prophetick of the dying words of our Saviour Father into thy hand I commend Luc. 23. 46. my Spirit and thus Stephen breathed out his Soul Lord Jesus receive Acts 7. 59. my Spirit Now in that Solomon affirms of the Spirit of man in general that it returns to God the Judge of all whether it be the spirit of a good man or a bad man or whether it be for happiness or misery and that thereupon holy persons recommended their Souls into the hands of God as a faithful Creator I know not how any thing can be more determinative of the distinction of Body and Soul in death For such words are not words of meer resignation of life back again to the Fountain of Life but an entrustment and dependent recommendation and not of a life to be secured only for the Resurrection but of a Spirit immediately going to God for else they might with as much care have committed Body to him who weighs the dust of the Earth in a Ballance much more that of the Bodies of men whom he will raise again most of all that of his Saints which he will raise to glory If there were not such an immediate return of good mens Spirits to God why doth the Apostle chuse to be Phil. 1. 23. dissolved or set at liberty that he might be with Christ Or why doth he profess in the name of Christians in general we desire rather to be absent 2 Cor. 5. 6. from than at home in the body that we might be present with the Lord What tolerable account can be given of such speeches for what composition is it that suffers dissolution that some part and what part is that might have immediate being with Christ Or who is it that would be set at liberty Or that is absent from the body or at home in it if not this supreme man the Soul Or why should death be preferred for the sake of a nearer and more immediate presence with Christ if all the man dye with the body Or what man is it that the Apostle speaks of caught up into the third Heaven and makes a doubt whether in the body or out of it Or how could there be such a being in the body or out of the Body if the body were all if there were nothing but body Or lastly why doth our Saviour amplifie the dread of the vengeance of God upon man above theirs that kill the body and have no more that they can do whereas the hand of God destroys Luc. 12. 4 5. both body and soul in Hell For let it be expounded to the greatest advantage of the opinion that encounters the Souls immortality
then of the Souls coming to an end must be by Annihilation or being crush'd to Nothing by Infinite Power Concerning which let us further consider It is true the Essence and Existence of the Soul are several things that is There is the Nature of the Soul in general and this is one thing and is call'd its Essence and this considered in a possibility of Actual Being or not Being as it may be or may not be When it is we call it Existence or Actual Being and this is another thing from its Essence Therefore it might either not have come into Being at all or after it is come into Being it may be turn'd out of Being by the immediate Power of God who gave it Being who onely can annihilate or bring to nothing that which is In all these things the Soul is beyond all expression excell'd by God who onely as the Apostle speaks hath immortality For he it is alone that in the truest sense is what he is so inconceivably and perfectly Himself that he is onely of and from himself and Himself so infinitely that he comprehends and embraces in himself the whole Divine Nature and there is not a second God He is alone and besides him there is no God he knows not any other with him there is no variation nor shadow of turning neither in his Being nor in any of the Attributes of his Being Most Great and Good Most Happy and for ever Best For he hath all within himself and there is nothing without him of any compare with him not any thing but what receives Being from him so that neither from within nor from without can there be any occasion of change in him He it is whose Essence and Existence are one and the same Thing His Essence in the very true Notion of it rises up into immediate and absolute Existence For there is no other Notion of his Essence but in his Existence It is his very Essence or Nature to Be. He is never so little as in a possibility to Be but always so great that it is impossible he should not Be. He is without the allay of a possibility to Be which also includes a possibility not to Be. He is the highest and most perpetual Act of Being Eternal in the very Life of Being To grant the Nature of God no incompossible Notion is to wrap up a Mans self in the conclusion he is and that unchangeably For he is a necessary Being a Being that cannot but Be. And it is of much consideration concerning his Being that there should be such a Lock upon the Mind of Man that it can no sooner grant There may be a God but it is surpriz'd with this There must be a God for the very Nature of Deity concludes a necessity of Being Absolute Being God is Paramount in these Prerogatives of Being and the Soul cannot be likened to him from whom it hath its All. But yet a much truer and nobler Immortality have the Spirits and Souls of Men than Matter and Motion before spoken of seeing Spirit is design'd prepar'd for and in its own Nature and immediately in it self of much higher Excellency Purity Self-motion fit for Intelligency and all Rational Enjoyment as much above any Notion of Matter or appearance of it in any Form or acted by any Motion or into any Nature whatever as Heaven is above Earth And beyond this It is the Nature of Spirits having their Substance Nature Motion all within themselves to be always distinct and to have Subsistence in themselves proper and peculiar to themselves and divided from all others whereas the others as they are made up in such and such Natures and out of which they are not found are continually altering and changing and passing out of one Form into another and have no other actual Subsistence in themselves but what they have in these so continually variated Appearances For the whole Stock of Matter and Motion that is in the World is made use of by God in common and these two are always running every way into all the successive Compositions the Creator hath design'd them for and as they are govern'd by him But all the whole Nature of Spirit that hath ever been in the Creation from the very Beginning hath without any confusion or running one Spirit into another been preserv'd in strictest distinction and separation one from another so many proper Subsistences always known to God understood and taken notice of by him in this their distinctness and so are and shall be known to themselves for ever and as such they shall be manifested and exposed to the universal Assembly of themselves Angels and Men and judg'd according to their Works because they have been their own and not anothers with them So then though the Spirits and Souls of Men even as Matter and Motion are dependent upon the Pleasure of the Creator whether they shall continue in Being or not if we speak of the thing absolutely yet it is very evident from the consideration of the whole state of the matter that Spirits are the most proper and natural Inhabitants of Immortality and howsoever it may please the Creator to determine upon the other Parts of the Creation yet there is as great assurance as Reason can rise unto and higher yet from Divine Revelation that he intends that our Souls should be for ever seeing he hath made them with Faculties and Powers of Action Intellectual Moral and immediately respecting himself which are so connatural to the true state of Immortality and so plain an approach to and resemblance of him who only hath Immortality that it is almost impossible to a serious Considerer to think that there could be any other designation of them by God but for an immortal duration seeing he hath so prepared them for such a Condition who does nothing in vain nor does so debase his own Image as to draw the Lineaments of it in Dust It remains then That the Soul in the Nature given it by Creation and in the designation of the Almighty who gave it that Nature is an Immortal Spirit 3. From the Character of a Spirits self-communication it follows The Soul is an Vnderstanding For the highest degree of Self-communication is Understanding Even in things artificial when any thing seems to communicate with another and to receive Intelligence from another and imparts it again to it there is a semblance of understanding as in the Sympathetique answer of one Lute to another When the Heaven hears the Earth in the Prophets phrase it seems to understand it The mutual Returns of one Creature to another are a kind of Understanding in them or rather that Great Understanding of God runs through them all and is an Understanding in their behalf Life within the compass and sphere of that Being that hath it is self-communicated Motion for all the Parts are in a confederacy one with another and at an agreement among themselves for the motion of the whole
is it must needs be exceeding great both because it feels it self throughout in either of them and must needs do so in regard of the Reciprocation Self-communication of all its Powers and Motions and in regard of the Fineness and Purity of its Being not abated by Grosness Distance and Distinction of Parts but the Whole running into it self as also in regard of the Forcible motion of a Spirit which carries therefore its Griefs or Pleasures with the rapidness of its own motion and either blesses or torments it self according to the vehemency of its Nature The Spirit or Soul of Man in the Body discovers somewhat hereof but in lower degrees by reason of the distribution of it self to the several Parts Pleasures Pains and various Concernments of Bodily Nature which while the Soul condescends to and complies with it seems to imitate so that it tastes generally intermixed Pleasures onely and suffers but alleviated Griefs because this agrees most with the Condition of Body that hath nothing pure And further while it is thus interested it s own proper Motions and Activities are both damp'd and confin'd For Body is dull and strait and if the Soul dwells in it and acts by it it must proportion it self to it or else it cannot be its Instrument Yet these Properties of the Soul are not altogether imperceptible even in Bodily state for as the Soul is conform'd very far to the Body in those Regards so hath the Body its Conformities to the Soul and those much more necessary seeing it is acted and moved by it For even Bodily Sense pays this resemblance to Spiritual that in every Part it bears Sympathy with what is felt in any one Part Yet this is because the Soul enlivening the whole Body and undertaking for every Part feels in it self as in the Center the state of every Part though it feels according to the manner nature and situation of the several parts of the Body In some degree of Likeness also the vigour of the Souls Resentments are seen in the most spirituous Pleasures or acute Pains of Body that are able to move Nature high which fall out onely in a lively Constitution and not taken off so as to chill the Pleasure or dull the Pain because the Soul hath more Active Bodily Powers to shew it self by and wherein it can give greater Testimony of its own vivid Motion though but in concernedness for the Body Thus the Pains of Stone and Gout are much sharper because they abate so little from the Constitution and the vigours of Health are necessary for the receipt of Pleasure But the Soul is much more in things proper to it self All Center where every one of its proper Pleasures and Pains meet that is Spiritual Joys and Sorrows and then the liveliness persistency of its Nature carries up to a height all its Enjoyments or Sufferings But this is never so clear as in its separated and free estate for then especially as it is said of Eternity It is all drawn as it were into every Moment So whatever can be suppos'd in any Point of the Intellectual Nature if we could so distinguish in the same instant runs through all which is the first Height of the Happiness or Misery of a Spirit In the next place the Happiness or Misery of a Spirit can be no other than a Happiness or Misery of a Spiritual nature and so cannot but be great for that is the Nature of every thing Spiritual It is all what it is and nothing else Every thing but Spirit hath a great deal of cumber a great deal of Clothes and Habiliments upon it But Spirit is purely it self Spiritual Happiness hath no clog upon it Spiritual Misery hath no Sheath upon it it is all Edge And when we are entred into the Region of Spirits there will be no heaviness of Body nor diversions of that in the way The Bodies of the Resurrection when we receive them will be fitted to the velocity and swiftness of our Minds and prepar'd so wholly for them as most perfectly to attend their condition Object But because we see the Body now such an Obstruction to all Motions of Soul it may be doubted whether there may not be a state of Souls as insensible or more insensible than now To resolve this the Scripture tells us God makes the Happiness of his Saints like a River of highest Pleasure and the punishment of Evil like a sea of flaming Brimstone both to the height therefore it withal appears the Faculties are rais'd to the height also Else there could be no such Happiness nor any such Punishment Insensible things enjoy nothing endure nothing and the lower the Sense the lower of necessity is also the Enjoyment and the Pain There must be therefore an exaltation of the Faculties to the highest Life that in the meeting of the Object and the Faculties there may be greatest Satisfaction or Misery Yet it may be understood upon this very account there may be Glories and Punishments of higher and lower degrees according to the advancement or low estate of the Faculties and that the state of the other World may be proportion'd to this that he who by a Soul more enlarg'd in this World he who by five Talents gain'd Luc. 19. 17 19. Luc. 12. 47 48. ten or that knew his Masters will and yet did it not these being agreeably of higher apprehensions and quicker motions in this World are in the World to come by the continuing elevation of those Powers made Rulers over more Cities or beaten with more stripes but those of fewer Talents and meaner Sentiments keep still their Ranks being Rulers over fewer Cities or beaten with fewer stripes Yet in each of these the state of their Souls here and in Eternity differs as much in regard of their apprehensions and the clearness of their Faculties as Twilight and Noon-day From this state of things that hath been given it may be briefly inferr'd in these Particulars following 1. If the Souls of Men that are an Inferiour Spirit are so active and high in their motion then how exalted and infinitely adorable are all the Perfections of that Supreme Spirit lifted up out of all Height That Eternal-Fountain-Author-Spirit how infinitely pure is his Being without any variation or shadow of turning dwelling in such a Light and Lustre of his own Divinity that nothing can so much as approach or come within any distance of Although his Spirit runs through All yet there is an infinite separation of Excellency between God and all things How clear and bright is his Understanding before whom Hell is naked and Destruction hath no covering Darkness and Light are all one to him because Light and Glory are always round about him and Hell is but the displeasure of his Holiness against Sin like a Flame that dazles and scorches together A Fire devours before him and burns up his Enemies on every side How potent are his Efficacies which way soever he
Seraphims dwelling in that Everlasting Light and Love wherein God and Christ inhabit Let us fear though this Light shall indeed always burn yet lest it burn black lest it cast the Darkness of Misery in the midst of Knowledge and the Blackness of utter Disconsolateness while it blazes with conviction that we become not wandring blazing Stars full of the Light of conviction but which turns us out as Fugitives from God and our selves like Cain having no peace no rest in our Knowledge Wandring Stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness For Ever For so as this Candle of the Lord shall burn such as this Light is holy and comfortable or condemning and tormenting so shall our state be and that to Everlasting I am now come down as low in the Description I first gave of the Soul as to speak of it as it is the Source and Fountain of all the Actions of a man for so it is whether they are natural or moral And as for natural It is the most easie description of the Soul to say it is the Author of them even as when we would describe God with greatest easiness to be understood we call him the Creator of Heaven and Earth the Preserver of all things that gives to all their Being Breath and Motion so we understand the Soul with least difficulty when we speak of it as that which guides and conducts and gives spirit to all the motions of Body all the powers of that That which a lower Soul doth in Beasts that the higher doth in Man but in a more noble way For when God made Adam and formed him of Earth and prepared all the Instruments of Motion and Action in the Body when this excellent and curious Machine lay dead before him he breathed into it the Soul to stir and move it and to carry all the Action of it Or as a Musicians Instrument exactly made and strung the Musicians Art comes as a Soul upon it stirs it and tunes the sound of it and then strikes it into Harmony and Melody The first Body given to Man was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body subsisting acted by a Soul as the Body given in the Resurrection is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body that shall subsist and be acted by a Spirit that is A Soul at the highest exaltation What is that then that sees in the Eyes That hears in the Ears That touches in the Hand and feels in the whole Body This is no other than the Soul and it does all this with the superiority of a Rational Agent much otherwise than the Soul of a Beast can do for there is a vein of Reason and Understanding that is Rational Reflections directions to Rational ends running along in the Souls acting the Body When this Soul leaves this Body though all the Instruments remain yet the power ceases But of this I will no further enquire because it is not to the main purpose In the second place As we rise higher concerning God we express him an Infinite Wisdom and Understanding an Infinite Justice and Mercy a Holiness and Purity unspotted governing the World in Righteousness and Truth and exercising compassions in it which are nearer approaches to the Being of God so hath the Soul Powers of its own Senses and Affections that closely describe it What is it that Understands That Reasons That designs and contrives Whence are the Notions of Right and Wrong Good and Evil and the several Tendencies and Operations either way Whence are rational and moral Joys Desires and Delights Whence are intellectual Sorrows and Complaints All these are evidently and apparently from such a Spring as the Soul and to these it is we must now attend and that we may do it with better advantage let us observe that Oracle of Solomon given us in the way of Counsel Keep thy heart with all Diligence for out of it are Prov. 4. 23. the Issues of Life viz. Those lively Motions and Actions wherein the peculiar life of a Man is discovered and which tend if steered and directed aright to endless life To discourse hereof I must again reflect upon the Spirit of a Man the Candle of the Lord in regard of whose Light it is said to Man Keep thy Heart for it is more than if the Heart of Man were only bidden to keep it self But to this higher act of the Spirit of Man are all the directions of the Word of God addressed that it would bear up it self and control all the lower Motions of the Soul This therefore I conclude upon That from the Spirit of a man as it is the Candle of the Lord shines a Ray that is by God preserved according to its Nature distinct from all the Interest and Intrigues of the Soul as it is corrupted that it may always bear witness to himself and be a Law within a Man being not only a Witness and a Judge but a Receiver of the Divine Displeasure in the notices of it and an Executioner of it upon the Soul and so in Men finally rebellious and disobedient it becomes an Instrument of punishment And this Light it is a certain necessary and immediate act of an Understanding that cannot but be always the same that can never be altered it being always for God and Goodness against Sin and the very Sinner in whom it dwells and must and will be the same even in Hell it self where the Devils believe and tremble Jam. 2. 19. and know they are justly punished For as the Sun looking upon things most impure always declares and discovers them as they are and can do no otherwise thus the Candle of the Lord cannot but lay open all the foulness that is in a Man all the love a Man hath to himself and the compassion of his own Being cannot bribe it All the rage against God and Holiness that is in Hell can never alter this else the sting of guilt and horrour of conscience so great a part of Hell would be taken away The Light of the Soul as we have before discoursed is the highest Director of a Man to all that is good and is ever ready to be consulted with if the Good it proposes be embraced it rejoyces in it applauds praises and congratulates the Soul and derives joy pleasure and happiness upon it But if that Good be not embraced or the contrary Evil entertained which is disswaded it then chides upbraids and afflicts a man and if there be no Repentance it extremely afflicts and afflicts for ever enforcing self-abhorrence and condemnation upon the Soul And this untainted part which is no other but the pure result of Reason and true Understanding is always in Glory applauding the Justice of God against the sinful Soul in which it lives and is the very instrument of Misery upon it as depraved for this Light being but a single Act of the Understanding and not obeyed but a solitary Verdict of the Mind from which the rest
recoil with highest Rage and Cruelty upon himself As we see Ahitophel though but 2 Sam. 17. 23. an ordinary thing befell him yet his Spirit being wounded with it he went and hanged himself whereas David 1 Sam. 30. 6. besieged with outward Distress on every hand and finding the surges of Grief within yet was upheld by Divine Reasons He at the same time both diverted his own Spirit from the Evil qualified the Evil it self and fortified his mind encouraging himself in the Lord his God Thus all Contentation and Pleasure Enjoyment and Happiness and the contrary Discontent Vexation Suffering and Misery both here and in Eternity are laid in the disposes of God upon the Spirits of Men filling those capacities he hath therein contrived with such infusions of his Favour or Displeasure as in Wisdom Righteousness and Goodness he hath and shall determine to them and also putting themselves upon such Exercise and Motion and that upon such principles within themselves as must perfectly own acknowledge and agree with those his Divine Attributes and the determinations he makes upon the Souls of men according to them Yet there is always this difference between this present state and the things pertaining properly to it and that of Eternity and the things proper to that that the former are altogether indifferent and nothing more needs but that the Mind be in an equal posture towards them But the things of an eternal consideration are of a perfect necessity so that Happiness and Misery will be for ever in act according to them Upon these Grounds thus laid we may judge of many cases of ordinary and evident experience that concern both Natural and Religious Affairs 1. We see some Men in a low and mean condition with a little of the World much more contented than those in a higher the desires of the one being no larger than their Condition but the minds of the other running out beyond their greater Estate from whence it is evident that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God nor by the abundance of any thing they have but by God giving a suitableness between the Desire and the Enjoyment when God lets out the desire beyond that all else is as nothing at all 2. Again Some men bear far greater Crosses with much more ease than others do far lesser the Spirit of one man centring upon the grief and inconvenience and the other gliding off from it 3. The generality of men having their minds level and but equal at best with their Bodies are very sensible of all the disadvantages and inconveniences of Body Some more heroick and singular persons are far above them and little concerned in them and some strangely insensible and unactive in their Souls bear them without any more than the just pressure upon the Body requires lumps of Clay their Souls are so sheathed in their Bodies that they discover no Soul give no sign of a Spirit they live and dye like Beasts they bear all with the strength of sensitive Nature they shew no Spirit at all till at last they split into innumerable and endless Complaints and Crys except we suppose a loathsom stupidity and fearful darkness of utter want of Consolation and Enjoyment to be the second death of such persons On the other side Some that have great force of Mind and yet are deeply affected to Body exasperate and inflame any bodily Distemper and aggravate it by their terrible impatiences and the same thing falls out to them in Infamy Disgrace Loss or great Disappointment according to the measure business and activity of the Spirit about them so is the thing great or small in mens own account and resentment 4. From an Over-Ballance of Mind it comes to pass that upon several accounts Men become wholly inattendant to their Bodies Some separating themselves with desire Prov. 18. 1. to intermeddle with all Knowledge have been wholly careless of all things else Others ingaged in motions of great Valour and Enterprise have so little valued the Fate of a present life that in the heat of Valour and Fight they have not so much as felt the wounds they have received their Minds being as it were separated from their Bodies Some plunged in deep sorrow and trouble have without the least relenting and compassion done the greatest cruelty upon themselves Some under great disappointment of their Designs have revenged it with greatest rigour and resolution upon their own Flesh as Scaevola with an undaunted constancy burnt the hand that missed in killing Porsenna and so deprived him of the Glory he so earnestly designed himself in that Action Others touched with the Conscience of a great Offence through the vehemency of that have thought all other pains of Nature worthy only of neglect as Cranmer held that hand in the Flame that had signed his Recantation Yea very Debauchees in the Risque of their Vices though their name even their Flesh and their Body have been consumed mourn not while they are in their Carrier but at last they are so restless and importunate in wickedness plotting and performing it doing it with both hands that they have no leisure to think of any thing else and are afraid indeed to offer any such leisure to themselves and to avoid it are always driving on in wickedness they prolong their days Eccl. 8. 12. in and as it seems by it thus far that their earnestness bears them up so that they do not fall into reflexions upon the sad end of it their Spirits are carried so whole and together to it that they have no interruption And if their pursuit be crossed and vexed with hindrances and contrariety of accidents it becomes very outragious and is a continual sickness for so it is said Amnon was 2 Sam. 13. 2. sick for his Sister Thamar All these and multitudes of the like are plain Instances of the Mind governing our Contentment or Discontent in these Affairs and however it inslave it self as it seems to the Body and its satisfactions yet still it is indeed the Vigour Force and mighty action of this Mind that is ever superiour when it doth most debase it self and it is not the Body of Flesh but it self in that Body or that Flesh or as the Apostle calls it a Fleshly Mind that thus designs and acts with a high hand for its own satisfactions And if it be thus in things wherein it seems to be fleshly how much more in those things wherein Body hath no Feeling no Interest From these Grounds we may also discern the several states of Men in Religion 1. The great Insensibleness of it in the minds of most men makes them without any desire or motion after it they see no beauty in it why they should desire it 2. Hereupon also though Men have the greatest reason of trouble in relation to their state towards God yet having no reflections they are wholly untroubled
even those who if Religion be true have no ground of peace but the greatest of horrour and amazement This is indeed from a Patience of God to the world and a Judgment also upon it for so far as it would lead only to the Terrours of Despair so it is a long-suffering but as Insensibleness consigns men over to Irreligion and the consequent Damnation so it is an exceeding great Judgment And yet it is an Indulgence too of common Providence that Mankind enjoys a general peace and quiet of condition and are not in immediate hellish despairs 3. Hence formality in Religion gives many men satisfaction they cannot be satisfied without it their Mind being so far awakened concerning it and yet there being some part dark they take up with a Shadow in the place of true substantial Goodness 4. Hence a just and sober demeanour in the World hath that strength to compose the Mind we may ordinarily observe For all degrees of Innocency and Integrity all Freedoms from Guilt and not being privy to things unworthy our selves are a great defence to the Thoughts and these things are so espoused to Christianity that where they are found indeed and in the due Heights they are never found divided the one from the other but there may be semblances or some degrees of these as is very plain in the Instance of the Young Man in the Gospel he had a truly ingenuous sense of Things and so well natured that when Christ proposed to him a Precept above his Orb he did not sourly reject it but was sorrowful Mark 10. 22. he could not rise to it yet still he was at a distance from true Christianity But so far as a man attains in the semblances and degrees of these he hath also answerable semblances and degrees of tranquillity of Mind of loveliness and worth our Saviour loved the Young Man for so much as v. 21. he had This made those great Spirits among the Heathen whose generous Actions we read of To this Head may be referred all high and notable Actions and Undertakings all worthy Studies and Employments which derive a virtue from that intrinsick value of Goodness and participations of the Favour and approbation of God that is upon them and uphold the Mind and further so entertain and employ it that it doth not fall into disturbances Yet so far as these things however excellent are not universal and uniform in all things or not indued and ennobled with true Piety Love of God adherence to him in the Mediator so far they come short of the sincere and perfect satisfaction of the Mind Hence most men are but in an equal poize between the Comforts and Fears that arise from a true sense of Religion between the Heroick temper of Christianity and the danger of an unconverted Estate God not seeing good to give so high a sense of the Danger nor so triumphant a sense of the Happiness as that the one should in regard of trouble of Mind the other in regard of surpassing joy make all Things in the World nothing as either would do Yet notwithstanding from the high sense of Religion there hath been at some times so high an action and so triumphing a Comfort that as the Martyr said A Bed of Flames was no other than a Bed of Roses many have offered themselves to death not accepting Deliverance they have altogether abandoned all the Pleasures Profits and Advantages of Bodily Sense and worldly State that they might obtain a better Resurrection and on the other side some under the horrours of Despair have as much cast away from them all the comforts and enjoyments of the present life and have seized upon Hell as it were before they went out of the World or hastened to it as Judas Again some good men not having the communications of the Favour of God have fallen into horrid Agonies of Mind and have been restored anew to Comforts according as God hath shone out or withdrawn himself And through the non-actuation of Grace into their Hearts have fallen into some great sins and under spiritual desertions abating from the excellency of a Holy Life and consequently into discomforts or want of spiritual Consolation And contrariwise Men not sound in Christian Obedience bear up betwixt some conformities to religious Action and the hopes they derive from thence without sinking down into great despondencies All which cases plainly and sensibly may be resolved into the former Grounds and Principles laid concerning the Government of God ordering and disposing the state of Mens Souls here in the World Object If against all this it should be said It is the Body and the various changes upon that that give these various Tempers to the Mind Answ It must be in the first place allowed that the Mind sees much by the Body and things are accordingly presented as the Body is prepared just as the Eye sees imperfectly through a dim Glass and things appear double in a cracked one yet this only signifies that the Actions of the Mind so far as they depend upon the Body are either disturbed or assisted by the fitness or unfitness of the Instrument The Heats of a Fever by the excess of spirits flying up disturb the brain and over-act it Now the Soul acting in and by these Spirits and in and by this their excessive Motion sallies out into a multitude of Thoughts which are indeed roaving and disorderly as is the Motion of the Spirits which are its Instrument thus the Sun seems in haste and in a hurry uneven and transported appearing through rolling Clouds and flying Vapours Again Sometimes the Spirits are aiery and soaring even into Rapture and then the Soul disports it self among them in that we call Wit and highly exalted Phancy as the Sun reflects its Beams into that beautiful variety and pleasant mixture of Colours in the Rainbow when it finds a Clowd prepared In these cases the Motion is greater than agrees with the order of the Soul in the Body and so it is violent and sometimes furious yet still it argues the greatness of the Soul and its activity shewing it self to the utmost advantages it receives from the Bodies Motion whether it be orderly or disorderly wherein the activity is the Souls and the disorder chargeable upon the Body only the Soul even as the Sun is always the same in it self But besides all this It is most evident that the Mind hath considerations of Peace and Disquiet some in which the Body is not concerned at all further than the Mind concerns it and some that first come into the Mind by representation from without yet having made no dint at all upon the Body are considered and judged of first by the Mind and so by degrees affect the Body according to the apprehensions the Mind entertains of them either with vigour or languishment yea there have been Examples wherein the Soul being it self surprised with excess of Joy or Sorrow hath in a moment
as half measures of our selves and provisions accordingly 3. We have need to pray That God would draw out our whole Minds upon himself and Christ our Lord in a way of Desire and Affection of Joy and satisfaction and that we may be replenished with such assurances of the love of the Father in his Son that we may have no occasion to be cruel to our selves For as extremity of want and hunger turns men as Tygers upon their own Flesh so the Horrours arising from the Wrath of God and the unappeasable want of him enrage the Soul against it self but the enjoyment of him infinitely blesses and satiates it with pleasure sweetens it into greatest love and kindness to its own self And the Spirit thus supported will bear any other infirmity as David having God for his Light and Salvation feared nothing Habakkuk deprived of all favourable appearances neither the Fig-tree blossoming nor any Fruit on the Vines the labour of the Olive failing the Flock cut off from the Fold and no Herd in the Stalls yet he rejoyced in the Lord and gloried in the God of his Salvation In the second place We may upon this Head of Discourse make these doctrinal Recollections 1. There is a high pitch of Happiness or a very low degree of Misery to which every Man is prepared For the further description of which let us consider the two great Orders of Spirits Happy and Miserable Spirits to one of which we shall ever have a likeness The Head the Supreme the Prince of the first Order is Jehovah himself who in the highest and most perfect Act of his own Infinite Understanding and Will and the highest Satisfaction in Himself and enjoyment of Himself lives from Eternity to Eternity the most Happy and only Potentate with his Eternal Son and Spirit without any Dissatisfaction Discomposure Weariness or Tediousness to Himself or the least Shadow of impression upon him from Without This is infinitely clear concerning God In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his Right Hand are Pleasures For Evermore If we could imagine as indeed we cannot because Experience so mightily contradicts it that any Prince should live in all those Delights and Pleasures the most splendid Court affords without any tediousness or satiety ten thousand years what a dark representation were this of God though he could do and enjoy all he would Let us then imagine higher That a Prince of wisest most refined and delightful Speculation could live in the Height and perfect Rest of a most pleasurable Contemplation without the least disquiet how lowly an Emblem would this be of the infinite Blessedness of God Now God made Man in his own Image and likeness so that the Soul of Man is capable of a communication of this Blessedness in the perfection of his Understanding and Will enjoying God with unexpressible Joy and Peace and yet in the highest Life of Action Under God are the Blessed Angels of whom the Scripture speaks both of their Knowledge Perfection and Power joined with Holiness and Obedience to God who have been Participants of the Glory and Blessedness of God from the first Dawn of Creation and in all this time have not had least tiredness or satiation but highest Bliss and Joy Next to these are the Spirits of Just Men made perfect who are by succession as they go out of the World taken into this Happiness Now in all these Instances it plainly appears to what a height of Happiness Holy Men are designed being made like God equal to Angels in the assurance of which good Mens Souls enjoy the Consolations of that better state in this and are daily removed into it when they dye For the Order of Spirits Miserable and Unhappy Spirits of which the Devil is the Prince although indeed there cannot be such a Misery as should stand a counterpoise to Gods Happiness for Misery is but a retreat from God and his Happiness from his Favour and Grace as Darkness is from Light and being under the Executions of his Wrath yet all this is within the inclosure of a Finite Being and were there not an unchangeable Will of God and a Decree of his Justice that he will not reverse all Misery might be removed off from the most Unhappy of Beings and taken quite away But as things are The Misery of Spirits may be thus understood in the great Exemplar of it the Misery of Fallen Angels and the Prince of them the Devil 1. There is a Height and utmost stretch of Action The Devil is represented as always in Motion from the first beginning of Misery he hath no Rest even while he is in Chains as fierce Mastives he moves as far as he can and rages at the shortness of his Chain he hath had no sleepy moments of Non-action since the day of his fall no Breathing Time no Truce Thus the Soul in Misery is extended as we now speak day and night that is perpetually without intermission with an endless Action and Motion Consider what is Rest and Sleep to a Man of a tormented Mind and wearied Thoughts a Sleep wherein he is not scared with Dreams and terrified with Visions how unhappy doth he think himself in the want of it how unwilling is he to be awakened out of it And from thence understand the Misery of being perpetually awake in Misery 2. There is an ignobleness a baseness in all his Motions he goes upon his Belly and eats Dust he hath no Motion that can give him comfort from any glimmering of worthiness or generosity in it in all the multitude of his Motions he has none that can in the least cool the Furnace of his tormented Thoughts Any Degree of Worthiness in his Action would abate his Unhappiness All is full of Cruelty Envy Black and Malicious Design breathing the Fire and Smoak of Hell He goes up and down Angry Fierce Malecontent Cruel to himself and full of Rage against others as a Ravening roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour This is the state of miserable Souls There is a continual gnawing and scorching of wickedness without any thing to cool the tip of the Tongue any the least intention and motion of Goodness that might cool one flaming hellish Thought There is a Rage against God an Envy at the Blessedness of Heaven returning with unexpressible Misery upon those unhappiest of Beings a Hatred an Execration of themselves 3. There is a Horrour Amazement and trembling Sense of the Supreme Justice Holiness and Power of God over him with the Conscience of his own Guilt The Devils believe Jam 2. 19. and tremble The Fountain of Life Beauty and Happiness is Hell from Heaven to them because they find nothing in themselves but distance and contrariety horrid enmity and hatred They are convinc'd of that High Justice and Righteousness in the midst of so great Wrath and Vengeance upon them and this without leisure or intermission and therefore perpetually shake with Fear and Horrour while
of Spirits to behold in the whole Creation especially in their own Natures the great Perfections of God surmounting themselves and much more the rest of the Creatures as Infinite doth Finite that so God may be understood and accordingly ador'd by them seeing Spirits in his own Image of Understanding and Likeness can alone so far know him as in a true and proper sense to adore him and the Glory of God in such an Adoration being the end of Creation it argues the necessity of such Creatures and so accomplish'd thus to give him his Glory As therefore by reviews of the Creatures in general and particularly of our own Minds and by Observations of what excells amongst all it is possible without Scripture though more darkly to find out the Perfections that are to be ascrib'd infinitely to God and when we come to Scripture and find that agreeing with though exceeding Natural Knowledge in its Attributions to God we have by this combination of Scripture and Reason Revealed and Natural Knowledge the praeeminence being easily yielded to Revealed the most satisfying Assurances of God we can have On the other side by considering the Excellencies and Perfections attributed to God in his Word and finding the same Lines drawn upon our own Minds observable both in the Discourses of Scripture concerning them and in our own experience though but according to the degree and model of Creatures we understand our own Souls more fully so that as the consideration of our selves the Creatures leads us without Revelation to understand God though not so clearly so these Oracles revealing God and all his Attributes more certainly and evidently to us reveal also our selves more plainly because they tell us we are made in his Image and Likeness and so by knowing God with greatest clearness we know our selves also most clearly for the Knowledge of our selves as to what concerns the clearness of it depends upon our Knowledge of God by the Scriptures more than our Knowledge of God depends upon the Knowledge of our selves by Natural Knowledge without Scripture Yet still the Knowledge of our own Souls where Men have no Revelation leads them best to the Knowledge of God as the Knowledge of God by Revelation leads us best to the Knowledge of our own Souls because God and the Soul do mutually represent one another God the Original Prototype and Infinite Exemplar Man's Soul the humble Representation and Copy Upon which Reason the Apostle having said We are his off-spring Acts 17. 28 29. immediately argues Forasmuch as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to think the Godhead like to silver and gold Our own Nature deriving from God instructs us better concerning him for seeing we our selves far excel all those things however heightned by Art he that gave us those Excellencies must needs have them in himself and in a transcendency As he that built the house hath more honour than the house and the Life excels the Picture So on the other side the Excellencies and Perfections of the Divine Being are every where given us in Scripture as the Rule of Composure for Man's Soul which could not be reasonable were not the being of it first given in the Image and Likeness of God and susceptive of the Divine Nature that is of the Virtues of it Touching the Souls Likeness to Angels we need not labour much but rather in comparing them with God the Original of both and occasionally onely illustrate the Doctrine of the Soul by observation of what we are taught in inspir'd Leaves concerning them though Philosophy hath not been altogether ignorant herein In general they are of a middle state between God and us nearer to God in that they are a higher Rank of Spirits disengag'd from Body much nearer to us in that they are Finite Spirits and God infinitely above them In speaking then of the Likeness of Man's Soul to God we must again have recourse to his Creation and when God had said Let us make Man in our own Likeness and Image and form'd the Body as a curious Statuary doth a most exact Statue he then breath'd into it the Breath of Life Now this Breathing of God argues he gave a great semblance of himself and that God deriv'd something from himself to Man's Soul that should more immediately express himself and was taken from himself as the Life Thus our Saviour breath'd upon his Apostles and made them Partakers of a Spirit that had a great Likeness to his own in the Infallibility and Heavenliness of his Doctrine the Power of working Miracles the Holiness of their Ministry and whole Apostolick Function God breathing Mans Soul it became so like him that some have call'd it A Particle of the Divinity a Kiss of God an Imprint of himself Now this Likeness of Man's Soul to God I believe not to be first in those moral Resemblances of the Truth Holiness and Goodness of God which speak God the best and in which to be like God is Mans Rectitude and Integrity and the Foundation of his Happiness as a Rational Agent nor onely in the Intellectual Faculties but also in those Attributes which speak God the Greatest though these be in this present state of Man much obscured even as the other Of the Soul of Man an Invisible Spirit hath been already discours'd Of other the Greatnesses of God giving a glance an eye of themselves upon Mans Soul we may also apprehend There is a Resemblance of his Infiniteness and Ubiquity of Presence in that swift and sudden Motion of Mans Soul from East to West summoning things of farthest distance into its presence by Thought and Intellectual Consideration the Intelligence he endeavours to hold with all the Action and Business of the World both Natural Civil and Moral the Correspondency he hath with Things Divine and Heavenly The Freedom and Liberty of the Increated Will is reflected in some degree in the Liberty of Mans Will that can be no way forc'd or compell'd in the vastness of his Appetite and Desire which though now irregular yet speaks the Original Greatness of his Soul and that Joy unspeakable he was intended for The Dominion of God in Mans Dominion over the Creatures and the vast and restless Ambition and Desire of Power and Empire so natural to him The Eternity of God in the Immortality and at last Unchangeableness given to Mans Soul The Divine Blessedness in the Lustre and Glory Man affects the Well-being he so inseparably from his Nature desires the Happiness he is capable of to which he was design'd and to which he is exalted by the Salvation of Christ From hence there is something like Creation in the great Works that have been done by Men and something in Humane Contrivances and Administrations like Providence And that there is a Force and Potency of Mans Spirit in a proportion resembling that Power of God that brings Things to pass in Matter or like the force of Angels that have wrought
upon Matter beyond all the Activity that Matter can be set into by any Material Agency is not without probability from the more than ordinary vigorous Action and great Strength of some Men as Samson and some others of unusual Force For I am much inclin'd under the Divine Efficacy concurring to ascribe such Might to the Soul either acting it self by extraordinary Organs and Instruments of Body prepar'd and fitted for that Might as in Gyants and such like or that God may have made use of some Good Men in a degree like the Angels letting out the Powers of their Souls through their Bodies into Actions above the generality of Mankind to which I am very subject to attribute those Famous Acts recorded by the Apostle Hebr. 11. 33 34. They subdued Kingdoms stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of Fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in Fight put to flight the Armies of the Aliens For though these are miraculous compar'd with the ordinary State of Mankind yet they may be natural to the unconfined State of the Soul in its Efficacies upon Matter even as working Righteousness obtaining Promises not accepting deliverance that they might be partakers of a better Resurrection require as supernatural an assistance of Mind in this degeneracy of Mankind and do as much exceed the Possibilities of the Soul so sunk and degraded as the other do the Powers of a Spirit shut up in Flesh and in this State of Humiliation And yet certainly all Acts of Goodness and Obedience to God are connatural to the true and unfallen Condition of Mankind Now what the Skill and Force of a Spirit not restrain'd and confin'd to work by just such Instruments of Body is in moving Matter with greatest advantage and most successful operation is to us hard to be defin'd for the Motion and Activity of it is Intellectual and as we ordinarily conceive that alone is a feeble thing yet when we come to observe what is attributed to Divine Understanding That by Wisdom the Lord Prov. 3. 19. founded the Earth and by Vnderstanding he established and garnished the Heavens and that he onely declared by his Word the Pleasure and Determination of his Understanding in the creating every thing we may be very ready to conceive Infinite Understanding is Infinite Power and when Wisdom says I am Vnderstanding Prov. 8. 14. I have Strength it gives us the Notion of Infinite Understanding as Infinite Strength and if we consider Wisdom and Power are one in God it still heightens the apprehension and further if we understand with many Divines the Son of God to be this Wisdom the Notion is yet rais'd higher and we understand the more by it the Omnipotency of Wisdom Creation then is the very Effect of Infinite Understanding and as all Conceptions Arguments Reasons of Discourse are the unquestionable Creatures of our Understanding so all things that are in the World are the Effects of Infinite Understanding the World is the Creature of Divine Understanding His very conceiving things with a pleasure they should be gave them Being He spake the word Psal 33. 9. and it was done he commanded and it stood fast He called to the Heavens and they stood up together There was no other Power us'd by God that we read of Thus Men of great Authority sit still and speak things into their Execution As for the mighty Acts of Angels recorded in Scripture they are veiled as to the manner of their being brought to pass and the Efficiency that did produce them onely we read in that Emblem of the Prophet Ezekiel wherein all Worldly things are presented as governed by God and administred by Angels that the various Rotations and Changes in this World shadowed by Wheels are full of Eyes that is of the Wisdom of God the Supreme Moderator of them and that they are mov'd on by the Motion of Angels For the Spirit of the Living Creatures Ezek. 1. 18 20. by which Angels are express'd was in the Wheels and when these went the Wheels went and when these stood still the Wheels stood still This Spirit of the Living Creatures managed all So that it looks to us as if the Angels did all by their Spirit or Essence and that we know is Intellectual Eyes in the Wheels and the Spirit in the Wheels turn'd all about The Angels are Understandings inferiour to God onely and their Efficacy is represented to us by Lightning or the most vehement Flame of Fire When we come down to Man we find the Creatures in great subjection to Adam and there is reason Genes 2. 20. to think it was to his Understanding they paid their Homage For as an Introduction to his Rule over them they were brought to him by God to receive their Names from him and according to his insight into their Natures he called them all by their Names and so entred into his Dominion over them by understanding them and declaring his understanding of them This was the solemn Act of his Inauguration into his Intellectual Government Even as God who governeth the Stars by his Infinite Understanding telleth the number Psal 147. 4. of the Stars and calleth them all by their names thus the known Wisdom of Men of great Understanding commands the Regard and Obedience of those whom they have impos'd Names of Office and Service upon In the generality of Mankind let us consider how immediately any or all the Members of the Body move upon the most silent intimations of the Understanding and follow its guidance twining every way even into the greatest Curiosities of Art stretching themselves to the most industrious and laborious Employments adventuring themselves upon the greatest Hazards We see that indeed all things that are done by Men in the World begin at the Counsel Design and Intendments of Understanding and that the Contrivance of one Mans Understanding dictating to the Understandings of those that are under hath been the Spring and given production to the mightiest Effects the wisest Polities the most excellent Laws huge Volumes the greatest Atchievements of Armies the most magnificent Buildings Establishments of Empire the most memorable Projects and Works of Art the Force of strange Engines or whatever is accounted of Grandeur in the World The Force of Understanding hath been given and conveyed from Hand to Hand insinuated into Matter and so pass'd from one Piece and Part of it to another till it hath reach'd unto and rested in the Effect All this put together may be an Essay concerning the Power of Understanding Now what ways Understanding hath to move Matter immediately by it self we are no competent Judges that have indeed Understandings but generally so restrain'd and imprison'd that they can find the way of doing little in comparison of what may be done by that uncontrovertible way of accomplishing Effects by the mediatory Services of Matter Onely this we know When there was neither
herein This then is the Eternity of God his always alike Being infinitely Happy infinitely Blessed This is the Eternity of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Son of God eternally begotten that though he proceeded and came forth from God the Father yet he made no new Date no Beginning Eternally begotten without the least shadow of turning to denominate Time as the Creatures do by Beginning but as a Beam from the Sun as soon as it is making no new thing in the Sun or as Apprehension from the Mind as soon as the Mind is or as the immediate Image and Likeness of the Face as early as the Face is thus and infinitely more even incomprehensibly is Christ the Son of the Father coeternal with him This is the Eternity of the Son of God but what is the Fathers Name or what is his Sons Name in Eternity none Pro. 30. 4. can tell for who can declare his generation but Before all things that were made and by being made made a Beginning before all things that beginning to be cast the shadow of Time even before all things is the Col. 1. 17. Saviour of the World that is he is Eternal Indeed as he is the Son of Man he gave great and the greatest Characters to Time it hath the richest Aera and Epochs it hath His Incarnation in dating it self from which Latter Time glories and triumphs His Death and Passion his Resurrection and Ascension His Appearance the second time from Heaven to give a Period to Time Thus as the Son of Man he hath enrich'd and ennobled Time But as the Son of God he onely governs Time that is the Things of Time and changes Times and Seasons by setting up and pulling down what he pleases whence Time is variously imboss'd but by any Change in himself he doth not give the least Shade of Time The Eternity of Angels is much below this perfect this absolute Eternity for they had a Beginning they came out of the State of Not Being into Being but this of Eternity they have that their Being given them continues for ever lasts for ever Indeed even this Duration is not by any necessity of Nature as in the Son of God the onely begotten of the Father for he can neither have begun to be begotten nor cease to be begotten but it must make a Change in God a substantial Change Thus also incomprehensibly stands the Eternity of the Divine Spirit proceeding Eternally from the Father and the Son But the Everlastingness of Angels hath its certainty from the Purpose of God unchangeable concerning it Further Their Eternity is not like to the Eternity of the Divine Being the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit in that as they receiv'd a Beginning so there was a Space wherein their Condition was alterable as appears by the Fall of some and the generally receiv'd Confirmation of others And that it is alterable in Degrees may be argued by their daily increase in Knowledge Additions to which Good Angels receive from the Church while they stoop down to look into the things of the Gospel daily Experience in both sorts Increases of Glory to the Holy ministring Spirits as a Reward of their Ministry Aggravations of Punishment to the Fallen Angels for their many and great Hostilities to God his Son and Servants The Complement therefore of either State is not till the Day of Judgment be past These things already spoken lead to the Description of the Eternity of the Souls of Men consisting in three things 1. That they shall continue for ever in Being the unchangeable Decree of God upholding them in a never-ending Existence 2. That the Substance of their Condition shall never be alter'd upon which account the Scripture often speaks of a For Ever as a Happiness incorruptible and that fadeth 1 Pet. 1. 4. not away on the other side of Eternal Punishment of a Worm that never Mat. 25. 46. Marc. 9. 44. dies a Fire that is never quenched All which speak as much as Words can convey to us such an unchangeable State 3. There is no Interruption or Alteration in the Degrees of their State there are no Marks of Distinction that these Souls should say Now more happy now less happy Now more miserable now less miserable But as highest Delight takes away all sense of the Motion of Time in this Life as sense of extreme Pain makes an Hour like an Age how much more in Eternity does the Perfection of Happiness and the Extremity of Misery the substantialness and absoluteness of either State swallow up all Notes of Distinction God is no more Happy by any addition of Moments we suppose in the Duration of his Happiness I say we suppose for indeed he is his own Happiness and his own Duration So in proportion this State is its own Duration Heaven one intire united Moment of endless Delight Hell of Misery 1. Now this State of the Souls of Men in Eternity arises first from the fitness such a Nature as Mans Soul is of that is a Spiritual Nature as I have already discours'd to be Everlasting A Nature which God hath with Infinite Wisdom and Power contriv'd to be a resemblance of himself Thus the Heavens as they are more durable are also of choicer Matter and less corruptible than other Parts of the Creation And those things that by God are design'd for For Ever are made so perfectly agreeable to their State that they need not be altered as if a Vessel of purest Metal were made so substantial that it could suffer no change in the Quantity Weight Figure Oriency of it either by Fire Hammer or the several Accidents that fall out in length of Time nor that there could be so much as a possible Reason to desire the change of it 2. From the Will of God and his unchangeable Decree that it should be so which he makes good and effectual by continually feeding these Beings with Eternity that is from himself he sends them all the Powers of Life and Motion So that to ask When shall these Souls and the several States of them in Happiness or Misery have end is to ask When will a Stream be dry that is fed by a Fountain that can never be exhausted nor the Supply of it be possibly cut off from that Stream His Favour is an Eternal Principle of Life and Blessedness His Presence of Wrath and the Glory of his Power set against us is as great a Source of Misery and Torment While therefore he will uphold our Beings and Faculties and keep up their Motion so long they must be and while he pleases either to shine out graciously upon us or to dart against us the Lightning of his Displeasure so long we must be either happy or miserable And when either of these is done to the height and perfection of either as they are in the World to come then according to the Revelation of his Will guided with that Wisdom by
which he hath weigh'd out all things they are to be For Ever For the most Perfect of all Things now and that are absolutely the highest of his Creation that is Spirits and that which is the Top of their Condition as that to which the Last Judgment affixes them is are design'd by God for For Ever 3. The proper Exercises of Man's Soul which are in Understanding Righteousness Holiness declare the designment of it for Eternity For these things being such evident Beams from the Divine Glory and Being cannot die and those Natures that have their Action plac'd in them are thence argued Immortal For seeing these things in themselves in their pure and abstract Notions are unchangeable the Soul being a Seat so peculiarly dedicated to them and immediately fitted for them and a very Principle of them as made by God it is a very great presumption of its Eternal State There remains nothing I intend further touching this Vastness of Eternity concerning which all Discourse is but as the drop of the Bucket or the small dust of the Balance nothing and less than nothing but more clearly to exalt the Eternity of God above that of his Everlasting Creatures and to fall into Practical Meditations upon Everlasting Duration 1. It is in the first place certain No Created Being hath an Eternity before Time Of God onely and of no Created Being can it be said It never began Thus it always was It never made any new Date From Everlasting to Everlasting onely God is Of him onely it can be said He was Ever as he is and is to come 2. Of no Creature can it be said absolutely or in regard of it self though it be in its Everlasting State It must be or It must be thus It can be no otherwise It can be onely said so upon account of the unchangeable Decree of God There is a high agreeableness in the Nature of Spirits to Be but this It must be is onely proper to God Of him onely to acknowledge He may be is as hath been said to infold our selves in a positive Assurance He is and must be He is no precarious Being not a Being at the Free-will of any no Chance Being not a convenient Being onely A Being of which it may be said It is better and best he should be though this be true and that infinitely But he is an Infinitely necessary Being His Being is the First the Eternal the Fundamental Verity 3. He onely is his own Eternity He alone lifts up his Hand to the Heaven Deut. 32. 40. and says I live for ever He lifts it up in the Triumph and Power of Being All Creatures depend upon his Eternity Himself and his Eternity are One Himself is Eternity and Eternity is himself To speak otherwise of Eternity is onely to speak as children to speak out of weak apprehension to weak apprehension In the Perfect State we shall put away these childish things from us A Creature cannot be said with propriety to be Eternal but in a low Sense in a Sense expressing Gods Communication of himself The Creature 's Everlasting is measured by God's Eternity His own Being is the onely unmeasurable Measure the unaccountable Account of his Eternity even as his Righteousness Truth Omnipotency are all Himself and there are no other of these but himself and his Communications Even so is his Eternity Into what lowest and most profound Meditation 1. Adorations of the Divine Being should the Thought of Eternity cast us Oh infinitely rich and amazing Perfection of Being Life and Blessedness What can be worthy of our Thoughts but thy self onely What are all the Creatures of this World compar'd with thee but despicable and even to be abhorr'd Nothings Why do we not always gaze with humblest and most astonishing yet most delightful and ravishing admiration upon thee If we could stand near and behold Angelical Glories and Heights not as thy Servants here have done in Bodily unfitness but in the Freedom of Spirits and then compare with thy infinitely surmounting Glory we should even disdain while yet we honour and value them as thy Creatures of the highest Order as Thrones and Dominions under thee to interrupt our Adorations of thee to worship them and see what reason they have to cover their Faces before thee and that thou mayest charge the loftiest Seraph with Folly Their Longeve State would shrink into a Moment old comparing it with thy never-beginning Eternity and that Being of theirs which compar'd with Mortality seems so substantial would appear if brought near to thee but a Shadow which thy Being casts upon them at the highest but a Beam from thy Splendour Let our Souls never cease beholding and contemplating thee till we lose our selves and All things till we find all again in thy most Blessed and Eternal self in thy Son the substantial Image of thy Eternity in thy Spirit eternally breathing from and resting in thy self Yet let us put that Value upon our selves that thou hast put upon us in communicating with us such a Beam of thy Eternity in making us Spirits in resolving us for an unchangeable and unalterable State 2. This teaches us the Vanity Folly and even Ridiculousness of Atheistical Scoffers that dream thus Why did not God create the World sooner Why did his Wisdom Power Goodness sleep so many Ages ere it began to manifest it self and make the World As if Eternity had Sooner and Later as if that infinitely extended unbounded changeless State both backward and forward arising to us immediately and necessarily from the consideration of God could be call'd to account by the Measures of Time If the World had been Millions of Years older than it is there had still been an Eternity before it A Being with whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past Nor is there any thing more requisite in Time but that the Creatures of it should run the Race set them by the Infinite Creator and so fix in their unchangeable Condition 3. We should often reason with our selves We are made for this unchangeable endless State and if it be not Happiness how then can we endure it this stable never-altering State We find now all Confinement though not to Pain but onely to one Posture to one Place to one Company to one Action tedious this is because we find not a perfect enjoyment of Good in them We are even weary of Pleasures because they are but thin and shallow Even of those things that at the first we wish our selves a Perpetuity in we afterwards grow weary and they are tiresom to us because we come suddenly to all that is in them Divine Things are burdensom to us because though they have endless Delights yet our Faculties are not suited nor raised enough to them Nay those things that are grateful to the Sensual Appetite yet if they surcharge it are not its Pleasure but its great Disease O therefore how little shall we be able to