sweet is theâ—r membrance of thee to the soule that lives in bitterness I doe not think the Lord did impute it for sin to Job or Jeremy that they were so weary of their bitter Lives and did so often wish That their change might come Or that King Edward the sixth did sin when in his death bedsickness he prayd so earnestly Lord take me out of this wretched World Nor Dr. Hamond who under the tortures of the Stone whereof he dyed was so often heard to say Lord make hast though I doubt not but in all these there was implyed a tacit submission to the will of God Thirdly That a man may be taken away frâ—m the evill to come This was a mercy promised to Josiah upon his humiliation 2 Kings 22.19.20 as it was the misery of his surviving Sonne Zedekiah to see the evill which his Father was taken from and to suffer in it Wise men fore-see evill to come in the causes of it and in the â—ore-runners of it And the Lord mentions it as a mercy That he will take them away from those evills and they may without sin Pray for that mercy Isay 57.1 Fourthly That they may be freed from the burden of the flesh and the bondage of corruption inherint in it that Ground Ivie in the Wall which will never be pluckt out root and branch till the Wall be thrown down It was under the sense of this that St. Paul cryes out Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death this will never be done but by the death of this body Fifthly In extremity of old age when a man becomes a burden to himselfe and others when he is fallen into those years of which David saith His life is nothing but labour and sorrow and the years of which he shall say I have no pleasure in them when not onely his body grows weak but his mind also and his intellectuall faculties faile his understanding weak his apprehension dull his memory unfaithfull his affections Childish and he becomes unserviceable not able to doe that good which he hath done and should doe when a man becomes thus superannuate he may doubtless without sin make it his suite to Almighty God To take away his soule Vse This Meditation is usefull to comfort and to confirme us against the feare of death either of our selves or our friends why should we make that the object of our feare which others have made the object of their hope and desire Holy men wise men good men men that have had a great interest in the world have been willing to lay down all and to leave all and made it their suite that they might dye in assurance of a change for a better life To help us to pass through this Gulfe with comfort and courage weigh well but these two things 1. What a world we leave behind us the Terminus à quo 2. What a world we have before us the Terminus ad quem And these two considerations will make the passage through that medium easie First For the Terminus à quo the world we leave behind us a very sink of sin a duâ—ghill of uncleanness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World lyes in wickedness as St. John speaks nothing in it but sinne and sorrow and travaile and trouble and malice and mischief and that which may well make any wise man out of love with it and even weary of it The best things in it which men make most account of have been weighed to our hands by the wisest of the Sonnes of Men and upon the tryall found To be lighter then vanity it selfe not onely vanity but vexation of spirit For first They are all transitory Secondly They are not all satisfactory Thirdly All imbitter'd with so many cross Ingredients that there is no true contentment in them nor true comfort to be taken out of them We could shew you examples of the greatest of men Kings Emperours Lords of the world such as have had as much of the glory of it and all other worldly good in it as the world could give or lend yet have seen so farr into the vanity and emptiness of it as to despise it to lay down all and take themselves unto a private and monasticall life which is a death to the world and the shaddow of death it selfe Secondly For the Terminus ad quem Consider what a world in dying we are going to it would require a world of time and words to describe it the best description of it is to describe it to be such for the transcendency of the glory of it as that it cannot be described For neither hath the eye seen nor the eare heard nor can the heart of Man comprehend the great things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 St. Paul shaddows it out in part Heb. 12.22 where he shows the happiness of the Church militant in their communion with the Church triumphant thus But you are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Caelestiall Jerusalem and to the company of inâ—numerable Angels And to the Assembly and Congregation of the first borne whose names are Written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just Men made perfect And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Testament and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel Here 's a description in part of the Place and Society which we shall goe to when we shall come to be joyned with the Church triumphant in glory now be you well assured that all things els there are suitable to these which must needs render it transcendently joyous and glorious O! if we could but draw the Curtaine of Heaven and look in the Sanctum Sanctorum to see the joy and glory that is there we would never care for this world more the most pretious things in it would be despised in our eyes our whole life would be nothing but a Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and we would long for the time when the Lord would take away our soul that we might be translated thither I reade of one Cleombrotus that hearing Plato discoursing of the immortality of the soul and the happines of the other life to come Threw himself headlong off from a high Rock to quit himself of this life that so he might enter into that other life that Plato so much commended And if a Heathen man could be so sensible of advantaging himself by his change into the other life upon those weak grounds which Plato's Philosophy could give as to hasten his own death upon the hope of it Surely we that are Christians and have better grounds to build our faith and hope upon then any Plato's Philosophy could give may with much more Comfort think on Death with much more hope and
hollowness of them What is it that sustains the Clouds in the Aire infinitely greater and more weighty then they so as they fly to and fro but as bottles in the Aire as Job speaks or like bladders full of winde that they fall not down in great dashes enough to make another Deluge but the hollowness of them That such a hollowness there is in them appears by the Lightning the Thunder and the Thunder-bolts and the spirituall vapour that proceeds out of them when they break of such force that it penetrates and burns and breaks and tears in peeces all that it lights upon And who can deny but it is agreeable to reason that there may be such a hollowness in the heart of the earth whereby it may by the power and providence of the Creator be susteined in the place which he hath appointed for it and also be a fit receptacle of evill spirits where they may be secured as in a Prison and reserved unto the Judgement of the great day In the Apostolicall Creed we profess to beleeve That Christ descended into Hell And St. Paul tells us He descended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lower parts of the Earth This cannot be understood of the descent of his body by his buriall that scarce went into the Earth at all but was layd in the Sepulchre which Joseph of Arimathea had made for himselfe in his Garden which was above the ground or at least the most part of it if any part at all of it were under or within the ground it was not so low as that we may say of it It was in the lower parts of the Earth How then will you understand this Article of our Lords descent into Hell except you understand it of his Soule and of his Spirit And where will you finde this Hell more agreeable to Scripture and Reason then as I have described it and that by his Spirit he went to Preach to the spirits in prison there The third vast Prison wherein the evill Angells are secured unto the day of the generall Judgement is The Sea for there are Sea Spirits as well as Land Spirits or Aeriall Spirits When the Disciples being in a Ship saw Christ coming towards them walking upon the Sea the Text sayes They were troubled and thought they had seen a Spirit Mat. 14.26 whereby it appears That there were Spirts that did appear in the Sea as well as on the Land And in St. Mathew 8. we reade That the Devills being cast out of the man which they had possessed entred into an Heard of Swine and carried them headlong into the Sea by which it seems there was their abode And in Mark 5. which by many circumstances seem not to be the same story with this of St. Matthew we reade Of a whole legion of Devills entring into a Heard of no less then two thousand Swine and carrying them with great violence into the Sea these were Sea Spirits whose abode was in the Sea which is the third Prison wherein these evill Angells are secur'd and confin'd unto the Judgement of the great day and with them the souls of wicked men both to be brought in and judged at that general Assizes which though they be not till then cast into the Lake of everlasting burnings yet is their condition in the mean time woefull and miserable 'T is miserable to consider how wilfully they have forsaken their own mercy and what opportunity they have lost of preventing this their misery never to be recovered nor recalled 'T is miserable to lye in Prison in such a Prison and for such Crimes of which they know themselves they shall be found guilty at that day and condemn'd to suffer the vengeance of everlasting sire 'T is miserable to see Hell open before them and ready to receive them 'T is miserable in the mean time to lye under the wrath of the Almighty and under the torments of a wounded soule Yet neither are the torments of the souls of wicked men during this time of their separation from their bodies all aequall as neither shall they be after the generall Judgement as shall be shewed in the sequel of this Treatise but in the mean while having shewed you the state of the souls of wicked men It now rests that I should shew you What is the state of the souls of just men from the time of their separation from their bodies till the time of their re-union again with their bodies at the day of the Resurrection And in answering to this inquiry the Scripture gives us some light in foure expressions When the body returns to dust from whence 't was taken the spirit returns to God that gave it saith Soloman Eccles 12.7 The Angells receive it and carry it into Abraham's bosome saith St. Luke cap. 16.22 It is layd under the Altar saith St. John Rev. 6.9 It is carried into Paradise saith our Saviour to the penitent theese upon the Crosse Luke 23.43 All these are most comfortable and heavenly expressions setting forth the blessed and happy estate of the souls of the just which they enter into when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh the great impediment of their perfection yet they doe not all amount to this That upon their separation they pass into the highest Heaven and into the fruition of the immediate vision of God and that fulness of joy and glory that they shall enter into at the last day when it shall be said unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the inheritance of the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For we cannot imagine that these words are spoken onely in reference to the bodies then newly raysed out of their graves but to the whole man body and soule united together and so to the entire persons of them Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom For that of Solomon That the soule returns to God that gave it it is true that is It is taken up into the higher Heavens and is in neerer communion with God then it was before it is admitted neerer into his presence it is taken into his more immediate care to dispose of it in a place and state of bliss and felicity of joy and glory even presently upon the separation of it from the body For that of Saint Luke That the Angells received the soule of Lazarus the meaning is That he was gathered unto the rest of the faithfull of which Abraham is said to be the Father and carried to a place of rest intimated by Abraham's bosome Sinus Patriarcharum recessus quidam est quietis aeternae Ambr. For that of St. John Rev. 6. Where he sees the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar the meaning is That they were in a place of security where no evill should touch them as in the third of the book of Wisedom The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and no evill shall touch them v. 1. The Altar
of his glorious appearing as it follows in the same Text When Christ shall appear in flaming fire to render vengeance 2 Thes 1.7 When the Sonne of Man shall come in the Clouds with power and great glory and all his holy Angels with him That 's the day of his appearing at that day shall St. Paul receive his Crowne not before till then it is layd up for him At that day shall those souls under the Altar before mentioned receive their Crowns of Martyrdome also for the present there were white Robes given to every one of them but not the Crowns till that day The same also doth he affirme of the state of the souls of wicked men separated from their bodies Sic puniri ut etiam reserventur in diem judicii longe aliis asperioribus paenis aeternis videlicet in corpore anima cruciandi That they are so punished here during the time of their separation that they are also reserved unto the Judgement of the great day then to be tormented in body and soul with farr more sharp and grievous punishments for evermore But if you would see more of Antiquity in these matters and will be at the pains of it doe but consult Athanasius in an Epistle of his cited by Epiphanius Haeres 77. and in his Book De Incarnatione Verbi St. Cyrill De râ—â—ta side ad Theodosium OeÌ„cumenius and divers others who in their Expositions of that Text in St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.19 Who was put to death as concerning the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which Spirit he went and Preach't to the spirits which are in Prison We prove first Christs descent into Hell and upon the words following That he Preach't unto the spirits or souls detained in that Prison As Saint Jude saith of the evill Angells That they are in prison and bound in chains of darkness reserved unto the judgement of the great day The evill Angells and the souls of wicked men both in the same condition both secur'd in Prison both in chains both reserv'd unto the judgement of the great day And it will follow by the rule of opposits That if the souls of the Saints and Martyrs be not yet in the fruition of their perfect and consummate happiness then neither are the souls of wicked men in that exquisite torment which they are condemned unto and into which they shall be cast at the judgement of the great day but that there is an intermediate estate though that very wretched and miserable under which they lye untill that day And I think this is sufficiently proved in both the branches of it by Scriptures strong and cleere for it and by the jugdements of holy and learned men commenting upon them and so is a sufficient answer to the first Part of the exception and enough to free me from Preaching New Doctrine and to declare that I am not alone in this Opinion Of the intermediate estate of souls separated from the body both of the just and the unjust nor walk in an untroden path where no foot is gone before me The second Part of the exception lyes in this That it is useless That admitting these tenents be true yet they are useless It demands therefore Whereto they are usefull To which I Answer Sol. The knowledge of them is usefull to many speciall purposes particularly to these First It is very satisfactory to the minde of every man I think that hath a soule to know the state of it both present and future yea to know as much of it as is knowable Knowledge is pretious and a great delight unto the soule When wisedom entreth into thy heart and knowledge delighteth thy soule saith Solomon Prov 2.10 So knowledge is a delight unto the soule and the more high and excellent the object is about which it is conversant the more excellent and pretious is the knowledge But what more high and pretious object can there be next unto God and the Angells then the spirits and souls of men What more worthy to take up our most serious thoughts and diligent studies then the disquisition of those high things that doe concerne them What more satisfactory then the attaining of them in all those things that are knowable Secondly 'T is usefull for preserving of men against Atheisme that bruitish sinne which doth so spread it selfe in the world and invaded so great a part of the Sonns of men for though they doe not speak out plainly with their Tongues yet how many of them say in their hearts and lives There is no God nor Devill nor Heaven nor Hell nor Angells nor Spirits nor souls of Men and all through their ignorance of this Point That they cannot satisfie themselves what becomes of the souls of men separated from their bodies through so long a tract of time as two three foure or five thousand years intermediate between the time of their dissolution by Death and their re-union again at the Resurrection Thirdly 'T is usefull to confirme men in the assurance of the Immortality of the soule while it informes them what becomes of it where it is and what it does or suffers where is the place of it what the state of it what the imployments what the enjoyments Concerning all which being before ignorant and in the dark they could not tell what to think of the souls of men more then of bruits of which Solomon takes notice Eccles 3.20 21. speaking in their Language Who knoweth whether the spirit of Man ascend upward and the spirit of a Beast descend downward All goe to one place c. and therefore rann away in their own fancies and vain imaginations into divers errors concerning the souls of men dying some imagining they were annihilated and altogether extinguished Some that they were layd asleep as the bodies were till the Resurrection Some that they were transmigrated out of one body into another Some one thing some another in the midst of these doubtfull varieties they began to question whether there were any difference between the souls of men and of bruits as Solomon here intimates and for want of some more distinct knowledge in this matter lived at a venture Against all these errors and evills the truths here delivered are a sure and soveraigne remedy the vain imaginations in which men rann away in the variety of their own fancies concerning the extinction annihilation sleeping transmigration c. of the souls of men dying all dye before these truths here delivered and vanish away and mens minds are setled and confirmed in the assurance of the immortality of the souls while they doe distinctly informe them what becomes comes of them into what receptacles they are received upon their separation and in what severall states they pass their immortality Fourthly It is usefull for admonishing of all men while they are in the body to take care of their souls and to provide for their future condition to preserve them pure that upon their separation they may
be taken up into those pure habitations into which no unclean thing may enter not to defile or clog them with sinne and guilt whereby they may be prest down and hindered in their flight and passage into the higher Heavens the glorious receptacles appointed for them Fifthly It is usefull for the overthrowing of that Limbus Patrum Limbus Infantum and other roomes and spacious places in the Fabricke of the Popish Purgatory which they have erected in their own imaginations for receptacles wherein they would lodge the souls of men when they are separated from their bodies there to remain for a long tract of time in prison and in pain till they be sufficiently purged and punished except there be some extraordinary means used for the reliefe or release of them or for the mitigating of their paine either first by a multitude of Masses dayly said and sung for them Or secondly By the suffrages of the living praying for the dead from whence all these Epitaphs upon their Graves and Tombes Orate pro animâ Pray for the soule of such a one Or thirdly By some munificence or eminent works of Charity done upon their account Or fourthly By applying unto them some of the works of supererogation taken out of the Treasury of the Church and by the Popes special favour confer'd upon them c. These imaginations before the truth in this Discourse declared fall to the ground while it teacheth That there is no such Limbus Patrum as they pretend to nor need there any but that their souls presently upon the separation of them pass into the Etheriall Heavens where they are in rest and peace in bliss happiness and glory that the blood of Christ shed in due time that was in the fulness of time was as effectuall to the purging washing saving and sanctifying of the souls of the Fathers that lived in the first generation of the world before his comming in the flesh as it is now for the purging washing saving and sanctifying of the souls of beleevers since his coming and will be to the end of the world that as to the vertue of his Death Passion Resurrection and Ascension He was a Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world and whose going out have been from the beginning and from everlasting as the Prophet Micah tells us and as the Apostle declares him Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Lastly It is usefull for the answering of that great question with which we are so frequently and so importunately urged by inquisitive people to shew them where Locall Hell is They cannot satisfie themselves where Locall Hell is and therefore they are apt to beleeve there is none at all This Discourse satisfies them where it is for the present it is where the evill Angells are confin'd and secur'd in chains of darkness It is where the souls of wicked men are imprisoned both reserved to the Judgement of the great day And where that is this Discourse tells and not this Discourse or Treatise but the Apostle St. Jude ver 6. St. Paul Ephes 6.12 Ephes 2.2 St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.19 Those places where those evill Angells and where the souls and spirits of wicked men are imprisoned and secured untill that day are the Locall Hell for the present If you ask further Where Locall Hell shall be after that great day I Answer What need you look any further for it then the vast space conteining this wretched and wicked inferiour world wherein we now dwell You know what St. Peter hath Prophesied concerning it with all the Elements in it all the Creatures and works upon it all the visible Heavens over it that they shall be consumed by fire 2 Peter 3.10 The Heavens shall pass away with a noyse and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and the Earth with the works therein shall be consumed by fire Now when these things shall be destroyed consumed annihilated what need we look any further for a Locall Hell then this vast space which these mighty bodies took up when they were in being When there shall be no Sunne to rule the day nor Moon nor Starrs to govern the Night nor to divide the times there shall be no distinction between day and night but all shall be night without day when the Sunne shall be no more the Sea shall be no more time shall be no more the Earth shall be no more all these visible Heavens within the reach of the conflagration shall be no more there 's space enough for the Locall Hell so much enquired after I have described to you before the present Hell the Prisons in which the evill Angells and souls of wicked men with them are secur'd unto that day and so are already in the beginnings of that Hell kept for fire they shall be burnt up they shall pass away with a great noyse melt with fervent heat be dissolved and all this while and amongst them all not one word of purgation purifying or refining or reserving the substance of it It is clear St. Peter himself speaks not of a refining in respect of the qualities but an utter abolition of the substance it selfe of this old world As the Pageant being finished the Stage is taken away so all the Tragedies which are Acted upon the Stage of this world being ended the Stage shall be pulled down broken in pieces burnt with fire as an Engine or Fabrick of which there is no more use it shall be no more But what shall we say to the other Objection raysed out of the words of St. Peter ver 13. But we look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise wherein dwelleth righteousness Which words seem to import That though this present old World shall then be dissolved consumed burnt up yet if there doe not spring up as a Phoenix out of the Ashes of it another World yet God will Create another new World in the room of it and then we are but where we were in respect of the space and place and room we should have for Locall Hell these new Heavens and Earth will take it up To this I Answer That indeed we doe look for new Heavens and a new Earth according to his promise and according to St. Peters words and shall enjoy them too and dwell in them But what are those Heavens but those highest Heavens the Celestiall Paradise the glorious habitations of the Saints and of Gods Elect which he hath prepared for them from the beginning of the world and into which he will receive them at that day when he shall say unto them Venite benedicti Come ye blessed enter into the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world and these are called New not in respect of their new making but in respect of our new taking possession of them by a most happy change for our new habitations So that New Heavens and New Earth in this place signifieth no more but a