subdued to and fitted for the use of the Spirit as never to impede clog or obstruct its motions and inclinations any more 1 Cor. 15.44 In this hope it parted from it and with this consolation it now receives it again Argument V. THere are many Scriptures which very much favour if they do not positively conclude the Souls inclination to and desire to be re-united with its own body even whilst it is in the state of its single glorification in Heaven certainly our Souls leave not our Bodies at death as the Ostrich doth her Egg in the sand without any farther regard to it or concernment for it but they are represented as crying to God to remember aveâ—â—â— and vindicate them Rev. 6 1â— 11. How long Lord how long wilt thou not avenge our blood our blood speaks both the continued Relation and suitable affection they have to their absent Bodies And to the same sense a judicious and learned Pen expounds that place Iob 14.14 which is commonly but I know not how fitly accommodated to another purpose all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come which words by a diligent comparing of the Context appear to have this for their proper scope and sense Iob in the former verse had expressed his confidence by way of Petition Mr. How 's Blessedness of the Righteous p. 170 171. that at a set and appointed time God would remember him so as to recal him out of the Grave and now minded to speak out more fully puts the Question to himself If a man die shall he live again And thus answers it all the days of my appointed time that is of the appointed time which he mentioned before when God should revive him out of the dust will I wait till my change come that is that glorious change when the corruption of a loathsome Grave should be exchanged for immortal glory which he amplifies and utters more expresly Ver. 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thou shalt have a desire to the work of thy hands thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thine own Creature And surely this waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust but of that part which should be capable of such an action q. d. I in that part which shall be still alive shall patiently wait the appointed time of reviving me in that part also which Death and the Grave shall insult over in a temporary triumph in the mean time Upon these grounds I think the inclination of the separated Spirits of the just to their own Bodies to be a justifiable Opinion As for the damned we have no reason to think such a re-union to be desireable to them for alas it will be but the increase and aggravation of their torments which consideration is sufficient to over-power and stifle the inclination of nature and make the very thoughts of it horrid and dreadful To what end as the Prophet speaks in another case is it for them to desire that day It will be a day of darkness and gloominess to them re-union being designed to compleat the happiness of the one and the misery of the other But before I take off my hand and dismiss this question I must remember that I am Debtor to two Objections Objection 1. The Soul can both live and act separate from the Body it needs it not and if it don't want why should it desire it Solution The life and actings of the glorified are considerable two ways 1 Singly and abstractly for the life and action of one part and so we confess the Soul lives happily and acts forth its own powers freely in the state of separation 2 Personally or concretely as it is the life and action of the whole man and so it doth both need and desire the Conjunction or re-union of the Body for the Body is not only a part of Christs purchace as well as the Soul and is to have its own glory as well as it but it is also a constitutive part of a compleat glorified person and so considered the Saints are not perfectly happy till this re-union be effected which is the true ground and reason of this its desire Object 2. But this Hypothesis seems to thwart the account given in Scripture of the rest and placid state of separate Souls for look as Bodies which gravitate and propend do not rest so neither do Souls which incline and desire Solution There is a vast difference betwixt the Tendencies and Propensions of Souls in the way to glory and in glory we that are absent from the Lord can find no rest in the way but those that are with the Lord can rest in Jesus and yet wait without anxiety or self torturing impatience for the accomplishment of the promises to their absent Bodies Rev. 6.10 11. COROLLARY Let this provoke us all to get sanctified Souls to rule and use these their Bodies now for God this will abundantly sweeten their parting at death and their meeting again at the Resurrection of the just Else their parting will be doleful and their next meeting dreadful And so much for the Doctrine of Separation The USES of the Point OUr way is now open to the improvement and Use of this excellent Subject and Doctrine of Separation and certainly it affords as rich an entertainment for our affections as for our minds in the following Uses Of which the first will be for our information in six practical Inferences Inference I. IF this be the life and state of gracious Souls after their separation from the Body Then holy persons ought not to entertain dismal and terrifying thoughts of their own dissolution The Apprehensions and thoughts of death should have a peculiar pleasantness in the minds of Believers you have heard into what a blessed Presence and Communion death introduceth your Souls how it leads you out of a Body of sin a World of sorrows the Society of imperfect Saints to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just men made perfect To that lovely Mount Sion to the heavenly Sanctuary to the blessed Visions of the face of God O methinks there hath been enough said to make all the Souls in whom the well-grounded hopes of the life of glory are found to cry out with the Apostle We are conâ—ident I say yea and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 When good Musculus drew near his end how sweet and pleasant was this Meditation to his Soul Hear his Swan-like Song Melchior Adams in vita Musculi p. 385 386. Nil superest vitae frigus praecordia captat Sed tu Christe mihi vita perennis ades Quid trepidas anima ad sedes abitura quietis En tibi ductor adest Angelus ille tuus Linque domum hanc miseram nunc in sua fata ruentem Quam tibi fida Dei dextera restituet Peccasti Scio sed Christus credentibus
ascend by the virtue of his Ascension 'T is therefore rather for the State and Decorum than any absolute necessity that they attend us in our Ascension God will not only have his people brought home to him safely but honourably They shall come to their Fathers house in a becoming Equipage as the Children of a King This puts honour upon our Ascension day that day is adorned by the attendance of such illustrious Creatures upon us 'T is no small honour which God herein designes for us that Creatures of greater dignity than our selves shall be sent from Heaven to attend and wait upon us thither Yea That our Ascension day should in this resemble Christ's Ascension is an honour indeed When he ascended there were multitudes of these heavenly Creatures to wait upon him Psal. 68.17 18. The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place Thou hast ascended on high c. A Cloud was prepared as a Royal Chariot to carry up the King of Glory to his Princely Pavillion and then a Royal Guard of mighty Angels to wait upon his Chariot if not for support yet for the greater State and Solemnity of their Lords Ascension And Oh what Jubilations of blessed Angels were heard that day in Heaven How was the whole City of God moved at his coming the Triumph is not ended to this day no nor ever shall Now herein God greatly honours his people that there shall be some resemblance and conformity betwixt their Ascension and Christs * Quomodo inservierunt capiti eo modo inserviunt etiam membris Gaudent inserviâ—â— iâ—lis in terris quosaliquando socios habebunt in coelis Gerhard they rejoice to attend those to Heaven who must be their fellow Citizens for ever in Heaven It is convenient also that those who had the charge of us all our life should attend us to our Fathers house at our death In the one they finish their ministry in the other they begin their more intimate Society Moreover the Angels are they whom God will imploy to gather together his Elect from the four winds of Heaven at the great day Matth. 24.31 and who more fit to attend their Spirits to Heaven singly than those who must collect them into one Body at last and wait upon that collective Body when they shall be brought to Christ Psal. 45.14 Object But the sight and presence of Angels is exceeding awful and overwhelming to humane nature it will rather astonish and terrifie than refresh and chear us to find our selves all on a suddain surrounded and beset with such Majestick Creatures We see what effects the appearance of an Angel hath had upon good men in this World We shall die said Manoah for we have seen God Judg. 13.22 So Eliphaz a Spirit passed before my face the hair of my flesh stood up Iob 4.15 Sol. True whilst our Souls inhabit these mortal and sinful Bodies the appearance of Angels is terrible to them and cannot be otherwise partly upon a natural and partly upon a moral account The dread of Angels naturally falls upon our Animal Spirits They shrink and tremble at the approach of Spirits not only the Spirits of Men but of Beasts quail at it A Dog or an Horse is terrified at it as well as a Man Numb 22.25 The dread of Spirits strikes the Animal or natural Spirits primarily and the mind or rational Soul by consent There is also another cause of fear in man upon the sight or presence of Angels viz. A Consciousness of guilt Whereever there is guilt there will be fear especially upon any extraordinary appearance of God to us though it be but imediately by an Angel But when the Soul is freed both from flesh and sin and shall enjoy it self in a nature like to these pure and holy Spirits the dread of Angels is then vanished and the Soul will take great content and satisfaction in their Company and Communion The Soul then finds it self a fit Companion for them looks upon them as its fellow Servants for so they are Revel 19.10 and the Angels look upon the Spirits of just men not as Inferiours and Underlings but with great respect as Spirits in some sense nearer to Christ than themselves So that henceforth no dread falls upon us from the presence of these excellent Creatures but each enjoyeth singular delight in each others Society And thus we see in what honourable and pleasing Company the souls of the just go hence to their Father's house and bosome PROP. V. The Soul is not so maimed and prejudiced by its separation from the Body but that it both can and doth live and act without it and performs the acts of Cogitation and Volition without the aid and ministry of the Body I Know it is objected by them that assert the Souls sleeping till the Resurrection that though its essence be not destroy'd by death yet its Operations are obstructed by the want and absence of the Body its Tool and Instrument and thus they form their Objection All that the Soul understands Object it understands by Species that is the Images of things which are first formed in the Phantasie Conditiones Intellectus sunt tres 1 Objectum ens verum intelligibile 2 Phantasma vel species sensilâ— in Phâ—ntasia latens 3 Species intelligibilis quae est accidens spirituale repraesentaâ—s idealiter intellectui rem materialem existentem extra intellectum As when we would conceive the nature of an House a Ship a Man or a Beast we first form the Image or Species thereof in our fancy and then exercise our thoughts about it But this depending upon bodily Organs and Instruments the separated Soul can form no such Images It hath no such innate Species of its own but comes into the World an abrasa tabula white paper and being deprived by separation of the help of Senses and Phantasms it consequently understands nothing Thus the Soul in its state of Separation is represented to us as wounded in its Powers and Operations to that degree which seems to extinguish the very nature of it But Sol. 1. We deny that the Soul knows nothing now but by Phantasms and Images Intellectus incorporea immaterialia contemplatur ut Deum intelligentias sed haec nullo modo in phantasiam cadunt cum sunt extra limites corporeatum viriam Conimb de Anima lib. 3. cap. 8. Q. 8. For it knows it self it s own nature and powers of which it cannot possibly feign or form any image or representation What form shape or figure can the fancy of a man cast his own Soul into to help him to understand its nature And what shall we say of its understanding during an ecstasie or Rapture Doth the Soul know nothing at such a time Doth a dull Torpor seize and benumb its intellectual powers No no the Understanding is never more bright clear apprehensive
except as was before limited Object 5. Object 5. But the matters they discover are found to be true and the causes in which they concern themselves are just real Murthers are detected by them and real frauds and injuries corrected and rectified but the Devil being himself a lyar and Deceiver would never do it 't is not his interest to discover or discourage such things Sol. Sol. Though it be not his interest meerly to discover it yet it is certainly his interest to precipitate wicked men and hasten their ruine by the hand of Justice and he will speak the truth and seem to own a righteous cause to bring about his great design of ruining the Souls and Bodies of men I will shut up with three Cautions Caution I. Strain not Conscience to enrich Posterity be true to the trusts committed to you by the Dead or by the Living remembring that though they be dead and cannot avenge the wrong yet the Lord lives and will surely do it in a severer manner than they could should they appear in the most terrible and frightful forms to you Beside your own Consciences will haunt you worse than a Ghost Be just and true therefore in all your Promises and trusts for God is the Avenger Caution II. Finish your work for eternity before you die for as the Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the Grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Job 7.9 10. Your Souls will be fixed in eternity soon after they are loosed from your Bodies when death comes away you must go willing or unwilling ready or unready but no returning hither how willing soever Caution III. Keep your selves from that heathenish and accursed practice of consulting the Devil about your absent or dead Relations a practice too common in Sea-port Towns and of deep and heinous guilt before God Isa. 8.19 And when they shall say unto you seek unto them that have familiar Spirits and unto Wizards that peep and muter should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead You need not call the Devil twice that subtil and officious Spirit draws the living into his Net by such a bait as this You meet your Mortal enemy under the disguise of your dead friend QUERIE V. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven have any converse or communication with each other and how that can be seeing all the Organs and Instruments of speech and hearing are laid aside with their Bodies It seems impossible that separated or unbodied Spirits should converse together seeing the instruments by which the thoughts are communicated from one to another are perished in the Grave Suppose the Tongue of a man to be cut out his eyes and hands perished or made useless whilst the Soul remains in the Body it may enjoy its own thoughts within it self but it is impossible to signifie them to another by words or signs Or suppose a man in a deep sleep wherein the Senses are only bound for a little time he may indeed exercise his own fancy in a pleasant Dream but another cannot understand how it is entertained but in death the Senses are not bound but extinguished Beside we must not think the felicity of the departed holy Souls to consist in mutual Converses one with another but in their ineffable Visions of God and Communion with him To him who is Omniscient and understands their most inward thoughts they can freely communicate them and receive his as well as pour forth their own love but to do it to their fellow Creatures who see not as God doth seems impossible Indeed it was never doubted but after the Resurrection they shall both know and talk with one another in a more excellent and perfect manner than now they do but till that time the Reasons above seem to perswade us that all the Converses above are only betwixt God and them which indeed is enough to make them happy and indeed if this ability be allowed to separated Souls it seems to render the Resurrection of their Bodies needless for they are well enough without them But certainly the Spirits of just men are not Mutes such an August Assembly of holy and excellent Spirits do not live together in their Fathers House without mutual Converse and fellowship with each other as well as with God That acute and judicious Divine Mr. Ioseph Symonds in the Epistle to his Book entitled Sight and Faith expresseth himself about this matter thus I often think saith he of the Communion of the Spirits of men which certainly is more than many are acquainted with though we act one upon another in our present state by the help of sense yet we are wrought and designed to a more excellent way Angels and the Spirits of men made perfect converse and trade in a mutual Communication not without sense but without such sense as ours This as eternal life begins here and is found in some degrees in this Mortal State though not in so visible appearances as to lie open to much observation Angels good and bad do act upon our Spirits and our Spirits hold converse with them and with the Father of Spirits which may be discerned in secret Parlies and Discourses betwixt them and us much of this appears in David's Psalms and there passeth not only an inward speech but there are invisible approaches entertainments and touches which Paul found when bound in the Spirit and under the working of God which wrought in him mightily Col. 1.29 it is also most certain that our Souls are not mute and shut out from all mutual Traffick with each other except what they have by the mediation of Senses Instances are found that as they say of two Needles toucht with the Loadstone the Spirit of one at a distance hath found it self affected with the motion and state of another And this we are all sensible of that there is a strong desire in us to Communion of Spirits and that because the way most ready and convenient to our bodily state is by sense we are carried with much inclination to maintain intercourse of our minds and Spirits by sense but as being made to a better way our Souls are not satisfied with this present way as being both painful and short we cannot give an exact Copy of our Apprehensions Desires Designs Delights and other affections by these two great Mediators of Communion the Eye and the Ear but because we are in so great a measure confin'd to this course our Souls as it were stand in these two gates to send and receive mutual Embassies each from other Which way as it is short in it self so it is much shortned by distances disaffections impotencies and disparities I cannot imagine that men in the state of imperfection should have so many ways to communicate their minds as by speaking writing c. Yea that the
your selves out of this Reluctancy at death by this great Example and Pattern of Obedience Argument XII LAstly Let no Christian be affrighted at death considering that the death of Christ is the death of Death and hath utterly disarmed it of all its destructive power If you tremble when you look upon death yet you cannot but triumph when you look believingly upon Christ. For 1 Christ died O believer for thy sins Rom. 4.25 his death was an expiatory Sacrifice for all thy guilt Gal. 3.13 so that thou shalt not die in thy sins the pangs of death may and must be on thy outward man but the guilt of sin and the Condemnation of God shall not be upon thy inner man 2 The death of Christ in thy room hath utterly destroyed the power of death which once was in the hand of Satan Heb. 2.14 Col. 2.14 15. his power was not authoritative but executive Not as the power of a King but of a Sheriff which is none at all when a Pardon is produced 3 Christ hath assured us that his Victory over death shall be compleat in our persons It is already a compleat personal Victory in respect of himself Rom. 6.9 he dieth no more death hath no more Dominion over him It 's an incompleat Victory already as to our persons It can dissolve the Union of our Souls and Bodies but the Union betwixt Christ and our Souls it can never dissolve Rom. 8.38 39. and as for the power it still retains over our dust that also shall be destroyed at the Resurrection 1 Cor 15.25 26. comp with verses 54 55 56 57. so that there is no cause for any Soul in Christ to tremble at the thoughts of a separation from the body but rather to embrace it as a priviledge death is ours O that these arguments might prevail O that they might at last win the consent of our hearts to go along with death which is the Messenger sent by God to bring us home to our Fathers house But I doubt when all is said we are where we were all this suffices not to overcome the Regrets and Reluctancies of Nature still the matter sticks in our minds and we cannot conquer our disinclined Wills in this matter What is the matter Where lie the Rubbs and Hinderances O that God would remove them at last Object 1. This is a common Plea with many I am not ready and fit to die were I ready I should be willing to be gone Sol. 1 How long soever you live in the Body there will be somewhat still out of order something still to do for you must be in a state of imperfection whilst you remain here and according to this Plea you will never be willing to die 2 Your willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ is one special part of your fitness for death and till you attain it in some good measure you are not so fit to die as you should be 3 If you be in Christ you have a fundamental fitness for death though you may want some circumstantial Preparatives And as to all that is wanting in your sanctification or obedience now it will be compleated in a moment upon your dissolution Object 2. Others plead the desire they have to live is in order to God's further service by them in this World O say they it was David 's happiness to die when he had served his Generation according to the Will of God Acts 13.36 If we had done so too we should say with Simeon ` Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Sol. 1 God needs not your hands to carry on his service in the World he can do it by other hands when you are gone Many of greater Gifts and Graces than you are daily laid in the Grave to teach you God needs no mans help to carry on his Work 2 If the service of God be so dear to you there is higher and more excellent Service for you in Heaven than any you ever were or can be imployed in here on earth O why don't you long to be amidst the thick of Angels and Spirits made perfect in the Temple-Service in Heaven Object 3. O but my Relations in the World lie near my heart what will become of them when I am gone Sol. 1 'T is pity they should lie nearer your hearts than Jesus Christ if they do you have little reason to desire death indeed 2 Who took care of you when death snatcht your dear Relations from you who possibly felt the same workings of heart that you now do Did you not experience the truth of that word Psal. 27.10 When Father and Mother forsaketh me then the Lord taketh me up and if you be in the Covenant God hath prevented this Plea with his Promise Ier. 49.11 Leave thy fatherless Children to me I will keep them alive and let their Widows trust in me But I desire to live to see the felicity of Zion before I go hence Object 4. and the answer of the many Prayers I have sowen for it I am loth to leave the People of God in so sad a condition The publickness of thy Spirit and Love to Zion Sol. is doubtless pleasing to God but it is better for you to be in Heaven one day than to live over again all the days you have lived in earth in the best times that ever the Church of God enjoyed in this World the Promises shall be accomplished though you may not live to see their accomplishment die you in the faith of it as Ioseph did Gen. 50.24 But alas the matter doth not stick here this is not the main hinderance I will tell you where I think it lies 1 In the hesitancy and staggering of our faith about the certainty and reality of things invisible 2 In some special guilt upon the Conscience which appals us 3 In a negligent and careless course of life which is not ordinarily blessed with much evidence or comfort 4 In the deep engagements of our hearts to earthly things they could not be so cold to Christ if they were not overheated with other things Till these Distempers be cured no Arguments can prosper that are spent to this end The Lord dissolve all those ties betwixt us and this World which hinder our consent and willingness to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better And now we have had a glance a glimmering light a faint umbrage of the state of separated Souls of the just in Heaven It remains that I shew you somewhat of the state and case of damned Souls in Hell A dreadful Representation it is but it is necessary we hear of Hell that we may not feel it 1 Pet. iii. ver 19. By which also he went and preached unto the SPIRITS in PRISON IN the former Discourse we have had a view of Heaven and of the Spirits of just men made perfect the Inhabitants of that blessed region of light and glory
and design for its Salvation by Christ in so great depth of counsel that the Angels of Heaven are astonished at it and desire to pry into it Christ in pursuance of this eternal project came from Heaven professedly to seek and to save lost Souls Luke 19.10 He compares himself to a good Shepherd who leaveth the ninety nine to seek one lost sheep and having â—ound it brings it home upon his shoulders rejoycing that he hath found it Luke 15.5 Hell imploys all its skill and policy sets a-work all wiles and stratagems to destroy and ruine it 1 Pet. 5.8 Your adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour The strong man armed gets the first possession of the Soul and with all his forces and policies labours to secure it as his property Luke 11.21 Christ raises all the spiritual Militia the very posse Coeli the Powers of Heaven to rescue it 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And do Heaven and Earth thus contend think you de lana caprina for a thing of nought No no if there were not some singular and peculiar excellency and worth in mans Soul both worlds would never tug and pull at this rate which should win that Prize It was a great Argument of the worth and excellency of Homer that incomparable Poet that seven Cities contended for the honour of his Nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smyrna Rhodes Coâ—ophon Salamis Chins Argos and Athens were all at strife about one poor man who should crown themselves with the honour of his birth but when Heaven and Hell shall contend about a Soul certainly it much more speaks the dignity of it than the contention of seven Cities for one Homer What are all the wooings expostulations and passionate beseechings of Christs Ministers what are all the convictions of Conscience and strong impressions made upon the affections what are all strokes from Heaven upon men in the way of sin I say what are all these but the tuggings of Heaven to draw Souls out of the snares of Hell And what are the hellish temptations that men feel in their hearts the alluring objects presented to their eyes the ensnaring examples that are set round about them but the tuggings of Satan if possible to draw the Souls of men into the same condemnation and misery with himself Would Heaven and Hell be up in Arms as it were and strive at this rate for nothing Thy Soul O man how vilely soever thou depreciatest and slightest it is of high esteem a rich purchace a Creature of nobler rank than thou art aware of The wise Merchant knows the value of Gold and Diamonds though ignorant Indians would part with them for Glass-beads and Tinsel toyes And this leads us to 8. The eighth Evidence of the invaluable worth of Souls which is the joy in Heaven and the rage in Hell for the gain and loss of the Soul of man Christ who came from Heaven and well knew the frame and disposition of the Inhabitants of that City Quoties bene agimus gaudent Angeli tristantur Daemones quoties à bono deviamus Diabolum laetificamus Angelos suo gaudio defraudamus August tells us That there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luke 15.7 10. No sooner is the heart of a sinner darted with conviction broken with sorrow for sin and begins to cry Men and brethren what shall I do but the news is quickly in Heaven and sets all the City of God a rejoycing at it as is in the chief City of a Kingdom when a young Prince is born We never read that Christ laughed in all his time on Earth but we read that he once rejoyced in Spirit Luke 10.21 And what was the occasion of that his joy but the success of the Gospel in the Salvation of the Souls of men Now certainly it must be some great good that so affects Christ and all his Angels in Heaven at the sight of it the degree of a wise mans joy is according to the value of the object thereof no man that is wise will rejoyce feel his heart leap within him for gladness at a small or common thing And as there is joy in Heaven for the saving so certainly there is grief and rage in Hell for the loss of a Soul No sooner had God by Pauls Ministry converted one poor Lydia at Philippi whither he was called by an immediate Express from Heaven for that service but the Devil put all the City into an uproar as if an Enemy had landed on their Coast and raised a violent Persecution which quickly drave him thence Acts 16.9 14 22. And indeed what are all the fierce and cruel persecutions of Gods faithful Ministers but so many efforts of the rage and malice of Hell against them for plucking Souls as so many captives and preys out of his paws For this he owes them a spight and will be sure to pay them if ever he get them at an advantage But all this joy and grief demonstrates the high and great value of the Prize which is won by Heaven and lost by Hell 9. Ninthly The institution of Gospel-Ordinances and the appointment of so many Gospel-Officers purposely for the saving of Souls is no small evidence of what value and esteem they are No man would light and maintain a Lamp fed with golden Oyl and keep it burning from Age to Age if the work to be done by the light of it were not of a very precious and important nature what else are the Dispensations of the Gospel but Lamps burning with golden Oyl to light Souls to Heaven Zech. 4.2 3 4 12. compared a magnificent Vision is there presented to the Prophet viz. a Candlestick of Gold with a Bowl or Cistern upon the top of it and seven Shafts with seven Lamps at the ends thereof all lighted and that these Lamps might have a constant supply of oyl without any accessary humane help there are presented as growing by the Candlestick two fresh and green Olive-trees on each side thereof ver 3. which do empty out of themselves golden Oyl ver 12. naturally dropping and distilling it into that Bowl and the two Pipes thereof to feed the Lamps continually Under this stately Emblem you have a lively representation of the spiritual Gifts and Graces distilled by the Spirit into the Ministers of the Gospel for the use and benefit of the Church as you find not only by the Angels Exposition of it here but by the Spirits allusion to it and accommodation of it in Rev. 11.3 4. See herein what price God puts upon the salvation of Souls Gospel Lamps are maintain'd for their sakes not with the sweat of Ministers brows or the expence and waste of their Spirits but by the precious Gifts and Graces of Gods Spirit continually dropping into them for the use and service of Souls These ministerial Gifts and Graces are Christs
his own feet and the Bird enjoy himself as well yea better in the open Fields and Woods than in the Cage neither depend as to Being or action on the Horse or Cage 3. Both Scripture and Philosophy consent in this that the Soul is the chief most noble and principal part of Man from which the whole Man is and ought to be denominated So Gen. 46.26 All the Souls that came with Iacob into Aegypt i. e. all the persons as the Latines say tot capita so many Heads or Persons The Apostle in 2 Cor. 5.8 seems to exclude the body from the notion of personality when he saith We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord that We a term of personality is there given to the Soul exclusively of the Body for the Body cannot be absent from it self but We that is the Souls of Believers may be both absent from it and present with Christ. To this we may add 2 Cor. 4.16 where the Soul is called the Man and the inner Man too the body being but the external face or shadow of the Man And to this Philosophy agrees The best Philosophers are so far from thinking that the body is the substantial part of Man and the Soul a thing dependent on it that contrarily they affirm that the body depends upon the Soul * Anima corpus animatum conservat sustentat ubâ— autem illa reliquit corpus perit animatum corpus animalis ratio Anima non est in corpore tanquam in loco cùm à loco circuâ— scâ—iâ—i nequeat tota per totum meat corpus non et pars in qua non tota adsit non enim à corpore tenetur sed ipsa tenet Corpus Neque est in corpore ut in vase vel in utre sed potius in ipsa est Corpus Nyâ—â—en de Anima lib. 2. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima cujusque est quisqus and that it is the Soul that conserves and sustains it And that the Body is in the Soul rather than the Soul in the Body And that which is seen is not the Man but that is the Man which is invisible That the body might be kill'd and the Man not hurt meaning the Soul which only deserves the name of Man Now if it be the chief part of Man and that which is only worthy the name of a Man and from which therefore the whole is and ought to be denominated a Man If it be so far from depending on the body or being contained within the body that the body rather depends on it and is in it then surely the Soul must be what we describe it to be a substantial Being 4. It is past all Controversie that the Soul is a Substance because it is the Subject of Properties Affections and Habits which is the very strict and formal notion of a Substance All the affections and passions of Hope Desire Love Delight Fear Sorrow and the rest are all rooted in it and spring out of it and so for Habits Arts and Sciences * A 〈◊〉 Subjectum 〈…〉 omnium viâ—â—â—tum vitiorum Sâ—â—entiâ—rum Artium Buchan loc Com. p. 86. 't is the Soul in which they are lodged and seated Having once gotten a Promptitude to act either by some strong or by some frequently repeated actings they abide in the Soul even when the Acts are intermitted as in sleep a Navigator Scribe or Musician are really Artists when they are neither Sailing Writing or Playing Because the habits still remain in their minds as is evident in this that when they awake they can perform their several works without learning the rules of their Art anew 2 A Vital Substance II. The Soul is a vital Substance i. e. A Substance which hath an essential principle of Life in it self A living active Being A living Soul saith Moses in the Text and hereby it is distinguished from and opposed to matter or body The Soul moves it self and the body too it hath a self-moving Virtue or Power in it self whereas the matter or body is wholly passive and is moved and acted not by it self but by this vital Spirit James 2.26 The body without the Spirit is dead It acts not at all but as it is acted by this invisible spirit This is so plain that it admits of sensible proof and demonstration Take meer matter and compound or divide it alter it and change it how you will you can never make it see feel hear or act vitally without a quickning and actuating Soul Yet we must still remember that this active vital principle the Soul though it hath this vital Power in it self it hath it not from it self but in a constant receptive dependance upon God the first Cause both of its Being and Power 3 A Spiritual Substance III. It is a Spiritual Substance All Substances are not gross material visible and palpable substances but there are spiritual and immaterial as well as corporeal substances discernable by Sight or Touch. To deny this were to turn a downright Sadducee and to deny the existence of Angels and Spirits Acts 23.8 The word Substance as it is applied to the Soul of Man puzzles and confounds the dark understandings of some that know not what to make of an immaterial Substance whereas in this place it is no more than * A Substance in this use of the word is that which depends not in respect of its Being upon any other fellow creature as Accidents and Qualities do whose Being is by having their in-being in another fellow creature as their subject but this Being The Soul exists in it self substare accidentibus i. e. to be a subject in which properties affections and habits are seated and subjected This is a spiritual Substance and is frequently in Scripture called a Spirit into thy hands I commit my spirit Luke 23.46 Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and so frequently all over the Scriptures And the spirituality of its nature appears 1. by its Descent in a peculiar way from the Father of Spirits 2. in that it rejoyceth in the essential Properties of a Spirit 3. That at Death it returns to that great Spirit who was its Efficient and Former 1. It descends in a peculiar way from the Father of Spirits as hath been shewn in the opening of this Text God stiles himself its Father Heb. 12.9 it s Former Zech. 12.1 'T is true he giveth to all living things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath Acts 1â— 25 Other Souls are from him as well as the rational Soul but in a far different way and Manner They flow not immediately from him by Creation Gen. 1.24 27. as this doth It is said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind but God created Man in his own Image Which seems plainly to make a specifical difference betwixt the reasonable and all other Souls 2. It
rejoyceth in the essential Properties of a Spirit for it is an incorporeal Substance as Spirits are It hath not partes extra partes extension of parts nor is it divisible as the body is It hath not Dimensions and Figures as matter hath but is a most pure invisible and as the acute and judicious Dr. More expresseth it an indiscerpible Substance It hath the Principle of Life and Motion in it self or rather it is such a Principle it self and is not moved as the dull and sluggish matter is per aliud by another It s efficacy is great though it be unseen and not liable to the Test of our touch as no spiritual substances are A Spirit saith Christ hath not Flesh and Bones Luke 24.39 We both grant and feel that the Soul hath a love and inclination to the body which indeed is no more than it is necessary it should have yet can we no more inferr its Corporeity from that love to the body than we can infer the Corporeity of Angels from their affection and benevolent love to men It is a Spirit of a nature vastly different from the body in which it is immersed Mr. How 's Funeral Serm. p. 9 10. There is saith a learned Author no greater mystery in nature than the union betwixt the Soul and Body That a Mind and Spirit should be so ty'd and linkt to a clod of Clay that while that remains in a due temper it cannot by any art or power free it self What so much a-kin are a Mind and a piece of Earth a Clod and a Thought that they should be thus affixed to one another Certainly the heavenly pure Bodies do not differ so much from a dunghil as the Soul and Body differ they differ but as more pure and less pure matter but these as material and immaterial If we consider wherein consists the Being of a Body and wherein that of a Soul and then compare them the matter will be clear We cannot come to an apprehension of their Beings but by considering their primary passions and properties whereby they make discovery of themselves The first and primary affection of a body * Philosophical Essay â— 2. §. 2. p. 39. as is rightly observed is that extension of parts whereof it is compounded and a capacity of Division upon which as upon the fundamental mode the particular Dimensions that is the figures and the local motion do depend Again for the Being of our Souls if we reflect upon our selves we shall find that all our knowledge of them resolves into this that we are Beings conscious to our selves of several kinds of cogitations that by our outward senses we apprehend bodily things present and by our imagination we apprehend things absent And that we oft recover into our apprehension things past and gone and upon our perception of things we find our selves variously affected Let these two properties of a Soul and Body be compared and upon the first view of a considering mind it will appear that Divisibility is not Apprehension or Judgment or Desire or Discourse That to cut a body into several parts or put it into several shapes or bring it to several motions or mix it after several ways will never bring it to apprehend or desire No man can think the combining of Fire and Air and Water and Earth should make the lump of it to know or comprehend what is done to it or by it We see manifestly that upon the division of the body the Soul remains entire and undivided It is not the loss of a Leg or Arm or Eye that can maim the Understanding or the Will or cut off the affections Nay it pervades the body it dwells in and is whole in the whole and whole in every * Understand iâ— negatively that the Soul is not in the parts of the body per partes part in one part and part in another seeing it is indivisible and hath no parts part which it could never do if it self were material Yea it comprehends in its understanding the body or matter in which it is lodged and more than that it can and doth form conceptions of pure spiritual and immaterial Beings which have no Dimensions or Figures all which shâ—ws it to be no corporeal but a Spiritual and immaterial Substance 3. As it derives its Being from the Father of Spirits in a peculiar way and rejoyceth in its spiritual properties so at death it returns to that great Spirit from whence it came It is not annihilated or resolved into soft Air or suckt up again by the Element of Fire or catcht back again into the soul of the World as some have dreamed but it returns to God who gave it to give an account of it self to him and receive its Judgment from him Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Eccles. 12.7 Each part of Man to its like dust to dust and spirit to spirit Not that the Soul is resolved into God as the Body is into Earth but as God created it a rational Spirit conscious to it self of moral good and evil so when it hath finisht its time in the body it must appear before the God of the Spirits of all flesh its Arbiter and final Judge By all which we see that as it is elevated too high on the one hand when it is made a particle of God himself not only the Creature but a part of God as * Anima autem mentis particeps facta non solum Dei opus est verum etiam pars neque ab â—o sed de eo ex eo facta Plut. de Qu. Platon Plutarch and †Quomoda credibile vidatur tam axiguam mentem humanam membranulâ etrebri aut corde â—aud â—mplis spaciis inâ—lusam tantam Coeli mundique magnitudinem capere nisi illius divinae fâ—licisque animae particula esset indivisibilis Philo. Philo Iudaeus and others have term'd it a Spirit it is but of another and inferiour kind So it is degraded too low when it is affirmed to be matter though the purest finest and most subtle in nature which approacheth nearest to the nature of a spirit A Spirit it is as much as an Angel is a Spirit though it be a spirit of another species This is the name it is known by throughout the Scriptures In a word it is void of mixture and composition there are no jarring qualities compounded Elements or divisible parts in the Soul as there are in bodies but it is a pure simple invisible and indivisible Substance which proves its spirituality and brings us to the fourth particular viz. IV. It is an immortal Substance 4 An immortal Substance The simplicity and spirituality of its nature of which I spake before plainly shews us that it is in its very nature designed for Immortality for such a being or Substance as this hath none of the seeds of Corruption and Death in
Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word in thy heart so Matth. 9.3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they spake within themselves i. e. they thought in their hearts Matth. 21.25 The Objects presented to the mind are the Companions with whom our hearts talk and converse Thoughts are the figments and Creatures of the mind They are formed within it in 〈◊〉 innumerable The power of cogitation is in the mind yea in the spirit of the mind * Phantasia mâ—nti offert phantasmata Picol The fancy indeed whilst the Soul is embodied ordinarily and for the most part presents the appearances and likenesses of things to the mind but yet it can form thoughts of things which the fancy can present no Image of as when †When we think of God saith â—â—rx Tyr. Diss. 1. we must think of nothing material 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul thinks of God or of itself This power of cogitation goes with the Soul and is rooted in it when it is separated from the body and by it we speak to God and converse with Angels and other spirits in the unbodied State as will be more fully opened in the process of this Discourse 2. The Conscience belongs also to this faculty What Conscience is for it being the judgement of a man upon himself with respect or relation to the judgment of God it must needs belong to the understanding part or faculty Thoughts are formed in the speculative but Conscience belongs to the practical understanding Iudicium appello conscientiam ut ad intellectâ—m eam 〈◊〉 osteâ—â—am Ames It is a very high and awful power it is solo Deo minor and rides as Ioseph did in the second Chariot The next and immediate Officer under God He saith of Conscience with respect to every man as he once said of Moses with respect to Pharaoh See I have made 〈◊〉 a God to Pharoah Exod. 7.1 The voice of Conscience is the voice of God for it is his Vicegerent and Representative What it binds on earth is bound in heaven and what it looseth on earth is loosed in heaven It observes records and bears witness to all our actions and acquits or condemns as in the name of God for them Its Consolations are most sweet and its Condemnations most terrible so terrible that some have chosen death which is the King of terrours rather than to endure the scorching heat of their own Consciences The greatest Deference and Obedience is due to its Commands And a man had better * Quas nos oportet mortes praeeligere quod non supplicium potius ferre immo iâ— quam profundam infeâ—ni Abyssum â—oâ— intraâ—e quà m coâ—tra conscientiam atteâ—tari Zuingâ— indure any rack or torture in the world than incur the torments of it It accompanies us as our shadow whereever we go and when all others forsake us as at death they will Conscience is then with us and is never more active and vigorous than at that time Nor doth it forsake us after death but where the Soul goes it goes and will be its Companion in the other world for ever How glad would the Damned be if they might but have left their Consciences behind them when they went hence but as Bernard rightly * Ipsa judicat ipsa imperat ipsa observat ipsa judicat ipsa toâ—toâ— ipsa carcer Bern. lib. de Conse cap. 9. It is both Witness Judge Tormentor and Prison it accuseth judgeth punisheth and condemneth And thus briefly of the understanding which hath many Offices and as many names from those Offices It is sometimes called Wit Reason Vnderstanding Opinion Iudgment And why we bestow so many names upon one and the same faculty the learned Author of that small but excellent †Nosce Teipsum p. 48 49. Tract de Anima gives us this true and ingenious account THe Wit the Pupil of the Souls clear eye And in mans world the only shining Star Looks in the Mirroir of the Phantasie Where all the gatherings of the Senses are And after by discoursing to and fro Anticipating and Comparing things She doth all universal natures know And all Effects into their Causes brings When she rates things and moves from ground to ground The name of Reason she obtains by this But when by reason she the truth hath found And standeth fixt she Understanding is When her Assent she lightly doth incline To either part she is Opinion light But when she doth by principles define A Certain truth she hath true Judgements fight And as from Senses Reasons work doth spring So many Reasons Vnderstanding gain And many Vnderstandings Knowledge bring And by much Knowledge Wisdom we obtain VI. 6 Endued with a Will What the Will is God hath endued the Soul of man not only with an Vnderstanding to discern and direct but also with a Will to govern moderate and over-rule the actions of Life The Will is a faculty of the rational Soul whereby a man either chuseth or refuseth the things which the understanding discerns and knows This is a very high and noble power of the Soul The understanding seems to bear the same relation to the Will as a grave Counsellour doth to a great Prince It glories in two excellencies viz 1. Liberty 2. Dominion 1. It hath Freedom and Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno. it cannot be compelled and forced Coaction is repugnant to its very nature In this it differs from the understanding that the understanding is wrought upon necessarily but the will acts spontaneously This Liberty of the Will respects the choice or refusal of the means for attaining those ends it prosecutes according as it finds them more or less conducible thereunto The Liberty of the Will must be understood to be in things natural which are within its own proper sphere not in things supernatural It can move or not move the Body as it pleases but it cannot move towards Christ in the way of faith as it pleaseth it can open or shut the hand or eye at its pleasure but not the heart True indeed it is not compelled or forced to turn to God by supernatural grace but in a way sutable to its nature it is determined and drawn to Christ Psal. 1.10.3 It is drawn by a mighty power and yet runs freely Cant. 1.4 Draw me we will run after thee Efficacious grace and victorious Delight is a thing very different from compulsive force Pelagiuâ— as a late * Dr. Manton in Psal. 119. v. 36. Author speaks at first gave all to nature acknowledged no necessity of divine grace but when this proud Doctrine found little countenance he called nature by the name of grace And when that deceit was discovered he acknowledged no other grace but outward instruction or the benefit of external revelation to discourse and put men in mind of their duty Being yet driven farther he acknowledged the grace of Pardon and before a man could do any thing
their own trembling and condemning Consciences There would not be so many pale sweating affrighted Consciences on Earth and in Hell if the Will had any command or power over them Tam frigida mens est Criminibus tacitâ sudaâ—t praecordia culpâ 'T is an horrible sight to see such a trembling upon all the members such a cold Sweat upon the panting bosom of a self-condemned and wrath-presaging Soul in which it can by no means relieve or help it self These things are exempt from the liberty and dominion of the Will of man but notwithstanding these exemptions it is a noble faculty and hath a vastly extended Empire in the Soul of man It is the door of the Soul at which the spirit of God knocks for entrance When this is won the Soul is won to Christ and if this stand out in rebellion against him he is barr'd out of the Soul and can have no saving union with it The truth of grace is to be judged and discerned by its compliance with his call and the measure of Grace to be estimated by the degree of its subjection to his Will VII The Soul of man is not only endued with an Vnderstanding 7 Furnished with various Affections and Passions and Will but also with various Affections and Passions which are of great use and service to it and speak the excellency of its nature They are originally designed and appointed for the happiness of man in the promoting and securing his chiefest good to which purpose they have a natural aptitude For the true Happiness and Rest of the Soul not being in it self nor in any other creature but in God the Soul must necessarily move out of it self and beyond all other created Beings to find and enjoy its true felicity in him The Soul considered at a distance from God its true Rest and happiness is furnished and provided with desire and hope to carry it on and quicken its motion towards him These are the arms it is to stretch out towards him in a state of absence from him And seeing it is to meet with many obstacles Enemies and difficulties in its course which hinder its motion and hazzard its fruition of him Passio animae nihil aliud est quam motus apâ—etitivae virtutis in prosecutione boni vel fugâ— mali God hath planted in it Fear Grief Indignation Iealousie Anger c. to grapple with and break through those intercurrent difficulties and hazzards By these weapons in the hand of grace it conflicts with that which opposes its passage to God as the Apostle expresseth that holy fret and passion of the Corinthians and what a fume their souls were in by the gracious motion of the irascible appetite 2 Cor. 7.11 For behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Much like the raging and strugling of Waters which are interrupted in their course by some dam or obstacle which they strive to bear down and sweep away before them But the Soul considered in full union with and fruition of God its supream Happiness is accordingly furnished with the affections of Love Delight and Ioy whereby it rests in him and enjoys its proper blessedness in his presence for ever Yea even in this life these affections are in an imperfect degree exercised upon God according to the prelibations and enjoyments it hath of him by faith in its way to Heaven In a word The true uses and most excellent ends for which these affections and passions are bestowed upon the Soul of man are to qualifie it and make it a fit subject to be wrought upon in a moral way of perswasions and allurements in order to its union with Christ for by the affections as Mr. Fenner rightly observes the Soul becomes marriageable or capable of being espoused to him and being so then to assist it in the prosecution of its full enjoyment in Heaven as we heard but now But alas how are they corrupted and inverted by sin The concupiscible appetite greedily fastens upon the Creature not upon God and the irascible appetite is turned against holiness not sin But I must insist no farther on this subject here it deserves an intire Treatise by it self VIII 8 And an inclination and love to the Body The Soul of man hath in the very frame and nature of it an inclination to the body There is in it a certain Pondus or inclination which naturally bends or sways it towards matter or a body There are three different Natures found in living Creatures viz. 1. The Brutal 2. The Angelical 3. The Humane 1. The Soul of a Brute is wholly confined to and dependent on the matter or body with which it is united It is dependent on it both in esse in operari In its being and working it is but a material form which rises from and perisheth with the body The Soul of a Brute Lord Chief Justice Hale in his Treatise de Animâ— p. 56. saith a great Person is no other than a fluid bodily Substance the more lively subtil and refined part of the blood called spirit quick in motion and from the Arteries by the branches of the Carotides carried to the Brain and from thence conveyed to the Nerves and Muscles moves the whole frame and mass of the body and receiving only certain weak impressions from the Senses and of short continuance hindred and obstructed of its work and motion vanishes into the soft Air. 2. An Angel is a Spirit free from a body and created without an appetite or inclination to be imbodied The Stoicks call the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souly substances And the Peripateticks formas abstractas abstract forms They are Spirits free from the fetters and cloggs of the body * Angelus est anima perfecta anima est Angelus imperfectus Bell de Ascen mentis An Angel is a perfect Soul and an Humane Soul an imperfect Angel Yet Angels have no such rooted disaffection and abhorrence of a body but that they have and can in a ready obedience to their Lords commands and delight to serve him assume bodies for a time to converse with men in them i.e. Aerial Bodies in the figure and shape of humane bodies So we read Gen. 18.2 three men i.e. Angels in humane shape and appearance stood by Abraham and talked with him and at Christs Sepulchre Luke 24. There appeared two men in shining garments But they abide in these bodies as we do in an Inn for a night or short season they dwell not in them as our souls in those houses of flesh which we cannot put on and off at pleasure as they do but as we walk in our garments which we can put off without pain 3. The humane Soul is neither wholly tyed to the body as the brutal soul is nor
death these witnesses of the spirit are Delusions and his earnests are given us but in jest 3 His Comforting work is a sweet fruit and effect sensibly felt and tasted by believers in this World He is from this Office stiled the Comforter Iohn 16.7 signanter eminenter He so comforts as no other doth or can And what is the matter of his comforts but the Blessedness to come the joys of the coming World Iohn 16.13 Eye hath not seen c. Upon the account of these unseen things he enableth believers to glory in tribulations Rom. 5.4 to despise present things whether the smiles or the frowns of the World Heb. 11.24 and v. 26. But if the being of our Souls fail at death these are but the Phantastick joys of men in a dream and the experiences of all Gods people are found but so many fond conceits and gross mistakes 5. This supposition overthrows the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is the consolation of Christians We according to the Scripture believe that after death hath divorced our Souls and Bodies for a time they shall meet again and be re-united and that the joy at their re-union will be to all that are in Christ greater than the sorrows they felt at parting This seems not incredible to us what ever natural improbabilities and carnal reasons may be against it Acts 26.8 And that because the Almighty power which is able to subdue all things to himself undertakes this task Philip. 3.21 We believe this very same numerical Body shall rise again Iob 21.27 by the return of the same Soul into it which now dwelleth in it and that we shall be the same persons that now we are The remunerative justice of God requiring it to be so We believe the Souls of the righteous shall be much better accommodated and have a more comfortable habitation in their Bodies than now they have 1 Cor. 15.42 43. seeing they shall be made like unto Christ's glorious Body Phil. 3.21 And that then we shall live after the manner of Angels Luke 20.16 without the necessities of this animal life These are the things we look for according to promise and this expectation is our great relief against 1 the fears of death 1 Cor. 15.55 2 against the death of our Friends and Relations 1. Thes. 4.14 3 against all the pressures and afflictions of this life Iob 19.25 26 27. But if the being of our Souls fail at death all hopes and comforts from the Resurrection fail with it for it is not Imaginable that the body should rise till it be revived nor how it should be revived but by the re-union of the Soul with it and if it be not the same Soul that now inhabits it we cannot be the same persons in the Resurrection we are now and consequently this supposition subverts not only the Doctrine of the Resurrection but 6 It overthrows also the faith of the Iudgment to come For if the Soul perish the Body cannot rise or if it rise by a new created Soul the person raised is another and not the same that lived and dyed in this World and consequently the rewards and punishments to be bestowed and awarded to all men in that day cannot be just and equal for we believe according to the Scriptures that 1 The actions which men perform in this life are not transient but are filed to their account in the world to come Gal. 6.7 here we sow and there we reap Actions done in this World are two ways considerable viz. Physically or Morally in the first consideration they are transient in the last permanent and everlasting A word is spoken or an Act done in a moment but though it be past and gone and perhaps by us quite forgotten God registers it in his Book in order to the day of account 2 We believe that God hath appointed a day in which all men shall appear before his judgment seat to give an account of all they have done in the Body whether it be good or evil 2. Cor. 5.10 3 And that in order hereunto the very same persons shall be restored by the Resurrection and appear before God the very same Bodies and Souls which did good or evil in this World shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Justice requires that the rewards and punishments be then distributed to the same persons that did good or evil in this World which strongly infers the immortality of the Soul and that it certainly overlives the Body and must come back from the respective places of their abode to be again united to them in order to their great account By all which you see the clearest proof of the Souls Immortality and how the contrary supposition overthrows our Faith Duties and Comforts Yet all this notwithstanding how apt are we to suspect this Doctrine and remain still dis-satisfyed and doubting about it when all is said which comes to pass partly from 1 the subtilty of Satan who knows he can never perswade men to live the life of Beasts till he first perswade them to think they shall dye as the Beasts do and partly from the influence of Sense and Reason upon us whereby we do too much suffer our selves to be swayed and imposed upon in matters of greatest moment in Religion For these being proper Arbiters and Judges in other matters within their Sphere they are arrogant and we easy enough to admit them to be Arbiters also in things that are quite above them hence come such plausible objections as these Object 1. The Soul seems to vanish and dye when it leaves the Body for when it hath strugled as long as it can to keep its possession in the Body and at last is forced to depart we can perceive nothing but a puff of breath which immediately vanishes into air and is lost Sol. We cannot perceive therefore it is nothing but what we do and can perceive viz. a puffe of vanishing breath By this argument the being of the Soul in the Body is as questionable as after its departure out of the Body for we cannot discern it by sight in the Body yea by this Argument we may as well deny the existence of God and Angels as of Souls for it is a spiritual and invisible being as they are our gross senses are incapable of discerning Spirits which are immaterial and invisible substances Object 2. But you allow the Soul to have a rise and beginning it is not eternal à parte antà and it is certain what ever had a beginning must have an end Every thing which had a beginning may have an end Sol. and what once was nothing may by the power that created it be reduced to nothing again But though we allow it may be so by the absolute power of God we deny the consequence that therefore it shall and must be so Angels had a beginning but shall never have an end And indeed their Immortality as well as ours
which you could never have come to the knowledge of any other way those that are without it are gropeing or feeling after God in the dark Acts 17.27 Poor Souls are conscious to themselves that there is a just and terrible God and that their sins offend and provoke him but how to atone the offended Deity they know not Mica 6.6 7. But the way of Reconciliation and life is clearly discovered to us by the Gospel 2 As it manifests and reveals Eternal life to us so it frames and moulds our hearts as Gods sanctifying Instrument for the enjoyment of it 'T is not only the Instrument of Revelation but of Salvation the word of life as well as the word of light Philip. 2.16 It can open your hearts as well as your eyes and is therefore to be entertained as that which is the first rank of Blessings a peerless and inestimable Blessing Inference VIII IF our Souls be immortal certainly our enemies are not so formidable as we are apt by our sinful fears to represent them They may when God permits them destroy your Bodies they cannot touch or destroy your Souls Matth. 16.28 As to your Bodies no enemy can touch them till there be leave and permission given them by God Iob 1.10 The Bodies of the Saints as well as their Souls are within the line or hedge of Divine Providence They are securely fenced sometimes mediately by the ministry of Angels Psal. 34.7 And sometimes immediately by his own hand and power Zech. 2.5 As to their Souls whatever power Enemies may have upon them when divine permission opens a gap in the hedge of Providence for them yet they cannot reach their Souls to hurt them or destroy them but by their own consent They can destroy our perishing flesh it is obnoxious to their malice and rage they cannot reach home to the Soul no Sword can cut asunder the band of Union betwixt them and Christ they would be dreadful Enemies indeed if they could do so Why then do we tremble and fear at this rate as if Soul and Body were at their mercy and in their power and hand The Souls of those Martyrs were in safety under the Altar in Heaven they were cloathed with white Robes when their Bodies were given to be meat to the Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Earth The Devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the Saints he tears the nest but the bird escapes he cracks the Shell but loseth the Kernel Two things make a powerful defensative against our fears 1 That all our Enemies are in the hand of Providence 2 That all providences are steered by that promise Rom. 8.28 Inference IX IF Souls be Immortal Then there must needs be a vast difference betwixt the aspects and influences of death upon the Godly and Vngodly O if Souls would but seriously consider what an alteration death will make upon their condition for evil or for good how useful would such meditations be to them 1 They must be disseized and turned out of these houses of Clay and live in a state of separation from them of this there is an inevitable necessity Eccles. 8.8 'T is in vain to say I am not ready ready or unready they must depart when their lease is out 'T is as vain to say I am not willing for willing or unwilling they must be gone there 's no hanging back and begging Lord let death take another at this time and spare me for no man dies by a Proxy 2 The time of our Souls departure is at hand 2 Pet. 1.13 14. Iob 16.22 The most firm and well built body can stand but a few days but our ruinons Tabernacles give our Souls warning that the day of their departure is at hand The lamp of life is almost burnt down the glass of time almost run yet a few a very few days and nights more and then time nights and days shall be no more 3 When that most certain and near approaching time is come wonderful alterations will be made on the state of all Souls Godly and Ungodly 1 A marvellous alteration will then be made on the Souls of the Godly For 1 no sooner is the dividing stroak given by death and the parting pull over but they shall find themselves in arms of Angels mounting them through the upper Regions in a few moments far above all the aspectable Heavens Luke 16.22 The airy Region is indeed the place where Devils inhabit and have their haunts and walks but Angels are the Saints Convoy through Satans Territories from the arms of mourning Friends into the welcome arms of officious and benevolent Angels 2 from the sight and converses of men to the sight of God Christ and the general assembly of blessed and sinless Spirits The Soul takes its leave of all men at death Isa. 38.11 Farewell vain World with all the mixed and imperfect comforts of it and welcome the more sweet suitable and satisfying company of Father Son and Spirit holy Angels and perfected Saints Heb. 12.23 3 From the bondage of corruption to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom so much is implied Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of just men made perfect 4 From all fears doubtings and questionings of our conditions and anxious debates of our title to Christ to the clearest fullest and most satisfying assurance for what a man sees how can he doubt of it 5 From all burdens of affliction inward and outward under which we have groaned all our days to everlasting rest and ease 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3. O what a blessed change to the righteous must this be 2 A marvellous change will also be then made upon the Souls of the ungodly who shall then part from 1 all their comforts and pleasant enjoyments in the World for here they had their consolation Luke 16.25 here was all their Portion Psal. 17.14 And in a moment find themselves arrested and seized by Satan as Gods Gaoler hurrying them away to the prison of Hell 1 Pet. 3.19 There to be reserved to the judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. 2 From under the means of Grace Life and Salvation to a state perfectly void of all means instruments and opportunities of Salvation Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 never to hear the joyful sound of preaching or praying any more never to hear the wooing voice of the blessed Bridegroom saying Come unto me come unto me any more 3 From all their vain ungrounded presumptuous hopes of Heaven into absolute and final desperation of mercy The very sinews and nerves of hope are cut by death Prov. 14.32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death These are the great and astonishing alterations that will be made upon our Souls after they part with the Bodies which they now inhabit O that we who cannot but be conscious to our selves that we must overlive our Bodies were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into after that separation which is
ejusdem animae id est informationis seu unionis erga corpus Conimâ—r Some call it the privation of the second Act of the Soul that is its Act of informing or enlivening the Body Others according to Scripture phrase the departing of the Soul from the Body So Peter stiles it 2 Pet. 1.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after my departure i.e. after my death Relictio câ—rporis depositio sarcine gravis modo aliea sarcina non patietur qâ—â homo praecipitetur in gehennem August Augustine calls it the laying down of an heavy burthen provided there be not another burden for the Soul to bear afterwards which will sink it into Hell In respect of the Body which the Soul now forsakes it is called the putting off this Tabernacle 2 Pet. 1.14 And the dissolving the earthly House or Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 In respect of the terminus à quo the place from which the Soul removes at death it is called our departure hence Phil. 1.23 or our weighing Anchor and loosing from this coast or shoar to sail to another In respect of the terminus ad quem the place to which the Spirits of the just go at death it is called our going to or being with the Lord ibid. To conclude in respect of that which doth most lively resemble and shadow it forth it is called our falling asleep Acts 7. ult our sleeping in Iesus 1 Thes. 4.14 This Metaphor of sleep must be stretched no further than the Spirit of God designed in the choice of it which was not to favour and countenance the fancy of a sleeping Soul after death but to represent its state of placid rest in Jesus's bosom if it refer at all to the Soul for I think it most properly respects the Body Locus Sepulturae consecratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est dormitorium appeâ—iâ—tur and thence the Sepulchres where the Bodies of the Saints were laid got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dormitories or sleeping places This is its last farewel to this world never more to return to a low animal life more Iob 7.9 10. For as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more he shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more The Soul is no more bound to a Body nor a Retainer to Sun Moon or Stars to meat drink and sleep but is become a free single abstracted being a separate and pure Spirit which the Latins call Lemures Manes Ghosts or Souls of the dead and my Text Spirits made perfect a being much like unto the Angels who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodiless Powers An Angel as one speaks is a perfect Soul a Soul is an imperfect Angel I do not say that upon their Separation they become Angels for they will still remain a distinct Species of Spirits Semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi Max. Tyr. Angels have no inclination to Bodies nor were ever fettered with cloggs of flesh as Souls were And by this you see what a difference there is betwixt these two considerations of death How gastly and affrighting is it in its previous pangs how lovely and desireable in the issue and result of them which is but the change of Earth for Heaven men for God sin and misery for perfection and glory PROP. III. The Separation of the Soul and Body makes a great and wonderful change upon both but especially upon the Soul THere is a twofold change made upon man by death one upon his Body another upon his Soul The change upon the Body is great and visible to every eye A living Body is changed into a dead carcase A beautiful and comely Body into a loathsome spectacle that which lately was the object of delight and love is hereby made an abhorrence to all flesh Bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 What the Sun is to the greater that the Soul is to the lesser World When the Sun shines comfortably how vegete and chearful do all things look How well do they thrive and prosper The Birds sing merrily the Beasts play wantonly the whole Creation enjoyeth a day of light and joy but when it departs what a night of horror followeth How are all things wrapt up in the sable Mantle of darkness Or if it but abate its heat as in Winter the Creatures are as it were buried in the winding-sheet of Winters frost and Snow just so it is with the Body when the Soul shineth pleasantly upon it or departs from it That Body which was fed so assiduously cared for so anxiously loved so passionately is now tumbled into a pit and left to the mercy of crawling Worms The change which judgment made upon that great and flourishing City Nineveh is a fit emblemâ— to â—hadow forth that change which death makes upon humane Bodies That great and renowned City was once full of people which thronged the streets thereof there you might have seen children playing upon the Thresholds Beauties shewing themselves through the windows Melody sounding in its Palaces But what an alteration was made upon it the Prophet Zephaniah describes Chap. â— v. 14. Flocks shall lye down in the midst of her all the Beasts of the Nations both the Cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the Cedar work Thus it is with the Body when death hath dislodged the Soul Worms nestle in the holes where the beautiful eyes were once placed Corruption and desolation is upon all parts of that stately structure But this being a vulgar Theam I shall leave the Body to the dust from whence it came and follow the Soul which is my proper subject pointing at the changes which are made on it The essence of the Soul is not destroyed or changed by the Bodies ruine It is substantially the self same Soul that it was when in the Body The supposition of an essential change would disorder the whole frame and model of Gods eternal design for the Redemption and glorification of it Rom. 8.29 30. but yet though it undergo no substantial change at death yet divers great and remarkable alterations are made upon it by sundering it from the Body As 1. It is not where it was It was in a Body immerst in matter married unto flesh and blood but now it is out of the Body uncloathed and stript naked out of its garments of flesh like pure Gold melted out of the ore with which it was commixed or as a Birdlet out of her Cage into the open Fields and Woods This makes a great and wonderful change upon it 2. Being free from the Body it is consequently discharged and freed from all those â—ares studies fears and sorrows to which it was here enthralled and subjected upon the Bodies account It puts off all those
passions and burdens with it never spends one thought more about Food and Raiment Health and Sickness Wives and Children Riches or Poverty but lives henceforth after the manner of Angels Matth. 22.30 It is now unrelated to and therefore unconcerned about all these things 3. In the unbodied state it is perfectly freed from sin both in the Acts and Habits a mercy it never enjoyed since the first moment it dwelt in the Body The cure of this disease was indeed begun in the Work of Sanctification but is not perfected till the day of the Souls glorification 'T is now and not till now a Spirit made perfect that is a Soul enjoying its perfect health and rectitude No more groans tears or lamentations upon the account of in-dwelling sin 4. The way and manner of its converse with and enjoyment of God is changed There are two mediums by which Souls converse with God in the Body viz 1 One internal sc Faith 2 The other external sc. Ordinances 1 If a man walk with God on earth it must be in the use and exercise of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 nor can there be any communion carried on betwixt God and the Soul without it Heb. 11.6 2 The external mediums are the ordinances of God or duties of Religion both publick and private Psal. 63.2 Betwixt these two mediums of Communion with God this remarkable difference is sound the Soul may see and enjoy God by Faith in the want or absence of Ordinances but there is no seeing or conversing with God in the greatest plenty and purity of Ordinances without Faith Heb. 4.2 But in the same moment the Soul is cut off from union with the Body it is also cut off from both these ways of enjoying God 1 Cor. 13.12 Isai. 38.11 But yet the Soul is no loser nay it is the greatest Gainer by this change The Child is no loser by ceasing to derive its nourishment by the Navel when it comes to receive it by the mouth a more noble way whereby it gets a new pleasure in tasting the variety of all delectable Food Hezekiah bemoaned the loss of Ordinances upon his supposed death-bed saying I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living q. d. Now farewel Temple and Ordinances I shall never go any more into his Temple where my Soul hath been so often cheared and refresht with the displays of his grace and goodness I shall never more join with the Assembly of his people on earth And suppose he had not sure he would have lost nothing had he then exchanged the Temple at Ierusalem for the Temple in Heaven and Communion with sinful imperfect Saints on earth for fellowship with Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect By this change we lose no more than he loseth who whilst he stands delightfully contemplating the image of his dearest friend in a glass hath the glass snatcht away by his friend whom he now seeth face to face Upon this change of the mediums of Communion it will follow that the Communion betwixt God and the separate Soul excells all the Communion it ever had with him on Earth in 1 The Clearness in 2 The Sweetness of it in 3 The Constancy 1 Its Visions of God in the state of Separation are more clear distinct and direct than they were on earth Clouds and Shadows are now fled away The Soul now seeth as it is seen and knoweth as it is known its apprehensions of God there differ from those it had here as the crade and confused apprehensions of a Child do from those we have in the manly state 2 They are also more sweet and ravishing As our Visions are so are our Pleasures Perfect Visions produce perfect Pleasures The faculties of the Soul now and never till now lie level to that rule Matth. 22.37 The Visions of God command and call forth all the heart and soul mind and strength into acts of love and delight It was not so here if the Spirit were willing the Flesh was weak but there the clog is off from the foot of the Will 3 More constant fixed and steddy 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in Religion to fix the thoughts and cure the wildness and roveings of the fancy The heart is not steddy with God and hence are its ups and downs heatings and coolings which are things unknown in the perfect state By all which it appears the change by Dissolution is great and marvelous both upon Body and Soul but upon the Soul more especially PROP. IV. The Souls of the Righteous at the instant of their Separation are received by the blessed Angels and by them transferred unto the place of Blessedness THough Angels are by nature a superiour order of Spirits differing from men in Dignity as the Nobles and Barons in the Kingdoms of this World differ from inferiour Subjects yet are they made ministring Spirits i.e. serviceable Creatures in the Kingdom of Providence to the meanest of the Saints Heb. 1.14 and herein the Lord puts a singular honour upon his people in making such excellent Creatures as Angels serviceable to them Luther assigns to them a double office sc. to sing the praises of God on high and to watch over his Saints here below Their Ministry is distinguished into three Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Admonition or warning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Protection and defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for succour help and comfort This last office they perform more especially at the Souls departure Like tender Nurses they keep us whilst we live and bring us home in their arms to our Fathers house when we die They are about our death-beds waiting to receive their precious charge into their arms and bosomes When Lazarus breathed out his Soul the Text saith it was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome Luke 10.22 And upon this account Tertullian calls them Evocatores animarum the Callers forth of Souls At the Translation of Elijah they appeared in the form of Horses and Chariots of fire 2 Kings 2. 11. Horses and Chariots are not only design'd for conveyance but for conveyance in State and truly it is no small honour to have such a noble Convoy and Guard to attend our Souls to Heaven If it be demanded Object What need is there of their help or company Cannot God by his immediate hand and power gather home the Souls of his people to himself at death He inspired them into our Bodies without their help and can receive them again when we expire them without their aid True Sâ—lâ—t he can do so but it hath pleased him to appoint this method of our Translation not out of meer necessity but bounty Souls ascend not to God in the vertue of the Angels wings or arms but of Christ's Ascension Had not he ascended as our head and representative all the Angels in Heaven could not have brought our Souls thither He ascended by his own power and we
the line of modesty in what I shall speak about them And the first is this QUERIE I. Querie 1. Whether any Notion or Conception can be formed of a separate Soul and if so how we may be assisted duely to form it and conceive of it Sol. Solution §. 1. 1. It must be acknowledged not only very difficult but an impossible task for a Soul immersed in matter and so unacquainted with its own Nature and Powers as it is in its embodied state to gain a perfect clear and adequate Conception of what it shall be in the World to come Expect not then a perfect image much less any magnificent draught of this excellent Creature This would be the same thing as to go about to depaint the Sun in its Glory Motions and Influences with a Pencil I shall think I have done enough if I can but give you any umbrage or faint representation of this sublime and Spiritual Being and the manner of its subsisting and acting out of the body For seeing it is by nature invisible and in most of its actions whilst it is in the state of composition it makes the same use of the body and natural Spirits that a Scribe doth of his Pen and Ink without which he cannot decipher the Characters which are formed in his fancy it must needs be difficult to conceive how it subsists and acts in its separate state §. 2. But though we acknowledge it to be a great difficulty to trace it beyond the Limits of this World though we perceive nothing to depart from the Body at the instant of its expiration but a puff of breath which vanishes like Smoke into the air And though Atheistical Witts daringly pronounce an immaterial substance to be a meer Iargon Hobs Leviathan cap. 34. a Contradiction in terminis which being joined together destroy one another Yet all this doth not make the Notion of a separate Soul impossible much less undermine its existence in its unbodied and lovely state the Scriptures having so abundantly obviated all these Atheistical Suggestions by so many plain Discoveries of the Happiness of some and Misery of others after this Life Yea my Text answers us That Death is so far from destroying or annihilating that it perfects the Spirits of the Just. §. 3. There can be no more difficulty in conceiving of a separate Soul than there is in conceiving of an Angel For it is certain that a separated Soul and an Angel are the liveliest and clearest representations of each other in the whole number of created Beings Dr. More 's Immortality of the Soul lib. 2. cap. 17. § 4. 8. Bell. de Ascen mentis Some make the difference betwixt them little more than of a Sword in the Scabbard from one that is naked A Soul is but a Genius in the Body and a Genius or Angel is a Soul out of a Body An Angel saith another is a compleat and perfect Soul a Soul an imperfect and incompleat Angel The separate Soul doth not become an Angel by putting off the Body they are and still will be divers Species but in this they agree that in their common nature they are both Spirits that is Immaterial Substances endued with Vnderstanding Will and active power And I know not why the one should not be as intelligible as the other or if there be any advantage the Soul certainly must have it seeing our acquaintance with Souls is much more intimate than with Angels Angels indeed have larger Capacities and have no natural inclination to be embodied as Souls have but their common Nature as they are Spirits is the same And if we can conceive of one we may also of the other §. 4. But the difficulty seems to lie in this how the Soul can subsist alone without a Body and how the habits of Grace which were infused into it in this life by Sanctification do inhere in it or can be reduced into act by it when it hath no bodily Organs to work by As to the first there is no difficulty at all if we once rightly apprehend what is meant when we call it a Spiritual Substance that is a Being by it self independent upon any other Creature as to its existence as was opened before The Soul depends not for its life upon the Body but the Body upon the Soul It is the same Sword when it is drawn as it was when sheathed in its Scabbard the Soul is as much it self when separated from the Body as it was when united with it it s Being is independent on it it can live and act in a Body and it can do so without it For it is a distinct Being from its Body a substantial Being by it self And §. 5. As for the habits of grace which accompany it to Heaven it would much facilitate our apprehension of it if we but compare acquired and infused habits with each other 'T is true they are of different Natures and Originals but the Soul is the subject of them both and their inhesion and improvement is much after the same manner Take we then an acquired habit into consideration which is nothing else but a permanent Quality rendering the subject of it prompt and ready to perform a work with ease Suppose that of Musick or Writing and we shall find these habits to be safely lodged in the Soul as well when the body is laid into the deepest sleep which is the Image of death as when it is awake and most active for they are both Artists when asleep and need learn no new Rules to play or write when you awake them which shews the habits to be permanently rooted in their minds Infused habits of grace are as deeply rooted in the Soul yea deeper than any acquired habit can be For when Knowledge and Tongues shall be done away love abideth 1 Cor. 13.8 viz. after death when the Body is asleep in the Grave §. 6. Add hereto that these habits of grace are inseparably rooted or lodged in a subject which is by nature a Spirit that is to say The Understanding and Will are the primary Faculties of the Soul and are therefore called Inorganical because not affixed to any Member of the Body as the sensitive Appetite and locomotive Powers are to their proper Organs The Soul therefore hath the free use and exercise of them in its separate state an intelligent active Being able to use its faculties of Understanding Will and Affections and consequently in their use to reduce these habits of Grace inherent in them into act without the help of the Body For to suppose otherwise were to dispirit it and destroy the very nature of it Moreover let this Spirit thus furnished with gracious habits be now considered in separation from the Body in which state it enjoyeth and rejoyceth in a double Priviledge it never had before viz. Perfection both of it self and of its Graces and the nearest access to God it is capable of 2 Cor. 5.6
against the persecutors thereof Rev. 6. 10. Nor do I think those words Isai. 63.16 repugnant hereunto Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not For I look upon the import of those words only as an humble acknowledgment of their defection which rendered them unworthy that their Forefathers should own or acknowledg them any more for their children Iob. 14. 21. Eccles. 9. 5,6 John 19.25 and not as implying their utter ignorance or total oblivion of the Churches state on earth But I here understand such a particular knowledg of our personal states and conditions as they once had when they dwelt amongst us in the Body and this seems to be denied them by those Scriptures alledged against it in the margent 3. By commerce and intercourse understand not their intercession with God for us which the Papists affirm but their concernments about our natural or civil interest in this World so as to be useful to our persons by warning us of death or dangers or to our Estates by disquieting such as wrong us in not fulfilling the Wills and Testaments they once made or by giving us notice by words or signs of the death of our friends who died at a distance from us or come to some violent and untimely end The sense of the Words being thus determined and the Question so stated I will for the resolution of it give you 1. The strength of what I find offered for the Affirmative 2. The general Concessions or what may be granted 3. My own judgement about it with the grounds thereof 1 Some there are even among the learned and judicious who are for the Affirmative part of the Question and do with much confidence assert that departed Souls both know our particular concerns in this world and intermeddle with them confirming their assertion both by reasons to convince us that it may be so and variety of instances that it is so I will produce both the one and the other and give them a due consideration and censure The substance of what is pleaded for the affirmative I find thus collected and improved by Dr. Sterne a learned Physician in Ireland Dissentatio de morte à p. 208. ad p. 214. in his Book entituled a Dissertation concerning Death where he offers us these four Arguments to convince that is possible for departed Souls thus to appear and perform such offices for their Friends on Earth Argument I. ANgels by command from God are useful and helpful to men (1) Angeli jussu Dei hominibus opitulantur haâ—d quaquam ambigitur unde animas à corpore solutas sese reb s humanis miscere comprobari videtur Sequtlae sundamentum duplex est prius quod animae separatae Angeli sunt saltem Angelis aequales posterius quod magis idonti sunt quibus officium generi humano succurrendi demandetur quà m Spiâ—itus inter quos corpus nullus unquam intercessit nexus c. they are the Saints Guardians and it is probable that each Christian hath his peculiar Angel whence it will follow that separated Souls do mingle themselves with humane affairs and that because they are Angels at least equal unto Angels Luke 20.36 Besides they being Spirits that were once embodied must needs be more fit for this imployment than those who never had any tie at all to a Body unless we can imagine them to have lost the remembraâ—â—â— of all that ever they did and suffered in the Body as also that they put off and buried all their affections to us with their Bodies which is hard to think Even as Christ our High-Priest is qualified for that office above all others in Heaven because he once dwelt and suffered in a Body like ours here upon Earth so separated Souls are qualified above all other Spirits who are unrelated to Bodies of flesh Argument II. THE Church triumphant and militant are but one Body (2) Ecclesia est corpus unum cujus membra quo meliora to magis ad aliis ejusdem corporis membris oâ—itâ—landum sunt propensa hujus autem corporis pars altera est triumphans in coelis altera militans in terris illa melior hec opis magis indiga c. and by how much better the triumphant are than the militant by so much the more propense they are to succour and help the other that stand in need of it This being the case we cannot imagine but they are inclined to perform all good Offices for us for else they should do less for us now they are in a state of highest perfection in Heaven than they did or were willing to do in their imperfect state on Earth Argument III. A Will or Testament as Vlpian defines it is the just sentence or declaration of our minds concerning that which we would have done after our decease (3) Testamentum Ulpiano definiente est voluntatis nostra justa sententia de co quod post mortem nostram fieri volumus Testamentum autem tanquam res sacra ab omnibus gentibus religiosâ— observatur Gal. 3.15 Ratio autem tam religiosa taniq universalis observantia est quoniam animas corum qui Testamenta condiderant etiam suam post mortem in tadem voluntate perseverare ejus complementa curare ac deinque ejus vel executrices vel non praestila vindices esse praesumitur These Testaments have always and among all Nations been religiously observed as the Apostle witnesseth Gal. 3.15 The reasons of this so religious observance are a presumption that those who made them when a live continue in the same mind and will after death that they take care for the fulfilling of them and revenge the non-performance upon the unjust Executors For otherwise there can be no reason why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead if they care not whether their Wills be performed or no. Why should we be so solicitous and studious about it and pay so great reverence to it but on this account Argument IV. (4) In sacris Scripturis consulere mortuos paâ—sâ—m prohibetur ut Deut. 18.10 11. Sed si homines à mortuis non suscitentur legibus haâ—d opus est si mortuirogati non aliquando responderent ab hominibus haudquaquam coâ—â—â—â—erentur Sterne de Morte ubi sup THe Scriptures forbid consultations with the Dead Deut. 18.10 11. This prohibition supposeth some did consult them and received answers from them which must needs imply some commerce betwixt the Living and the Souls that are departed And considering he had before forbidden their consultation with the Devil it appears that here we must needs understand the very Souls of the Dead and not the Devil personating them only These are the Arguments of this learned Author for the Affirmative which he closes with two necessary Cautions First That this layes no foundation for religious Worship or Invocation of departed Souls Those that are helpful to us are not therefore
Dinner though an handsom Treat was provided these words were sounding in his ears frequently during the remainder of his life he was never shy or scrupulous to relate it to any that asked him concerning it nor ever mentioned it but with horrour and trepidation they were both men of a brisk humour and jolly Conversation of very quick and keen parts having been both Vniversity and Inns-of-Court Gentlemen The Apparition of the Ghost of Sir George Villiers Father of the Duke of Buckingham giving three solemn warnings by three several Apparitions to his Servant Mr. Parker is a known and credible Story But I will wade no farther into Particulars they are almost innumerable let these suffice for a taste 2 In the next place therefore I will lay down some Concessions about this matter and the First Concession is this That the separated Souls or Spirits of men are capable of performing and executing any Ministry or Service for God if he should please to commissionate them so to do as well as Angels are whom we know he frequently imploys about the persons and affairs of his people on earth Though they become not Angels by their separation as Maximus Tyrius calls them but remain Spirits specifically distinct from them yet are they Spiritual Substances as the Angels are This their nature capacitates them either to live and act out of the Body or to assume as Angels do an aerial Body for the time of their Ministry nor do I know any thing in Scipture or Philosophy repugnant hereunto Concession 2. It cannot be doubted but upon some special and extraordinary reasons and occasions some departed Souls have returned to and appeared in this World by order and commission from God This is too manifest to be doubted by any that understands and believes the instances recorded in Scripture Moses and Elias long after their departure appeared to and talked with Christ upon the holy Mount in the presence of some of his Apostles Matth. 17.3 nor is there any reason to question the reality of their Apparition or to think it to be no more than a Phantasm Non enim conveniâ—bat ut veritas mendacio vel imaginariis testibus probaretur Maldon Capellus in loc or imaginary resemblance of these persons but very Moses and Elias themselves For they came to be Witnesses to Christs Prophetical office and it was not fit so great a point should be attested by imaginary Witnesses or that they should be called Moses and Elias if they were not the very same persons 'T is therefore most likely they both appeared in their own Bodies Credibilius est verè corporibus suis apparnisse Parcus in loc for Moses's Body we know was hidden by the Lord aud Elias his Body immediately translated with his Soul to Heaven when therefore the Lord would send them upon this solemn errand the Soul of Moses probably re-assumed that Body which was never found by man and Elias was already embodied and fit immediately for this Expedition In like manner we read Matth. 27.52 53. that at the Resurrection of our Lord many Bodies of the Saints arose and appeared unto many these were no Phantasms but the very Souls of the departed Saints returned having re-assumed their own Bodies unto this World not only to confirm the truth of Christs Resurrection and adorn that great day But as a Specimen or handsel of the Resurrection of all the Saints in the vertue of his Resurrection at the great Day Nor will I deny but upon some lesser though never without weighty and solemn occasions and reasons God may sometimes send the Souls of the dead back again into this World as in the cases before recited to evidence against the Atheism of men c. Augustine relates a memorable example which fell out at Millan Aug. in lib. de cura promortuis agenda where a certain Citizen being dead there came a Creditor to whom he had been indebted and unjustly demanded the money of his Son The Son knew the Debt was satisfied by his Father but having no Acquittance to shew his Father appeared to him in his sleep and shew'd him where the Acquittance lay whether it were the very Soul of his Father or rather an Angel as Augustine thinks is not certain though the one as well as the other be possible But though rarely and upon some weighty and solemn occasions some Souls have returned and appeared yet I judge this is not frequently done upon slight and ordinary errands and therefore to give you my own thoughts I judge 3 That those Apparitions which seem to be and are generally reputed and taken for the Souls of the Dead are not indeed so but other Spirits putting on the shapes and resemblances of the Dead and for the most part tricks of the Devil to delude or disquiet men Religio Med. Sect. 37. p. 82. In this I think the learned Dr. Brown delivered his judgment more solidly and orthodoxly than in some other points when he saith I believe that the whole frame of a Beast doth perish and is left in the same State after death as before it was martialled into life That the Souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption that they subsist beyond the body and continue by the priviledge of their proper nature and without a Miracle that the Souls of the faithful as they leave earth take possession of Heaven That those Apparitions and Ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering Souls of men but the unquiet Walks of Devils prompting and suggesting us unto mischief blood and Villany And with this Opinion I concur as to the ordinary and common Apparitions of the dead and my Reasons are 1 Because the Scriptures every where describe the state of departed Souls as a fixed state either in Heaven or in Hell and assigns the good or evil done in this World by Spirits not to the departed Spirits of men but to Angels or Devils and it is our duty to regulate our Conceits by Scripture and not according to the vain Philosophy of the Heathens or the Superstitious Traditions and Opinions of Men. As for the Souls of the godly they are at rest with Christ Rev. 14.13 Isai. 57.2 and as fixed as pillars in the house of God Rev. 3.12 And for the wicked their Spirits are confin'd and secured in Hell as in a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 there is a fixed Gulph betwixt them and the living Luke 16.27 28 29 30 31. What good offices are to be done by Spirits for us the Angels are Gods Commission-Officers to do them Hebr. 1.14 They are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation these are the Spirits sent forth to walk to and fro through the earth Zech. 1.10 their Ministry was emblematically represented in Iacob's Vision where they were seen ascending and descending as upon a Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth Gen. 28.12 Yea their very name Angel is a name of office
signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc fluxâ—runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not
very Birds and Beasts are by nature enabled to signifie to each other their Inclinations and that the Spirits of just men which are the best of all humane Spirits and that when made perfect too which is the best and highest state attainable by them should have none but live at a greater disadvantage in this respect than they did or the very Birds and Beasts in this World do The summ of my thoughts about this matter I will lay down in the following Sections §. 1. The state of Heaven as was at large open'd in our eleventh Proposition being an Association of Angels and blessed Souls for the glorifying and praising of God in his Temple there and this Worship being carried on by joint consent as appears by their joint ascriptions of Glory to God Rev. 7.9 10 11 12 they must of necessity for the orderly carrying on of this heavenly Worship understand each others mind and communicate their thoughts for without this 't is not imaginable how a joint or common service in which thousands of thousands are imployed can be decorously and orderly managed except we conceive of them as so many Machines or wind-instruments that are managed by an intelligent Agent though themselves be senseless and meerly passive certainly their consent is a different thing from that of the Keys of an Harpsicord or strings of a Lute they are Intelligent Beings who understand their own and each others mind and beside without this ability that Society in Heaven would be less comfortable as to mutual refreshing fellowship than the Society of the Saints is here So that it is not to be doubted but these Noble and Excellent Spirits can and do Communicate their thoughts to each other and that in a most excellent way §. 2. But yet we cannot imagine these Communications betwixt them to be by words formed by such instruments and Organs of Speech as we now use for they are bodiless Beings words and articulate sounds are fitted to the use and service of embodied Spirits It is therefore probable that they conveigh and communicate their minds to one another as the blessed Angels do Ceâ—â—tat Angelos linguas non habâ—â—e est autem in 〈◊〉 aliqâ—â—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 linguis per quod conceâ—tas sibi muâ—â— tradunt Lights not with Tongues of flesh though we read of the Tongues of Angels 1 Cor. 13.1 but in a way somewhat analogous to this though much more noble and excellent For look as the Scripture stiles the most excellent food Angels food so the most excellent Speech or most eloquent Tongues Angels Tongues The purest Rhetorick that ever flowed from the lips of the most charming Orator is but babling to the Language of Angels or of Spirits made perfect When Paul was rapt into the third Heaven where he was admitted to the sight and hearing of this blessed Assembly it 's said he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words unspeakable Spiritual Language such as his Tongue neither could or ought to utter such as none but heavenly Inhabitants can speak and Dan. 8.13 I heard saith Daniel one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake c. He heard the enquiries of the Angels desiring to know the Mystery from the Mouth of Christ. A Language they have but not like ours §. 3. The Communications of Angels and Souls in Heaven is therefore conceived to be an ability in those blessed Spirits silently and without sound to instil and insinuate their minds and thoughts to each other by a meer act of their Wills just as we now speak to God or our selves in our hearts Dicimur nobis ipsis in animo loqui cum aliquid actu cogitamus animo volvimus cogitamus autem actu ex voluntatis imperio hoc est cum volumus Zanch. when our lips do not move or the least outward sign appears There are two ways by which the Souls of men speak one outwardly by the Instruments of Speech or sensible signs the other inwardly without sound or sign This inward silent Speech is nothing else but an act of the Will calling forth such things into our actual Thoughts and Meditations which before lay hid and quiet in the Memory or habit of knowledge These thoughts or actual revolvings of things in the mind is in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word or Speech in the heart Deut. 15.9 Take heed to thy self that there be not a wicked word in thy heart we translate a wicked thought thoughts are the words and voice of the Soul and so Matth. 9.3 they spake within themselves i.e. their Souls spake though their lips moved not all Meditation is an inward Speech in the Soul and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferently signifies both to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum puncto sinistro locutus est oâ—e aut corde cogitavit meditatus est and to meditate The Objects which we revolve in our thoughts are so many Companions with whom we converse and thus a man like Heinsius may be in the midst of abundance of excellent Company when he is all alone And this is silent talk to our selves without any sound or noise Object But you will say though the Spirit of a man can thus talk to or with it self Duo sunt oâ—lia aliorum respectu quorum nisi utrumque à te referetur fieri non potest ut que tu habes in intellecta corde tuo oâ—culta â—a alius habere cognosâ—ere queat urum ex parte animi est voluntas nisi enim quae occulâ—a latent in corde tuo ea vilis aliis patefieri quis ea percipiatâ— alterum est ipsum corpus carniâ—m ac proindè licèt quasi aperto priori interiorique ostio velis que in animo volvis alicui patefacere nisi tamen hoc etiam alterum externum reâ—eres nullo modo ab aliis hominibus cognosci poterunt Zâ—nch de operibus Dei lib. 3. cap. 19. yet this can signifie nothing to others For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man that is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 It is not therefore enough to open this internal door of the Will for except we open also the external door of the lips no man can know our minds or be admitted into the secrets of our Souls should we never so earnestly desire that another should know our mind except we please also to discover it by word or sign he cannot know it and therefore an act of the Will is not sufficient without some external signification superadded And these Souls being bodiless can give no such outward signification There is indeed a necessity among men in this World to unlock another door beside that of their Will Sol. to communicate the Secrets of their hearts to others Quoniam igitur Angeli iis carent crassis corporibus idcirco nihil impedit quo minus qâ—â— unus Angelus in sua versat mente
ea alter videat nisi ejus voluntas si enim ea nolit ab altero resciri Nunquam nisi Deo reâ—â—ilante rescientur Zanch. ubi supra but Angels and the Spirits of men having no Bodies consequently have but one door to wit that of the Will to open and the opening thereof which is done by one act or desire in a moment is enough to discover so much of their minds as they would have discovered to another Spirit If they keep the door of their Will shut no Angel or Spirit can know what is in their thoughts without a Revelation from God and if they but will or desire others should know no words can so fully manifest one mans mind to another as such an act of the will doth manifest theirs And this saith learned Zanchy is the Tongue of Angels and the same way the Spirits of men have to make known their minds in the unbodied state It is but the turning of the Key of the Will and their thoughts or desires are presently seen and known by others to whom they will discover them as a mans face is seen in a glass when he pleaseth to turn his face to it Would one Spirit make known his mind to another it is but to will he should know it and it is immediately known §. 4. This Internal way of speaking and Communication among Spirits is much more noble perfect and excellent than that which is in use among us by words and signs and that in two respects viz. in respect 1. Of clearness in respect 2. Of dispatch and speed 1. Spiritual Language is more clearly expressive of the mind and thoughts than words writings or any other External signs can be The greatest Masters of Language do often cloud their meaning for want of words fit and full enough to express it truth suffers by the Poverty and Ambiguity of words many Controversies are but meer strifes about words and scufflings in the dark by the mistakes of each others sense and meaning few have the ability of putting their own meanings into apt proper and full expressions and if they can yet others to whom they speak want an answerable ability of understanding and clearness of apprehension to receive it If we could discern the true and natural sense of things just as it is in the mind of the Speaker or Writer How many Controversies would be thereby quickly ended But Spirits unbodied so conveigh their sense and mind to one another that there can be no mistakes no darkning of Counsel by words without knowledge but one receives it just as it lies in the others mind 2. Spiritual Language is more easie and of quicker dispatch Some men have voluble Tongues and are much more ready and presential than others their Tongues are as the Pen of a ready Scribe and others no less ready with their hands which keep pace with yea out-run the Tongue of the Speaker as Martial notes Martial Epig. lib. 14. Ep. 176. Currant verba licet manus est velocior illis Nondum lingua suum dextra peregit opus Yet all this is but bungling work to the ready dispatch of Spirits one act of the Will opens the Window to discern the mind of another clearly so that the converse of Spirits must needs be more excellent in both respects than any we are accustomed to or acquainted with in this World I will shut up this Question with One COROLLARY Long to be associated with the Spirits of just men made perfect You that are going to joyn that blessed Assembly will even in this respect gain an invaluable advantage 'T is true there is much of comfort in the present Converses of embodied and imperfect Saints 't is sweet to fast and pray to sigh and groan together 't is sweeter to rejoyce and praise our God together 'T is sweet to talk of Heaven with our faces thitherward but alas what is this to the converses that are among the Spirits of just men made perfect With what melting hearts have we sometimes sate under the doctrine of the Gospel How have our ears been chained with delight to the Preacher's lips whilst he hath been discoursing of those ravishing subjects Christ and Heaven But alas How dry and dull a thing is the best of this to the language of Heaven Three things debase and spoil the communications of the Saints on Earth viz. the darkness dulness and frothiness thereof 1. The darkness and ignorance of our understanding How crude weak and indigested are our highest and purest notions of spiritual things We speak of them but as children 1 Cor. 13.11 For alas the vail is yet upon our faces The Body of sin and the Body of flesh cast a very dark shadow upon the world to come But the apprehensions of separated Souls are most bright and clear This darkness begets mistakes mistakes beget so many quarrels and janglings that our fellowship on earth loseth at once both its profit and pleasure 2. There is much dulness and deadness accompanying the Communion of Saints on earth abundance of precious time is wasted among us in unprofitable silence and when we engage in discourses of Heaven that discourse is often little better than silence Our words freeze betwixt our lips and we speak not with that concernedness and warmth of Spirit which suits with such subjects It is not so among our brethren above their affections are at the highest peg giving glory to God in the highest 3. To conclude in the discourses of the best men on Earth there is too much froth and vanity Many words like water run away at the wast spout but there God is the Centre in which all terminates O therefore let us long to be among the unbodied people This World will never suit us with companions in all things agreeable to the desires of our hearts The best company are got together in the upper room an hour there is better than an Age below What ever fellowship Saints leave on earth they shall be sure to find better in Heaven QUERIE VI. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven do incline to a re-union with their own Bodies and how that re-union is at last effected That these blessed Souls have no such inclination or desire these reasons seem to perswade 1. That their Bodies whilst they lived in them were no better than so many Prisons Many were the prejudices damages and miseries they sustained and suffered in them Animam conceptu suo obstruit obscurat concretione carnis inâ—aecat unde illi velut per carneum specular obsoletior lux verum est Proculdubio cum vi mortus exprimitur de concretione carnis ipsa expressione colatur certè de oppanso corporis â—râ—mpit in apertam ad meram puram suam lucem Tertul. de Anima It kept them at an uncomfortable distance from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Their bemoaning cries spake their uneasie state How often hath every gracious Soul
could have been made upon their state by death Little do their surviving Friends think what they feel or what is their estate in the other World whilst they are honouring their Bodies with splendid and pompous Funerals None on earth have so much reason to fear death to make much of life and use all means to continue it as those who will and must be so great losers by the exchange Inference XIII SEe here the certainty and inevitableness of the judgment of the great day This Prison which is continually filling with the Spirits of wicked men is an undeniable evidence of it for why is Hell called a Prison and why are the Spirits of men confined and chained there but with respect to the judgment of the great day As there is a necessary connection betwixt sin and punishment so betwixt punishing and trying the Offender there are millions of Souls in custody a world of Spirits in Prison these must be brought forth to their Tryal for God will lay upon no man more than is right the legality of their Mittimus to Hell will be evidenced in their solemn day of Tryal God hath therefore appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 Here sinners run in Arrears and contract vast debts in Hell they are seiz'd and committed at Judgment tryed and cast for the same This will be a dreadful day those that have spent so prodigally upon the patience of God must now come to a severe account for all they have past their particular judgment immediately after death Eccles. 12.7 Hebr. 9.27 by this they know how they shall speed in the general judgment and how it shall be with them for ever but though this private Judgment secures their Damnation sufficiently yet it clears not the Justice of God before Angels and Men sufficiently and therefore they must appear once more before his Bar 2 Cor. 5.10 In the fearful expectation of this day those trembling Spirits now lie in Prison and that fearful expectation is a principal part of their present misery and torment You that refuse to come to the Throne of Grace see if you can refuse to make your appearance at the Bar of Justice You that brav'd and brow-beat your Ministers that warn'd you of it see if you can out-brave your Judge too as you did them Nothing more sure or awful than such a day as this Inference XIV HOw much are Ministers Parents and all to whom the charge of Souls is committed bound to do all that in them lies to prevent their everlasting misery in the World to come The great Apostle of the Gentiles found the consideration of the terror of the Lord as a spur urging and enforcing him to ministerial faithfulness and diligence 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men and the same he presseth upon Timothy 2 Tim. 4.1 2. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine O that those to whom so great a trust as the Souls of men is committed would labour to acquit themselves with all faithfulness therein as Paul did warning every one night and day with tears that if we cannot prevent their ruine which is most desireable yet at least we may be able to take God to Witness as he did that we are pure from the blood of all men O consider my Brethren if your faithful plainness and unwearied diligence to save mens Souls produce no other fruit but their hatred of you now yet it is much easier for you to bear that than that they and you too should bear the Wrath of God for ever We have all of us personal guilt enough upon us let us not add other mens guilt to our account to be guilty of the blood of the meanest man upon the earth is a sin which will cry in your Consciences but to be guilty of the blood of Souls Lord who can bear it Christ thought them worth his heart blood and are they not worth the expence of our breath Did he sweat blood to save them and will not we move our lips to save them 'T is certainly a sore Judgment to the Souls of men when such Ministers are set over them as never understood the value of their peoples Souls or were never heartily concerned about the Salvation of their own Souls MATTH 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul DIfficult Duties need to be enforced with powerful Arguments in the 24th verse of this Chapter our Lord presseth upon his Disciples the deepest and hardest duties of self-denial acquaints them upon what terms they must be admitted into his service If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me This hard and difficult Duty he enforceth upon them by a double Argument viz. from 1. The vanity of all sinful shifts from it v. 25. 2. The value of their Souls which is imported in it v. 26. They may shift off their Duty to the loss of their Souls or save their Souls by the loss of such trifles If they esteem their Souls above the World and can be content to put all other things to the hazard for their Salvation making account to save nothing but them by Christianity then they come up to Christs terms and may warrantably and boldly call him their Lord and Master and to sweeten this choice to them he doth in my Text balance the Soul and all the World weighing them one against the other and shews them the infinite odds and disproportion betwixt them What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul What is a man profited There is a plain Meiosis in the Phrase and the meaning is how inestimably and irreparably is a man damnified what a Soul-ruining bargain would a man make If he should gain the whole world There is a plain Hyperbole in this Phrase for it never was nor will be the lot of any man to be the sole Owner and Possessor of the whole world * Hypotheticâ â—âc hyperbole amissionis salutis aeternae atrocitas summa notatur S. Glassius Non magis juvabitur qâ—à m qui acquirit Venetias ipse verò suspâ—ndatur ad portam Pareus in loc But suppose all the power pleasure wealth and honour of the whole World were bid and offer'd in exchange for a mans Soul what a dear purchace would it be at such a rate What were this saith one but to win Venice and then be hang'd at the gate of it As that man acts like a
Christs Commission to preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted Isa. 61.1 and not only inserts it in Christs Commission but gives the same in solemn charge to all his inferior Messengers whom he imploys about them Isa. 35.3 Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong fear not 2. His special regard to Souls is evidenced in his severe prohibitions to all others to do nothing that may be an occasion of ruine to them He charges it upon all That no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14.13 that by the abuse of our own liberty we destroy not him for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 And what doth all this signifie but the precious and invaluable worth of Souls 12. Lastly It is not the least evidence of the dignity of mans Soul that God hath appointed the whole Host of Angels to be their Guardians and Attendants Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 Are they not It is no doubtful question but the strongest way of affirmation nothing is surer than that they are All Not one of that heavenly Company excepted The highest Angel thinks it no disparagement to serve a Soul for whom Christ die Well may they all stoop to serve them wâ—en they see Christ their Lord hath stooped even to death to save them They are all of them Ministring Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publick Officers to whom their Tutelage is committed to them it belongs to attend serve protect and relieve them The greatest Peers and Barons in the Kingdom think it not below them to wait upon the Heir apparent to the Crown in his Minority and no less dignity is here stampt by God upon the Souls of men whom he calls Heirs of Salvation And in some respect nearer to Christ than themselves are on this account it is that the Angels delight to serve them Christs little ones upon earth have their Angels which always behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18.10 and therefore saith our Lord there Take heed you despise not one of these little ones they are greater persons than you are aware of Nor is it enough that one Angel is appointed to wait upon all or many of them but many Angels even a whole Host of them are sometimes sent to attend upon one of them As Iacob was going on his way the Angels of God met him and when he saw them he said This is Gods host Gen. 32.1 2. The same two offices which belong to a Nurse to whom the Father commits his Child belong also to the Angels of Heaven with respect to the Children of God viz. to keep them tenderly whilst they are abroad and bring them home to their Fathers house at last And how clearly doth all this evince and demonstrate the great dignity and value of Souls Was it an Argument of the Grandeur and Magnificence of King Solomon that he had two hundred men with Targets and three hundred men with Shields of beaten Gold for his ordinary Guard every day And is it not a mark of far greater dignity than ever Solomon had in all his glory to have Hosts of Angels attending us In comparison with one of this Guard Solomon himself was but a Worm in all his Magnificence And now lay all these Arguments together and see what they will amount to You have before you no ordinary Creature for 1. it was not produced as other Creatures were by a meer word of command but by the deliberation of the great Council of Heaven and 2. such are the high and noble faculties and powers found in it as render it agreeable to and becoming such a Divine Original Yeâ— 3. by reason of these its admirable powers it becomes a capable subject both of Grace here and Glory hereafter 4. Nor is this its capacity in vain for God hath made glorious preparations for some of them in Heaven 5. And purchased them for Heaven and Heaven for them at an invaluable price even the precious Blood of Christ. 6. And stampt immortality upon their actions as well as natures 7 Both Worlds contend and strive for the Soul as a prize of greatest value 8 Their Conversion to Christ is the Triumph of Heaven and Rage of Hell 9. The Lamps of Gospel-Ordinances are maintained over all the reformed Christian World to light them in their passage to Heaven 10. Great rewards are propounded to all that shall heartily endeavour the salvation of them 11. The care of Heaven is exceeding great and tender over them And 12. the heavenly Host of Angels have the charge of them and reckon it their honour to serve them These things duly weighed bring home the conclusion with demonstrative clearness to every mans understanding That one Soul is of more value than the whole World which was the thing to be proved What remains is the improvement of this excellent subject in these following Inferences Inference I. THE Soul of man appearing to be a Creature of such transcendent dignity and excellency this truth appears of equal clearness with it That it was not made for the body but the body for it and therefore it is a vile abuse of the noble and high-born Soul to subject it to the lusts and enslave it to the drudgery of the inferior and more ignoble part The very Law of Nature assigns the most honourable places and imployments to the most noble and excellent Creatures and the baser and inferior to things of the lowest rank and quality The Sun Moon and Stars are placed by this Law in the Heavens but the Ignis fatuus and the Glow-worm in the Fens and Ditches Princes are set upon Thrones of Glory the Beggers lodg'd in Barns and Stables and if at any time this order of Nature be inverted and the baser suppress and perk over the more noble and honourable Beings it is looked upon as a kind of Prodigy in the Civil World and so Solomon represents it Eccles. 10.7 I have seen servants upon horses and Princes walking as servants upon the earth i. e. I have seen men that are worthy of no better imployments than to rub Horses heels in the Saddle with their Trappings and men who deserve to bear rule and to govern Kingdoms men who for their great ability and integrity deserved to sit at Helm and moderate the Affairs of Kingdoms these have I seen walking as servants upon the earth and this he calls an evil under the Sun that is an Ataxie confusion or disorder in the course of Nature Now there can never be that difference and vast odds betwixt one man and another as there is betwixt the Soul and the body of every man A King upon the Throne is not so much above a Begger that cryes at our doors for a crust as the Soul is above a body for the