Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
as well as that the Soul should But yet so as either of them have this meeted out to them according to their vastly differing share and hand and acting which they had in sinning in which the Soul is always the principal Actor and in some Sins the sole Agent and Subject To be sure in Heaven there is a confluence of created Excellencies suited to the Bodies of Saints made Spiritual as well as God Himself the Happiness of their Souls and sure I am that on the contrary it is distinctly said of each and apart That God destroys both Body and Soul in Hell Mat. 10. 28. And accordingly each of them with a Punishment suited unto each The Passage of Scripture unto which the gathering will be of several others for the proof of this my present Assertion which is the subject of this Chapter is that of our Apostle in the 28. ver of this Heb. 10. a little afore my Text he there setting forth the Judgment to come in the Causes and Effects of it to be A fiery Indignation devouring the Adversaries I did but touch upon it before when I drew out other Arguments from this Text but then reserved a fuller handling of this by it self The Original hath it The Indignation of Fire But Indignation is in and from the Heart of an intelligent Person provoked which is God as the Text shews Grotius therefore interprets it The Anger of God but adds putting forth it self by Fire I suppose he means by corporeal Fire as its Instrument But why not rather The Anger of God Himself Devouring his Adversaries as Fire and so to relate to the manner of his Anger its working as represented under the Similitude of Fire seeing God Himself is in this Epistle stiled a Consuming Fire which interprets this And in this Expression of fiery Indignation which Devoureth He hath particular reference unto those of all other the most extraordinary Judgments upon Nadah and Abihu Lev. 10. 2. There came out Fire from the Lord and devoured them They are in terminis the very Words of the Apostle here And Respici videtur Historia quae est Numb 16. 35. Lev. 10. 2. Grotius we may take in also that so we may have two Witnesses too to confirm this our Interpretation of the Apostles Allusion That two hundred and fifty Princes perished by Fire from the Lord in the Rebellion of Corah Numb 16. 30. This as for what examples is referred unto Now to raise up our Thoughts unto how much a sorer Punishment the fiery Indignation that remained for these Gospel-Adversaries should be he suggests how transcendently the Gospel exceeds the Ministration of Moses Law in these Words that follow He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses of how much sorer Punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace Moses Law the old Covenant as joined with the Law Ceremonial was sprinkled or consecrated with the Blood of Beasts Chap. 9. 19 20 21. But the Gospel of the New Covenant and the Persons enlightned thereby have been sanctified by the Blood of the Son of God If then such an extraordinary fiery Judgment befel the despisers of this Moses Law thus sprinkled c. what fiery Indignation proportionably must it be that shall befal the treaders down both of the Book Covenant and sacred Blood of Christ And in this lies the weight and strength of the Apostle's Argument That Maxim of the Judicial Law which is annexed that Despisers died without Mercy under two or three Witnesses is brought in for that grand Circumstance's sake whereby the Apostle heightneth both the Iniquity of those Persons destroyed by Fire who sinned afore many thousand Witnesses the whole Congregation of Israel As likewise this other far transcending guilt of these Adversaries who had renounced Christ and his Blood openly afore the whole World and Christian Church So Chap. 6. 6. 'T is said they did put the Lord Jesus to an open shame and they are the same Persons whom he threatens this against here and speaks of there But still by what surpassing Proportion may we estimate or suppose as the Apostle calls us to do how much this fiery Indignation is sorer then that outward devouring them by Fire 'T is certain that Moses Law and that sprinkling with Beasts Blood c. which he argues from held but the proportion of Types †As he had expresly called them in that chap. 9. 9. and again in this chap. 10. ver 1. Figures and Shadows But the New Covenant and Christ's Blood c. of the Substance and Reality comparatively to these Then in like manner his intent in proposing these examples of Judgments by Fire was as of those that hold the Proportion but of a Type a Figure of this fiery Indignation that is to come upon the treaders down of the Blood of Christ For indeed a meer bodily Death the sharpest as those by Fire were is but as the Shadow of Death unto the second Death the thing intended here which is utterly another kind of thing In Heb. 10. ver 1. He says of the good things of the Gospel that what the Law held forth were but the Shadows of those good things to come as Canaan of Heaven Chap. 4 c. the like 2 Col. 17. And why may it not be also said that as all the good things under the Law the best were but shadows of those good things to come so that the highest and worst of outward evil things executed then were in like manner but shadows of those evil things which the Gospel brings to Light as the Punishment of Sin And we may see in his succeeding Discourse in this same Chapter how he having first instanced in the Good he after instanceth in the highest of Evil in these Words I am upon ver 27 28 29 30 31. And in like manner the like extraordinary Judgments then are expresly said to have happened to them as Types so in the Greek and Margin 1 Cor. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rudiores imagines perfectioris 11. Types not meerly monitory of like Events but withal prefigurative of Punishment of an higher kind c. What Death could be outwardly sorer than See Lucan of the Effects of the stingings by African Serpents upon Cato's Souldiers Lib. 9. to be destroyed of Serpents ver 9. and those fiery too Numb 21. 6. the Effects of whose Stings are described to be as dolorous as being burnt alive But under the Gospel Sin and the Law and so God's Wrath these as the substance are set out to be the Sting of that Death to come 1 Cor. 15. 55. * As the brazen Serpent was the shadow of Christ John 3. So the stingings of those fiery Serpents the like Figures of the stinging of Sin
first yet hath something more of bowels in it it sayes withal something further when it falls out that such Spirits as he is a Father unto by the first creation are also the subjects of His eternal Love by Grace and Election unto the Adoption of Children as Eph. 1. 3 4 5. see the words Which Love having accordingly taken hold of their Souls by a work of Grace wrought upon them in this life thereby owning them as his in this case that God that is a Father of their Spirits by the Law of the first creation is in a more transcendent manner become the Father of the same Spirits by Grace and the second Creation superadded Hence it falls out in a parallel way that as it was said such Souls were become Spirit upon a double account that is Spirits for the substance of their being and again Spirit by being born again of the Spirit so answerably it is that God stands in relation unto them as a Father of their Spirits upon the like double respect And this is equitable upon a very great account for his relation of Father is more eminent to his Grace by Election and then again by the grace of his second Creation than it could be any way supposed to be by the first Creation And therefore is set and pitcht in like singularity and eminency upon the same object that is their Spirits And hence it may well yea must be supposed and acknowledged That if God did make such a Darling of the Soul such an account of it by creation as to entitle himself so specially the Father thereof then certainly this love of Grace much more hath in like equipage taken up the same gracious special relation in its kind of Father thereunto not only because Nature shall never be found to exceed Grace in its favours but that indeed the motives are far greater that God should extend the like and greater priviledges where he meant to love by Election and Choice than he did where he loved only by a due and meet Law of Creation So that when God shall profess himself a Father to their Spirits speaking to such as are his Elect he strongly insinuateth thereby That he is by Grace likewise the Father of their Spirits in a peculiar manner And truly that speech of our Saviour at his death confirms it Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit It was not barely as a Father of his Spirit by creation as you all know but by everlasting Love and so in that respect also in a peculiar manner the Father of his Spirit and therefore as to a Father he commends his separate Spirit unto him And this he did although he was to rise again in less than three whole dayes space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of God's being a Father of Spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto Men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerly the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as Children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a Father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that Word and live this Life is well interpreted by ver 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus That if he would have them be subject unto God in holiness as upon that relation as unto the Father of Spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one special aim of the Promise is answerable and hath this Eye That God as a Father of their Spirits will therefore take care of their Spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their Spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this Life on them and truly when is it more proper for him to shew himself as a Father than when their Souls after their subjection to him in Holiness here accomplished and when that as naked Spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his Presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashered out of this World and come stript and naked of all but Holiness unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Father's Blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no Children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as Spirits who as Sons have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the Demonstration of this Point than all the former The Text says He that wrought us for this is God I add he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of Spirits in common and yet withal a Father of their Spirits out of special Love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the Spirits of all Flesh that is of Man Numb 16. 22. Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by Grace And these two Relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all Men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all Men So in common answerably he is your God and your Father by special Grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you find yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how far he is a God of the one so far a Father also extendeth in the other And look how far that he is our God so far reacheth also that he is our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will add further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide Glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his Sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God