Πνευματολογια· A TREATISE Of the Soul of Man WHEREIN The Divine Original excellent and immortal Nature of the Soul are opened its Love and Inclination to the Body with the necessity of its separation from it considered and improved The Existence Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after death asserted discussed and variously applyed Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls both Philosophical and Theological stated and determined The Invaluable preciousness of humane Souls and the various Artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy them discovered And the great Duty and interest of all men seasonably and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father Son and Spirit for the Salvation of their Souls argued and pressed By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Iesus Christ late of Dartmouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylides Quid de Turcis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisque omnibus nunc temporis Barbaris Nationibus dicâm Nemo tam Barbarus aut impius est qui non sentiat post mortem superesse loca in quibus animae aut pro malefactis puâ—iantur aut coronentur deliciisque perfruantur pro benefactis Zanch. de Animae immortalitate p. 653. London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1685. To the much honoured his dear Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell and Mr. Edward Crispe of London Merchants and the rest of my worthy Friends in London Ratcliffe Shadwell and Lymehouse Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends AMong all the Creatures in this lower World none deserves to be stiled great Nihil interra magnum praeter hominem nihil in homine praeter mentem Favorin Eâ—coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juvenal Nulla scientia melior illa qua homo novit scripsum relinque ergo caetera teipsum discute per te curre in te confiste à te incipiat cogitatio tua in te finiatur but Man and in Man nothing is found worthy of that Epithet but his Soul The study and knowledge of the Soul was therefore always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time All Ages have magnified these two words know thy self as an Oracle descending from Heaven No knowledge saith Bernard is better than that whereby we know our selves leave other matters therefore and search thy self run through thy self make a stand in thy self let thy thoughts as it were circulate begin and end in thy self Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things thy self being neglected The study and knowledge of Iesus Christ must still be allow'd to be most excellent and necessary But yet the Worth of Necessity of Christ is unknown to Men till the value wants and dangers of their own Souls be first discovered to them The disaffectedness and aversation of men to the study of their own Souls is the more to be admired not only because of the weight and necessity of it but the alluring pleasure and sweetness that is found therein What * Quid jucundius quam scire quid simus quid fuerimus quid â—rimus cum his etiam divina atque suprema illa post obitum Mundique vicissitudines Cardan speaks is experimentally felt by many that scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the Soul of man than to know what he is what he may and shall be and what those Divine and Supream things are which he is to enjoy after death and the Vicissitudes of this present World For we are Creatures conscious to our selves of an immortal Nature and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh and is therefore ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of and designations for a better life than that it now lives in the Body and that we shall not cease to bee when we cease to breathe And certainly my Friends Discourses of the Soul and its immortality of Heaven and of Hell the next and only receptacles of unbodied Spirits were never more seasonable and necessary than in this Atheistical age of the World wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridicul'd and hissed out of the company of many As if those old condemned Hereticks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the Soul as well as Body had been again revived in our days And as the Atheism of some so the tepidity and unconcerned carelessness of the most needs and calls for such potent Remedies as Discourses of this kind do plentifully afford I dare appeal to your charitable Judgments whether the Conversations and Discourses of the Many do indeed look like a serious pursuit of Heaven and a flight from Hell Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent Subject and many earnest desires I have had as I believe all thinking persons must needs have to know what I shall be when I breathe not But when I had engaged my Meditations about it two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein Namely I. The difficulty of the Subject I had chosen And II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it I. As for the Subject such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature and such the knotty Controversies in which it is involv'd that it much better deserves that inscription than Minerva's Temple at Saum did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never did any Mortal reveal me plainly Animam praesentem mentis acie vix aut ne vix quidem assequimur sed qualis sit futura quomodo indagabimus Laboranthic maxima ingenia caligo conatus etiam generosos non rarò eludit Jos. Stern de Morte cap. 20. It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own Souls now in the state of composition and what then can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of Separation The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise even the greatest Witts and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts Many great Scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery have laboured in this field usque ad sudorem pallorem even to sweat and paleness and done little more but intangle themselves and the Subject more than before This cannot but discourage new attempts And yet without some knowledge of the hability and subjective capacity of our Souls to enjoy the good of the World to come even in a state of absence from the Body a principal relief must be cut off from them under the great and manifold tryals they are to encounter in this evil World As for my self I assure you I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this Burthen and have often enough since I undertook it of that
bountiful â—enefactor from whom it hath received all and every mercy it ever had or hath to violate his laws slight his Soveraignty despise his goodness contemn his threatnings pierce his very heart with grief darken the glory of all his Attributes confederate with Satan his â—alicious enemy and strike as far as a creature can strike â—â— his very Being for in a sense Omne peâ—catum est Deicidium every sin strikes at the life and very existence of God Blush O Heavens at this and be ye horribly afraid O cursed sin the evil of all evils which no Epithere can match no name worse than its own can be invented sinful sin This is as if some venemous branch should drop poyson upon the root that bears it Love and gratitude to Benefactors is an indelible principle ingraven by nature upon the hearts of all men It teacheth children to love and honour their Parents who yet are but meeâ— instruments of their Beings O how just must their perdition be who casting off the very bonds of nature turn again with emnity against that God in whom they both live and move and have their Being O think and think again on what an holy * Mr. Bâ—â—rouâ—â—s excâ—llency of the Soul of Man p. 232. Man once said What a sad charge will this be against many a man at the great day when God shall say Hadst thou been made a Dog I never had had so much dishonour as I have had 'T is pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made from every pile of grass in the field or stone in the street much more that he should not have glory from a Soul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands Surely 't is better for us our Souls had still remained only in the number of possible Beings and had never had an actual existence in the second rank of Beings but a very little lower than the Angels than that we should still be dishonouring God by them O that he should be put to levy his glory from us passively that it should be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar from whom God had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field than when he sat on the Throne In like manner his glory will rise passively from us when driven out among Devils and not actively and voluntarily as from the Saints Inference V. IF God create and inspire the reasonable â—â—ul immediately this should instruct and incise all Christian Parents to pray earnestly for their Children not only when they are born into the world but when they are first conceived in the Womb. It is of great concernment both to us and our Children not only to receive them from the womb with bodies perfectly and comely fashioned but also with such Souls inspired into them whereby they may glorifie God to all Eternity 'T is natural to Parents to desire to have their children full and perfect in all their bodily members and it would be a grievous affliction to see them come into the world defective monstrous and mis-shapen births should a Leg an Arm an Eye be wanting such a defect would make their lives miserable and the Parents uncomfortable But how few are concerned with what Souls they are born into the world Good God! saith * 〈…〉 quà m paucoâ— reâ—erias qui tam 〈◊〉 quomodo pâ—è honestè 〈…〉 quà m câ—rant ut amplam relinquant 〈◊〉 haereditatem quâ post 〈◊〉 iâ—lorâ—â— splendidè otâ—â—se delâ—â—ientur Muâ—â— in 8 Gen. Musculus how few shall we find who are equally sollicitous to have such children as may live piously and honestly as they are to leave them Inheritances upon which they may live splendidly and bravely It pleaseth us to see our own Image stampt upon their bodies but O! how few pray even whilst they are in the womb that their Souls may in due time bear the image of the heavenly and not animate and use the members of their bodies as weapons of unrighteousness against the God that formed them Certainly except they be quickned with such Souls as may in this world be united with Christ better had it been for them that they had perished in the Womb whilst they were pure Embryoes and had never come into the number and account of Men and Women for such Embryoes go for nothing in the world having only the Rudiments and rough draughts of bodies never animated and informed by a reasonable Soul Iob 3.11 12. But as soon as such a Soul enters into them though for never so little a time it entails Eternity upon them We also know that as soon as ever God breathes or infuses their Souls into them sin presently enters and death by sin and that by us as the next Instruments of conveying it to them Which should have the efficacy of a mighty Argument with us to lay our prayers and tears for mercy in the very foundation of that union Think on this particularly you that are Mothers of children when you find the fruit of the Womb quickned within you that you then bear a creature within you of more value than all this visible world a creature upon whom from that very moment an eternity of happiness or misery is entailed and therefore it concerns you to travel as in pain for their souls before you feel the sorrows and pangs of travel for their bodies O! what a pity is it that a part of your selves should eternally perish That so rare and excellent a creature as that you bear should be cast away for ever for want of a new Creation superadded to that it hath already O! let your cries and prayers for them anticipate your kisses and embraces of them If you be faithful and successful herein then happy is the Womb that bears them if not happy had it been for them that the knees had prevented them and the breasts they have sucked O! you cannot begin your suits for mercy too early for them nor continue them too long though your prayers measure all the time betwixt their Conception and their Death IV A Vital Substance Inference VI. MOreover if God have created our Souls vital Substances to animate and act those bodies How indispensably necessary is it that a principle of spiritual life do quicken and govern that Soul which quickens and governs our bodies and all the members of them Otherwise though in a natural sense we have living souls yet they are dead whilst they live The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.45 46. compares the animal life we live by the union of our souls and bodies with the spiritual life we live by the union of our souls with Jesus Christ. And so it is written viz. in my Text The first Man Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning spirit He opposes the animal to the spiritual life and the two Adams from whom they come And shews in both
his own in this case Isai. 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build to me and where is the place of my rest For all these things have mine hands made and all these things have been saith the Lord but unto this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word q. d. Think not to please me with magnificent Temples and adorned Altars if I had pleasure in such things Heaven is a more glorious Throne than any you can build me and yet I have more delight in a poor contrite spirit that trembles with an holy awe and reverence at my word than I have in Heaven or Earth or all the works of my hands in either O if there had been more trembling at his word there had not been such trembling as now there is under fears of the loss and removal of it Some can superstitiously reverence and kiss the sacred dust of the sanctuary as they call it and express a great deal of zeal for the externals of religion but little consider how small the interest of these things is in Religion and how little God looks at or regards them Inference IX HOw much are the spirits of men sunk by sin below the dignity and excellency of their Nature Our Souls are Spirits by nature yet have they naturally no delight in things spiritual They decline that which is homogeneal and suitable to Spirits and rellish nothing but what is carnal and unsuitable to them How are its affections inverted and misplaced by sin That noble spiritual Heaven-born creature the Soul whose Element and Centre God alone should be is now fallen into a deep Oblivion both of God and it self and wholly spends its strength in the pursuit of sensual and earthly enjoyments and becomes a meer drudge and slave to the body Carnal things now measure out and govern its delights and hopes its fears and sorrows O how unseemly is it to bâ—â—â—ld such an high-born spirit lackying up and down the Woâ—â—d in the service of the perishing flesh Their heart saith the Prophet goeth after their Covetousness Ezek. 33.31 as a Servant at the beck or nod of his Master O! how many are there to be found in every place who melt down the precious affections and strength of their Souls in sensitive brutish Pleasures and Delights Iames 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasures upon Earth as the Fish in the Water or rather as the Eel in the Mud never once lifting up a thought or desire to the spiritual and eternal pleasures that are at Gods right hand Our Creation did not set us so low we are made capable of better and higher things God did not inspire such a noble excellent spiritual Soul into us meerly to salt our bodies or carry them up and down this world for a few years to gaze at the vanities of it It was a great saying of an Heathen * Maior sum ad majora natus quam â—t carporis â—ti sim mancipium Seneca I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a slave to my body We have a spirit about us that might better understand its Original and know it is so base a Being as its daily imployments speak it to be The Lord raise our apprehensions to a due value of the dignity of our own Souls that we may turn from these sordid imployments with a generous disdain and set our affections on what is agreeable to and worthy of an high-born spirit Inference X. VII The Soul an immortal Substance IS the Soul of Man a Vital Spiritual and immortal Substance Then it is no wonder that we find the resentments and impressions of the world to come naturally ingraven upon the Souls of men all the world over These impressions and sentiments of another life after this do as naturally and necessarily spring out of an immortal Nature as branches spring out of the body of a Tree or feathers out of the body of a Bird. So fairly and firmly are the characters and impressions of the life to come sealed upon the immortal spirits of all men that no man can offer violence to this truth but he must also do violence to his own Soul and unman himself by the denial of it Who feels not a cheariness to spring from his absolving and an horrour from his accusing Conscience Neither of which could rise from any other prinple than this We arâ— Beings conscious to our selves of a future State and that our Souls do not vanish when our breath doth That we cease not to be when we cease to breathe And this is common to the most Barbarous and Salvage Heathens They shew saith the Apostle the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing them witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another By the work of the Law understand the summ and substance of the Ten Commandments comprizing the duties to be done and the sins to be avoided This work of the Law is said to be written upon the Hearts of the Gentiles who had no external written Law upon their hearts it was written though many of them gave themselves over to all uncleanness and they shewed or gave evidence and proof that there was such a Law written upon their hearts They shewed it two ways 1. Some of them shewed it in their Temperance Righteousness and moral honesty wherein they excelled many of us who have far greater Advantages and Obligations 2. In the efficacy of their Consciences which as it clear'd and comforâ—ed them for things well done so it witnessed against them yea judg'd and condemned them for things ill done And these evidences of a Law written on the heart are to be found where-ever men are to be found Their ignorance and barbarity cannot stifle these sentiments and impressions of a future State and a just Tribunal to which all must come And the universality of it plainly evinces that it springs not out of Education but the very nature of an immortal Soul Let none say that these universal impressions are but the effects of an universal Tradition which hath been time out of mind spread among the Nations of the World For as no such universal Tradition can be proved so if it could the very propension that is found in the minds of all men living to embrace and close with the proposals of a life to come will evince the agreeableness of them to the nature of an immortal Soul Yea the natural closing of the Soul with these Proposals will amount to an evidence of the reality and existence of thosâ— invisible things For as the natural senses and their Organs prove that there are colours sounds savours and juices as well as or rather because there are Eyes Ears c. naturally fitted to close with and receive them so it
a very short period of time when those few years are past then I must go to my long home my everlasting abode never more to return to this world The way whence I shall not return elsewhere called the way of all flesh Iosh. 23.15 and the way of all the earth 1 King 2.2 Eccles. 8.8 There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that War By Spirit understand the natural Spirit or breath of life which as I shewed before connects or tyes the Soul and Body together this Spirit no man can retain in the day of death we can as one speaks as well stop the Chariot of the Sun when posting to night and chase away the shadows of the evening Mortem inquit Seâ—eca nulla diligentia evitat nulla soelicitas domat nulla potentia vincit as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us A man may escape the Wars by pleading priviledge of years or weakness of Body or the Kings protection or by sending another in his room but in this War the press is so strict that it admits no dispensation young or old weak or strong willing or unwilling all 's one into the field we must go and look that last and most dreadful Enemy in the face 'T is in vain to think of sending another in our room for no man dyeth by Proxy or to think of compounding with death as those self-deluding Fools did Isai. 28.15 Who thought they had been discharged of the debt by seeing the Sergeant no no there is no discharge in that War Nihil prodest ora concludere vitam fugientem retinere saith Hierom on that Text Let us shut our mouths never so close struggle against death never so hard there is no more retaining the Spirit than a woman can retain the fruit of her Womb when the full time of her deliverance is come Suppose a man were sitting upon a Throne of Majesty surrounded with armed Guards or in the midst of a Colledge of expert and learned Physicians death will pass all these Guards to deliver thee the fatal message neither can Art help thee when Nature it self gives thee up The Law of Mortality binds all good and bad young and old the most useful and desirable Saints whom the World can worst spare as well as useless and undesireable sinners Rom. 8.10 and if Christ or though Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin Peter himself must put off his Tabernacle for they are but Tabernacles frail and moveable frames not built for continuance these will drop off from our Souls as the Shell falls of from the Bird in the Nest be our earthly Tabernacles never so strong or pleasant (2) The speediness of death The Scriptures borrow Metaphors from all the Elements to this purpose we must depose them and that shortly our lease in them will expire quickly we have but a short term Iames 4.14 Like a thin mist in the morning which the Sun presently dissipates this is a Metaphor chosen from the Air You have one from the Land where the swift Post runs Iob 9.25 So doth our life from Stage to Stage till its journey be finished and a third from the Waters there Sail the swift Ships Iob 9.26 which weighing Anchor and putting into the Sea continually lessen the Land till at last they have quite lost sight of it from the Fire Psal. 58.4 The lives of men are as soon extinct as a blaze made with dry thorns which is almost as soon out as in Thus you see how the Spirit of God hath borrowed Metaphors from all the Elements of Nature to shadow forth the brevity and frailty of that life we now live in these Tabernacles So that we may say 〈◊〉 one did before us Nescio an dicenda sit vita mortalis an vitalis mors I know not which to call it a mortal life or a living death The continuance of these our Tabernacles or Bodies is short whether we consider them absolutely or comparatively I. Absolutely if they should stand seventy or eighty years which is the longest duration Psal. 90.10 How soon will that time run out what are years that are past but as a dream that is vanished or as the waters that are past away It is in fluxu continuo there is no stopping its swift course or calling back a moment that is past Death set out in its journey towards us the same hour we were born and how near is it come this day to many of us it hath us in chase and will quickly fetch us up and overtake us but few stand so long as the utmost date II. Comparatively let us compare our time in these Tabernacles 1 either with Eternity or with him who inhabits it and it shrinks up into nothing Psal. 39.5 Mine age is nothing unto thee So vast is the disproportion that it seems not only little but nothing at all Or 2 with the Duration of the Bodies of men in the first Ages of the World when they lived many hundred years in these fleshly Tabernacles The length of their life was the benefit of the World because Religion was then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing handed down from Father to Son but certainly it would be no benefit to us that are in Christ to be so long suspended the fruition of God in the everlasting Rest. The Grounds and Reasons of this Necessity that lies upon all to put off their earthly Tabernacles so soon are 1. The Law of God or his Appointment 2. The Providence of God ordering it suitably to this Appointment 1. The Law or Appointment of God which came in force immediately upon the Fall Genes 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye And accordingly it took place upon all mankind immediately upon the first Transgression Rom. 5.12 Death entred by sinâ—â— The threatning not his immediate actual personal death in the day that he should eat but a state of Mortality to commence from that time to him and his posterity hence it s said Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to die 2. The Providence of God ordering and framing the Body of man suitably to this his Appointment Quotidie moâ—imur quotidie enim demitur aliquâ— pars vita tunc quoque cum crescimus vitâ— decrescit Iâ—fantiam amisimus deinde Adolescentiâ—m usque ad besternam quicquid transit temporis perit a frail weak Creature having the seeds of death in his Constitution Thousands of Diseases and Infirmities are bred in his Nature and the smallest pore in his Body is a door large enough to let in death Hence his Body is compared to a piece of cloth which Moths have fretted Psal. 39.11 it 's become a seary rotten thing which cannot long hang together And indeed it is a wonder it continues so long as it doth
of God a burthen to themselves Iob 7.20 21. Yea under these burthens they would sink did not the Lord sustain them Psal. 55.22 But God will put a speedy and final end to all these things when you put off this Tabernacle you put off with it all those burdens inward and outward The Soul presently feels a great load off its shoulders It shall never groan more God shall thenceforth wipe away all tears from their eyes For why are those burdens now permitted and imposed by the Lord upon you but 1 To prevent sin Hosea 2.6 They are your clogs to keep you from straying 2 To purge out sin Isaâ— 27.9 3 To make you long more for Heaven and the rest to come But all these ends are accomplished in that day you put off your Tabernacles for then sin is gone and rest is come Inference VI. MUst you shortly put off those Tabernacles then spare them not whilst you have them but imploy them for God with all diligence Shortly they shall be useless to you yea meat for Worms now they may â—e serviceable and their Service is their honour Ambrose said of Valentinian No man was ever such a Serâ—ant to hiâ— Master as Valâ—â—tinan's Body was to his Soul you received them not for such low ends as you imploy them for See 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your Souls and Bodies which are his You expect to have them glorious Bodies one day Oh then let them be serviceable Bodies now Be not fond of them to that degree many are who chuse rather to have them eaten out with rust than worn out with service It is your present honour to be active and will be your singular comfort another day What greater comfort when you come to put them off at death than this that you have imployed them faithfully for God Inference VII LOok beyond this embodyed state and learn to live now as you hope to live shortly Begin to be what you expect to be You know the time is at hand that you shall live above all bodily concernments and imployments the Soul shall be a drudge to the Body no more You shall be as the Angels Matth. 22.30 not marrying nor given in Marriage which is Synecdochically put for all Carnal Imployments and Enjoyments eat no more drink no more sleep no more buy and sell no more Now suit your selves as much as your State and the Duties of Religion will suffer you to that State before-hand The summ of what I aim at is in 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Be in all your Relations as if you had none Look on those things as if already they were not which shortly must be none of yours and both acquaint and accustome your thoughts to the life of separation from the Body which you must shortly live which brings me home to the next point viz. The Condition of Humane Souls in the State of Separation TEXT Heb. 12.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to the Spirits of just Men made perfect THE particular scope of this context falls in with the general design of the whole Gospel which is to perswade men to a life of Holiness The matter of the exhortation is most weighty and the Arguments inforcing it most powerful he doth not talk but dispute he doth not say but prove that greater and more powerful engagements unto holiness lye upon those who live under the Gospel than upon the people who lived under the Law And thus the Argument lies in this Context If God at the delivering of the Law upon Mount Sinai strictly enjoyned and required so great Purity and Holiness in that people Exod. 19.10 signified by the Ceremonies of two days preparation the washing of their cloaths abstinence from conjugal society c. much more doth he require and expect it in us who are come under a much more excellent and Heavenly dispensation than theirs was To make good the sequel he compares the legal and the evangelical Dispensations in many particulars verse 18 19 20 21 22 23. giving the Gospel the preference throughout the whole Collation In summ the priviledges of the New Testament-Believers are here stated both negatively and positively 1. Negatively by shewing what we are exempted from 2. Positively shewing what we are come unto First Negatively What we are exempted or freed from verse 18 19 20 21. We are not come unto the Mount that might be touched c. The summ of all is this that the promulgation of the Law was accompanied with amazing dread and terror For after Moses by command from God had sanctified the Mount and set Rails about it that neither Priest nor People Man nor Beast might touch the very borders of it lest they dye the Lord descended in fire upon the top of the Mountain the third day in the morning with most terrible tokens of Divine Majesty sc. with Thundrings Lightnings dark clouds and the noise of a Trumpet exceeding loud the Mount was covered with smoak as the smoak of a Furnace and flames mounting up unto the midst of Heaven Crebris micat ignibus ather the whole Mountain shaking and trembling exceedingly out of this horrid Tempest the awful voice of God was heard all the people in the Camp trembling yea and Moses himself quaking for fear This was the manner of the Laws Promulgation but to such a terrible Dispensation as this we are not come which is the negative part of our priviledge Secondly He opens the positive priviledges to which we are come 1 Ye are come saith he to mount Sion not the Earthly but the Spiritual Sion Mount Sion was the place celebrated above all the World for the Worship of God Psal. 87.7 All my springs saith God are in thee There was the Temple the Ark of the Covenant the glory of the Lord dwelling between the Cherubims The Priests that attended the service of God had their residence there as the Angels have in Heaven Thither the Tribes went up from all quarters of Iudea Psal. 84. as the children of God now do to Heaven from all Quarters of the World Iudea was the best Kingdom in the World Ierusalem the best City in that Kingdom and Sion the most glorious place in that City Here Christ taught his heavenly Doctrine near to it he finished his glorious work of Redemption Hence the everlasting Gospel went forth into all the world and on these considerations it s put to signifie the Gospel-Church or State in this place and is therefore called the heavenly Ierusalem in the following words We do not come to the literal Sion nor to the earthly Ierusalem but to the Gospel Church or State which may be called an Heaven upon earth compared with that literal Ierusalem 2 Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels Gr. to myriads of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hellenistae dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine alio additamento ad significandam innumeram multitudinem Grot. a myriad is ten thousand
but myriads in the plural number and set down indefinitely too may note many millions of Angels and therefore we fitly tender it to an innumerable company of Angels They had the ministry of Angels as well as we thousands of them ministred to the Lord in the dispensation of the Law at Sinai Psal. 68.17 But this notwithstanding we are come to a much clearer knowledge both of their present Ministry for us on earth Heb. 1.14 and of our fellowship and equality with them in Heaven Luke 20.36 3 Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written or enrolled in Heaven This also greatly commends and amplifies the priviledges of New Testament-Believers the Church of God in former ages was circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small Kingdom which was as a garden inclosed out of a waste wilderness but now by the calling in of the Gentiles the Church is extended far and wide Eph. 3.5 6. It is become a great Assembly comprizing the Believers of all Nations under Heaven and so speaking of them collectively it is the general convention or Assembly which is also dignified and ennobled by two illustrious characters viz. 1 that it is the Church of the first-born i. e. consisting of Members dignified and priviledged above others Primogeniti Israelitarum scripti crant in matricula terrestri hi vero in albo coelesti as the first-born among the Israelites did excel their younger Brethreâ— 2 That their names are written in Heaven i. e. registred or enrolled in Gods book as Children and Heirs of the Heavenly inheritance as the first-born in Israel were registred in order to the Priesthood Num 3.40 41. 4 Ye are come to God the Iudge of all But why to God the Judge this seems to spoil the harmony and jar with the other parts of the discourse No no they are come to God as a righteous Judge who as such will pardon them 1 Iohn 1.9 crown them 2 Tim. 4.8 and avenge them on all their oppressing and persecuting Enemies 1 Thes. 1.5 6 7. 5 And to the Spirits of just men made perfect A most glorious priviledge indeed in which we are distinctly to consider 1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship 2. The way and manner of our association with them 1. The Quality of those with whom we are associated or to whom we are said to be come and they are described by three characters viz. 1 1 Spirits of Men. viz. 2 Spirits of just Men. viz. 3 Spirits of just Men perfected or consummated 1 They are called Spirits that is immaterial substances strictly opposed to Bodies which are no way the objects of our exteriour Senses neither visible to the eye nor sensible to the touch which were called properly Souls whilst they animated Bodies in this lower World but now being loosed and separated from them by death and existing alone in the World above they are properly and strictly stiled Spirits 3 They are the Spirits of just Men. Man may be termed just two ways 1 by a full discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all his sins and so believers are just men even whilst they live on Earth groaning under other imperfections Acts 13.39 or 2 by a total freedom from the pollution of any sin And though in this sence there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.22 yet even in this sense Adam was just before the Fall Eccles. 7.29 according to his original constitution and all believers are so in their glorified condition all sin being perfectly purged out of them and its existence utterly destroyed in them On which account 3 They are called the Spirits of just men made perfect or consummate The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely but synecdochically they are not perfect in every respect for one part of these just Men lies rotting in the grave but they are perfected for so much as concerns their Spirit though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour yet their Spirits being once loosed from the Body and freed radically and perfectly from sin are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God which is the culminating point as I may call it higher than which the Spirit of man aspires not and attaining to this it is for so much as concerns it self made perfect Even as a Body at last lodg'd in its centre gravitates no more but is at perfect rest so it is with the Spirit of man come home to God in glory 't is now consummate no more need to be done to make it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made which is the first thing to be considered viz the Quality of those with whom we are associated 2. The second follows namely the way and manner of our association with these blessed Spirits of just Men noted iâ— this expression we are come He saith not we shall come hereafter when the Resurrection hath restored our Bodies or after the general Judgment but we are come to these Spirits of just Men. The meaning whereof we may take up in these three particulars 1 We that live under the Gospel-light are come to a clearer apprehension sight and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate of the Souls of the righteous after death than ever they had or ordinarily could have who lived under the Types and shadows of the Law Eph. 3.4 5. And so we are come to them in respect of clearer apprehension 2 We are come to those blessed Spirits in our Representative Christ who hath carried our nature into the very midst of them and whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight By Christ who is entred into that holy place where these Spirits of just Men live we are come into a near relation with them For he being the common head both to them in Heaven and to us on Earth we and they consequently make but one Body or society Eph. 2.19 whereupon notwithstanding the different and remote Countries they and we live in we are said to sit together with them in Heavenly places Ephes. 3.15 and Ephes. 2.6 3 We are come That is we are as good as come or we are upon the matter come there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath a little space of time which shortens every moment we are come to the very borders of their Country and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us and by this expression we are come he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us and to look upon them as if they already were which is the highest and most comfortable life of Faith we can live on Earth Hence the Note is DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death are immediately perfected in themselves and associated with others alike
perfect in the Kingdom of God THAT the Spirits of just Men at the time of their separation from their Bodies do not utterly fall in their beings nor that they are so prejudiced and wounded by death that they cannot exert their own proper Acts in the absence of the Body hath been already cleared in the foregoing parts of this Treatise and will be more fully cleared from this Text. But the true level and aim of this discourse is at an higher mark viz the far more excellent free and noble life the Souls of the just begin to live immediately after their Bodies are dropt off from them by death at which time they begin to live like themselves a pleasant free and divine life So much at least is included in the Apostle Epithete in my Text Spirits of the just made perfect and suitable thereto are his words in 1 Cor. 13.10.12 When that which is pâ—rfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as I am known These two Adverbs Now and Then distinguish the twofold state of gracious Souls and shew what it is whilst they are confined in the Body and what it shall be from the time of their emancipation and freedom from that clogg of mortality Now we are imperfect but then that which is perfect takes place and that which is imperfect is done away as the imperfect twilight is done away by the opening of the perfect day And it deserves a serious animadversion that this perfect State doth not succeed the imperfect one after a long interval as long as betwixt the dissolution and Resurrection of the Body but the imperfect state of the Soul is immediately done away by the coming of the perfect one The glass is laid by as useless when we come to see face to face and eye to eye The Waters will prove very deep here too deep for any line of mine to fathom there is a cloud always overshadowing the world to come a gloom and haziness upon that state fain we would with our weak and feeble beam of imperfect knowledge penetrate this cloud and dispel this gloom and haziness but cannot we think seriously and close to this great and awful subject but our thoughts cannot pierce through it we re-inforce those thoughts by a salley or thick succession of fresh thoughts and yet all will not do our thoughts return to us either in confusion or without the expected success For alas how little is it that we know or can know of our own Souls now whilst they are embodied much less of their unbodied state The Apostle tells us 1 Cor 2.9 That eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And another Apostle adds it doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 John 3.1 Yet all this is no discouragement to the search and regular enquiry into the future state for though reason cannot penetrate these mysteries yet God hath revealed them to us though not perfectly by his Spirit And though we know not particularly and circumstantially what we shall be yet this we know that we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And it is our priviledge and happiness that we are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect i.e. to a clearer knowledge of that state than was ordinarily attainable by Believers under former dispensations These things premised I will proceed to open my apprehensions of the separate state of the Spirits of just men made perfect in twelve Propositions whereby as by so many steps we may orderly advance as far as safely and warrantably we may into the knowledge of this great Mystery clearing what afterwards shall remain obscure in the solution of several Questions relating to this Subject and then apply the whole in several Uses of this great point and the first Proposition is this PROP. I. THere is a'twofold Separation of the Soul from the Body viz one Mental the other Real Or 1. Intellectual by the mind only 2. Physical by the stroke of death Separatio per intellectum fit cum duo revera conjuncta separatim contipimus Conimbr de Anima p. 595. 1. Of Intellectual or mental Separation I am first to speak in this Proposition and it is nothing else but an act of the understanding or mind conceiving or considering the Soul and Body as separated and parted each from other whilst yet they are united in a personal oneness by the breath of life This mental Separation may and ought to be frequently and seriously made before death make the real and actual Separation and the more frequently and seriously we do it the less of horror and distraction will attend that real and fatal stroke when ever it shall be given For hereby we learn to bear it gradually and by gentle essays to acquaint our shoulders with the burden of it Separation is a word that hath much of horror in the very sound and useth to have much more in the sense and feeling of it else it would not deserve that title Iob 8.14 The King of Terrors or the most terrible of all terribles but acquaintance and familiarity abates that horror and that two ways especially 1. As it is preventive of much guilt 2. As it gains a more inward knowledge of its Nature 1. The serious and fixed thoughts of the parting hour is preventive of much guilt and the greatest part of the horrour of death rises out of the guilt of sin The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Augustine saith Nothing more recals a man from sin Nihil sie revocat à pâ—ccato quam frequens mortis meditatio August than the frequent meditation of death I dare not say it is the strongest of all curbs to keep us back from sin but I am sure it is a very strong one Let a Soul but seriously meditate what a change death will make shortly upon his person and condition and the natural effects of such a meditation Qui considerat qâ—alis eâ—it in morte semper pavidus erit in operatione atque inde in oculis sui Condiâ—oris vivet Nihil quod transit appetit pene mortuum se considerat quia se moriturum non ignorat Greg. Mor. 12. through the blessing of God upon it will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this World which draw men into so much guilt a conscientious fear of sin and an awakened care of duty It was once demanded of a very holy man who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in Prayer and searching his own heart why he so macerated his own Body by such frequent and long continued Duties His answer was O I must dye I must dye Nothing could separate
They looked upon trifles as things of greatest necessity and the most necessary things as meer trifles putting the greatest weight and value upon that which little concerned them and none at all upon their greatest concernment in the whole World Luke 12.21 Secondly The perpetual diversions that the trifles of this World gave them from the main use and end of their time O what a hurry and thick succession of earthly business and encumbrances filled up their days So that they could find no time to go alone and think of the awful and weighty concernments of the World to come Iames 5.5 Thirdly The total waste and expence of the only season of Salvation about these vanished impertinent trifles which is never more to be recovered Eccles. 9 10. Fourthly That these deluding shadows the pleasures of a moment is all they had in exchange for their Souls a goodly price it was valued at Matth. 16.26 Fifthly That by such a life they have not only ruined their own Souls but put their posterity by their education of them in the same course of life into the same path of destruction in which they went to Hell before them Psal. 49.13 Their posterity approve their saying Inference X. HOw rational and commendable is the courage and resolution of those Christians who chuse to bear all the sufferings in this World from the hands of men rather than to defile and wound their consciences with sin and thereby expose their Souls to the wrath of God for ever That which men now call Pride Humour Fancy and Stubbornness will one day appear to be their great wisdom and the excellency of their Spirits It is the tenderness of their Consciences not the pride and stoutness of their stomachs which makes them inflexible to sin they know the terrours of a wounded Conscience and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men than fall by known sin into the hands of an angry God Try them in other matters wherein the glory of God and peace or purity of their Consciences are not concerned and see if you can charge them with stubbornness and singularity It was the excellency of the Spirits of the Primitive Christians that they durst to tell the Emperour to his face when he threatned them with torments Pardon us O Emperour thou threatnest us with a Prison Ignoscâ— Imperator tu carcerem miâ—aris Deus Gehennam but God with Hell Do we call that ingenuity and good Nature which makes the mind foâ—t and tractable to temptations and will rather venture upon guilt than be esteemed singular Salvian tells us of some in his time Mali esse coâ—untur ne viies habiantur who were compelled to be evil lest they should be accounted vile and was that their excellency May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here O in what honour and repute is Christ among Christians when Religion shall make them base and ignoble He that understands what the punishment of sin will be in Hell should endure all things rather than yield to sin on Earth Indeed if you that threaten and tempt others to violate their Consciences could bear the wrath of God for them in Hell it were somewhat but we know there is no suffering by a Proxy there they tremble at the word of God and have felt the burden of guilt and dare not yield to sin though they yield their Estates and Bodies to prevent it Inference XI HOw patiently should we bear the afflictions of this life by which sin is prevented and purged The discipline of our Spirits belongs to God the Father of Spirits he corrects us here that we may not be punished hereafter 1 Cor 11.32 We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World It is better for us to groan under afflictions on Earth than to roar under revenging wrath in Hell Parents who are wise as well as tender had rather hear their children sob and cry under the rod than stand with halters about their necks on the ladder bewailing the destructive indulgence of their Parents Your chastisements when sanctified are preventive of all the misery opened before It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God because you smart under his rod as it would be to accuse your dearest friend of cruelty because he strain'd your arm to snatch you from the fall of an house or wall which he saw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins If we had less affliction we should have more guilt We see how apt we are to break over the hedg and go astray from God with all the clogs of affliction designed for our restraint what should we do if we had no clog at all It is better for you to be whipt to Heaven with all the rods of affliction than coached to Hell with all the pleasures of the World Christian thy God sees if thou do not that all these troubles are few enough to save thee from sin and Hell Thy corruptions require all these rods and all little enough If need be ye are in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 If there be need for it thy dearest comforts on Earth shall die that thy Soul may live but if thy mortification to them render their removal needless thou and they shall live together 'T is better be preserved in brine than rot in Honey Sanctified afflictions working under the efficacy of the blood of Christ are the safest way to our Souls Inference XII HOw doleful a change doth the death of wicked men make upon them from Palaces on Earth to the Prison of Hell No sooner is the Soul of a wicked man stept out of his own door at death but the Serjeants of Hell are immediatly upon it serving the dreadful summons on the Law-condemned wretch This arrest terrifies it more than the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall did him Dan. 5.5 How are all a mans apprehensions changed in a moment Out of what a deep sleep are most and out of what a pleasant dream of Heaven are some awaked and startled at death by the dreadful arrest and summons of God to condemnation How quickly would all a sinners mirth be dampt and turned into houlings in this World if Conscience were but throughly awakened It is but for God to change our apprehensions now and it would be done in a moment but the eyes of most mens Souls are not opened till death hath shut their bodily eyes and then how suddain and how sad a change is made in one day O think what it is to pass from all the pleasures and delights of this World into the torments and miseries of that World from a pleasant Habitation into an infernal Prison from the depth of security to the extremity of desperation from the arms and bosoms of dearest Friends and Relations to the Society of damned Spirits Lord what a change is here Had a gracious change been made upon their hearts by grace no such doleful change
grave and necessary Caution of the Poet Sumite materiam vestris qui scribitis â—quam viribus versate diù quid ferre recusent quid valeant humeri Horace to wield and poise the burden as Porters use to do before I undertook it Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius as some may do me for undertaking the Controversie of that Age because saith he Non habet satis humerorum his shoulders are too weak for it And yet I know mens labours prosper not according to the art and elegancy of the composure but according to the divine blessing which pleaseth to accompany them Ruffinus tells us of a learned Philosopher at the Council of Nice who stoutly defended his Thesis against the greatest Witts and Scholars there and yet was at last fairly vanquished by a man of no extraordinary parts of which Conquest the Philosopher gave this candid and ingenuous account Against words said he I opposed words and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of speaking But when instead of words power came out of the mouth of the Speaker words could no longer withstand truth nor man oppose the power of God O that my weak endeavours might prosper under the like influence of the Spirit upon the hearts of them that shall read this inartificial but well-meant Discourse I am little concerned about the Contempts and Censures of fastidious Readers I have resolved to say nothing that exceeds Sobriety nor to provoke any man except my dissent from his unproved Dictates must be his provocation Perhaps there are some doubts and difficulties relating to this Subject which will never be fully solved till we come to Heaven For Man by the Fall being less than himself doth not understand himself nor will ever perfectly do so until he be fully restored to himself which will not be whilst he dwells in a Body of sin and death And yet it is to me past doubt that this as well as other Subjects might have been much more cleared than it is if instead of the proud Contendings of masterly Wits for Victory all had humbly and peaceably applied themselves to the impartial search of truth Truth like an Orient Pearl in the bottom of a River would have discovered it self by its native lustre and radiancy had not the feet of Heathen Philosophers cunning Atheists and daring School Divines disturbed and foul'd the stream 2. And as the difficulties of the Subject are many so many have been the interruptions and Avocations I have met with whilst it was under my hand Which I mention for no other end but to procure a more favourable Censure from you if it appear less exact than you expected to find it Such as it is I do with much respect and affection tender it to your hands humbly requesting the blessing of the Spirit may accompany it to your hearts If you will but allow your selves to think close to the matter before you I doubt not but you may find somewhat in it apt both to inform your minds and quicken your affections I know you have a multiplicity of business under your hands but yet I hope your great concern makes all others daily to give place and that how clamorous and importunate soever the Affairs of this World be you both can and do find time to sit alone and bethink your selves of a much more important business you have to do My Friends we are Borderers upon Eternity we live upon the Confines of the Spiritual and Immaterial World We must shortly be associated with bodyless Beings and shall have after a few days are past no more concerns for Meat Drink and Sleep buying and selling Habitations and Relations than the Angels of God now have Beside we live here in a State of Tryal Man as Scaliger fitly calls him is Utriusque Mundi nexus one in whom both Worlds do meet his Body participates of the lower his Soul of the upper World Hence it is he finds such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward both Worlds as it were contending for this invaluable prize the precious Soul All Christs Ordinances are instituted and his Officers ordained for no other use or end but the Salvation of Souls Books are valuable according to their Conducibility to this end How rich a Reward of my Labours shall I account it if this Treatise of the Soul may but promote the Sanctification and Salvation of any Readers Soul To your hands I first tender it It becomes your Property not only as a Debt of Justice the fulfilling of a Promise made you long since upon your joynt and earnest desires for the publication of it but as an acknowledgment of the many Favours I have received from you to one of you I stand obliged in the Bond of Relation and under the sense of many Kindnesses beyond whatever such a degree of Relation can be supposed to exact You have here a succinct account of the Nature Faculties and Original of the Soul of Man as also of its infusion into the Body by God without intitling himself to the guilt and sin resulting from that their Union You will also find the breath of your Nostrils to be the Nexus Tie or Bond which holds your Souls and Bodies in a personal Union and that whilst the due Crasis and Temperament of the Body remains and Breath continues your Souls hang as by a weak and slender thread over the state of a vast Eternity in Heaven or in Hell Which will inform you both of the value of your breath and the best way of improving it whilst you enjoy it The Immortality of the Soul is here asserted proved and vindicated from the most considerable Objections so that it will evidently appear to you by this Discourse you do not cease to be when you cease to breathe And seeing they will over-live all Temporal Enjoyments they must necessarily perish as to all their Joys Comforts and Hopes which is all the Death that can be incident to an Immortal Spirit if they be not in the proper season secured and provided of that never-perishing food of Souls God in Christ their Portion for ever Here you will find the Grounds and Reasons of that strong inclination which you all feel them to have to your Bodies and the necessity notwithstanding that of their divorce and separation from their beloved Bodies and that it would manifestly be to their prejudice if it should be otherwise And to overcome the unreasonable Aversations of Believers and bring them to a more becoming chearful submission to the Laws of death whensoever the Writ of Ejection shall be served upon them You will here find a representation of that blessed life comely order and most delightful employment of the incorporeal People inhabiting the City of God wherein beside those sweet Meditations which are proper to feast your hungry affections you will meet with divers unusual though not vain or unuseful Questions stated and resolved which will be a grateful entertainment
of Birds Beasts and Plants indeed any thing rather than their own Souls which are certainly the most excellent Creatures that inhabit this World They know the true value and worth of other things but are not able to estimate the dignity of that high-born Spirit which is within them A Spirit which without the addition of any more natural Faculties or Powers if those it hath be but sanctified and devoted to God is capable of the highest Perfections and Fruitions even compleat Conformity to God and the satisfying Visions of God throughout eternity They Herd themselves with Beasts who are capable of an equality with Angels O what compassionate tears must such a consideration as this draw from the eyes of all that understand the worth of Souls As for me it hath been my sin and is now the matter of my Sorrow that whilst Myriads of Souls of no higher Original than mine are some of them beholding the highest Majesty in Heaven and others giving all diligence to make sure their Salvation on earth I was carried away so many years in the course of this World like a drop with the Current of the Tide wholly forgetting my best self my invaluable Soul whilst I prodigally wasted the stores of my time and thoughts upon Vanities that long since passed away as the waters which are remembred no more * Nec enim pudet Sanctoâ— viros postquam renovata corda fuerint per resipiscentiam lapsus sui dedecoris ad dei gloriam meminisse Nihil nobis decedit quod cedit in illius honorem qui praeteritis peccatis nostris ab inferno nos transfert in Coelum Brightman in Cantic p. 12. It shall be no shame to me to confess this folly since the matter of my Confession shall go to the glory of my God I studied to know many other things but I knew not my self It was with me as with a Servant to whom the Master commits two things viz. The Child and the Child's Clothes the Servant is very careful of the Clothes washes and brushes starches and steels them and keeps them safe and clean but the Child is forgotten and lost My Body which is but the Garment of my Soul I kept and nourished with excessive care but my Soul was long forgotten and had been lost for ever as others daily are had not God rouz'd it by the Convictions of his Spirit out of that deep Oblivion and deadly slumber When the God that formed it out of free grace to the work of his own hands had thus recovered it to a sense of its own worth and danger my next work was to get it united with Christ and thereby secured from wrath to come Which I found to be a work of difficulty to effect if it be yet effected and a work of time to clear though but to the degree of good hope through grace And since the hopes and evidences of Salvation began to spring up in my Soul and settle the state thereof I found these three great words viz. Christ Soul and Eternity to have a far different and more awful sound in my ear than ever they used to have I looked on them from that time as things of greatest certainty and most awful Solemnity These things have lain with some weight upon my thoughts and I have felt at certain seasons a strong inclination to sequester my self from all other Studies and spend my last days and most fixed Meditations upon these three great and weighty Subjects I know the subject matter of my Studies and Enquiries be it never so weighty doth not therefore make my Meditations and Discourses upon it great and weighty Nor am I such a vain Opinionaâ—or as to imagine my Discourses every way suitable to the dignity of such Subjects No no the more I think and study about them the more I discern the indistinctness darkness crudity and confusion of my own conceptions and expressions of such great and transcendent things as those But In magnis voluisse sat est I resolved to do what I could and accordingly some years past I finished and published in two parts the Doctrine of Christ and by the acceptation and success the Lord gave that He hath encouraged me to go on in this Second part of my work how unequal soever my Shoulders are to the burden of it The Nature Original Immortality and Capacity of mine own Soul for the present lodged in and related to this vile Body destinated to Corruption Together with its Existence Imployment Perfection Converse with God and other Spirits both of its own and of a Superiour Rank and Order when it shall as I know it shortly must put off this its Tabernacle These things have a long time been the matters of my limited desires to understand so far as I could see the Pillar of fire God in his Word enlightening my way to the knowledge of them Yea such is the value I have for them that I have given them the next place in my esteem to the knowledge of Iesus Christ and my interest in him God hath formed me as he hath other men a prospecting Creature I feel my self yet uncentred and short of that state of rest and satisfaction to which my Soul in its Natural and Spiritual Capacity hath a Designation I find that I am in a continual motion towards my everlasting abode and the expence of my time and many Infirmities tell me I am not far from it By all which I am strongly prompted to look forward and acquaint my self as much as I can with my next place state and imployment I look with a greedy and inquisitive eye that way Yet would I not be guilty of an unwarrantable Curiosity in searching into unrevealed things how willing soever I am to put up my head by faith into the World above and to know the things which Iesus Christ hath purchased and prepared for me and all the rest that are waiting for his appearance and Kingdom I feel my Curiosity checked and repressed by that Elegant Paronomasia Rom. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In all things I would be wise unto Sobriety I groan under the effects of Adam's itching Ambition to know and would not by repeating his sin increase my own misery Nor yet would I be scared by his Example into the contrary evil of neglecting the means God hath afforded me to know all that I can know of his revealed Will. * Cui â—niâ— veritas comâ—erta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Cui Spiritus â—ccommodatus sine fide Tertul de Anima The helps Philosophy affords in some parts of this Discourse are too great to be despised and too small to be admired I confess I read the Definitions of the Soul given by the Ancient Philosophers with a Compassionate smile When Thales calls it a Nature without Repose Asclepiades an Exercitation of sense Hesiod a thing composed of Earth and Water Parmenides
a thing composed of Earth and Fire Galen saith it is heat Hippocrates a Spirit diffused throughout the Body Plato a Self-moving Substance Aristotle calls it Entelechia that by which the Body is moved If my Opinion should be asked which of all these Definitions I like best I should give the same Answer which Theocritus gave to an ill Poet repeating many of his Verses and asking which he liked best Those said he which you have omitted Or if they must have the Garland as the prize they have shot for let them have it upon the same reason that was once given to him that always shot wide Difficilius est toties non attingere Because it was the greatest difficulty to aim so often at the Mark and never come near it One Word of God gives me more light than a thousand such laborious trifles As Caesar was best able to write his own Commentaries so God only can give the best account of this his own Creature on which he hath impressed his own Image Modern Philosophers assisted by the Divine Oracles must needs come closer to the Mark and give us a far better account of the nature of the Soul Yet I have endeavoured not to cloud this Subject with their Controversies or abstruse Notions remembring what a smart but deserved check Tertullian gives those Qui Platonicum Aristotelicum Christianismum procudunt Christianis Words are but the Servants of Matter I value them as Merchants do their Ships not by the gilded Head and Stern the neatness of their Mould or curious Flags and Streamers but by the soundness of their Bottoms largeness of their Capacity and richness of their Cargoe and loading The quality of this Subject necessitates in many places the use of Scholastick terms which will be obscure to the Vulgar Reader but apt and proper words must not be rejected for their obscurity except plainer words could be found that fit the Subject as well and are as fully expressive of the matter The unnecessary I have avoided and the rest explained as I could The principal fruits I especially aim at both to my own and the Readers Soul are that whilst we contemplate the freedom pleasure and satisfaction of that Spiritual Incorporeal People who dwell in the Region of light and joy and are hereby forming to our selves a true Scriptural Idea of the blessed state of those disembodied Spirits with whom we are to serve and converse in the Temple-worship in Heaven and come more explicitely and distinctly to understand the Constitution Order and Delightful imployment of those our everlasting Associates We may answerably feel the fond and inordinate love of this Animal life subacted and wrought down the frightful Vizard of death drop off and a more pleasing Aspect appear that no upright Soul that shall read these Discourses may henceforth be convuls'd at the name of death but chearfully aspire and with a pleasant expectation wait for the blessed season of its transportation to that blessed Assembly 'T is certainly our ignorance of the life of Heaven that makes us dote as we do upon the present life There is a gloom a thick Mist overspreading the next life and hiding even from the eyes of Believers the glory that is there We send forth our thoughts to penetrate this Cloud but they return to us without the desired success We reinforce them with a Sally of new and more vigorous thoughts but still they come back in confusion and disappointment as to any perfect account they can bring us from thence though the oftner and closer we think the more still we grow up into acquaintance with these excellent things Another benefit I pray for and expect from these labours is that by describing the horrid state of those Souls which go the other way and shewing to the living the dismal condition of Souls departed in their unregenerate state some may be awakened to a seasonable and effectual Consideration of their wretched Condition whilst they yet continue under the means and among the Instruments of their Salvation Whatever the fruit of this Discourse shall be to â—thers I have cause to bless God for the advantages it hath already given me I begin to find more than ever I have done in the separate state of sanctified Souls all that is capable of attracting an intellectual nature and if God will but fix my mind upon this state and cause my pleased thoughts about it to settle into a frame and steddy temper I hope I shall daily more and more depreciate and despise this common way of existence in a Corporeal Prison and when the blessed season of my departure is at hand I shall take a chearful farewel of the greater and lesser Elementary World to which my Soul hath been confined and have an abundant Entrance through the broad gate of Assurance unto the blessed unbodied Inhabitants of the World to come A Synopsis or View of the Soul in the state of Composition in six Particulars in this first Table of Life viz. The Soul of Man is considered in this Treatise two ways First in the state of Composition Secondly In the state of Separation 1. In its general Nature a Substance proved to be so 1. By its Creation Page 11 2. By its single Existence p. 11 3. By its Sâ—â—tentation of the Body p. 12 4. By the subjecting of Habits and Affections in it p. 13 2. In its Essential Properties which are six 1. It is a Vital substance whose life is not from it self but 1. It receives it from God p. 13 2. Communicates it to the Body p. 13 2. An Immortal substance proved by eight Arguments 1. The simplicity of its Nature p. 96 2. The Veracity of God in his promises and threats p. 98 3. The Consent of all Nations p. 100 4. It s everlasting habits which are inseparable p. 103 5. The Peculiar dignity of Man p. 105 6. His desires of Immortality p. 107 7. Its returns after death p. 108 8. The Absurdities clogging the Negative p. 109 3. Endued with Understanding to which belong 1. Thoughts to the Speculative 2. Conscience to the Practical understanding p. 20 4. And a Will which glorieth in 1. It s Liberty p. 23 And 2. It s Dominion both 1. Despotical p. 24 2. Political p. 24 Yet both restrained in some particulars 1. As to the Body p. 25 2. As to the thoughts p. 26 3. As to the Conscience p. 27 5. Affections and Passions where is shewed 1. Their rise in the Soul p. 28 2. Their use to the Soul p. 29 6. It s inclination to the Body which differenceth it from other Spirits p. 29 3. It s Excellent Original about which we have 1. Errors refuted that it was not 1. By Seminal Traduction p. 31 2. By Angelical Procreation p. 32 3. By Coâ—taneous Creation p. 33 2. It s true Original asserted â—y immediate Creation p. 34 3. Objections against this Assertion answered p. 37 â—â— 4. It s Union with the Body
continues its union with the Body It signifies here the rational soul and the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Soul hath a very near affinity with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heavens and indeed there is a nearer affinity betwixt the things viz. Soul and Heaven than there is betwixt the Names The Epithete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Living the Arabick renders a rational Soul and indeed none but a rational deserves the name of a living Soul For all other forms or Souls which are of an earthly extract do both depend on and dye with the matter out of which they were educed But this being of another Nature a spiritual and substantial Being is therefore rightly stiled a living Soul The Chaldee renders it a Speaking Soul And indeed it deserves a remarque that the ability of Speech is conferred on no other Soul but mans Other creatures have apt and excellent Organs Birds can modulate the Air and form it into sweet delicious notes and charming sounds but no creature except man whose soul is of an heavenly nature and extraction can articulate the sound and form it into words by which the notions and sentiments of one Soul are in a noble apt and expeditious manner conveyed to the understanding of another Soul And indeed what should any other creature do with the faculty or power of speech without a principle of Reason to guide and govern it It is sufficient to them that they discern each others meaning by dumb signs much after the manner that we traded at first with the Indians But speech is proper only to the rational or living Soul However we render it a living a rational or a speaking Soul it distingisheth the soul of man from all other Souls 2. We find here the best account that ever was given of the Origin of the Soul of man or whence it came and from whom it derives its Being O what a dust and pudder have the disputes and contests of Philosophers raised about this matter which is cleared in a few words in this Scripture * Sufflavit ad ostendendum animam hominis ab extriâ—seâ—o esse per câ—tationem simulqut creando corpori insulam Poli Synops. in locum God breathed into his Nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living Soul which plainly speaks it to be the immediate effect of Gods creating power Not a result from the matter no no results flow è sinu materiae out of the bosom of matter but this comes ex halitu divino from the inspiration of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh But this is a spirit descending from the Father of spirits God formed it but not out of any praeexistent matter whether Coelestial or Terrestrial much less out of himself as the * The Stoicks saith Simplicius call the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pars vâ—l membrum Dil and Seneca Deum in bumano corpore hospitantem Which comes near to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoicks speak but out of nothing An high-born Creature it is but no particle of the Deity The indivisible and immutable Essence of God is utterly repugnant to such Notions and therefore they speak not strictly and warily enough that are bold to call it a Ray or an Emanation from God A Spirit it is and flows by way of Creation immediately from the Father of Spirits but yet 't is a spirit of another inferiour rank and order 3. We have also the account of the way and manner of its infusion into the body viz. by the same breath of God which gave it its being It is therefore a rational scriptural and justifiable expression of S. Augustine creando infunditur infundendo creatur It is infused in creating and created in infusing Though Dr. Brown * 〈◊〉 Midiâ— Seâ—t â— 6. too slightingly calls it a meer Rhetorical Antimetathesis Some of the Fathers as Iustine Irenaens and Tertullian were of opinion That the Son of God assumed a humane shape at this time in which afterward he often appeared to the Fathers as a Prelude to his true and real incarnation and took Dust or Clay in his hands out of which he formed the body of man according to the pattern of that body in which he appeared And that being done he afterwards by breathing infused the â—oul into it But I rather think it 's an Anthropopathy or usual figure in speech by which the spirit of God stoops to the imbecillity of our understanding's He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Heb. lifes But this plural word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes rather the twofold life of man in this world and in that to come or the several faculties and powers belonging to one and the same soul viz. the intellective sensitive and vegetative Offices thereof than that there are more souls than one essentially differing in one and the same man for that as * Impassibile est in uno homine esse plures animas per essentiam differentes sed una tantum est anima quae vigitativae sensitivae intellâ—ctivae officiis sâ—ngitur Aquin â—a Q. 26. Art 2. Aquinas truly saith is impossible We cannot trace the way of the spirit or tell in what manner it was united with this clod of Earth But it is enough that he who formed it did also unite or marry it to the body This is clear it came not by way of natural resultancy from the body but by way of inspiration from the Lord. Not from the warm bosom of the Matter but from the breath of its Maker 4. Lastly we have here the Nexus Copula tye or band by which it is united with the body of man viz. the breath of his i.e. of mans nostrils It is a most astonishing mysterie to see heaven and earth married together in one person The dust of the ground and an immortal spirit clasping each other with such dear embraces and tender love Such a noble and divine guest to take up its residence within the mudd-walls of flesh and blood Alas how little affinity and yet what dear affection is found betwixt them Now that which so sweetly links these two different natures together and holds them in union is nothing else but the breath of our nostrils as the Text speaks It came in with the breath whilst breath stays with us it cannot go from us and as soon as the breath departs it departs also All the rich Elixirs and Cordials in the world cannot perswade it to stay one minute after the breath is gone One puff of breath will carry away the wisest holiest and most desirable soul that ever dwelt in flesh and blood When our breath is corrupt our days are extinct Job 1â— 1 Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust Psal. 104.29 Out of the Text thus opened arise two doctrinal Propositions which I shall insist upon viz. Doct. I. That the Soul of man is of
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
because there 's nothing in sight that hath a tendency to their deliverance no prepared matter for their Salvation why let them consider who it was that created the Heavens and the Earth yea and their Souls also which are so perplexed with doubts out of nothing the same God that did this can also create Deliverance for his people though there be no praeexistent matter to work it out of Râ—solâ—it Soâ—omon utramque â—ominis partem in suâ— prima principia Ut ergo corpus in terram unde sâ—mptum est resolvâ—t ita etiam si anima ex â—â—ablâ—â—tia câ—lâ—â—ti vel ex anima ut â—lato ait mâ—â—di esset facta in eam resolâ—isset Solomon 〈…〉 simpâ—iciteâ— de ipsa dicit eaâ— reditâ—ram ad Deâ—m qui dedâ—t illam docet eam è nihito in quod resolvi non possâ—t creaâ—am esse Zanch. Add to this that excellent place of Solomon in Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Where he shews us what becomes of Man and how each part of which he consists is bestowed and disposed of after his Dissolution by Death And thus he states it These two constitutive parts of Man are a Soul and a Body These two parts have two distinct Originals The Body as to its material cause is Dust the Soul in its nature is a Spirit and as to its Origin it proceeded from the Father of Spirits 't is his own creature in an immediate way He gave it He gave it the being it hath by Creation and gave it to us i.e. to our bodies by Inspiration Now qualis Genesis talis Analysis When death dissolves the union which is betwixt them each part returns to that from whence it came dust to dust and the Spirit to God that gave it The Body is expressed by its material cause dust the Soul only by its efficient cause as the gift of God because it had no material cause at all nor was made out of any praeexistent matter as the Body was And therefore Solomon here speaks of God as if he had only to do with the Soul leaving the Body to its material and instrumental causes with whom he concurrs by a general influence 'T is God not Man alone or God by Man that hath given us these bodies but 't is not Man but God alone who hath given us these souls He therefore passeth by the Body and speaks of the Soul as the gift of God because that part of Man and that only flows immediately from God and at death returns to him that gave it All these expressions The Father of Spirits the former of the spirit in Man the Giver of the Spirit how agreeable are they to each other and all of them to the point under hand that the Soul flows from God by immediate Creation You see it hath no principle out of which according to the order of nature it did arise as the body had and therefore it hath no principle into which according to the order of nature it can be returned as the body hath but returns to God its efficient cause if reconciled to a Father not only by Creation but Adoption if unreconciled as a creature guilty of unnatural Rebellion against the God that formed it to be judged II. God created and infused it into the body with an inherent inclination and affection to it Anima quae est corporis organici perfectio corpus necessariâ—â— est non est enim forma separata i e. propriè forma est itaque materiam requirit usque adâ—o ut anima à corpore sâ—jâ—â—cta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tamen inclinationem retine â—t suam quam corporis resurrectio coâ—seâ—uitur The nature of the Soul and Body are vastly different there is no affinity or similitude betwixt them but it is in this case as in that of Marriage Two persons of vastly different Educations Constitutions and Inclinations coming under Gods Ordinance into the nearest relation to each other find their affections knit and endeared by their relation to a degree beyond that which results from the union of blood So it is here Whence this affection rises in what acts it is discovered and for what reason implanted will be at large discovered in a distinct branch of the following Discourse to which it is assigned Mean while I find my self concerned to vindicate what hath been here asserted from the Arguments which are urged against the immediate Creation and infusion of the Soul and in defence of the opinion of its Traduction from the Parents To conceal or dissemble these Arguments and Objections Cameronis praelect in Matth. p. 121. would be but a betraying of the truth I have here asserted and give occasion for some jealousie that they are unanswerable To come then to an issue and first It is urged Object 1. that it is manifest in it self and generally yielded that the souls of all other creatures come by generation and therefore its probable that humane souls flow in the same Chanel also There is a specifick difference betwixt rational souls Sol. and the souls of all other creatures and therefore no force at all in the consequence A material form may rise out of matter but a Spiritual rational Being as the Soul of Man is cannot so rise being much more noble and excellent than Matter is What Animal is there in the world out of whose Soul the acts of reason spring and flow as they do out of humane Souls Are they capable of inventing or which is much less of learning the Arts and Sciences Can they correct their senses and demonstrate a Star to be far greater than the whole Earth which to the eye seems no bigger than the rowel of a Spurr Do they foreknow the Positions and Combinations of the Planets and the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon many years before they suffer them And if they cannot perform these acts of reason as it is sure they cannot how much less can they know fear love or delight in God and long for the enjoyment of him These things do plainly evince humane Souls to be of another species and therefore of an higher Original than the souls of Brutes If all have one common nature and Original why are they not all capable of performing the same rational and Religious Acts Object 2. But though it should be granted that the Soul of the first Man was by immediate Creation and Inspiration from God yet it follows not that the souls of all his posterity must be so too God might create him with a power of begeting other souls after his own Image The first tree was created with its seed in it self to propagate its kind and so might the first Man Sol. 1. Trees Animals and such like were not created immediately out of nothing as the Soul of Man was but the Earth was the praeexistent matter out of which they
were produced by the word of Gods blessing and power but mans Soul was immediately breathed into him by God and had no praeexistent matter at all And besides all humane souls being of one species have therefore one and the same Original The Soul of the poorest child is of equal Dignity with the Soul of Adam And if we consult Iob 33.4 we shall find Elihu giving us there the same account and almost in the same words of the Original of his Soul that Moses in my Text gives us of the Original of Adams Soul The Spirit of God hath formed me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life But it is evident Sol. 2. souls spring not from the Parent as one Plant or Animal doth from another For they have their seed in themselves apt and proper to produce their kind but the seed of souls is not to be found in man It is not to be found in his Body for then as was said before a spiritual and nobler Essence must be produced out of a material and baser matter i.e. the matter must give to the Soul that which it hath not in it self Nor is it to be found in his Soul for the Soul being a pure simple and indivisible Being can suffer nothing to be discinded from it towards the production of another Soul A spirit as the Soul is is Substantia simplex impartibilis an uncompounded and indiscerpible or impartible Being Nor can it spring partly from the Body and partly from the Soul as from con-causes for then it should be partly corporeal and partly incorporeal as its causes are So that there is no Matter Seed or principle of Souls found in man and to be sure as Baronius strongly argues * Pateâ— neque producit animam filii ex aliqua re praeâ—â—ilente neque producit eam ex nulla 〈◊〉 praeexistente hâ—c enimâ—est creare eâ—go nullo modo eam producit Baronius dissert secunda de Origine Animae p. 120. he cannot produce a Soul without praeexistent matter for that were to make him Omnipotent and assign a creating power to a creature Besides that which is generable is also corruptible as we see Trees Animals c. which are produced that way to be but the Soul is not corruptible as hath in part been already proved and will more fully in the following Discourse So that Adam's Soul and the Souls of his posterity spring not from each other but all from God by Creation If the Soul be created and infused immediately by God Object 3. either it comes out of his hands pure or impure if pure how comes it to be defiled and tainted with sin If impure how do we free God from being the Author of sin If the question be Sol whether souls be pure or impure as soon as they are united with their bodies the answer is They are impure and tainted as soon as united For the union constitutes a child of Adam and consequently a sinful impure creature But if it respect the condition and state in which God created them I answer with Baronius †Aniâ—â—â—â—strae à Deo creante 〈◊〉 aâ—cipiunt puritatem sâ—u justitiam neque imparitatem propensionem ad malum Seâ— tantâ—m essentiam spiritualem proprieâ—ates ab essentia dimanâ—â—tes Baron exerciâ— p. 103. They are created neither morally pure nor impure they receive neither purity nor impurity from him but only their naked essence and the natural powers and properties flowing therefrom He inspires not any impurity into them for he cannot be the Author of Sin who is the Revenger of it Nor doth he create them in their original purity and rectitude for the sin of Adam lost that and God justly withholds it from his posterity Who wonders saith one Ienkins on Jude Vol. 1. p. 559. to see the Children the Palaces and Gardens of Traitors to droop and decay and the Arms of his House and badge of his nobility to be defaced and reversed That which is abused by man to the dishonour of God may justly be destroyed I add in this case or withheld by God to the detriment of man Adam voluntarily and actually deprived himself and meritoriously deprived all his posterity of that original righteousness and purity in which he was created As an holy God he cannot inspire any impurity and as a just and righteous God he may and doth withhold or create them void and destitute of that holiness and righteousness which was once their Happiness and Glory Object 4. But how come they then to be defiled and tainted with original sin It 's confessed God did not impure them and the body cannot for it being matter cannot act upon a spirit yea of it self it 's a dead lump and cannot act at all Sol. What if this be one of those mysteries reserved for the world to come about which we cannot in this state solve every difficulty that may be moved Must we therefore deny its divine original What if I cannot understand some mysteries â—an sinâ—e the 〈◊〉 bein◠〈…〉 understands noâ— himâ—eâ—â— nor will 〈…〉 restored to himself in glory 〈…〉 p. 33â— or answer some questions about the Hypostatical union of the two natures in the wonderful Person of our Emmanuel must I therefore question whether he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-Man We must remain ignorant of some things about our own souls till we come into the condition of the spirits of just men made perfect Mean time I think it much more our concernment to study how we may get sin out of our souls than to puzzle our brains to find how it came into them But that the Objector may not take this for an handsome slide or go-by to this great Objection I return to it in a few particulars 1. That I think not original sin follows either part singly The Soul say some in the moment of 〈◊〉 creation and infusion by God being united with the Body by the plastick and formative vertue of the parental seed the Parent may be truly said to generate the man though he do not produce the form Because proper generation consists in the union and not the production of parts So that Original sin is not propagated from Body to Body noâ— yet from Soul to Soul but from man to man it comes in neither by the Soul alone nor by the body alone a part from the Soul but upon the union and conjunction of both in one person 'T is the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam and as such only we are capable of being infected with his sin 2. And whereas it is so confidently asserted in the Objection That sin cannot come into the Soul by or from the body because it being matter cannot act upon a Spirit I say this is gratis dictum easily spoken but difficultly proved Cannot the Body act upon or influence the Soul Pray then how comes it to pass that so
I find that God hath answerably endued and furnished it with an Vnderstanding Will and Affections whereby it is capable of being wrought upon by the spirit in the way of Grace and Sanctification in this world in order to the enjoyment of God its chief happiness in the world to come By this its Understanding I am distinguished from and advanced above all other creatures in this World I can apprehend distinguish and judge of all other intelligible Beings By my Understanding I discern truth from falsehood good from evil It shews me what is fit for me to chuse and what to refuse To this faculty or power of Understanding my thoughts and conscience do belong The former to my speculative the latter to my practical Understanding My thoughts are all formed in my mind or Understanding in innumerable multitudes and variety By it I can think of things present or absent visible or invisible of God or my self of this or the world to come To my Understanding also belongs my Conscience a noble Divine and awfull power By which I summon and judge my self as at a solemn Tribunal bind and loose condemn and acquit my self and actions but still with an eye and respect to the judgment of God Hence are my best comforts and worst terrors This Understanding of mine is the director and guide of my Will That is as the Counsellor This as the Prince It freely chuseth and refuseth as my Understanding directs and suggests to it The members of my Body and passions of my Soul are under its Dominion The former are under its absolute command the latter under its suasions and insinuations though not absolutely and always with effect and success And both my Understanding and Will I find to have great influence upon my Affections These Passions and Affections of my Soul are of great use and dignity I find them as manifold as there are considerations of good and evil They are the strong and sensible motions of my Soul according to my apprehensions of good and evil By them my Soul is capable of union with the highest good By love and delight I am capable of enjoying God and resting in him as the Centre of my Soul This noble Understanding Thoughts Conscience Will Passions and Affections are the principal faculties acts and powers of this my high and heaven-born Soul And being thus richly endowed and furnished I find it could never rise out of matter created and infused with an inclination to the Body or come into my Body by way of natural generation the Souls of Brutes that rise that way are destitute of Understanding Reason Conscience and such other excellent faculties and powers as I find in mine own Soul They cannot know or love or delight in God or set their affections on things spiritual invisible and eternal as my Soul is capable to do it was therefore created and infused immediately into this body of mine by the Father of Spirits and that with a strong inclination and tender affection to my flesh without which it would be remiss and careless in performing its several Duties and Offices to it during the time of its abode therein Fearfully and wonderfully therefore am I made and designed for nobler ends and uses than for a few daies to eat and drink and sleep and talk and dye My Soul is of more value than ten thousand Worlds What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul USE FRom the several parts and branches of this Description of the Soul we may gather the choice Fruits which naturally grow upon them in the following Inferences and Deductions of truth and duty For we may say of them all what the Historian doth of Palestine that there is nihil infructuosum nihil sterile No Branch or Shrub is barren or unfruitful Let us then search it Branch by Branch and Inference I. I The Soul a substantial Being Tanta praerogativa manifeâ—â—e testâ—tur ipsius animam penes quam â—atio principatus est non esse materialem caducam sed sâ—perioris cujusdam atque eminentis naturae à conditione reliquarum animarum longeÌ„ distantem Coâ—imb Disp. de Anima separ p. 584. FRom the substantial Nature of the Soul which we have proved to be a Being distinct from the Body and subsisting by it self we are informed That great is the difference betwixt the death of a Man and the death of all other creatures in the world Their souls depend on and perish with their bodies but ours neither result from them nor perish with them My Body is not a Body when my Soul hath forsaken it but my Soul will remain a Soul when this body is crumbled into dust Men may live like beasts a meer sensual life yea in some sense they may dye like beasts a stupid death but in this there will be found a vast difference Death kills both parts of the Beasts destroyes matter and form it toucheth only one part of Man it destroyeth the Body and only dislodgeth the Soul but cannot destroy it In some things Solomon shews the Agreement betwixt our death and theirs Eccles. 3.19 20 21. That which befallâ—th the Sons of Men befalleth the Beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dyeth so dyeth the other all go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again We breathe the same common air they breathe we feel the same pains of death they feel our bodies are resolved into the same earth theirs are O! but in this is the difference The spirit of Man goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast goeth downward to the Earth Their spirits go two ways at their dissolution The one to the Earth the other to God that gave it as he speaks cap. 12.7 Though our Respiration and Expiration have some Agreement yet great is the odd in the consequences of death to the one and other They have no pleasures nor pains besides those they enjoy or feel now but so have we and those eternal and unspeakable too The Soul of Man like the bird in the shell is still growing and ripening in sin or grace Conâ—â—â—tuâ— fuit discretum et reâ—â—itque unde veneraâ— terra deo sâ—m spiritus sa sâ—m Epichâ— till at last the shell breaks by death and the Soul flees away to the place it is prepared for and where it must abide for ever The body which is but it's shell perisheth but the Soul lives when it is fallen away How doth this consideration expose and aggravate the folly and madness of the sensual world who herd themselves with beasts though they have souls so near of kin to Angels The Princes and Nobles of the World abhorr to associate themselves with Mechanicks in their shops or to take a place among the sottish rabble upon an Ale-bench They know and keep their distance and Decorum as still carrying with them a sense of Honour and abhorring to act beneath it But we equalize our high and
respects the excellency of the Spiritual above the Animal life not in point of Priority for that which is natural is before that which is spiritual and it must be so because the natural Soul is the recipient Subject of the spirits quickning and sanctifying operations but in point of dignity and real excellency To how little purpose or rather to what a dismal and miserable purpose are we made living souls except the Lord from Heaven by his quickning power make us spiritual and holy Souls The natural Soul rules and uses the body as * Corpus organo simile est anima Aâ—tificis ratioâ—em obtinet Irenaeus lib. 2. an Artificer doth his Tools and except the Lord renew it by grace Satan will rule that which rules thee and so all thy members will be instruments of inquity to fight against God The actions performed by our bodies are justly reputed and reckon'd by God to the Soul †Omnia quaecunque fecerit corpus sive bonum sive malum animae reputantur Origen in Job because the Soul is the spring of all its motions the fountain of its life and operations What it doth by the body its instrument is as if it were done immediately by it self for without the Soul it can do nothing Inference VII V A Spiritual Substance MOreover from the immaterial and spiritual nature of the Soul we are informed That Communion with God and the enjoyment of him are the true and proper intentions and purposes for which the Soul of Man was created Such a nature as this is not fitted to live upon gross material and perishing things as the body doth The food of every creature is agreeable to its nature one cannot subsist upon that which another doth As we see among the several sorts of Animals what is food to one is none to another In the same Plant there is found a root which is food for Swine a stalk which is food for Sheep a flower which feeds the Bee and a seed on which the Bird lives The Sheep cannot live upon the root as the Swine doth nor the Bird upon the flower as the Bee doth But every one feeds upon the different parts of the Plant which are agreeable to its Nature So it is here our bodies being of an earthly material Nature can live upon things earthly and material as most agreeable to them they can relish and suck out the sweetness of these things but the Soul can find nothing in them suitable to its nature and appetite it must have spiritual food or perish It were therefore too brutish and unworthy of a man that understood the nature of his own Soul to chear it up with the stores of earthly provisions made for it as he did Luk. 12.20 I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Alas the Soul can no more eat drink and be merry with carnal things than the Body can with spiritual and immaterial things It cannot feed upon bread that perisheth it can relish no more in the best and daintiest fare of an earthly growth than in the White of an Egg But bring it to a reconciled God in Christ to the Covenant of Grace and the sweet promises of the Gospel set before it the joyes comforts and earnests of the Spirit and if it be a sanctified renewed Soul it can make a rich Feast upon these These make it a â—east of fat things full of Marrow as it is expressed Isaiah 25.6 Spiritual things are proper food for spiritual and immaterial Souls VI A Spiritual Substance Inference VIII THE spiritual nature of the Soul farther informs us That no acceptable service can be performed to God except the Soul be imployed and ingaged therein The Body hath its part and share in Gods worship as well as the Soul but its part is inconsiderable in comparison Prov. 23.26 My Son give me thy heart i. e. thy Soul thy Spirit The holy and religious acts of the Soul are suitable to the nature of the Object of worship Iohn 4.24 God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth Spirits only can have Communion with that great Spirit They were made spirits for that very end that they might be capable of converse with the Father of Spirits They that worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth That is with inward love fear delight and desires of Soul that is to worship him in our spirits And in Truth i. e. according to the rule of his word which prescribes our duty Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward form The former strikes at Hypocrisie the latter at Superstition and Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our Heads the other the loosness and formality of our Hearts No doubt but the service of the body is due to God and expected by him for both the souls and bodies of his people are bought with a price and therefore he expects we glorifie him with our souls and bodies which are his But the service of the body is not accepted of him otherwise than as it is animated and enlivened by an obedient Soul and both sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Separate from these bodily exercise profits nothing 1 Tim. 4.8 What pleasure can God take in the fruits and evidences of mens Hypocrisie Ezek. 33.31 Holy Paul appeals to God in this matter Rom. 1.9 God is my witness saith he whom I serve with my spirit q. d. I serve God in my spirit and he knows that I do so I dare appeal to him who searches my heart that it is not idle and unconcerned in his service The Lord humble us the best of us for our careless dead gadding and vain spirits even when we are engaged in his solemn services O that we were once so spiritual to follow every excursion from his service with a groan and retract every wandring thought with a deep sigh Alas a cold and wandring spirit in duty is the disease of most good men and the very temper and constitution of all unsanctified ones It is a weighty and excellent expression of the Iews in their Euchologium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b. â— qâ—a re potius praeveniâ—m faciem 〈◊〉 nisi spiritu meo nihil enim est homini praeciosius animâ suà or Prayer-Book Wherewithall shall I come before his face unless it be with my spirit For man hath nothing more precious to present to God than his Soul Indeed it is the best man hath thy heart is thy totum posse 't is all that thou art able to present to him If thou cast thy Soul into thy duty thou dost as the poor Widow did cast in all that thou hast And in such an offering the great God takes more pleasure than in all the external costly pompous ceremonies adorned Temples aâ—â— external devotions in the World It is a remarkable anâ—â—â—tonishing expression of
hath layed out the treasures of his wisdom power and goodness in this noble structure he built it for an habitation for himself to dwell in And indeed such noble rooms as the Understanding Will and Affections are too good for any other to inhabit But sin hath set open the gates of this hollowed Temple and let in the abomination which maketh desolate All the doors of the Soul are barr'd and chain'd up against Christ by ignorance and infidelity he seeks for admission into the Soul which he hath made but findeth none A forcible entry he will not make but expects when the Will shall bring him the keys of the Soul as to its rightful owner So he expresseth himself to us in Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand â—â— the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me his standing at the door denotes his earnest desire and patient waiting in the use of all those means that are introductive of Jesus Christ into the Souls of men His knocking signifies the various essaies he makes by Ordinances and providences externally and the convictions and perswasions of his Spirit and the Consciences of sinners internally every call of the word and every conviction of Conscience is a Call a Knock from Heaven at the door of the Soul for the admission of Christ into it By the souls hearing his voice and opening the door understand its approbation and consent to the motion and offer of God By Christs coming in is meant his uniting that Soul unto himself that opens to him And as his coming in denotes union so his supping with the Soul and the Soul with him denotes his sweet Communion imperfect here compleat and full in Heaven O The admirable condescensions of God to poor sinners The God that formed you with a word and can as easily ruine you with a frown yet waits at the gates of your Souls for admission into them There be many Souls within the sound of this complaint that have kept God out of his own right all their days They have shut out Jesus Christ and delivered up their Souls to Satan if he but knock by a slight Temptation the door is presently opened but Jesus Christ may wait in vain upon them from Sabbath to Sabbath and from Year to Year But the longest day of his patience hath an end And there is a refusal of Grace after which no more tenders of mercy shall ever be made What say you Souls will you at last open the door to Jesus Christ or will you still exclude him If you will open to him he will not come in empty-handed he will bring a feast with him such a feast as you never tasted any thing like it in your lives But if you will not open to him then I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you this day that you have once more barr'd the doors of your Souls against him whose pleasure and power gave them their very Beings Against him who is their Soveraign Lord and rightful Owner and consequently this Act of yours must stop your mouths and deprive you of all Pleas and Apologies when you shall knock hereafter at the door of mercy and God shall for ever shut it up against you according to his juâ—t but dreadful threatnings Matth. 7.22 Prov. 1.24 25 And thus much of the Divine Original and excellent Nature of the Soul of Man Having taken a view of this excellent Creature the Soul in opening the former Proposition we come next to the consideration of its union with the Body in this second Proposition DOCT. II. Doct. II. THat the Souls and Bodies of men are knit together by the feeble band of the breath in their Nostrils Mr. How in a Funeral Sermon p. 9 10. There is saith a learned Man no greater mystery in nature than the union betwixt the Soul and Body That a mind and spirit should be so tyed and linked with a clod of Clay that while that remains in a due temper it cannot by any art or power free it self It can by an act of the Will move an hand or a foot or the whole body but cannot move from it one inch If it move hither or thither or by a leap upward do ascend a little the body still follows it cannot shake or throw it off We cannot take our selves out by any allowable means we cannot nor by any at all that are at least within meer humane power as long as the temperament lasts While that remains we cannot go if that fail we cannot stay though there be so many open avenues could we suppose any material bounds to hem in or exclude a spirit we cannot go out or in at pleasure A wonderful thing And I wonder we no more wonder at our own make and frame in this respect What so much akin are a mind and a piece of earth a clod and a thought that they should be thus affixed to one another My design here is to shew by what ligament tye or bond it hath pleased the great and wise Creator to affix and link these so different parts of man together and this Moses in the Text tells us is no other but the breath of his nostrils The Breath and Soul of Man are two distinct things His Breath is not his Soul nor his Soul his Breath but the Nexus or bond that couples and unites his Soul and body in a personal union The Body hath no life in it self but its life results from its union with the Soul Iames 2.26 this union is maintained by the breath of our nostrils which upon that account is here called the breath of life What breath is Breath is an act of life proceeding from the Souls union with its Body and ending with the dissolution of it Life is continued by its respiration and ended by its expiration Whilest we live and whilst breath is in our bodies are terms Synonymous That little quantity of air which we thus breath in and out at our nostrils is more to us than all the three Regions of air which fill up the vast space between earth and heaven It is in a sense our life For the use and office of Respiration the Lungs were formed and placed where they are not without the most wise counsel and direction of God What the Lungs are They are that organ in the * Pulmo est spirandi respirandi instrumentum ad pulmones inducitur sâ—â—ula quae dicitur Trachea arteria ad geminos usus condita c. body which by the help of that Arterie called Arteria trachea leading to them as a Chanel for the passage of air from the mouth and nostrils the air is transmitted to and ventilated by them for the refreshment of the * Cor movetâ—r motu duplici nempe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua caloâ— innatus attracto aëre mitigatur
refrigeratur Alsted Theolog. Nat. p. mihi 614. heart and exhaling the fumes thereof The heart hath continual need of such a vent and refreshment and therefore the Lungs like a pair of Bellows must be kept continually going Longer than breath is going the heart is dying That which stops the one suffocates the other And here we may with admiration contemplate the wonders by which our lives are continued These Lungs are the most frail and tender part of the body and kept in continual motion and agitation yet are made serviceable for Seventy or Eighty years together which is the wonder of Providence Were a piece of Brass Iron or Steel kept in continual and incessant use it would not indure half the time In a word The * Quia Coâ—â—foâ—â—â—itae offiâ—â—na spirituum operosiâ—sima ita ut peâ—petuo motu pendulum agititur utique etiam vehementer incalescit ita ut si calor iste per respirationem non restingueretur necesse fuerit calidam â—â—midum nativum nimiae aestuatione opprimi suffocari Pulmones â—ant nihil aliud quà m folles quidam naturales qui sefe dilatando aëâ—em attrabunt inque cor effundurt ita ut cor perpetuo aestuans aëre refrigeretur qui aër ubi intra coâ—dis meatus incaluit iterum à corde effunditur in pulmones qui sese contrabendo foras emittâ—â—t Keckerâ— phys p. 142. heart that noble part of the Body is the shop wherein the spirits are laboured and prepared which therefore is in continual motion and heat and so needs continual cooling and refreshing We can live no longer than it labours it can labour no longer than it is refreshed and cooled by respiration God hath therefore prepared the Lungs for this service which being of a thin porous and spungy substance can easily be dilated and contracted By dilating themselves they attract and suck in the air into themselves first duely to prepare and temper it and then communicate it to the heart for its refreshment which being quickly heated in the heart is again breathed out by the Lungs by contracting themselves again This double motion of inspiration and expiration we call Respiration and this Respiration is the bond that holds our Souls and bodies together And indeed this is but a feeble bond a very slender and weak thread which holds our Souls and Bodies in union What more volatile evanid and uncertain than a puff of breath The nostrils are the outer door of the body our breath is continually in our nostrils and how soon may that depart which is day and night at the door as if it were still taking its leave of us Our breath is always going and what is still going will be gone at last How small a difference is there betwixt Respiration and Expiration A breathing and a breathless lump of clay Breath cannot continue long and life cannot stay a moment behind it Psal. 104.29 Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust Life is breath given and Death is breath taken away The breath of Man is like a written sentence in which there are diverse Comma's or short pauses after which speedily follows a full stop and there 's an end of it 〈…〉 ita p. menes 〈◊〉 â—otu 〈◊〉 attraâ—â—â—t expellâ—â—t Alsted â—hcol Mat. â— 623 Some conceive Solomon points at the continual motion of the Lungs in that figurative and elegant description of the death of man Eccles. 12.6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel be broken at the Cistern The double motion of the Lungs he seems here to compare to the double motion of the buckets in a Well the turn of the wheel sends one down and draws the other up But as we use to say proverbially the Bucket or Pitcher that goes so often to the Cistern or Well is broken at last So must we say of these they will fail at last One sitting by the bedside of a dying Person sighed out this compassionate expression Ah! quid sâ—â—uâ— His sick friend hearing it replied Pulvis 〈◊〉 fumus dust a shadow a puff of wind The wind without us is fickâ—â— and inconstant to a proverb and so is that within us too Many grudge at the shortness of life but considering the feebleness of this Bond we have more cause to wonder at the slowness of death For let us but seriously consider the frailty of our breath on a double account viz. 1. In respect of our breathing instruments viz. 2. Or of breaths-stopping accidents 1. Great is the frailty of our breathing instruments What is flesh but weakness Even the most solid and substantial it is as the fading grass Isa. 40.6 But our * Est enim substantia pulmonâ—m caro laxa spoâ—giosa aërea similis coagulatae spumae sanguinis Alsted ibid. Lungs are the most lax spongy and tender of all flesh if that which is so airy light and spumous deserve the name of flesh And as it is the most frail of all flesh so it is in continual motion labouring night and day without rest or intermission and that which wants alternate rest cannot be durable We see motion wears out the wheels of a watch though made of Brass but our strength as Iob speaks is not the strength of stones nor our bones the most solid much less our Lungs the most frail and feeble parts of Brass Beside 2. There are a multitude of breath-stopping accidents which may and daily do beat the last breath out of mens nostrils before any decay of nature cause it to expire Many mortal diseases are incident to these frail and tender parts Phthisicks Intenerations Ulcers easily barr the passage of our breath there yâ—a and slighter accidents which immediately touch not that part are sufficient to stop our breath and dislodge our souls A Flie a Gnâ—t the stone of a Raisin a Crumb of bread have often done it There is not a pore in the body but is a door large enough to let in death nor a creature so despicably small but is strong enough if God commissionate it to serve a Writ of Ejection upon the Soul the multitudes of diseases are so many lighted Candles put to this slender thread of our breath besides the infinite diversity of external accidents by which multitudes daily perish So that there are as great and and astonishing wonders in our preservation as in out Creation Inference I. HOw admirable then is the Mystery of Providence in the daily continuation of the breath of our Nostrils That our breath is yet in our Nostrils is only from hence that he who breathed it into them at first is our life and the length of our days as it is Deut. 30.20 It is because our breath is in his hand Dan. 5.23 not in our own or in our enemies hand Till he take it away none shall be able to do it Psal.
first Seal opened Ver. 2. gives the Church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the Victories Successes and Triumphs of Christ notwithstanding the Rage Subtilty and power of all its Enemies He shall ride on Conquering and to Conquer and his Arrows shall be sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies whereby the People shall fall under him And this chearing Prospect was no more than was needful For Seal 2. The second Seal opened ver 3. and 4. represents the first bloudy Persecution of the Church under Nero whom Tertullian calls Dedicator damnationis nostrae Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. He that first condemned Christians to the Slaughter And the Persecution under him is set forth by the Type of a red Horse and a great Sword in the hand of him that rode thereon His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a Lion 2 Tim. 4.17 Paul Peter Bartholomew Barnabas Mark are all said to dye by his cruel hand and so fierce was his rage against the Christians that at that time as Eusebius saith * Adeo ut videret repletas humanis corporibus civitates jacentes mortuos simul cum parvulis senes foeminarumque absque ulla sexûs reverentia in publico rejesta Cadavera a man might then see Cities lie full of dead Bodies the old and young Men and Women cast out naked without any reverence of Persons or Sex in the open street Tacit. lib. 15. Annal. And when the day failed Christians saith Tacitus were burnt in the night instead of Torches to give them light in the Streets Seal 3. The third Seal opened v. 5.6 sets forth the calamities which should befal the Church by Famine Yet not so much a literal as a figurative Famine as a grave and learned Commentator * Durham in Loc. expounds it like that mentioned Amos 8.11 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan The former directing the Persecution especially against Ministers in which many bright Lamps were extinguished The latter expresly condemned all Christian Meetings and Assemblies by a Law The Type by which this Persecution was set forth is a black Horse A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor Saints when they eat the bread of their Souls as it were by weight for he that sate on him had a pair of ballances in his hand Then did Iohn hear this sad voice A measure of wheat for a Penny and three measures of Barley for a penny That quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man a live for a day And a Roman Penny was the ordinary wages given for a days work to a labourer The meaning is that in those days all the Spiritual food men should get to keep their Souls alive from day to day with all their travel and labour should be but sufficient for that end The fourth Seal opened Seal 4. ver 7.8 represents a much more sad and doleful state of the Church for under it are found all the former sufferings with some new kinds of trouble superadded Under this Seal death rides upon the pale Horse and Hell or the Grave follows him 'T is conceived to point at the presecution under Dioclesian when the Church was mowed down as a Meadow The fifth Seal is opened in my Text Seal 5. under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant Iohn the state and condition of those precious Souls which had been torn and separated from their Bodies by the bloudy hands of Tyrants for his name sake under all the former persecutions The design whereof is to support and encourage all that were to come after in the same bloudy path I saw under the Altar c. in which we have an account I. Of what Iohn saw II. Of what he heard I. First we have an account of what he saw I saw the Souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held Souls in this place are not put for the Bloud or the dead Carcasses of the Saints who were slain as some have groundlessly imagined but are to be understood properly and strictly for those Spiritual and immortal substances which once had a vital Union with their Bodies but were now separated from them by a violent death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima proimmortali Spiritâ— hominis capituâ— sicuti Matt. 10.28 hoâ— sensu dicit hîc Iohannes se vidisse animas c. Marlorat in loc yet still retained a love and inclination to them even in the state of Separation and are therefore here brought in complaining of their shedding of their blood and destruction of their Bodies These Souls even of all that dyed for Christ from Abel to that time Iohn saw that is in Spirit for these immaterial substances are not perceptible by the gross external senses Animâ— Coâ—â—oribus exutae invisibileâ— sunt occulis corpoâ—â—is vidit ergo â—as Iohannes Spiritu Paraus in loc He had the priviledge and favour of a Spiritual representation of them being therein extraordinarily assisted as Paul was when his Soul was rapt into the third Heaven and heard things unutterable 2 Cor. 12.2 God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy Souls and that under the Altar he means not any material Altar as that at Ierusalem was but as the holy place figured Heaven so the Altar figured Jesus Christ Heb. 13.10 And most aptly Christ is represented to Iohn in this figure and Souls of the Martyrs at the foot or basis of this Altar thereby to inform us 1 that however men look upon the death of those persons and though they kill their names by slanders as well as their persons by the Sword yet in Gods account they dye as Sacrifices and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God which he highly prizeth and graciously accepteth Suitable whereunto Pauls expression is Philip. 2.17 2 That the value and acceptation their death and blood shed hath with God is through Christ and upon his account for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the gift Matth. 23.19 and 3. it informs us that these holy Souls now in a state of Separation from their Bodies were very near to Iesus Christ in Heaven They lay as it were at his foot Once more They are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this World and that was For the word of God and for the Testimony which they held i. e. They dyed in defence of the Truths or will of God revealed in his word against the Corruptions Oppositions and Innovations of Men. As one of the Martyrs that held up the Bible at the Stake saying This is it that hath brought me hither They dyed not as Malefactors but as Witnesses They gave a threefold Testimony to the truth a lip Testimony a life Testimony and a blood Testimony whilst the Hypocrite gives but one and many Christians but two Thus we have an account of what
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
flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God who hath appointed them to be so He can but never will annihilate them But the Soul depends upon matter in all its operations Object 3. nothing is in the Understanding which was not first in the Senses it useth the natural Spirits as its Servants and Tools in all its Operations and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a State of Separation 1. The Hypothesis is not only uncertain Sol. but certainly false There are acts performed by the Soul even whilst it is in the Body wherein it makes no use at all of the Body Such are the acts of Self-intuition and Self-reflection and what will you say of its Acts in Raptures and Ecstasies such as that of Paul 2. Cor. 12.2 and Iohn Revel 21.10 what use did their Souls make of the bodily senses or natural Spirits then 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life it doth use the Body as its Tool or Instrument in working doth it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other World Whilst a man is on Horseback in his Journey he useth the help and service of his Horse and is moved according to the motion of his Horse but doth it thence follow he cannot stand or walk alone when dismounted at his Journeys end We know Angels both live and act without the ministry of Bodies and our Souls are Spiritual Substances as well as they But many Scriptures seem to favour the total cessation of the Souls actions Object 4. if not of its being also after Separation as that in 2 Sam. 14.14 We must needs dye and are as Water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up and Psal. 88.10 11 12. with Isaiah 38.18 19. The dead cannot praise thee Sol. Those words of the Woman of Tekoa are not to be understood absolutely but respectively and the meaning is that the Soul is in the Body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass which being broken by death the Soul is irrecoverably gone as the Water Spilt on the ground which by no humane power or art of man can be recovered again All the means in the World cannot fetch it back into the Body again She speaks not of the Resurrection or what shall be done in the World to come by the Almighty power of God but of what is impossible to be done in this World by all the skill and power of Man And for the expression of Heman and Hezekiah they only respect and relate to those services their Souls were now imployed about for the praise of God with respect to the conversion or edification of others as Psal. 30.8 9. or at most to that mediate service and worship which they give God in and by their attendance upon his ordinances in this World and not of that immediate Service and praise that is performed and given him in Heaven by the Spirits of just men made perfect such was the sweetness they had found in these Ordinances and Duties that they express themselves as loth to leave them The same answer solves also the Objections grounded upon other mistaken Scriptures as that Psal. 78.39 where man is called a wind that passeth away and cometh not again It is only expressive of the frailty and vanity of the present animal life we live in this World to which we shall return no more after death it denies not life to departed Souls but the end of this animal life at death the life we live in the other World is of a different nature Inference I. IS the Soul Immortal Then 't is impossible for Souls to find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side Heaven All temporary things are inadaequate and therefore unsatisfying to our Souls What gives the Soul rest and satisfaction must be as durable as the Soul is for if we could possibly find in this World a condition and state of things most agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes yet if the Soul be conscious to it self That it shall and must over-live and leave them all behind it it can never reach true contentment in the greatest affluence and confluence of them Man being an immortal is therefore a prospecting Creature and can never be satisfied with this That it 's well with him at present except he can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever The thoughts of leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments imbitters them all to us whil'st we have them All outward things are in fluxu continuo passing away as the Waters 1 Cor. 7.31 Riches are uncertain 1 Tim. 6.17 They fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven and with Wings of their own making Prov. 23.5 i. e. as the Feathers that enable a Bird to fly from us grow out of his own substance so doth that vanity that carries away all earthly enjoyments This alone would spoil all Contentment Inference II. THen see the ground and reason of Satans envy and enmity against the Soul and his restless designs and endeavours to destroy it It grates that Spirit of envy to find himself who is by nature Immortal sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery and the Souls of Men appointed to fill up those vacant places in Heaven from which the Angels fell No Creature but Man is envied by Satan and the Soul of Man much more than his Body 'T is true he afflicts the Bodies of Men when God permits him but he ever aims at the Soul when he wounds the Body Heb. 10. 37. This roaring Lyon is continually going about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 'T is the precious Soul he hunts after that 's the Morsus Diaboli the Bit he gapes for as the Woolf tears the Fleece to come at the Flesh. All the pleasure those miserable Creatures find is the success of their temptations upon the Souls of Men. 'T is a kind of delight to them to plunge Souls into the same condemnation and misery with themselves This is the trade they have been driving ever since their Fall By destroying Souls he at once exercises his revenge against God and his envy against man which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him Inference III. DO the Souls of Men overlive their Bodies Then 't is the height of madness and spiritual Infatuation to destroy the Soul for the Bodies sake To cast away an Immortal Soul for the gratification of perishing flesh to ruine the precious Soul for ever for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment yet this is the madness of millions of Men. They will drown their own Souls in everlasting perdition to procure unnecessary things for the Body 1 Tim. 6.9 They that will be rich c. Every cheat and circumvention in dealing every lye every act of oppression is a wound given the Immortal Soul for the procuring some accommodations to
And Paul went higher than that in a glorious excess of Charity to the Community or Body of Gods People preferring their Salvation not only to his own Body but to his Soul also Rom. 9.3 but to these extraordinary Cases we are seldome called and if we be the Gospel furnisheth us with an higher Rule than Self-love Iohn 13.34 But by this principle of Self-love in all ordinary Cases we must proportion and dispence our Love to all others by which you see what deep rooted fixed Principle in Nature Self-love is how universal and permanent alone this is which else were not fit to be made the measure of our Love to all others Two things will deserve our Consideration in the Doctrinal part of this point I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body II. What are the Grounds and Fundamental Causes or Reasons of its love to it and then apply it I. Wherein the Soul evidenceth its love to the Body and that it doth in divers respects 1. In its Cares for the things needful to the Body as the Text speaks in Nouriâ—â—ing and Cherishing it i.e. taking care for Food and Rayment for it This Care is Universal it 's implanted in the most Salvage and Barbarous People and is generally so excessive and exorbitant that though it never needs a Spur yet most times and with most Men it doth need a Curb and therefore Christ in Matth. 6.32 shews how those Cares torture and distract the Nations of the World warns them against the like Excesses and propounds a Rule to them for the allay and mitigation of them v. 25 26 27. So doth the Apostle also 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To speak as the matter is most Souls are over-heated with their Cares and eager pursuit after the concerns of the Body They pant after the Dust of the Earth They pierce themselves through with many Sorrows 1 Tim. 6.10 They are cumbred like Martha with much Serving. 'T is a perfect Drudge and Slave to the Body bestowing all its time strength and studies about the Body for one Soul that puts the Question to it self What shall I do to be saved a Thousand are to be found that mind nothing more but What shall I eâ—t what shall I drink and wherewith shall I and mine be cloathed I do not say that these are proofs of the Souls regular Love to the Body no they differ from it as a Feaver from Natural Heat This is a doating Fondness upon the Body He truly loves his Body that moderately and ordinately cares for what is necessary for it and can keep it under 1 Cor. 9.27 and deny its whineing Appetite when Indulgence is prejudicial to the Soul or warms its Lusts. Believers themselves find it hard to keep the Golden Bridle of Moderation upon their Affections in this matter 'T is not every Man hath attained Agurs cool Temper Prov. 30.8 that can slack his pace and drive moderately where the Interests of the Body are concerned the best Souls are too warm the generality in raging Heats which distract their Minds as that word Matth 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If the Body were not exceeding dear to the Soul it would never torture it self Day and Night with such anxious Cares about it 2. The Soul discovers its Esteem and Value for the Body in all the Fears it hath about it Did not the Soul love it exceedingly it would never be affrighted for it and on its account so much and so often as it is What a panick fear do the dangers of the Body cast the Soul into Isa. 7.2 When the Body is in Danger the Soul is in Distraction the Soul is in Fears and Tremblings about it These Fears flow from the Souls tender Love and Affection to the Body if it did not Love it so intensely it would never afflict and torment it self at that rate it doth about it Satan the professed Enemy of our Souls being throughly acquainted with those Fears which flow from the Fountain of Love to the Body politickly improves them in the way of temptation to the utter ruine of some and the great hazard of other Souls he edges and sharpens his temptations upon us this way he puts our Bodies into danger that he may thereby endanger our Souls he reckons if he can but draw the Body into danger fear will quickly drive the Soul into Temptation It is not so much from Satans Malice or Hatred of our Bodies that he stirs up Persecutions against us but he knows the tie of Affection is so strong betwixt these friends that Love will draw and Fear will drive the Soul into many and great Hazards of its own Happiness to free the Body out of those Dangers Prov. 29.25 The Fear of Man brings a Snare and Heb. 11.37 tortured and tempted Upon this ground also it is that this Life becomes a Life of Temptation to all Men and there is no freedom from that danger till we be freed from the Body and set at liberty by Death Separated Souls are the only free Souls They that carry no Flesh about them need carry no Fears of Temptation within them 'T is the Body which catches the sparks of Temptation 3. The Soul manifests its dear Love and Affection to the Body by its Sympathy and compassionate feeling of all its Burdens Whatever touches the Body by way of Injury affects the Soul also by way of Sympathy The Soul and Body are as the strings of two Musical Instruments set exactly at one height if one be touched the other trembles They laugh and cry are sick and well together This is a wonderful Mystery and a rare Secret as a Learned Man observes how the Soul comes to sympathize with the Body and to have not only a knowledg but as it were a feeling of its Necessities and Infirmities how this Fleshly Lump comes to affect and make its deep Impressions upon a Creature of so different a Nature from it as the Soul or Spirit is But that it doth so though we know not how is plain and sensible to any Man If any Member of the Body though but the lowest and meanest be in Pain and Misery the Soul is presently affected with it and commands the Eyes to watch yea to weep the Hands to bind it up with all tenderness and defend it from the least injurious touch the Lips to complain of its Misery and beg pity and help from others for it If the Body be in danger how are the Faculties of the Soul Understanding Memory Invention c. imployed with utmost Strength and Concernment for its deliverance This is a real and unexceptionable Evidence of its dear and tender Love to the Body As those that belong to one Mystical Body shew their sincere Love this way 1 Cor. 12.25 26. Ephes. 4.19 So the Soul 4. The Soul manifesteth its Love to the Body by its Fears of Death and extream Aversation to a Separation from it On this account Death is called in Iob
to their preservation For were it not for this Propriety and Relation no Man would be at any more cost or pains for his own Body than for that of a Stranger 'T is Propriety which naturally draws Love Care and Tenderness along with it and these are ordered by the wisdom of Providence for the conservation of the Body which would quickly perish without it 2. The Body is the Souls antient Acquaintance and intimate Friend with whom it hath assiduously and familiarly conversed from its beginning They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows They may say to each other as Miconius did to his Colleague with whom he had spent twenty years in the Government of the Thuringian Church Cucurriâ—â—s certavimus laboravimus pugnavimus vicimus viximus conjunctissimé We have run striven laboured fought overcome and lived most intimately and lovingly together Consuetude and daily conversation begets and conciliates Friendship and Love betwixt Creatures of contrary Natures Let a Lamb be brought up with a Lyon and the Lyon will express a tenderness towards it much more the Soul to its own Body 3. The Body is the Souls house and beloved habitation where it was born and hath lived ever since it had a being and in which it hath enjoyed all its comforts natural and supernatural which cannot but strengthen the Souls engagement to it Upon this account the Apostle calls it the Souls home 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body 'T is true this house is not so comfortable an habitation that it should be much desired by many Souls we may say of many gracious Souls that they pay a dear rent for the house they dwell in or as it was said of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat their Souls are but ill accommodated but yet it is their home and therefore beloved by them 4 The Body is the Souls instrument by which it doth its work and business in the World both natural and religious Rom. 6.13 Through the bodily senses it takes in all the natural comforts of this World and by the bodily Members it performs all its Duties and Services When these are broken and laid aside by death the Soul knows it can work no more in that way it now doth Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 Natural men love their Bodies for the natural pleasures they are instrumental to convey to their Souls and spiritual men for the use and service they are of to 〈◊〉 own and others Souls Philip. 1.23 5. The Body is the Souls Partner in the benefit of Christs Purchaces It was bought with the same price 1 Cor. 6.20 sanctified by the same spirit 1 Thes. 5.23 interested in the same promises Matth. 22.32 and designed for the same glory 1 Thes. 4.16 17. So that we may say of it as it was said of Augustine and his friend Alippius they are sanguine Christi conglutinati glewed together by the bloud of Christ. And thus of the grounds and reasons of its Love Inference I. IS it so Learn hence the mighty strength and prevalence of Divine Love which over-powering all natural Affections doth not only enable the Souls of men to take their Separation from the Body patiently but to long for it ardently Philip. 1.23 While some need Patience to dye others need it as much to live 2 Thes. 3.5 'T is said Revel 12.11 They loved not their lives And indeed on these terms they first closed with Christ Luke 12.26 To hate their lives for his sake ie to love them in so remiss a degree that when ever they shall come in competition with Christ to regard them no more than the things we hate The love of Christ is to be the supream love and all others to be subordinate to it or quenched by it 'T is not its own comfort in the Body it principally and ultimately designs and aims at but Christs glory and so this may be furthered by the death of the Body its death thereupon becomes as eligible to the Soul as its life Philip. 1.20 O this is an high pitch of grace A great attainment to say as one did Vivere renuo ut Christo vivam I refuse life to be with Christ Or another when asked whether he was willing to dye answered Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Let him be loth to dye that is loth to go to Christ So 2 Cor. 5. We are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. 'T is not every Christian that can arrive to this degree of Lovâ—â— though they love Christ sincerely yet they shrink from death cowardly and are loth to be gone There are two sorts of grounds upon which Christians may be loth to be unbodied 1. Sinful 2. Allowable 1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these viz. 1 Guilt upon the Conscience which will damp and discourage the Soul and make it loth to dye It arms death with terrour the sting of death is sin 2 Unmortified affections to the World I mean in such a degree as is necessary to sweeten death and make a man a Voluntier in that sharp engagement with that last and dreadful Enemy It is with our hearts as with fewel if green and full of sap it will not burn but if that be dried up it catches presently mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to the Creature which is that that resists death as green Wood doth the fire 3 The weakness and and cloudiness of Faith You need Faith to dye by as well as to live by Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in faith The less strength there is in Faith the more in death A strong Believer welcomes the messengers of Death when a weak one unless extraordinarily assisted trembles at them 2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance in the Body warrantably and allowably as 1 To do him yet more service in our bodies before we lay them down This the Saints have pleaded for longer life Psal. 30.9 Psal. 88.11 12 13. and Isai. 38.18 19. 2 To see the clouds of Gods anger dispelled whether publick or personal and a clear light break out ere we dye Psal. 27.13 3 They may desire with submission to outlive the days of persecution and not to be delivered into the hands of cruel men but come to their Graves in peace Psal. 31.15 and 2 Thess. 3.2 That may be delivered from absurd men 3. But though some Christians shun death upon a sinful account and others upon a justifyable one yet others there are who seeing their Title clear their work done and relishing the Joys of Heaven in the praelibations of Faith are willing to be uncloathed and to be with Christ. Their love to Christ hath extinguished in them the love of life and they can say with Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready Ignatius longed to come to those Beasts that were to devour him and so many of the Primitive Christians Christ was so dear
Matth. 26.41 The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak It incumbers us with cares to provide for it and eats up time and thoughts but then it will be a Spiritual Body 1 Cor. 15.43 like to the Angels for manner of subsistence Luke 20.35 36. 1 Cor. 6.13 and which is the highest step of glory like unto Christs glorious Body Philip. 3.21 well therefore might the Father say Resurrectio mortuorum est Consolatio Christianorum The Resurrection of the Dead is the Consolation of Christians USE II. Of Reproof IN the next place let me press you to regulate your love to your Bodies by the rules of Religion and right Reason I must press you to love them though Nature it self teacheth you so to do but I press you to love them as Christians as men that understand the right use and improvement of their Bodies There are two sorts of errours in our love to the Body one in Defect the other in Excess both come fitly here to be censured and healed I. Some there be that offend in the Defect of love to their own Bodies who use them as if they had no love for them whose Souls act as if they were enemies to their own Bodies They do not formally and directly hate them but consequentially and eventually they may be said to hate them and that 1 By defiling them with filthy lusts so the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 6.18 Every sin that a man doth is without the Body but he that committeth Adultery sinneth against his own Body in other sins 't is the Instrument but here 't is both Instrument and Object not only God but your own Bodies are abused and wronged by it The Body may be considered two ways either 1. As our Vessels or 2. As the Spirits Temple 1. As our Vessel or Instrument for natural and Spiritual Uses and Services and on that account we should not injure or defile it 1 Thes. 4.4 5. but possess it in sanctification and honour The lusts of Uncleanness Gluttony and Drunkenness quench the vigour blast the beauty and destroy the health and honour of the Body and so render it both naturally and morally unfit for the service and use of the Soul 2. And the injury is yet greater if we consider it as the Spirits Temple On this ground the Apostle strongly convinceth and disswadeth Christians from these abuses of the Body 1 Cor. 6.15 16. He argues from the Dignity God will put upon our Bodies by the Resurrection ver 13 14. They are to be transformed and made like unto Christs glorious Body and from the honour he hath already put upon the Bodies of the Saints in their union with Christ ver 15 16. They as well as the Soul are ingrafted into him and joyned with him they are his Temples to be dedicated hallowed and consecrated to his service O let them not be made a sink for lusts or meer strainers for meat and drink 2 By macerating them with covetous lusts denying them their due comforts and refreshments and unmercifully burthening them with labours and sorrows about things that perish 1 Some deny their Bodies due comforts and refreshments which the natural and positive Laws of God both allow and command Their Souls are cruel Step-mothers to their bodies and keep them too short not out of a prudent and Christian design to starve their lusts but to advance their estates Of this evil Solomon speaks Eccles. 6.22 There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and it is common among men A man to whom God hath given riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it This is vanity and it is an evil disease Tenacity is a disease of the Soul like that of a Dyscracy in the stomach which so indisposeth it that it cannot receive with any appetite or delight the best refreshments at a plentiful Table 2 And others there are that wrong and abuse their own bodies by laying unreasonable and unmerciful loads upon them especially loads of grief and sorrow wasting and weakning them beyond all rules of reason or Religion If a friend or relation die they have less mercy on their own Bodies than a conscientious man hath on the Horse he rides Cares and sorrows are as deadly to the Body as a Sword 1 Tim 6.10 Intense and immoderate griefs about Worldly losses and crosses have slain their ten thousands and which is strange the Soul seems to take a certain kind of pleasure in loading and tormenting the Body There is a real truth in that strange expression of Seneca Inest quiddam dulce tristitiae Senec. Ep. 806. Sorrow it self hath a certain kind of pleasure attending it The Souls of some mourners do willingly excite and provoke their own griefs when they begin to abate which is like the whetting of the knife that grows dull to make it cut the deeper into the Body Cum occurrant Sermones corum jucundi conversatio hilaris officiosa pietas tunc ocali velut in gaudio relaxantur Sen. Ep. 806. Thus as Seneca observes Some Parents that have lost their beloved children willingly call to mind their pleasant sayings and pretty actions to find a kind of pleasure in a fresh shower of tears for them when poor hearts sorrow hath so broken them already that they need consolations under their present sorrows rather than irritations of new ones And the Souls unmercifulness to the Body is in such cases farther discovered by its obstinate refusal of all that is comforting and relieving So it is said of Rachel Jerem. 31.15 Rachel weeping for her children would not be comforted because they were not So the Israelites hearkened not unto Moses because of the anguish of spirit and the cruel bondage Exod. 6.9 Thus we studiously rake together and exasperate whatsoever is piercing wounding and over-whelming and shut our ears to all that is relieving and supporting which is cruelty to our own Bodies and that which hath so far broken the health and strength of some bodies that they are never like to be useful instruments to the Soul any more in this World Such deep and desperate wounds have their own Souls given them by immoderate grief as will never be perfectly healed but by the Resurrection Of those wounds the body may say as it is Zeth 13.6 These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house or by the hand of my friend thus my own Soul hath dealt cruelly and unmercifully with me II. Others offend in the Excess and extravagancy of their love to the Body and these are an hundred to one in number with those that sin in defect of love My friends upon a due search it will be found that the love of our Souls generally degenerates into fondness and folly There is but little well tempered and ordinate love found among men We make fondlings yea we
make Idols of our own Bodies we rob God yea our own Souls to give to the Body It is not a natural and kindly heat of love but a meer feavourish heat which preys upon the very Spirits of Religion which is found with many of us This feavourish distemper may be discovered by the beating of our pulse in three or four particulars 1. This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining appetites We give the flesh whatsoever it craves and can deny it nothing it desires pampering the Body to the great injury and hazard of the Soul Some have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh as it is Eph. 2.3 Trading only in those things that please and pamper the flesh They sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 i.e. all their studies and labours are but the sowing of the seeds of pleasure to the flesh Not an handful of spiritual Seed sowen in Prayer for the Soul all the day long what the Body craves the obsequious Soul like a slave is at its beck to give it Tit. 3. 3. Serving diverse lusts and pleasures attending to every knock and call to fulfil the desires of the flesh O how little do these men understand the life of Religion or the great design of Christianity which consists in mortifying and not pampering and gratifying the Body Rom. 14. 13 14. And according to that rule all serious Christians order their Bodies giving them what is needful to keep them serviceable and useful to the Soul but not gratifying their irregular desires giving what their wants not what their wantonness calls for So Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I beat it down and keep it under he understood it as his Servant not his Master He knew that Hagar would quickly peark up and domineer over Sarah expect more attendance than the Soul except it were kept under These two verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very emphatical the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffeting the other to bring it under by checks and rebukes as Masters that understand their place and Authority use to do with insolent and wanton Servants It was a rare expression of an Heathen Major sum ad 〈◊〉 natus quà m ut corporis mei sim mancipium I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a drudge or Vassal to my Body And it was the saying of a pious Divine when he felt the flesh rebellious and wanton Ego faciam aselle ut non calcitres I will make thee thou Ass that thou shalt not kick I know the superstitious Papists place much of Religion in these external things but though they abuse them to an ill purpose there is a necessary and lawful use of these abridgments and restraints upon the Body and it will be impossible to mortifie and starve our lusts without a due rigour and severity to our flesh But how little are many acquainted with these things They deal with their Bodies as David with Adonijah of whom it 's said 1 Kings 1.6 His Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so And just so our flesh requites us by its Rebellions and Treasons against the Soul it seeks the life of the Soul which seeks nothing more than its content and pleasure this is not ordinate love but fondness and folly and what we shall bitterly repent for at last 2. It appears by our sparing and favouring of them in the necessary uses and services we have for them in Religion Many will rather starve their Souls than work and exercise their Bodies or disturb their sluggish rest thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health oftentimes put by the duties of Religion or at least lose the fittest and properest season for them We are lazying upon our beds when we should be wrestling upon our knees The World is suffered to get the start of Religion in the morning and so Religion is never able to overtake it all the day long This was none of David's course he prevented the dawning of the morning and cryed Psal. 119.147 and Psal. 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshest and fittest parts of our time when our bodily Senses are most vigorous and we would do so except God by his providence disable us were our hearts fully set for God and Religion lay with weight upon our Spirits Some I confess cannot receive this injunction being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities but those tha◠〈◊〉 ought to do so But O how many slothful excuses doth the flesh invent to put off duty We shall injure our health c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas if profit or pleasure call us up we have no such shifts but can rise early and sit up late O Friends why hath God given you Bodies if not to waste and wear them out in his service and the service of your own Souls if your Bodies must not be put to it and exercised this way where is the mercy of having a Body If a stately Horse were given you on this condition that you must not ride or work him what benefit would such a gift be to you Your Bodies must and will wear out and it 's better wear them with working than with rusting we are generally more sollicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God if it had been less precious in our own eyes 'T is just with God to destroy that health with diseases which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness Think with thy self had such a Soul as Timothies or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine so strong and vigorous so apt and able for service they would have honoured God more in it in a day than perhaps you do in a year Certainly this is not love but laziness not a due improvement but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body to let it rust out in idleness which might be imployed so many ways for God for your own and others Souls Well remember death will shortly dissolve them and then they can be of no more use and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection use them for God now with a faithful self-denying diligence 3. It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that threaten them when the glory of God our own and others Salvation Here the Soul receives a deadly wound upon it self toward it â—ff from the Body So did Spira bid us expose and not regard them Some there are that rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man will hazard their Souls to the wrath of God They are too tender to suffer pain or restraint for Christ but consider not wâ—â—t
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
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
implanted in a weak and imperfect Soul go with it to glory where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting than ever they did here below The languishing spark of love is there a vehement flame the saint remiss and infrequent delight in God is there at a constant ravishing and transporting height 4 To conclude As all implanted habits of grace ascend with the sanctified Soul to Heaven for the Soul ascends not thither as a natural but as a new Creature so all the effects results and sweet improvements of those Graces which we gathered as the pleasant fruits of them on earth these accompany and follow the Soul into the other World also Their Works follow them Rev. 14.13 They go not before in the notion of merits to make way for them but they follow or accompany them as Evidences and comfortable Experiences I doubt not but the very remembrance of what past betwixt God and the Soul here betwixt the day of its Espousals to Christ and its Divorce from the Body will be one sweet ingredient into their blessedness and joy when they shall be singing in the upper Region the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. They were never given to be lost or left behind us And thus you see with what a rich Cargo the Soul sails to the other World though if it had no other it would never drop Anchor there PROP. VII The Souls of the just when separated from their Bodies do not wander up and down this World nor hover about the Sepulchres where their Bodies lie nor are they detain'd in any Purgatory in order to their more perfect Purification nor do they fall asleep in a benummed stupid State But do forthwith pass into glory and are immediately with the Lord. WHen once the mind of man leaves the Scripture-guidance and direction which is to it what the Compass or Pole-star is to a Ship in the wide Ocean Whither will it not wander In what uncertainties will it not fluctuate And upon what Rocks and Quick-sands must it inevitably be cast Many have been the foolish and groundless Conceits and Fancies of men about the Receptacles of departed Souls 1. Some have assigned them a restless wandering life now here now there without any certain dwelling place any where The only ground for this fancy is the frequent Apparitions of the Ghosts or Spirits of the dead whereof many instances are given and who is there that is a stranger to such Stories Now if departed Souls were fixed any where this World would be quiet and free from such disturbances I make no doubt but very many of these Stories have been the industrious Fictions and Devices of wicked and superstitious Votaries to gain reputation to their way speaking lies in Hypocrisie to draw Disciples after them And many others have been the Tricks and Impostures of Satan himself to shake the credit of the Saints Rest in Heaven and the imprisonment of ungodly Souls in Hell as will more fully appear when I come to speak to that Question more particularly 2. Others think when they are loosed from the Body at death they hover about the Graves and solitary places where their Bodies lie as willing seeing they can dwell no longer in them to abide as near them as they can just as the surviving Turtle keeps near the place where his Mate died and may be heard mourning for a long time about that part of the Wood. This opinion seeks countenance and protection from that law Deut. 18.10 11. which prohibits men to consult with the dead of which restraint there had been no need nor use if it had not been practised and such practices had never been continued if departed Souls had not frequented those places and given answers to their Questions But what I said before of Satans Impostures is enough for present to return to this also Bell. lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. 3. The Papists send them immediately to Purgatory in order to their more thorough Purification This Purgatory Bellarmin thus describes It is a certain place wherein as in a Prison Souls are purged after this life that were not fully purged here to the intent they may enter pure into Heaven and though the Church saith he hath not defined the place yet the School-men say it is in the Bowels of the Earth and upon the borders of Hell And to countenance this profitable Fable divers Scriptures are by them abused and misapplied as 1 Cor. 3.15 Matth. 5.25 26. 1 Pet. 3.19 all which have been fully rescued out of their hands and abundantly vindicated by our Divines who have proved God never kindled that fire to purifie Souls but the Pope to warm his own Kitchin 4. Another sort there are who affirm they neither wander about this World nor go into Purgatory but are cast by death into a Swoon or sleep remaining in a kind of benummed condition till the Resurrection of the Body This was the Errour of Beryllus and Irenaeus seems to border too near upon it when he saith The Souls of Disciples shall go to an invisible place appointed for them of God Discipulorum Animae abibunt in invisibilem locum definitam â—is à Deo ibi usqâ—e ad Resurrectionem commorabuntar sustinentes Resurrectionem Post recipientes corpora perfectè resurgentes i. e. corporaliter quemadmodum dominus resurrexit sic venlent ad conspectum Dei Iren. lib. 5. and shall there tarry till the Resurrection waiting for that time and the receiving their Bodies and perfectly i.e. corporally rising again as Christ did they shall come to the sight of God All these mistakes will fall together by one stroak for if it evidently appear as I hope it will that the Spirits of the just are immediately taken to God and do converse with and enjoy him in Heaven Then all these Fancies vanish without any more labour about them particularly Now there are four Considerations which to me put the immediate glorification of the departed Souls of Believers beyond all rational doubt 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them as ever it shall be 2 They are as ready and fit for Heaven as ever they shall be 3 The Scripture is plainly for it And 4 There is nothing in reason against it 1 Heaven is as ready and fit to receive them when they die as ever it shall be Heaven is prepared for Believers 1 By the purpose and Decree of God and so far it was prepar'd from the Foundation of the World Matth. 25.34 2 By the death of Christ whose blood made the purchace of it for Believers and so meritoriously opened the Gates thereof which our sins had barred up against us Heb. 10.19 20. 3 By the Ascension of Christ into that holy place as our Representative and Forerunner Iohn 14.2 This is all that is necessary to be done for the preparation of Heaven and all this is done as much as ever God design'd should be
done to it in order to its preparation for our Souls So that no delay can be upon that account 2 The departed Souls of Believers are as ready for Heaven as ever they shall be For there is no preparation-work to be done by them or upon them after death Ioh. 9.3 Eccles. 9.10 Their justification was compleat before death and now their sanctification is so too Sin which came in by the Union going out at the separation of their Souls and Bodies They are Spirits made perfect 3 The Scripture is plain and full for their immediate glorification Luke 23.43 To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 16.22 The Beggar dyed and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosome Philip. 1.21 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The Scripture speaks but of two ways by which Souls see and enjoy God viz. Faith and Sight the one imperfect suited to this life the other perfect fitted for the life to come and this immediately succeeding that for the imperfect is done away by the coming of that which is perfect as the Twilight is done away by the advancing of the perfect day 4 To conclude There is nothing in reason lying in bar to it It hath been proved before the Soul in its unbodied State is capable to enjoy blessedness and can perform its acts of Intellection Volition c. not only as well but much better than it did when embodied I conclude therefore That seeing Heaven is already as much prepar'd for Believers as it need be or can be and they as much prepar'd from the time of their Dissolution as ever they shall be The Scriptures also being so plain for it and no bar in reason against it All the forementioned Opinions are but the Dreams and Fancies of men who have forsaken their Scripture-guide and this remains an unshaken truth That the Spirits of the just go immediately to glory from the time of their Separation PROP. VIII At the time a gracious Souls separation from the Body it is instantly and perfectly freed from sin which till that time dwelt in it from its beginning But thenceforth shall do so no more IMmediately upon their separation from the Body Ideoque vocat conseâ—ratos vel perfectos quia carnis infirmitatibus non amplius sint obnoxii depositâ ipsâ carne Marl. in loc they are Spirits made perfect as my Text stiles them and that Epithet perfect could never suit them if there were any remaining root or habit of corruption in them The time yea the set time is now come to put an end to all the dolorous groans of gracious Souls upon the account of indwelling sin What the Angel said to Ioshua Zech. 3.3 4. The same doth God say of every upright Soul at the time of its separation Take away the filthy Garments from him and cloath him with change of rayments and set a fair Miter upon his head Thus the Garments spotted with the flesh are taken away with the Body of flesh and the pure unchangeable Robes of perfect holiness cloathed upon the Soul in which it appears without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 There is a threefold burdensom evil in sin under which all regenerated souls groan in this life viz. 1 The Guilt 2 The Filth 3 The Inherence of it in their nature And there is a threefold Remedy or cure of these evils The guilt of sin is remedied by justification The filth of sin is inchoatively healed by sanctification The inherence of sin is totally eradicated by glorification For as it entred into our persons by the union of our Souls and Bodies so it is perfectly cast out by their disunion or separation at death The last stroak is then given to the work of sanctification and the last is evermore the perfecting stroak Sin languished under imperfect sanctification in the time of life but it gives up the Ghost under perfected sanctification from 〈◊〉 after death Sanctification gave it its deadly wound but glorification its final Abolition For it is with our sins after Regeneration as it was with that Beast mentioned Dan. 7.12 which though it was wounded with a deadly wound yet its life was prolonged for a season And this is the appointed season for its expiration For if at their dissolution they are immediately received into glory as it hath been proved they are in our seventh Proposition they must necessarily be freed perfectly from sin immediately upon their dissolution because nothing that is unclean can enter into that pure and holy place They must be as the Text truly represents them The Spirits of just men made perfect For if so great holiness and purity be required in all that draw nigh to God upon earth as you read Psal. 93.5 certainly those who are admitted immediately to his Throne must be without fault according to Rev. 7.14 15 16 17. When a compounded being comes to be dissolved each part returns to its own principle so it is here The Spirit of man and all the grace that is in it came from God and to him they return at death and are perfected in him and by him The flesh returns to the earth whence it came and all that body of sin is destroyed with it neither the one or other shall be a snare or clog to the soul any more A Christian in this World is but Gold in the Ore at death the pure Gold is melted out and separated and the dross cast away and consumed Hence three Consectaries offer themselves to us Consectary I. That a Believers life and warfare end together We lay not down our weapons of war till we lie down in the dust 2 Timothy 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course The course and conflict you see are finished together Though they commence from different terms yet they always terminate together Grace and sin have each acted its part upon the Stage of time and the victory hovered doubtfully sâ—â—â—times over Sin and sometimes over Grace but now the â—â—r is ended and the quarrel decided Grace keeps its ground and sin is finally vanquished Now and never before the gracious Soul stands triumphing like that noble Argive In vacuo solus Sessor Plausorque Theatro not an Enemy left to renew the Combat the war is ended and with it all the fears and sorrows of the Saints Consectary II. Separated Souls become impeccable or free from all the hazard of sin from the time of their separation For there being no root of sin now inherent in them consequently no temptation to sin can fasten upon them all temptations have their handles in the Corruptions of our natures Did not Satan find matter prepar'd within us dry tinder fitted to his hand he might strike in temptations long enough before one of his hellish sparks could catch or fasten upon us Temptations are grievous exercises to Believers they are darts Eph. 6.16 they are thorns 2 Cor. 12.7 but
in point of knowledg concerning that great Question What is God Thus no man hath seen or can see God in this World Even Moses himself could not so see God Exod. 33.18 19 20. But the Spirits of the just made perfect have satisfying apprehensions though no perfect comprehensions of the Divine Essence 2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which they here rackt their thoughts upon but could not penetrate in this life There they will know what is to be known of the Union of the two Natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel and the manner of the subsistence of each person in the most glorious and undivided God-head Iohn 14.20 The several Attributes of God will then be unfolded to our understandings for his Essence and Attributes are not two things Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. O what ravishing sight will this be The mysteries of the Scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then Curiosity it self will be there satisfied 3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face will be infinitely more sweet and ravishingly plasant than any or all the views we had of him here by Faith ever were or possibly could be There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of Faith 1 Pet. 1.8 But it comes far short of the facial vision Who can tell the full importance of that one Text Rev. 22.4 The Throne of the Lamb shall be in it and they shall see his face O for such a Heaven said one as but to look through the key-hole and get one glimpse of that lovely face Earth cannot bear such sights This light overwhelms and confounds the inadequate faculties of imperfect and embodied Souls But there it is lumen confortans a chearing strengthening pleasant light as the light of the Morning star Rev. 2.28 4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative We there see him as our own God and portion Without a clear interest in him the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying Sight without interest is like the light of a gloworm light without heat All doubts and objections are solv'd and answer'd in the first sight of this blessed face 5. To conclude This perfect and most comfortable knowledge is attained without labour by the separate Soul Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains How many weary hours and aking heads did the acquisition of a little knowledg stand us in But then it flows in upon the Soul easily It was the Saying of a great Vsurer I once took much pains to get a little meaning the first stock but now I get much without any pains at all O lovely state of separation That Body which interposed clog'd and clouded the willing and capable Spirit being drawn aside as a Curtain by death the light of glory now shines upon it and round about it without any inâ—erception or lett PROP. XI The separated Souls of the Iust do live in a more high and excellent way of Communion with God in his Temple-worship in Heaven than ever they did in the sweetest Gospel-Ordinances and most Spiritual Duties in which they conversed with him here on Earth THAT Saints on earth have real Communion with God and that this Communion is the joy of their hearts the life of their life and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience as well as clearly revealed in the Word that there can remain no doubt about it among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of Religion This Communion with God is of that precious value with Believers that it unspeakably endears all those Duties and Ordinances to them which as means and instruments are useful to maintain it At death the people of God part with all those precious Ordinances and Duties they being only designed for and fitted to the present state of imperfection Eph. 4.12 13. but not at all to their loss no more than it is to his that loses the light of his candle by the rising of the Sun A Candle a Star is comfortable in the Night but useless when the Sun is up and in it's meridian Glory Christian Pray much hear much and drive as profitable a trade as thou canst among the Ordinances of God and duties of Religion For the time is at hand that you shall serve and wait on God no more this way But yet think not your Souls shall be discharged from all Worship and Service of God when you dye No you will find Heaven to be a Temple built for worship and the worship there to be much transcendent to all that in which you were here employ'd The Sanctuary was a pattern of Heaven in this very respect Heb. 9.23 And on this very account it is called Sion in my Text and the heavenly Ierusalem as denoting a Church-state and the spiritual Worship there performed by the Spirits of just men made perfect Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof by comparing it with that Worship and Service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them In this they agree that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to one and the same Object Father Son and Spirit all centers and terminates in God They also agree in the general quality and common Nature they are both spiritual Worship But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and other as will be manifest in the following collation 1. All our Worship on Earth is performed and transacted by Faith as the instrument and mean thereof Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe c. In Heaven Faith ceaseth and sight takes place of it 1 Cor. 5.7 There we see what here we only believe There are now before us Ordinances Scriptures Ministers and the Assemblies of Saints in the places of worship but if we have any communion with God by or among these we must set our selves to believe those things we see not By realizing and applying invisible things we here get sometimes and with no small pains a taste of Heaven and a transient glance of that glory In this service our Faith is put hard to it it must work and fight at once Resolutely act whilst sense and reason stand by contradicting and quarrelling with it And if with much ado we get but one sensible touch of Heaven upon our Spirits if we get a little spiritual warmth and melting of our affections towards God we call that day a good day and it is so indeed But in Heaven all things are carried at an higher rate the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour or pains of ours to procure it We may say of it there as the Prophet speaks of the dew and showres upon the grass Which tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men
Mic. 5.7 2. No grace is or can be acted here without the clog of a contrary corruption upon its heel Rom. 7.21 When I would do good evil is present with me Every beam of faith is presently darkned by a cloud of unbelief Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Saepè in libro experientiae legimus quomodo à corde nostro relinquimar nunc est nobisâ—um nunc alibi nunc avoâ—at nunc recurrit in sola lubricitate manens Bern. We often read in the Book of experience saith one what an inconstant fickle thing the heart is in duties Now it is with us by and by it 's fled away and gone we know not where to find it It is constant only in its inconstancy and lubricity There is iniquity in our most holy things which needs pardon Exod. 28.38 Our best duties have enough in them to damn us as well as our worst sins but in that perfect state above grace flows purely out of the Soul as beams do from the Sun or crystal streams from the purest Fountain No impure or imperfect acts proceed from Spirits made perfect 3. Here the graces of the Saints are never or very rarely acted in their highest and most intense degree When they love God most fervently there is some coldness in their love Who comes up to the height of that rule Matt. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength When we meditate on God it is not in the depth of our thoughts without some wanderings and extravagancies 't is very hard if not impossible for the Soul to stand long in its full bent to God But in Heaven it doth so and will do so for ever without any relaxation or remission of its fervour Christ among the Saints and Angels in Heaven is as a mighty Load-stone cast in amongst many Needles which leap to him and fix themselves inseparably upon him They all act in glory as the fire doth here to the utmost of their power and ability There is no note lower than Glory to God in the highest 4 The most spiritual Souls on earth who live most with God have and must have their dayly and frequent intermissions The necessities of the Body as well as the defectiveness of their graces require and necessitate it to be so Our hands with Moses will hang down and grow weary Our affections will cool and fall do what we can But as the Spirits of just men made perfect know no remissions in the degree so neither any intermissions in the actings of their grace They shall serve him day and night in his Temple Rev. 7.15 You that would purchase the continuance of your spiritual comforts but for a day with all that you have in this World will there enjoy them at full without any intermitting throughout eternity 5. If the best hearts on earth be at any time more than ordinarily enlarged in spiritual comforts they need presently some humbling providence to hide pride from their eyes Even Paul himself must have a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him Bernard could never perform any duty with comfortable enlargement but he seemed to hear his own heart whisper thus benè fecisti Bernarde O well done Bernard But in Heaven the highest comforts are injoyed in the deepest humility and the intire glory is ascribed to God without any unworthy defalcations Rev. 4.10 They put not the Crown upon their own heads but Christs they cast down their Crowns and fall down at the feet of him that sitteth upon the Throne 6. All Assemblies for worship in this World are mixed They consist of Regenerate and Unregenerate living and dead Souls this spoils the harmony and allays the comfort of mutual Communion In a Congregation consisting of a 1000 persons Ah! How few comparatively are there that are heartily concerned in the Duty But it is not so above There are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands before the Throne loving adoring praising and triumphing together and not a jaring string in all their Harps 7. Here the worship of God is impured mixed and adulterated by the sinful additions and inventions of men This gracious Souls groan under as an heavy burden sighing and praying for Reformation as knowing they can expect no more of Gods presence than there is of his Order and Institution in Worship But above all the Worship is pure the least pin in the heavenly Tabernacle is according to the perfect pattern of the divine Will 8. We have here Duties of divers kinds and natures to perform All our time is not to be spent in loving praising and delighting in God but we must turn our selves also to searching watching and Soul-humbling work Sometimes we are called to get up our hearts to the highest praise and then to humble them to the dust for sin and judgments One while to sing his praises and another while to sigh even to the breaking of our loins but the Spirits of just men made perfect have but one kind of imployment viz praising loving and delighting in God There is no groaning sighing searching or watching-work in that state 9. The most illuminated Believers on Earth have but dark and crude apprehensions of Christs intercession work in Heaven or of the way and manner in which it is there performed by him We know indeed that our High-Priest is for us entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 That he appears in that most holy place for us Heb. 9.24 That he there represents his sufferings for us to God standing before him as a Lamb that had been slain Rev. 5.6 That he offers up our prayers with his incense to God Rev. 8.3 But the immediate intuition of the whole performance by the person of Christ in Heaven the beholding of him in his work there with the smiles and honours the delight and satisfaction of the Father in his Person and Work certainly this must be a far different thing and what must make more deep and suitable impressions upon our hearts than ever the most affecting view of them by Faith at this distance could do 10. In such ravishing sights and joyful ascriptions of glory to him that sâ—tteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore all the separated Spirits of the just are imployed and wholly taken up in Heaven as they come in their several times thither and will be so imploy'd in that Temple-service unto the end of the World when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father and thenceforth God shall be all in all The illustration and confirmation of this assertion we have in these two or three particulars 1 That all the Spirits of just men from the beginning of the World until Christs ascension into Heaven did enter into Heaven as a place of rest as a City prepared for them of God Heb. 11.16 and did enjoy blessedness and Glory there but yet there seems to
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
Absent from the Body and present with the Lord. It hath now no body to clog or cloud it nor can it complain of distance from God as it did in this World O at what rate must we conceive the love and delight of a Soul under these great advantages to cast out their very Spirits as I may say in their glorious Activities and Exercises Well then here you find A Spirit naturally endued with Understanding Will and Affections in these Faculties and Affections the habits of Grace permanently rooted which therefore accompany it in its ascension to glory an ability to use and exercise these Faculties and Graces and that in a more excellent degree and manner than it did or could in this World the subject and habits inherent being now both made perfect The clog of flesh knockt off and all distance from God removed by its coming home to him even as near as the capacity of the Soul can admit Conceive such a Spirit so qualified now rankt in its proper order among innumerable other holy and blessed Spirits which surround the Throne of God beholding his face with infinite delectation and acting all its Powers and Graces to the highest in the worshipping praising loving and admiring him that sitteth on the Throne and the Lamb for evermore And then you have a true though imperfect Idea or Notion of the Spirit of a just man made perfect I will not here make use of the other Glass to represent a damned Soul separate for a time from its Body and for ever from the Lord that will be shewn you in its proper place Querie 2. QUERIE II. Whether there be any difference in the separation of Gracious Souls from their Bodies and if so in what particulars doth th◠difference appear Sol. §. 1. For the clear stating and satisfying of this Question I will lay down some things negatively and some things positively about it On the negative part I desire two things may be noted 1. First That there is no difference betwixt the separation of one gracious Soul and another in point of safety Every regenerate Soul is fully secured in and by Jesus Christ from the danger of perishing and is out of hazzard of the Wrath to come This must needs be so because all that are in Christ are equally justified by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness without difference to them all Rom. 3.22 Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference By vertue whereof they are all equally secured from Wrath to come one as well as another as all that sailed with Paul so all that die in Christ come safe to the shoar of Glory and not one of them is lost The sting of Death smites none that are in Christ. 2. Secondly There is no difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men in respect of the supporting presence of God with them in that their hour of distress that Promise belongs to them all Psal. 91.15 I will be with him in trouble and so doth that Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Their God is certainly with them all to order the Circumstances of their death and all the Occurrences of that day to his glory and their good Supports I have said a good man in such an hour though Suavities I want and so they have also who meet with the hardest tug at death But notwithstanding their equality in these Priviledges there is a great difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men And this difference is manifest both in the I. External Circumstances of their death II. Internal Circumstances of their death I. In the External Circumstances of their death all have not one and the same passage to Heaven in all respects for 1 First some go thither by the ordinary road of a natural death from their Beds and the arms of lamenting friends to the arms and bosome of Jesus Christ But others swim through the Red Sea to Canaan from a Scaffold to the Throne from a Gibbet or Stake to their Fathers house from insulting Enemies to their triumphant Brethren the Palm-bearing Multitude This is a rough but honourable way to Glory 2 Some lie long under the hand of death before it dispatch them it approaches them by slow and lingering paces they feel every step of death distinctly as it comes on towards them But others are favoured with a quick dispatch a short passage from hence to Glory Hezekiah feared a pineing sickness Isa. 38.10 12. what he feared many feel O how many Days yea Weeks and Months have many gracious Souls dwelt upon the brink of the Pit crying How long Lord how long 3 The pains and throes of death are more acute and sharp to some of Gods people than to others Death is bitter in the most mild and gentle form of it Two such dear and intimate Friends as the Soul and Body are cannot part without some tears groans or sighs and those more deep and emphatical than the groans and sighs of the living use to be But yet comparatively speaking the death of one may be stiled sweet and easie to anothers Latimer and Ridley found it so though burnt in the same flame In this respect all things come alike to all and the same difference is found in the worst as well as in the best men Some like Sheep are laid in the Grave Psal. 49.14 others die in the bitterness of their Soul Iob 21.25 and by this no man knows either love or hatred II. There are beside these some remarkable Internal differences in the dissolution of good men the sum whereof is in this 1. That some gracious Souls have a very hard strait difficult entrance into Heaven just as it is with Ships that sail by a very bare wind all their art care and pains will but just weather some head-land or Cape they steer fast by some dangerous Rock or Sand and with a thousand fears and dangers win their Port at last Saved they are but yet to use the Apostles phrase scarcely saved or saved as by fire And this difficulty ariseth to them from one or all these causes 1 It ordinarily ariseth from the weakness of their faith which is in many Souls without either the light of evidence or strength of reliance neither able to dissolve their doubts nor steadily repose their hearts and thus they die much at the rate they lived poor doubting and cloudy though gracious Souls They can neither speak much of the comfort of past experiences nor of the present foretasts of Heaven 2 The violent assaults and batteries of temptations make the passage exceeding difficult to some O the sharp conflicts and dreadful combates many poor Souls endure upon a death-bed O the charges of hypocrisie fortified by neglects of duty formality and bye-ends in duty falls into sin after conviction and humiliation c. all which the Soul is apt to yield to
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
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
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
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
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
in se Peccata expurgat sanguine cuncta suo Horribilis mors est Fateor sed proxima vita est Ad quam te Christi gratia certa vocat Praesto est de Satana peccato morte triumphans Christus ad hunc igitur laeta alacrisque migra Which may be thus translated Cold death my heart invades my life doth flie O Christ my everlasting life draw nigh Why quiver'st thou my soul within my Breast Thine Angel's come to lead thee to thy rest Quit chearfully this drooping house of clay God will restore it in the appointed day Has't sinn'd I know it let not that be urg'd For Christ thy sins with his own blood hath purg'd Is death affrighting True but yet withal Consider Christ through death to life doth call He triumphs over Satan sin and Death Therefore with joy resign thy dying breath Much in the same chearful frame was the heart of dying Bullinger when his mournful friends expressed their sense of the loss they should sustain by his reâ—â—val Si Deo visum fuerit mea opera ulterius in Ecclesia ministerio uti ipse vires suffiâ—iet libens illi parebo sin me voluerit quod opto ex hac vita evocare paratus sum illius voluntati obsequi ac nihil est quod jâ—cundius possit mihi contingere quam ex hoc misero corruptissimo seculo ad Christum Servatorem mâ—um migrare idem ibid. Why said he If God will make any farther use of my labours in the Ministry he will renew my strength and I will gladly serve him But if he please as I desire he would to call me hence I am ready to obey his Will and nothing more pleasant can befal me than to leave this sinful and miserable World to go to my Saviour Christ. O that all who are out of the danger of death were thus got out of the dread of death too Let them only tremble and be convuls'd at the thoughts and sight of death whose Souls must fall into the hands of a sin-revenging God by the stroke of death who are to breathe out their last hope with their last breath Death is yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.22 your Friend your Priviledge your passage to Heaven 't is your ignorance of it which breeds your fears about it Inference II. GAther from hence the absolute indispensable necessity of your Vnion with Christ before your dissolution by death Wo to that Soul which shall be separated from its Body before it be united with Christ none but the Spirits of just men are made perfect at death Righteous Souls are the only qualified Subjects of blessedness 'T is true every Soul hath a natural capacity of happiness but gracious Souls only have an actual meetness for glory The Scriptures tell us in round and plain words that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 that except we be regenerate and born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 You make the greatest adventure that ever was made by man indeed an adventure infinitely too great for any man to make when you shoot the Gulph of vast eternity upon terms of hazard and uncertainty What thinkest thou Reader darest thou adventure thy Soul and eternal happiness upon it that the work of Regeneration and Sanctification that very same work of Grace which the Spirit of God hangs all thy hopes of Heaven upon in these Scriptures is truly wrought by him in thy Soul Consider it well pause upon it again and again before thou go forth Should a mistake be committed here and nothing is more easie or common all the World over than such mistakes thou art irrecoverably gone This venture can be made but once and the miscarriage is never to be retrieved afterwards thou hast not another Soul to adventure nor a second adventure to make of this Well might the Apostle Peter call for all diligence to make our calling and our election sure That can never be made too sure which is so invaluable in its worth and to be but once adventured Inference III. HOw prejudicial is it to dying men to be then encumbered diverted and distracted about earthly concernments when the time of their departure is at hand The business and imployment of dying persons is of so vast importance and weight that every moment of their time need to be carefully saved and applied to this their present and most important concern How well soever you have improved the time of life believe it you will find work enough upon your hands at death dying hours will be found to be busie and laborious hours even to the most painful serious and industrious Souls whose life hath been mostly spent in preparations for death Leave not the proper business of other days to that day for that day will have business enough of its own Sufficient for that day are the labours thereof Let a few Considerations be pondered to clear and confirm this Inference Consideration I. The business and imployment of dying persons is of the most serious awful and solemn nature and importance it is their last preparatory work on earth to their immediate appearance before God their Judge Heb. 9.27 It is their shooting the Gulph into eternity and leaving this World and all their acquaintance and interests therein for ever Isai. 28.11 It is therefore a Work by it self to die a Work requiring the most intense deep and undisturbed exercises of all the Abilities and Graces of the inner man and all little enough Consideration II. Timâ— is exceeding precious with dying men the last sand is ready to fall and therefore not to be wasted as it was wont to be When we had a fair prospect of many years before us we made little account of an hour or day but now one of those hours which we so carelessly lavished away is of more value than all this World to us especially if the whole weight of eternity should hang upon it as often times it doth then the loss of that portion of time is the loss of Soul Body and hope for evermore Consideration III. Much of that little precious time of departing Souls will be unavoidably taken up and imployed about the inexcusable pressing calls and necessities of distressed nature all that you can do for your Souls must then be done only by fits and snatches in the midst of many disturbances and frequent interruptions So that it is rarely found that a dying man can pursue a serious Meditation with calm and fixed thoughts for besides the pains and faintings of the Body the Abilities of the mind usually fail Here also they fall into a sad Dilemma if they do not with utmost intention of mind fix their hearts and thoughts on Christ they lose their comfort if godly and their Souls if ungodly and if they do Friends and Physicians assure them they will destroy their Bodies These are the straits of men bordering close upon eternity they must hastily
catch a few moments in the intervals of pain and then are put by all again Consideration IV. There is no man living but hath something to do for his own Soul in a dying hour and something for others also Suppose the best that can be supposed that the Soul be in real Union with Christ and that Union be also clear yet it is seldom found but there are some assaults of Satan or if not yet how many Relations and Friends need our experiences and Counsels at such a time How many things shall we have to do after our great and main work is done And others have a great deal more to do though as safe as the former O the Knots and Objections that are then to be dissolv'd and answered The unusual Onsets and Assaults of Satan that are then to be resisted And yet most dying persons have much more upon their hands than either of the former The whole work of Repentance and Faith is to do when time is even done Consideration V. Few yea very few are found furnished â—â—â—h Wisdom Experience and Faithfulness to give dying Persons any considerable assistance in Soul affairs it may be there may be found among the Visitants of the Sick now and then a person who hath a word of Wisdom in his heart but then either he wants opportunity or courage and faithfulness to do the part of a true Spiritual friend Elihu describes the person so qualified as he ought for this work Iob 33.23 24. and calls him one among a thousand Some are too close and reserved others too trifling and impertinent Some are willing but want Ability others are able but want faithfulness Some cut too deep by uncharitable censoriousness others skin over the wound too slightly speaking Peace where God and Conscience speak none So that little help is to be expected Consideration VI. How much therefore doth it deserve to be lamented that where there is so much to do so little time to do it and so few to help in the best improvement of it all should be lost as to their Souls by earthly incumbrances and wordly affairs which may have been done sooâ—â—â—nd better in a more proper season O therefore let mâ—â—â—erswade all men to take heed of bringing the proper business of healthful days to their sick beds Inference IV. What an excellent creature is the Soul of man which is capable not only of such preparations for God whilst it is in the Body but of such sights and enjoyments of God when it lives without a Body Here the Spirit of God works upon it in the way of grace and sanctification Eph. 2.10 The scope and design of this his workmanship is to qualifie and make us meet for the life of Heaven 2 Cor. 5.5 For this self same thing or purpose our Souls are wrought or moulded by grace into quite another frame and temper than that which nature gave them and when he hath wrought out and finished all that he intends to be wrought in the way of sanctification then shall it be called up to the highest injoyments and imployments for ever that a creature is susceptible of Herein the dignity of the Soul appears that no other Creature in this World beside it hath a natural capacity either to be sanctified inherently in this World or glorified everlastingly in that to come to be transformed into the image and filled with the joy of the Lord. There are Myriads of other Souls in this World beside ours but to none of them is the Spirit of sanctification sent but only to ours The Souls of Animals serve only to move the dull and sluggish matter and take in for a few days the sensitive pleasures of the Creation and so expire having no natural capacity of or designation for any higher imployment or enjoyment And it deserves a most serious animadversion that this vast capacity of the Soul for eternal blessedness must of necessity make it capable of so much the more misery and self torment if at last it fail of that blessedness For it is apparent they do not perish because they are uncapable but because they are unwilling not because their Souls wanted any natural faculty that others have but because they would not open those they have 〈◊〉 â—â—ceive Christ in the way of faith and obedience as others did Think upon this you that live only to eat and drink and sleep and play as the Birds and Beasts of the field do what need was there of a reasonable Soul for such sensual imployments do not your noble faculties speak your designation for higher uses and will you not wish to exchange Souls with the most vile and despicable Animal in this World if it were possible to be done Certainly it were better for you to have no capacity of eternal blessedness as they have not if you do not enjoy it and no capacity of torment beyond this life as they have not if you must certainly endure it Inference V. IF our Souls and Bodies must be separated shortly how patiently should we bear all lesser that may or will be made betwixt us and any other enjoyments in this World No union is so intimate strict and dear as that betwixt your Souls and Bodies All your relations and enjoyments in this World hang looser from your Souls than your Bodies do and if it be your duty patiently and submissively to suffer a painful parting pull from your Bodies it is doubtless your duty to suffer meekly and patiently a separation from other things which are but a prelude to it and a meer shadow of it 'T is good to put such cases to our selves in the midst of our pleasant enjoyments I have now many comfortable Relatives in the World Wife Children Kindred and Friends God hath made them pleasant to me but he may bereave me of all these Doth not Providence ring such changes all the World over Are not all Kingdoms Cities and Towns full of the sighs and laments of Widows Orphans and Friends bereaved of their pleasant and useful Relations But if God will have it so 't is our duty to bound our sorrows remembring the time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 In a few days we must be stript much nearer even out of our own Bodies by death God may also separate betwixt me and my health by sickness so that the pleasure of this World shall be cut off from me but sickness is not death though it be a prelude and step towards it I may well bear this with patience who must submissively bear sharper pains than these ere long Yea and well may I bear this submissively considering that by such imbittering and weaning providences God is preparing me for a much easier dissolution than if I should live at ease in the Body all my days till death come to make so great and suddain a change upon me God may also separate betwixt me and my liberty by restraint It hath been the lot of the best men that ever
these fears accompany many of Gods People from their Regeneration to their Dissolution O what would they not give what would they not do yea what would they not endure to get full satisfaction in those things Every working of Corruption every discovery made by Temptation puts them into a fright and makes them question all that ever was wrought in them And as their fears are great about the inward man so also about the outward man especially when such bloody preparations seem to be making by the same Enemies that have acted such and so many bloody Tragedies already in the World But at death they enter into perfect peace and security Isai 57.2 No wind of fear shall ever ruffle and disturb their Souls and put them into a storm any more 7. From deluding shadows into substantial good This World is the World of Shadows and delusive appearances Here we are imposed upon and baffled by empty and deceitful Vanities All we have here is little else but a Dream at death the Soul awakes out of its Dream and finds it self in the World of Realities where it feeds upon substantial good to satisfaction Psal. 17.15 Now the advantages accrewing to the Soul by death being so great and many though the Medium be harsh and ungrateful in it self yet there is all the reason in the World we should covet it for the benefits that come by it Argument V. THe foretasts we have had of Heaven already in the Body should make all the Saints long to be unbodied for the full and perfect fruition of that Joy seeing it cannot be fully and perfectly enjoyed by the Soul till it hath put off the Body by death That there are Praelibations First-fruits and Earnests of future glory given at certain seasons to Believers in this life is put beyond all doubting not only by Scripture-Testimonies but frequent experiences of God's People I speak not only with the Scriptures but with the clear experience of many Saints when I say there are to be felt and tasted even here in the Body the Earnests of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 The first-fruits of the Spirit Rom. 8.23 The sealing of the Spirit Eph. 1.13 The very Ioy of the Lord 1 Pet. 1.8 of the same kind though in a remisser degree with that of the glorified That the fulness of this joy cannot be in us whilst we tabernacle in Bodies of flesh is as plain When Moses desired a sight of that face which the spirits of just men made perfect do continually behold and adore the Answer was No Man can see my face and live Exod. 33.18 19 20. q. d. Moses Thou askest a great thing and understandest not how unable thou art to support that which thou desirest should I shew thee my Glory in this compounded state thou now art it would confound thee and swallow thee up Nature as now constituted cannot support such a weight of Glory a Ray a glimpse of this light overpowers Man and breaks such a clay Vessel to pieces which is the reason why the Resurrection must intervene betwixt this state and that of the Bodies glorification And it is not to be doubted but one main end and reason why these foretasts of Heaven are given us in the Body is to embolden the Soul to venture through death it self for the full enjoyment of those Delights and Pleasures They are like the Grapes of Eshcol to the faint-hearted Israelites or the sweet Wines of Italy to the Gauls which once tasted made them restless till they had conquered that good Countrey where they grew Rom. 8.23 We which have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption viz. The Redemption of our Bodies Well then reflect seriously upon those sweet tastes that you have had of God and his love in your sincere and secret addresses to him and converses with him What an holy forgetfulness of all things in this World hath it wrought How insipid and tastless hath it rendered the sweetest Creature-enjoyments What willingness to be dissolved for a more full fruition of it God this way brings Heaven nigh to your Souls out of design to overcome your Reluctancies at death through which you must pass to the enjoyment of it And after all those sights and tastes both of the truth and goodness of that state shall we still reluctate and hang back as if we had never tasted how good the Lord is O you may justly question whether you ever had a real taste of Jesus Christ if that taste do not kindle Coals of fire in your Bosomes I mean ardent longings to be with him and to be satiated with his love If you have been priviledged with a taste of thaâ— hidden Manna with the sight of things invisible with Joys unspeakable and full of glory and yet are loth to be gone to the fountain whence all this flows certainly you herein both cross the design of the spirit in giving them and cast a vile disgrace and reproach upon the blessed God as thinking there is more bitterness in death than there is sweetness in his presence Yea it argues the strength of that unbelief which still remains in your hearts that after so many tastes and tryals as you have had you still remain doubtful and hesitating about the certainty and reality of things invisible O what adoe hath God with his froward and peevish Children If he had only revealed the future state to us in his Word as the pure Object of Faith and required â—s to die upon the meer credit of his promise without such Pawns Pledges and Earnests as these are were there not reason enough for it But after such and so many wonderful and amazing Condescentions wherein he doth as it were say Soul if yet thou doubtest I will bring Heaven to thee thou shalt have it in thy own hand thy eyes shall see it thy hands shall handle it thy Mouth shall taste it how inexcusable is our Reluctancy Argument VI. IT should greatly fortifie the People of God against the fears of Dissolution to consider that death can neither destroy the being of their Souls by Annihilation nor the hopes and expectations they have of blessedness by disappointment and frustration Prov. 14.32 The Righteous hath hope in his death Though all earthly things fail at death upon which account dying is expressed by failing Luke 16.19 Yet neither the Soul nor the well grounded hopes can fail The Anchor of a Believers hope is firm and sure Hebr. 6.18 It will not come home in the greatest Storm that can beat upon the Soul For 1 God hath foreknown and chosen them to Salvation before the World was 1 Pet. 1.2 And this Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 His Decrees are as firm as Mountains of Brass Zâ—ch 6.1 2 God hath justified their persons and therein destroyed the power of death over them 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death
In this Scripture we have the contrary glass representing the unspeakable misery of those Souls or Spirits which are separated by death from their Bodies for a time and by sin from God for ever Arrested by the Law and secured in the prison of Hell unto the judgment of the great day A Sermon of Hell may keep some Souls out of Hell and a Sermon of Heaven be the means to help others to Heaven The desire of my heart is that the conversations of all those who shall read these discourses of Heaven and Hell might look more like a diligent flight from the one and pursuit of the other The scope of the context is a perswasive to patience upon a prospect of manifold tribulations coming upon the Christian Churches strongly enforced by Christs example who both in his own person ver 18. and by his spirit in his Servants ver 19. exercised wonderful patience and long suffering as a pattern to his people This 19. ver gives us an account of his long-suffering towards that disobedient and immorigerous generation of sinners on whom he waited 120 years in the Ministry of Noah There are difficulties in the Text. Estius reckons no less than ten expositions of it Locus â—iâ—c omnium penè interpretum judicio difficillimus Estius and saith it is a very difficult Scripture in the judgment of almost all Interpreters But yet I must say those difficulties are rather brought to it than found in it It is a Text which hath been rackt and tortured by Popish Expositors to make it speak Christs local descent into Hell and to confess their Doctrine of Purgatory things which it knew not But if we will take its genuine sense it only relates the sin and misery of those contumacious persons on whom the spirit of God waited so long in the Ministry of Noah giving an account Of 1. Their sin on Earth Of 2. Their punishment in Hell 1. Their sin on Earth which is both specified and aggravated 1 Specified Namely their disobedience They were sometimes disobedient or unperswadeable neither precepts nor examples could bring them to repentance 2 This their disobedience is aggravated by the expence of God's patience upon them for the space of an hundred and twenty years not only forbearing them so long but striving with them as Moses expresseth it or waiting on them as the Apostle here but all to no purpose they were obstinate stubborn and unperswadeable to the very last 2. Behold therefore in the next place the dreadful but most just and equal punishment of these sinners in Hell they are called Spirits in prison i e. Souls now in Hell At that time when Peter wrote of them they were not intire men Psal. 31.6 Eccles. 12.7 Acts. 7.50 but Spirits in the proper sense i.e. separated Souls bodiless and lonely Souls whilst in the Body it is properly a Soul but when separated a Spirit according to Scripture-language and the strict notion of such a Being These Spirits or Souls in the state of separation are said to be in a Prison that is in Hell as the word elsewhere notes Rev. 20.7 and Iude v. 6. comp Heaven and Hell are the only receptacles of departed or separated Souls Thus you have in a few words the natural and genuine sense of the place and it is but a wast of time to repeat and refel the many false and forced interpretations of this Text which corrupt minds and mercenary Pens have perplext and darkned it withal That which I level at is comprized in this plain Proposition DOCT. That the Souls or Spirits of all men who dye in a state of unbelief and disobedience are immediately committed to the Prison of Hell there to sufferr the wrath of God due to their sins Hell is shadowed forth to us in Scripture by diverse Metaphors for we cannot conceive spiritual things unless they be so cloathed and shadowed out unto us Spiritualia capere non possumus nisi adumbrata Augustine gives this reason for the frequent use of Metaphors and Allegories in Scripture because they are so much proportioned to our senses with which our senses have contracted an intimacy and familiarity and therefore God to accommodate his truth to our capacity doth as it were this way embody it in earthly expressions according to that celebrated observation of the Cabalists lumen supremum nunquam descendit sine indumento The pure and supream light never descends to us without a garment or covering In the old Testament the place and state of damned Souls is set forth by Metaphors taken from the most remarkable places and exemplary acts of vengeance upon sinners in this World as the overthrow of the Giants by the flood those prodigious sinners that fought against Heaven and were swept by the flood into the place of Torments Hell called the place of Giants and why to this Solomon is conceived to allude in Prov. 21.16 The man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead in the Heb. it is they shall remain with the Rephaims or Giants These Giants were the men that more especially provoked God to bring the flood upon the World they are also noted as the first inhabitants of Hell therefore from them the place of Torments takes its name and the damned are said to remain in the place of Giants Hell called Tophet and why Sometimes Hell is called Trophet Isa. 30.33 This Tophet was in the valley of Hinnom and was famous for divers things There the children of Israel caused their children to pass through the fire to Moloch or sacrificed them to the Devil drowning their horrible shrieks and ejulations with the noise of Drums In this valley also was the memorable slaughter of eighteen hundred thousand of the Assyrian Camp by an Angel in one night There also the Babylonians murthered the people of Ierusalem at the taking of the City Ier. 7.31 32. So that Tophet was a meer Shambles the publick chopping block on which the limbs both of young and old were quartered out by thousands it was filled with dead Bodies till there was no place for burial By all which it appears that no spot of ground in the World was so famous for the fires kindled in it to destroy men for the doleful cries that echo'd from it or the innumerable multitudes that perished in it for which reasons it is made the embleme of Hell Sometimes it is called a lake of fire burning with brimstone Hell a lake of fire Rev. 19.20 denoting the most exquisite torment by an intense and durable flame And in the Text it 's called a prison A prison where the Spirits of ungodly men are both detained and punished This notion of a Prison gives us a lively representation of the miserable state of damned Souls and that especially in the following particulars First Prisoners are arrested and seized by authority of Law 't is the Law which sends them
thither and keeps them there The Mittimus of a Justice is but the instrument of the Law whereby they are deprived of liberty and taken into custody The Law of God which sinners have both violated and despised at death takes hold of them and arrests them 'T is the Law which claps up their Spirits in Prison and in the name and authority of the great and terrible God commits them to Hell All that are out of Christ are under the curse and damning sentence of the Law which now comes to be executed on them Gal. 3.10 Secondly Prisoners are carried or haled to prison by force and constraint Natural force backs legal authority The Law is executed by rough and resolute Bayliffs who compel them to go though never so much against their will This also is the case of the wicked at death Satan is Gods Bayliff to hurry away the Law-condemned Soul to the infernal Prison The Devil hath the power of death Heb. 2.14 as the Executioner hath of the Body of a condemned man Thirdly Prisoners are chained and bolted in Prison to prevent their escape so are damned Spirits secured by the power of God and chained by their own guilty and trembling Consciences in Hell unto the time of Judgment and the fulness of misery not that they have no torment in the mean time Alas Were there no more but that fearful expectation of wrath and fiery indignation spoken of by the Apostle Heb. 10.27 it were an inexpressible torment but there is a further degree of torment to be awarded them at the judgment of the great day to which they are therefore kept as in Chains and Prisons Fourthly Prisons are dark and noisome places not built for pleasure as other houses are but for punishment so is Hell Jud. v. 6. Reserved in everlasting chains under darkness as he there describes the place of torments yea utter darkness Matth. 8. v. 12. extream or perfect darkness Philosophers tell us of the darkness of this World non dantur purae tenebrae that there is no pure or perfect darkness here without some mixture of light but there is not a glade of light not a spark of hope or comfort shining into that Prison Fifthly Mournful sighs and groans are heard in Prisons Psal. 97.11 Let the sighing of the Prisoners come before thee saith the Psalmist But deeper sighs and emphatical groans are heard in Hell There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8 12. Those that could not groan under the sence of sin on Earth shall howl under anguish and desperation in Hell Sixthly There is a time when Prisoners are brought out of the Prison to be judged and then return in a worse condition than before to the place from whence they came God also hath appointed a day for the solemn condemnation of those Spirits in Prison The Scriptures call it the iudgement of the great day Iude v. 6. from the great business that is to be done therein and the great and solemn assembly that shall then appear before God But I will insist no longer upon the display of the Metaphor My business is to give you a representation of the state and condition of damned Souls in Hell and to assist your conceptions of them and of their state 'T is a dreadful sight I am to give you this day but how much better is it to see than to feel that wrath the treasures thereof shall shortly be broken up and poured forth upon the Spirits of men You had in the former Discourse a faint umbrage of the Spirits of just men in glory in this you will have an imperfect representation of the Spirits of wicked men in Hell and look as the former cannot be adequate and perfect because that happiness passeth our knowledge so neither can this be so because the misery of the damned passeth our fear The case and state of a damned Spirit will be best opened in these following Propositions PROP. I. That the guilt of all sin gathers to and settles in the Conscience of every Christless sinner and makes up a vast treasure of guilt in the course of his life in this World THE high and awful power of Conscience belonging to the understanding faculty in the Soul of Man was spoken to before as to its general nature Page 21. And that conscience certainly accompanies it and is inseparable from it was there shewed I am here to consider it as the seat or centre of guilt in all unregenerate and lost Souls For look as the tides wash up and leave the slime and filth upon the shore even so all the corruption and sin that is in the other faculties of the Soul settles upon the conscience Their mind and conscience saith the Apostle is defiled Tit. 1.15 it is as it were the sink of a sinners Soul into which all filth runs and guilt settles The conscience of every Believer is purged from its filthiness by the blood of Christ Heb. 9.14 his blood and his Spirit purifie it and pacifie it whereby it becomes the region of light and peace but all the guilt which hath been long contracting through the life of an unbeliever fixes it self deep and fast in his conscience It is written upon the Tables of their hearts as with a pen of Iron Jer. 17.1 i. e. guilt is as a mark or character fashioned or ingraven in the very substance of the Soul as letters are cut into glass with a Diamond Conscience is not only the principal engagée obliged unto God as a Judge but the principal director and guide of the Soul in its courses and actions and consequently the guilt of all sin falls upon it and rests in it The Soul is both the spring and fountain of all actions that go outward from man and the term or receptacle of all actions inward but in both sorts of actions going outward and coming inward conscience is the chief Counsellor Guide and director in all and so the guilt which is contracted either way must be upon its head 'T is the bridle of the Soul to restrain it from sin the eye of the Soul to direct its course and therefore is principally chargeable with all the evils of life Bodily members are but instruments and the will it self as high and noble a faculty or power as it is moveth not until the judgment cometh to a conclusion and the debate be ended in the mind Now in the whole course and compass of a sinners life in this World what treasures of guilt must needs be lodged in his conscience What a Magazine of sin and filth must be laid up there 'T is said of a wicked man Job 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth meaning his Spirit Mind or Conscience is as full of sin as bones are of Marrow yea the very sins of his Youth are enough to fill them and Rom. 2.5 they are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath which is only done
by treasuring up guilt for wrath and guilt are treasured up together in proportion to each other Every day of his life vast summs have been cast into this treasury and the patience of God waiteth till it be full before he call the sinner to an account and reckoning Gen. 15.16 PROP. II. All the sin and guilt contracted upon the Souls and consciences of impenitent men in this World accompanies and follows their departed Souls to judgment and there brings them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God which cuts off all their hopes and comforts for ever IF you believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins Joh. 8.24 and Job 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall lye down with him in the dust No Proposition lies clearer in Scripture or should lie with greater weight upon the hearts of sinners nothing but pardon can remove guilt but without faith and repentance there never was nor shall be a pardon Acts 10.43 Rom. 3 24 25. Luk. 24.46 47. Look as the graces of Believers so the sins of Unbelievers follow the Soul whithersover it goes All their sins who dye out of Christ cry to them when they go hence We are thy works and we will follow thee The acts of sin are transient but the guilt and effects of it are permanent and it is evident by this that in the great day their consciences which are the Books of record wherein all their sins are registred will be opened and they shall be judged by them and out of them Rev. 20.12 Now before that general judgment every Soul comes to its particular judgment and that immediately after death of this I apprehend the Apostle to speak in Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to dye but after that the judgment The Soul is presently stated by this judgment in its everlasting and fixed condition The Soul of a wicked man appearing before God in all its sin and guilt and by him sentenced immediately it gives up all its hope Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish Etiam spes valentissima and the hope of unjust men perisheth His strong hope perisheth as some read it i.e. his strong delusion for alas He took his own shadow for a bridge over the great waters and is unexpectedly plunged into the gulph of eternal misery as Matth. 7.22 This perishing or cutting off of hope is that which is called in Scripture the death of the Soul for so long the Soul will live as it hath any hope The deferring of hope makes it sick but the final cutting off of hope strikes it quite dead i.e. dead as to all joy comfort or expectation of any for ever which is that death which an immortal Soul is capable to suffer the righteous hath hope in his death but every unregenerate man in the world breaths out his last hope in a few moments after his last breath which strikes terror into the very centre of the Soul and is a death-wound to it PROP. III. The Souls of the damned are exceeding large and capacious subjects of wrath and torment and in their separate state their capacity is greatly enlarged both by laying asleep all those affections whose exercise is relieving and throughly awakning all those passions which are tormenting THE Soul of man being by nature a Spirit an intelligent Spirit and in its substantial faculties assimilated to God whose image it bears it must for that reason be exquisitely sensible of all the impressions and touches of the wrath of God upon it The Spirit of man is a most tender sensible and apprehensive Creature The eye of the Body is not so sensible of a touch a nerve of the Body is not so sensible when pricked as the Spirit of man is of the least touch of Gods indignation upon it A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Other external wounds upon the Body inflicted either by man or God are tolerable but that which immediately toucheth the Spirit of man is insufferable Who can bear or endure it And as the Spirit of man hath the most delicate and exquisite sense of misery so it hath a vast capacity to receive and let in the fulness of anguish and misery into it it is a large vessel called Rom. 9.22 a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction The large capacity of the Soul is seen in this that it is not in the power of all the creatures in the World to satisfie and fill it It can drink up as one speaks all the rivers of created good and its thirst not quenched by such a draught but after all it crys Give give Nothing but an infinite God can quiet and satisfie its appetite and raging thirst And as it is capable and receptive of more good than is found in all the Creatures So it is capable of more misery and anguish than all the Creatures can inflict upon it Let all the elements or men on Earth yea all the Devils and damned in Hell conspire and unite in a design to torment man yet when they have done all his Spirit is capable of a farther degree of torment a torment as much beyond it as a rack is beyond an hard bed or the Sword in his bowels is beyond the scratch of a pin The Devils indeed are the executioners and tormentors of the damned but if that were all they were capable to suffer the torments of the damned would be comparatively mild and gentle to what they are O the largeness of the understanding of man What will it not take into its vast capacity But add to this That damned Souls have all those affections laid in a deep and everlasting sleep the exercises whereof would be relieving by emptying their Souls of any part of their misery and all those passions throughly and everlastingly awakened which increase their torments The affections of joy delight and hope are all benummed in them and laid fast asleep never to be awakened into act any more Their hope in Scripture is said to perish i. e. it so perisheth that after death it shall never exert another act to all eternity The activity of any of these affections would be like a cooling gale or refreshing Spring amidst their torments but as Adrian lamented himself nunquam jocos dabis thou shalt never be merry more And as these affections are laid asleep so their passions are rouzed and throughly awakened to torment them So awakened as never to sleep any more The Souls of men are sometimes jog'd and startled in this World by the words or rods of God but presently they sleep again and forget all but hereafter the eyes of their Souls will be continually held waking to behold and consider their misery their understandings will be clear and most apprehensive their thoughts fixed and determined their consciences active and efficacious and by all this their capacity to take in the fulness of their misery
enlarged to the uttermost PROP. IV. The wrath indignation and revenge of God poured out as the just reward of sin upon the so capacious Souls of the damned is the principal part of their misery in Hell IN the third Proposition I shew'd you that the Souls of the damned can hold more misery than all the creatures can inflict upon them When the Soul suffers from the hand of man its sufferings are but either by way of sympathy with the Body or if immediately yet it is but a light stroke the hand of a creature can give But when it hath to do with a sin revenging God and that immediately this stroke cuts off the spirit of man as the expression is Psal. 88.16 The Body is the cloathing of the Soul Most of the arrows shot at the Soul in this World do but stick in the cloaths i. e. reach the outward man but in Hell the Spirit of man is the white at which God himself shoots All his envenomed arrows strike the Soul which is after death laid bare and naked to be wounded by his hand At death the Soul of every wicked man immediately falls into the hands of the living God and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God as the Apostle speaks Heb. 10.31 Their punishment is from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes. 1.9 They are not put over to their fellow creatures to be punished but God will do it himself and glorifie his power as well as justice in their punishment The wrath of God lies immediately upon their Spirits and this is the fiery indignation which devoureth the adversaries Heb. 10.27 A fire that licks up the very Spirit of man who knoweth the power of his anger Psal. 90.11 How insupportable it is you may a little guess by that expression of the Prophet Nahum 1.5 6. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him And as if anger and wrath were not words of a sufficient edge and sharpness it s called fiery indignation and vengeance words denoting the most intense degree of divine wrath For indeed his power is to be glorified in the destruction of his enemies and therefore now he will do it to purpose He takes them now into his own hands No creature can come at the Soul immediately that is Gods prerogative and now he hath to do with it himself in fury and revenges poured out Can thy hands be strong or thy heart endure when I shall deal with thee Ezek. 22.14 Alas the spirit quails and dies under it This is the Hell of Hells What doleful cries and laments have we heard from Gods dearest children when but some few drops of his anger have been sprinkled upon their Souls here in this world But alas there is no compare betwixt the anger or fatherly discipline of God over the Spirits of his children and indignation poured out from the beginning of revenges upon his enemies PROP. V The separate Spirit of a damned man becomes a tormentor to it self by the various and efficacious actings of its own conscience which are a special part of its torment in the other World COnscience which should have been the sinners curb on earth becomes the Whip that must lash his Soul in Hell Neither is there any faculty or power belonging to the Soul of man so fit and able to do it as his own conscience That which was the seat and centre of all guilt now becomes the seat and centre of all torments The suspension of its tormenting power in this World is a mystery and wonder to all that duely consider it For certainly should the Lord let a sinners conscience flie upon him with rage in the midst of his sins and pleasures it would put them into an Hell upon Earth as we see in the doleful instances of Iudas Spira c. but he keeps an hand of restraint upon them generally in this life and suffers them to sleep quietly by a grumbling or seared conscience which couches by them as a sleepy Lion and lets them alone But no sooner is the Christless Soul turn'd out of the Body and cast for eternity at the bar of God but conscience is rouzed and put into a rage never to be appeased any more It now racks and tortures the miserable Soul with its utmost efficacy and activity The mere presages and forebodeings of wrath by the consciences of sinners in this World hath made them lye with a ghastly paleness in their faces an universal trembling in all their Members a cold sweating horrour upon their panting bosoms like men already in Hell but this all this is but as the sweating or giving of the stones before the great rain falls The activities of conscience especially in Hell are various vigorous and dreadful to consider such are its recognitions accusations condemnations upbraidings shameings and fearful expectations First the consciences of the damned will recognize and bring back the sins committed in this World fresh to their mind for what is conscience but a Register or book of Records wherein every sin is ranked in its proper place and order this act of conscience is fundamental to all its other acts for it cannot accuse condemn upbraid or shame us for that it hath lost out of its memory and hath no sense of Son remember said Abraham to Dives in the midst of his torments This remembrance of sins past mercies past opportunities past but especially of hope past and gone with them never to be recovered any more is like that fire not blown of which Zophar speaks which consumes him or the glistering Sword coming out of his Gall Iob 20.24 c. Secondly It chargeth and accuseth the damned Soul and its charges are home positive and self-evident charges a thousand legal and unexceptionable Witnesses cannot confirm any point more than one Witness in a mans bosome can do Rom 2.15 it convicts and stops their mouths leaving them without any excuse or Apology Just and righteous are the Judgments of God upon thee saith Conscience in all this Ocean of misery there is not one drop of injury or wrong the Judgment of God is according unto truth Thirdly It condemns as well as chargeth and witnesseth and that with a dreadful Sentence backing and approving the â—entence and Judgment of God 1 Iohn 3.21 every self-destroyer will be a self-condemner This is a prime part of their misery Prima est haec ultio Juven Sat. 13. quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur improba quamvis Gratia fallacis Praetoris vicerit urnam Fourthly The upbraidings of Conscience in Hell are terrible and insufferable things to be continually hit in the teeth and twitted with our
of their torment in Hell Rev. 18.7 so much torment and sorrow as there was delight and pleasure in sin 4. To conclude the pleasures of sin are but for a season as you read Heb. 11.25 but the wrath of God in Hell is for ever and ever There is a time when the pleasures of sin cannot be called pleasure to come but the Wrath of God that will still be wrath to come O consider for what a trifle you sell your Souls When Lysimachus parted with his Kingdom for a draught of water he said when he had drank it For how short a pleasure have I sold a Kingdom And Ionathan lamented 1 Sam. 14.43 I tasted but a little Honey and I must die Satan would not charm so powerfully as he doth with the pleasures of sin if this point were well believed and heartily applied Inference III. WHat a matchless madness is it to cast the Soul into Gods Prison to save the Body out of Mans Prison Men have their Prisons and God hath his but because the one is an Object of Sense and the other an Object of Faith that only is feared and this slighted all over this unbelieving World except by a very small number of men who tremble at the Word of God Now this I say is the height of madness and will appear to be so in a just Collation of both in a few Particulars 1 Mans Prison restrains the Body only Gods Prison Soul and Body Matt. 10.28 The Spirits of Men as my Text speaks are the Prisoners there O what a vast odds doth this single difference make A thousand times more than the captivating and binding of the greatest King or Emperour differs from the imprisonment of a poor Mechanick or Vagrant Beggar 2 In Mans Prison there are many comforts and unspeakable refreshments from Heaven but in Gods Prison none but the direct contrary You read of the Apostles Acts 16.25 how they sang in the Prison the Spirit of God made them a Banquet of heavenly Ioys and they could not but sing at it though their feet were in the stocks their Spirits were never more at liberty Algerius dated his Letters from the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Prison where saith he flows the sweetest Nectar Another tells us Christ was always kind to him but since he became a Prisoner for him he even overcame himself in kindness I verily think saith he the Chains of my Lord are all overlaid with pure Gold and his Cross perfumed but the worst terrours of the Prisoners in Hell come from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes. 1.9 God is a terrour to them 3 The cause for which a man is cast into Prison by men may be his Dâ—ty and so his Conscience must be at least quiet if not joyful in such Sufferings So it was with Paul Acts 28.20 For the hope of Israel am I bound with this Chain This diffuses Joy and Peace through the Conscience into the whole man but the cause for which men are cast into Gods Prison is their sin and guilt which armes their own Consciences against them and makes them as you heard before Self-tormentors terrours to themselves What odds is here 4 In Mans Prison the most excellent Company and sweet Society may be found Paul and Silas were fellow Prisoners In Queen Maries days the most excellent Company to be found in England was in the Prisons Prisons were turned into Churches But in Gods Prison no better Society is to be found than that of Devils and damned Reprobates Matth. 25.41 5 In Mans Prison there is hope of a comfortable deliverance but in Gods Prison none Matt. 5.26 Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the last Mite 'T is an everlasting Prison Compare these few obvious Particulars and judge then what is to be thought of that man who stands readier to cast himself into any guilt than into the least Suffering What is it but as if a man should offer his Neck to the Sword to save his hand The Lord convince us what trifles our Estates Liberties and Lives are to our Souls or to the peace and purity of our Consciences Inference IV. WHat an invaluable mercy is the pardon of sin which sets the Soul out of all danger of going to this prison When the debt is satisfied a man may walk as boldly before the prison door as he doth before his own they that owe nothing fear no Bayliffs 'T is the Law as I said before that commits men to Prison a Mittimus is but an instrument of Law but the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in them that believe Rom. 8.4 Yea they are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 There can be no process of Law against them For who shall condemn when it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 34. And that divine justice might be no bar to our faith or comfort he adds It is Christ that died and yet farther to assure us that his death hath made plenary satisfaction to God for all our sins and debts it added Yea rather that is risen again q. d. If the debts of believers to God were not fully paid and satisfied for by the blood of Christ how comes it to pass that our Surety is discharged as by his Resurrection he appears to be O Believer thy Bonds are Cancelled the hand-writing that was against thee is nailed to the Cross the blood of Christ hath done that for thee that all the Gold and Silver in the World could not do 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It is a counter price 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eâ—t pretium ex adverso respondent fully answering to thy debts Matth. 20.28 And hence to the Eternal joy of thy heart result three properties of thy pardon which are able to make thine eyes gush out with tears of joy whilst thou art reading of it 1. It is a free pardon to thy Soul though it cost Christ dear it costs thee nothing We have redemption even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 The project of it was Gods not thine the price for it was Christs blood not thine the glory and riches of free grace are illustriously displayed in thy forgiveness 2. It is as full as it is free a compleat and perfect cause produceth a compleat and perfect effect Acts 13.39 Iustified from all things what ever thy sins be for nature number or circumstances of aggravation they cannot exceed the value of the meritorious cause of Remission The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin 3. It must be as firm as it is free and full even an irrevocable pardon for ever more Christ did not shed his blood at an hazzard the way of justification by faith makes the promise sure Rom. 4 16. The justified shall never come again under condemnation O the unspeakable joy that flows from this Spring O the triumphs of faith upon this foundation It is not ravishing melting overwhelming and amazing
to think thus with thy self Here sit I with a joyful plenary free pardon of sin in my hand whilst many who never sinned to that height and degree I have lye groaning howling sweating and trembling under the indignation of God poured out like fire upon their Souls in Hell A greater sinner saved and lesser damned O how unspeakably sweet is that rest into which my terrified and diquieted Soul is come by faith Rom. 5.1 Heb. 4.3 We which have believed do enter into rest O blessed calm after a dreadful Tempest This poor breast of mine was lately panting sweating trembling under the horrors of wrath to come terrified with the visions of Hell No other sound was in mine ears but that of fiery indignation to devour the adversaries O what price can be put upon my quietus est What value upon a pardon delivered as it were at the ladders foot O precious hand of faith that receives it but oh the most precious blood of Christ which purchased it If Satan now come with his accusations the law with its comminations death with its dreadful summons I have in a readiness to answer them all Here is the law the wrath of God and everlasting burnings the just demerit of sin upon one side and a poor sinful creature on the other side but the Covenant of grace hath solv'd all An Act of oblivion is past in Heaven I will forgive their iniquities and their sins and transgressions will I remember no more In this Act of Grace my Soul is included I am in Christ and there is no condemnation Dye I must but damned I shall not be My debts are paid my bonds are cancelled my Conscience is quieted let death do its worst it shall do me no harm that blood which satisfies God may well satisfie me Inference V. HOw amazingly sad and deplorable is the security and stilness of the Consciences of sinners under all their own guilts and the immediate danger of Gods everlasting wrath Philosophers observe that before an Earthquake the Wind lies and the weather is exceeding calm and still not a breath of wind going So it is in the Consciences of many just before the tempest and storm of Gods wrath pours down upon them What a golden morning open'd upon Sodom and began that fatal day Little did they imagine showres of fire had been ready to fall from so pleasant and serene a skie as they saw over their heads How secure still and unconcerned are those to day who it may be shall rage roar and tremble in Hell to morrow Caesar hearing of a Citizen of Rome who was deep in debt and yet slept soundly would needs have his Pillow as supposing there was some strange charming virtue in it It is wonderful to consider what shift men make to keep their consciences in that stilness and quiet they do under such loads of guilt and threatnings of wrath ready to be executed upon them It must be some strong Opium that so stupefies and benums their Consciences and upon enquiry into the matter we shall find it to be the effect of 1. A strong delusion of Satan 2. A Spiritual judicial stroke of God 1. This stilness of Conscience upon the brink of damnation proceeds from the strong delusions of Satan blinding their eyes and feeding their false hopes he removes the evil day at many years imaginary distance from them and interposeth many a fair day betwixt them and it and in that interposed season time enough to prepare for it without such an artifice as this his house would be in an uproar but this keeps all in peace Luke 11.21 Praesumendo â—â—erâ—nt perando pereâ—nt By presuming he feeds their hopes and by their hopes destroys their Souls Some he diverts from all serious thoughts of this day by the pleasures and others by the cares of this life and so that day cometh upon them unawares Luke 21.34 2. This stilness of Conscience in so miserable and dangerous a state is the effect of a spiritual judicial stroke of God upon the children of wrath That 's a dreadful word Isaiah 6.10 Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes Pinguedo non refractaria solum facit animalia sed omnis expers sensus est consetientibus Physicis Glass the Eye and Ear are the two principal doors or inlets to the heart when these are shut the heart must needs be insensible as the fat of the Body is There is a Spirit of a deep sleep poured out judicially upon some men Isa. 29.10 Such as that upon Adam when God took a Rib from his side and he felt it not but this is upon the Soul and is the same as to give up a man to a reprobate sense Inference VI. THe case of distressed Consciences upon earth is exceeding sad and calls upon all for the tenderest pity and utermost help from men You see the labourings of Conscience under the sense of guilt and wrath is a special part of the Torments of Hell of which there is not a livelier Emblem or Picture than the distresses of Conscience in this World It must be thankfully confessed there are two great differences betwixt the terrours of Conscience here and there One in the degrees of anguish the other in the reliefs of that anguish The ordinary distresses of Conscience here compared with those of the damned are as the flame of a Candle to a fiery Oven a mild and gentle fire Or as the Sparks that fly out of the top of a Chimney to the dreadful eruptions of Vesuvius or Mount Aetna Beside these are capable of relief but those are unrelievable their hearts die because their hope is perished from the Lord. But yet of all the miseries and distresses incident to men in this World none like those of distressed Consciences the terrours of God set themselves in array or are drawn up in Batalia against the Soul Iob 6.4 Whilst I suffer thy terrors saith Heman I am distracted Psal. 88.15 Yea they not only distract but cut off the Spirit as he adds v. 16. They lick up the very Spirit of a man and none can bear them Prov. 18.14 for now a man hath to do immediately with God yea with the Wrath of the great and dreadful God and this wrath which is the most acute and sharp of all torments falls upon the most tender and sensible part the Spirit and Mind which now lies open and naked before him to be wounded by it No Creature can administer the least relief by the application of any temporal comfort or refreshment to it Gold and Silver Wife and Children Meat and Melody signifie no more than the drawing off a silk stockin to cure the Paroxysms of the Gout All that can be done for their relief is by seasonable judicious and tender Applications of Spiritual Remedies and what can be done ought to be done for them What heart can hear a voice like that of Iob
all the city cryed out When Paul tooâ— his leave of Antioch and told them they should see his face no more how did the poor Christians lament and mourn as cut at the heart by that killing word Acts 20.37 38. It made Christs bowels to yearn and roll within him when he saw the multitude scatter'd as sheep having no shepherd Matth. 9.36 Matthew Paris tells us in the year 1072. when preaching was supprest at Rome Letters were then framed as coming from Hell wherein the Devil gave them thanks for the multitude of Souls sent to him that year but we need no Letters from Hell we have a sad account from Heaven in what a sad state those Souls are left from whom the means of Salvation are cut off Where no vision is the people perish Prov. 29.18 and Hosea 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge 'T is sad when those Stars that guide Souls to Christ as that which the Wise-men saw did are set and wandring Stars shall shine in their places O if God remove the golden Candlestick out of its place what but the desolation and ruine of millions of Souls must follow We account it insufferable cruelty for a man to undertake the pilotting of a Ship full of Passengers who never learnt his Compass or an ignorant Empirick to get his living by killing mens bodies but much more lamentable will the state of Souls be if ever they fall which God in mercy prevent into the hands of Popish Guides or blind Leaders of the blind Inference VII IF the Soul be of so precious a Nature it can never live upon such base and vile food as earthly things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quod à nobis rejectum projicitur canibus The Apostle Phil. 3.8 9 calls the things of this World Dogs meat and judge if that be proper food for such noble and high-born Creatures as our Souls are An immaterial Being can never live upon material things they are no bread for Souls as the Prophet speaks Isa. 55 2. Why do ye spend money i. e. time and pains thoughts and cares for that which is not bread Your Souls can no more live upon carnal than your bodies can upon spiritual things Earthly things have a double defect in them by reason whereof they are called things of nought Amos 6.13 of no worth or value they are neither suitable nor durable and therefore in the Souls eye not valuable 1. They are not suitable What are Corn and Wine Gold and Silver Pleasures and Honours to the Soul The body and bodily senses can find somewhat of refreshment in them but not the Spirit that which is bread to the body affords no more nourishment to the Soul than wind or ashes Isa. 44.20 Cinis est crassior illa materia in quam combustum redigitur He feedeth of ashes Ashes are that light and dry matter into which fuel is reduced by the fire the fuel before it was burnt had nothing in it fit for nourishment or if the sap or juice that was in it might in any respect be useful that way yet all that is devoured and lickt up by the fire and not the least nutriment left in the ashes and such are all earthly things to the Soul of man I am the bread of life saith Christ. A Soul can feed and feast it self upon Christ and the Promises these are things full of marrow and fatness substantial and proper Soul-nutriment 2. As earthly things are no way suitable to the Soul so neither are they durable The Apostle reduceth all earthly things to three Heads the lusts of the Eye the lusts of the Flesh and the pride of Life 1 Ioh. 2.16 he calls them all by the name of that which gives the lustre and beauty to them and pronounceth them all fading transitory vanities they all pass away as time so these things that are measured by time are in fluxu continuo always going and at last will be all gone Now the Soul being of an immortal Nature and these things of a perishing nature it must necessarily and unavoidably follow that the Soul must overlive them all and if it will do so what a dismal case are those Souls in for whom no other provision is made but that on which it cannot subsist whilst it hath them no more than the body can upon ashes or wind and if it could yet they will shortly fail it and pass away for ever So then it is beyond debate that there lies a plain necessity upon every man to make provision in time of things more suitable and durable than earthly treasures are or the Soul must perish as to its comfort to all Eternity Hence is that weighty counsel of him that came to save them Luke 12.33 Provide your selves bags that wax not old a treasure in Heaven that saileth not i. e. an happiness which will last as long as your Souls last Certainly the moth-eaten things of this World are no proâ—â—sion for immortal Spirits and yet multitudes think of â—â—â—ther provision for them but live as if they had nothing to do in this World but to get an Estate Alas what are all these things to the Soul They signifie somewhat indeed to the body and that but for a little time for after the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints become spiritual in their qualities and no more need these material things than the Angels do 'T is madness therefore to be so intent upon cares for the body as to neglect the Soul but to ruine the soul and drown it in perdition for the sake of these provisions for the flesh is the height of madness Inference VIII IF the Soul be so invaluably precious then it is a rational and well advised resolution and practice to expose all other things to hazard yea to certain less for the preservation of the more precious Soul 'T is better our bodies and all their comforts should perish than that our Souls should perish for their sakes Nature it self teacheth us to offer an hand or arm to the stroke of a Sword to save a blow from the head or put by a thrust at the heart It is recorded to the praise of those three Worthies Dan. 3.28 That they yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God By this rule all the Martyrs of Christ governed themselves still slighting and exposing to destruction their bodies and Estates to preserve their Souls reckoning to save nothing by Religion but their Souls and that they had lost nothing if they could save them They loved not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 Then do we live like Christians when the cares of our bodies are swallowed up and subdued by the cares of our Souls and all Creature-loves by the love of Christ those blessed Souls hated their own bodies and counted them their enemies when they would draw them from Christ and his Truths
Neighbourhood and yet saith I believe the grace and fear of God was in him for when he heard any to swear or take the Name of God in vain he would throw stones at them and shew his indignation against sin by all the signs he could make 2. You that are so grosly ignorant in the matters of your Salvation are many of you very knowing prudent and subtle persons in the affairs of the world Luke 16.8 The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light Had those parts which you have been improved and heightned by study and observation about spirituals as they have been about earthly things you had neither been so ignorant or dead-hearted as you are you might have been as well verst in your Bibles as you are in the Almanacks you yearly buy and study you might have understood the proper seasons of Salvation as well as of Husbandry The great and necessary points on which your Salvation depends are not so many or so abstruse and intricate but your plain and inartificial heads might have understood them and that with less pains than you have been at for your bodies What though you cannot comprehend the subtleties of Shoolmen you may apprehend the Essentials of Christianity If you cannot strictly and scholastically define Faith what hinders if your hearts were set upon Christ and Salvation but you may feel it which is more than many learned men do that can define and dispute about it You cannot put an Argument in Mood and Figure no matter if you can by comparing your Bibles and hearts together draw savingly and experimentally this conclusion I am in Christ and my sins are pardoned You cannot determine whether Faith goes before Repentance or Repentance before Faith but for all that you might feel both the one and the other upon your own Souls which is infinitely better 'T is not therefore your incapacity but negligence and worldiness that is your ruine 3. How many are there of your own rank order and education all whose external advantages and helps you have and all your incumbrances and discouragements they had who yet have attain'd to an excellent degree of saving knowledge and heavenly wisdom How often have I heard such spiritual savoury experimental Truths in Conference and Prayer from plain Rusticks such spiritual Reasonings about the great concerns of Salvation such judicious and satisfying resolutions of Cases depending upon the sensible and experimental part of Religion as hath humbled convinced and shamed me and made me say Surgunt indocti c. these are the men that will take Heaven from the proud and scornful Ingeniosi of the World not many wise not many learned and acute many knowing and learned heads are in Hell and many illiterate and weak ones gone to Heaven and others in the way thither who never had better education stronger parts or more leisure than your selves so that you are without excuse 4. To conclude Would you heartily seek it of God and would the Spirit which he hath promised to give them that ask him become your Teacher how soon would the light of the saving knowledge of God in the face of Christ shine into your hearts No matter how ignorant dull and weak the Scholar be if God once become the Teacher You are not able to purchase or want time to read many Books but if once you were sanctified persons the anointing you would receive from the Father would teach you all things 1 Ioh. 2.27 your own hearts would serve you for a Commentary upon a great part of the Bible it would make you of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord one drop of your knowledge would be more worth than all learned Arts and Sciences in the world to you And is God so far from you and his illuminating Spirit at such a distance that there is no hope for you to find him Is there never a private corner about your Houses or Barns or in the fields where you can turn aside if it be but a quarter of an hour at a time to pour out your Souls to God and beg the Spirit of him Miserable Wretch is thy whole life such a cumber and clatter of cares and puzzles about the World that thou hast no leisure to mind God Soul or Eternity O doleful state the Lord in mercy pity and awaken thee Wilt thou not once strive and struggle to save thy Soul What perish as it were by consent how great then is thy blindness The third way to Hell discovered Quam frigida jejuna sit eorum desensio qui exemplo c. potentiorum se tutos pu 〈…〉 Jun. Paâ—â—â— lib. 2. III. A vast multitude of precious Souls are lost for ever by following the Examples and being carried away with the course of this World 'T is indeed a poor excuse a silly Argument that the multitude do as we do yet as Iunius rightly observes Mens Consciences take Sanctuary here and they think themselves safe in it for thus they reason If I do as the generality do Argumentum turpissimum est turba Seneca I shall speed no worse than they speed and certainly God is more merciful than to suffer the greatest part of Mankind to perish they resolve to follow the beaten road let it lead whither it will Thus the Ephesians in their unregenerate state walked according to the course of this world Eph. 2.2 and the Corinthians were carried away unto dumb Idols even as they were led 1 Cor. 12.2 just as a drop of water is carried and moved according to the course and current of the Tide For look as every drop of water in the Sea is of one and the same common nature so are all carnal and unsanctified persons and as these waters being collected into one vast body in the Ocean unite their strength and make a strong current this way or that so doth the whole collective body of the unregenerate World all the particular drops move as the Tide moveth Hence they are said to have received the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2.12 one common Spirit or Principle acts and rules them all and therefore they must needs be carried away in the same course And there are two special considerations that seem to determine them by a kind of necessity to do as the multitude do the one is that they find it the easiest and most commodious way to the flesh here they meet with quietness and safety hereby they are exempt from reproaches losses persecutions and distresses for Conscience sake rest is sweet and here only they think to find it The other is the prejudice of singularity and manifold tribulations they see that little handful that walk counter to the course of the World involved in this startles them from their company and fixes them where they are Against such sensible Arguments it is to no more purpose to oppose spritual Considerations motives drawn from the safety of the Soul
is generally a burthened and a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 In this Tabernaele we groan being burthened Here the Saints feel 1 A burthen of sin Rom. 7.24 this is a dead and a sinking weight 2 A burthen of Affliction of this all are Partakers Hebr. 12. though not all in an equal degree or in the same kind yet all have their burthens equal to and even beyond their own strength to support it 2 Cor. 1.8 pressed above measure 3 A burthen of inward troubles for sin and outward Troubles in the Flesh both together so had Iob Heman David and many of the Saints Certainly this befals them not 1 Casually Iob 5.6 It rises not out of the Dust 2 Nor because God loves and regards them not for they are fruits of his love Heb. 12.6 Whom he loveth he correcteth 3 Nor because he takes pleasure in our groans Lamen 3. To tread under his feet the Prisoners of the earth the Lord hath no pleasure 'T is not for his own pleasure but his Childrens profit Heb. 12.10 And among the prâ—fits that result from these burthens this is not the least to make you less fond of the body than you would else be and more willing to be gone to your everlasting rest And certainly all the Diseases and Pains we endure in the Body whether they be upon inward or outward accounts by Passion or Compassion from God or Men will be found but enough to wean us and loose off our hearts from the fond love of life Afflictions are bitter things to our taste Ruth 1.20 so bitter that Naomi thought a name of a contrary signification fitter for her afflicted condition Call me Marah i. e. bitter not Naomi pleasant beautiful And the Church Lam. 3.19 calls them Wormwood and Gall. The great design of God in afflicting them is the same that a tender Mother projects in putting Wormwood to her Breast when she would wean the Child It hath been observed by some discreet and grave Ministers that before their remove from one place to another God hath permitted and ordered some weaning Providence to befal them either denying wonted success to their labour or alienating and cooling the affections of their people towards them which not only makes the manner of their departure more easie but the grounds of it more clear Much so it falls out in our natural death the comfort of the World is imbittered to us before we leave it The longer we live in it the less we shall like it We overlive most of our Comforts which engaged our hearts to it that we may more freely take our leave of it It were good for Christians to observe the voice of such Providences as these and answer the Designs of them in a greater willingness to die 1. Is thy Body which was once hail and vigorous now become a crazy sickly pained body to thee neither useful to God nor comfortable to thee a Tabernacle to groan and sigh in And little hopes it will be recovered to a better temper God hath ordered this to make thee willing to be divorced from it The less desireable life is the less formidable death will be 2. Is thy Estate decayed and blasted by Providence so that thy life which was once full of Creature-Comforts is now fill'd with Cares and Anxieties O 't is a weaning Providence to thee and bespeaks thee the more chearfully to bid the World farewel The less comfort it gives you the less it should entangle and engage you We little know with what aking hearts and pensive breasts many of Gods people walk up and down though for Religion or Reputations sake they put a good face upon it but by these things God is bespeaking and preparing them for a better State 3. Is an Husband a Wife or dear Children dead and with them the comfort of life laid in the dust Why this the Lord sees necessary to do to perswade you to come after willingly 'T is the cutting asunder thy roots in the earth that thou maist fall the more easily O how many stroaks must God give at our Names Estates Relations and Health before we will give way to the last stroak of death that fells us to the ground 4. Do the times frown upon Religion Do all things seem to threaten stormy times at hand Are desireable Assemblies scattered Nothing but Sorrows and Sufferings to be expected in this World By these things God will imbitter the earth and sweeten Heaven to his People 5. Is the beauty and sweetness of Christian Society defaced and decayed That Communion which was wont to be Pithy Substantial Spiritual and Edifying becomes either frothy or contentious so that thy Soul hath no pleasure in it This also is a weaning Providence to our Souls Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus Theologorum odiis from the Wranglings and Contentions that were in his time Our fond affection to the Body requires all this and much more to wean and mortifie them Inference IV. HOW Comfortable is the Doctrine of the Resurrection to Believers which assures them of receiving their Bodies again though they part with them for a time Believers must die as well as others their Union with Christ priviledges them not from a Separation from their Bodies Rom. 8.10 Heb. 9.27 But yet they have special grounds of Consolation against this doleful separation above all others For 1. Though they part with them yet they part in hopes of receiving them again 1 Thessal 4.13 14. They take not a final leave of them when they die Husbandmen cast their Seed-corn into the earth chearfully and willingly because they part with it in hope so should we when we commit our Bodies to the earth at death 2. Though death separate these dear Friends from each other yet it cannot separate either the one or other from Christ Luke 20.37 38. I am the God of Abraham c. Your very dust is the Lords and the Grave rots not the Bond of the Covenant 3. The very same Body we lay down at death we shall assume again at the Resurrection Not only the same specifical but the same Numerical Body Iob 19.25.26 With these eyes shall I see God 4. The unbodied Soul shall not find the want of its Body so as to afflict or disquiet it nor the Body the want of its Soul but the one shall be at rest in Heaven and the other sweet asleep in the Grave and all that long interval shall slide away without any afflicting sense of each others absence The time will be long Iob 14.12 but if it were longer it cannot be afflicting considering how the Soul is cloathed immediately 2 Cor. 5.1 2. and how the Body sleeps sweetly in Jesus 1 Thess. 4.14 5. When the day of their re-espousals is come the Soul will find the Body so transformed and improved that it shall never receive prejudice from it any more but a singuler addition to its Happiness and Glory Now it clogs us
and it's Body in the Grave This associated with Angels that prey'd upon by Worms Ioseph's case is the liveliest Embleme that occurs to my present thoughts to illustrate the point in hand He was advanced to be Lord over all Aegypt living in the greatest pomp and splendor there Gen. 43.29 30 31. but his Father and Brethren were at the same time ready to perish in the land of Canaan He had been many years separated from them but neither the length of time nor honours of the Court could alienate his affections from them O see the mighty power of Relation No sooner doth he see his Brethren and understand their case and the pining condition of Iacob his Father but his bowels yearned and his compassions rolled together for them Yea he could not forbear nor stifle his own affections though he knew how injurious his Brethren had been to him and betrayed him as the Body hath the Soul Yet all this notwithstanding he breaks forth into tears and outcries over them which made the house ring again with the news that Ioseph's brethren were come Nor could he be at rest in the lap of honour and plenty until he had gotten home his dear and ancient Relations to him Thus stands the case betwixt Soul and Body Argument III. THE regret reluctancy and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it when it is actually separated from it For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately which fought strugled and disputed the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms should not when absent desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again Hath it lost its affection though it continue its relation that 's very improbable Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery that 's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us nor a good mans perferment would produce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour and that now out of sight out of mind Object But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons and sighed for deliverance by death and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting and inclinations to re-union Sol. The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point 2 Cor. 5.2 But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds which make iâ— consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting and inclination to a second meeting 1 This willingness to die doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love There is in every Christian a double love one natural to the Body and the things below the other supernatural to Christ and the things above the latter doth not extinguish though it conquer and subdue the other Love to the Body pulls backward love to Christ pulls forward and finally prevails This is so consistent with it that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part 2 The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved must not be understood absolutely but comparatively In that sense the Apostle will be understood 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. i. e. Rather than to live always a life of sin sorrow and absence from God Death is not desireable in and for it self but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin and its inlet to God So that the very best desire it but comparatively and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love The generality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven toward his people on earth from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting so we here argue the continued love and inclination of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World especially in the parting hour No considerations in all the World less than the more full fruition of God and freedom from sin could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body though but for a time and leave it in the dust Which is our third Argument Argument IV. AND as the dolorous parting hour evidenceth it so doth the joy with which it receives it again at the Resurrection If it part from it so heavily and meet it again with joy unspeakable sure then it still retained much love for it and desires to be re-espoused to it in the interval Now that its meeting in the Resurrection is a day of joy to the Soul is evident because it is called the time of refreshment Acts 3.19 And they awake with singing out of the dust Isai. 26.19 If the direct and immediate scope of the Prophet point not as some think it doth at the Resurrection yet it is allowed by all to be a very lively allusion to it which is sufficient for my purpose And indeed none that understands and believes the design and business of that day can possibly doubt but there was reason enough to call it a time of refreshment a singing morning for the Souls of the righteous come from Heaven with Christ and the whole host of shouting Angels not to be speclators only but the subjects of that days triumph They come to re-assume and be re-espoused to their own Bodies this being the appointed time for God to vindicate and rescue them from the tyrannical power of the Grave to endow them with spiritual qualities at their second marriage to their Souls that in both parts they may be compleatly happy O the joyful claspings and dear embraces betwixt them who but themselves can understand And by the way this removes the objection forementioned of the miseries and prejudices the Soul suffered in this world in and from the Body For now it receives it a spiritual Body i.e. so