Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A64130
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A sermon preached at the funerall of that worthy knight Sr. George Dalston of Dalston in Cumberland, September 28. 1657. By J.T. D.D.
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Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing T392A; ESTC R219166
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28,574
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39
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up and down in white Revel. 3. 4 5. 14. 13. that is as candidates of the resurrection to immortality And this allegory of the Garden of Eden and Paradise was so heartily pursued by the Jews to represent the state of separation that the Essens describe that state by the circumstances and ornaments of a blessed garden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a region that is not troubled with clouds or shours or storms or blasts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but a place which is perpetually refreshed with delicious breaths This was it which the Heathens did dream concerning the Elysian fields for all the notices {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning the regions of separate souls came into Greece from the Barbarians sayes Diodorus Siculus and Tertullian observes although we call that Paradise which is a place appointed to receive the souls of the Saints and that this is separated from the notices of the world by a wall of fire a portion of the torrid zone which he supposes to be meant by the flaming sword of the Angel placed at the gates of Paradise yet sayes he the Elysian fields have already possessed the faith and opinions of men All comes from the same fountain the doctrine of the old Synagogue confirmed by the words of Christ and the commentaries of the Apostles viz. that after death before the day of judgment there is a Paradise for Gods servants a region of rest of comfort and holy expectations And therefore it is remarkable that these words of the Psalmist Nerapias me in medio dierum meorum Psal. 102. v. 25. Snatch me not away in the midst of my dayes in the Hebrew it is Ne facias me ascendere Make me not to ascend or to goe upwards meaning to the supernatural regions of separate souls who after death are in their beginnings of exaltation For to them that die in the Lord death is a preferment it is a part of their great good fortune for death hath not only lost the sting but it brings a coronet in his hand which shall invest and adorne the heads of Saints till that day comes in which the Crown of righteousness shall be brought forth to give them the investiture of an everlasting Kingdome But that I may make up this proposition usefull and clear I am to adde some things by way of supplement 1. This place of separation was called Paradise by the Jews and by Christ and after Christs ascension by S. Iohn because it signifies a place of pleasure and rest and therefore by the same analogy the word may be still used in all the periods of the world though the circumstances or though the state of things be changed It is generally supposed that this had a proper Name and in the Old Testament was called Abrahams bosome that is the region where Abraham Isaac and Iacob did dwell till the comming of Christ But I suppose my selfe to have great reason to dissent from this common opinion for this word of Abrahams bosome being but once used in both the Testaments and then particularly applied to the person of Lazarus must needs signifie the eminence and priviledge of joy that Lazarus had for all that were in the blessed state of separation were not in Abrahams bosome but only the best and the most excellent persons but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with Abraham and the analogy of the phrase to the manner of the Jewish feastings where the best guest did lye in the bosome of the Master that is had the best place makes it most reasonable to believe that Abrahams bosome does not signifie the general state of separation even of the blessed but the choicest place in that state a greater degree of blessedness But because he is the father of the faithful therefore to be with Abraham or to sit down with Abraham in the time of the old Testament did signifie the same thing as to be in Paradise but to be in Abrahams bosome signifies a great eminence of place and comfort which is indulged to the most excellent and the most afflicted 2. Although the state of separation may now also and is by S. Iohn called Paradise because the Allegory still holds perfectly as signifying comfort and holy pleasures yet the spirits of good men are not said to be with Abrahams but to be with Christ and as being with Abraham was the specification of the more general word of Paradise in the old Testament so being with Christ is the specification of it in the New So S. Stephen prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit and S. Paul said I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which expression S. Polycarp also used in his Epistle to the Philippians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are in the place that is due to them they are with the Lord that is in the hands in the custody of the Lord Jesus as appears in the words of S. Steven and S. Paul So S. Ierome Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo sanctorum mixtum choris we know that our Nepotian is with Christ mingled in the quires of Saints Upon this account and it is not at all unreasonable the Church hath conjectur'd that the state of separate souls since the glorification of our Lord is much better'd and advanc'd and their comforts greater because as before Christs coming the expectation of the Saints that slept was fixed upon the revelation of the Messias in his first coming so now it is upon his second coming unto judgment and in his glory This improvement of their condition is well intimated by their being said to be under the Altar that is under the protection of Christ under the powers and benefits of his Priesthood by which he makes continuall intercession both for them and us This place some of the old Doctors understood too literally and from hence they believed that the souls of departed saints were under their material Altars which fancy produced that fond decree of the Councel of Eliberis Can. 3. 4. that wax lights should not by day be burnt in coemeteries inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt left the spirits of Saints should by the light of the diurnal tapers be disquieted This reason though it be trifling and impertinent yet it declares their opinion that they supposed the souls to be neer their reliques which were placed under the altars But better then this their state is described by S. Iohn in these words therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him night and day in his Temple and he that sits upon the throne shall dwell among them with which general words as being modest bounds to our inquiries enough to tell us it is rarely well but enough also to chastise all curious
that doctrine of Purgatory can be reconciled else never to eternal ages But it is certain they are words that cannot deceive us Non tanget eos tormentum mortis Torment in death shall never touch them But having established the proposition and the intended sense of the text let us a while consider 1. That God is our God when we die if we be his servants while we live and to be our God signifies very much good to us He will rescue us from the powers of hell the Devil shall have no part nor portion in us we shall be kept in safe custody we shall be in the hands of Christ out of which all the powers of hell shall never snatch us and therefore we may die with confidence if we die with a good conscience we have no cause of fear if we have just grounds to hope for pardon The Turks have a saying that the Christians doe not believe themselves when they talk such glorious things of Heaven and the state of separation for if they did they would not be so afraid to die but they do not so well consider that Christians believe all this well enough but they believe better then they live and therefore they believe and tremble because they do not live after the rate of going to heaven they knew that for good men glorious things are prepared but Tophet is prepared for evil Kings and unjust Rulers for vitious men and degenerate Christians there is a hell for accursed souls and men live without fear of it so long till their fear as soon as it begins in an instant passes into despair and the fearful groans of the damned It is no wonder to see men so unwilling to die to be impatient of the thought of death to be afraid to make their will to converse with the solemn scarcrow He that is fit to die must have long dwelt with it must handle it on all sides must feel whether the sting be taken out he must examine whether he be in Christ that is whether he be a new creature And indeed I do not so much wonder that any man fears to die as when I see a careless and a wicked person descend to his grave with as much indifferency as he goes to sleep that is with no other trouble then that he leaves the world but he does not fear to die and yet upon the instant of his dissolution he goes into the common receptacle of souls where nothing can be addressed to him but the consequence of what he brings along with him and he shall presently know whether he shall be saved or damned We have read of some men who by reading or hearing strange opinions have entred into desperate melancholy and divers who have perfectly despaired of the Divine mercy who feeling such horrid convulsions in their souls such fearful expectations of an Eternal curse that not finding themselves able to bear so intolerable a fear have hang'd or drown'd themselves and yet they only thought so or feared it and might have altered it if they would have hoped and prayed but then let it be considered when the soul is stripp'd of the cloud her body when she is entred into strange regions and converses only with spirits and sees plainly all that is within her when all her sins appeare in their own natural ugliness and set out by their aggravating circumstances then she remembers her filthy pleasures and hates them infinitely as being such things to which she then can have no appetite when she perceives she shall perish for that which is not for that whose remembrance is intolerable when she sees many new secrets which she understood not before and hath stranger apprehensrons of the wrath of God then ever could be represented in this life when she hath the notices of a spirit and an understanding pure enough to see essences and rightly to weigh all the degrees of things when possibly she is often affrighted with the alarums and conjectures of the day of judgement or if she be not yet certainly knows not only by faith and fear but by a clear light and proper knowledge that it shall certainly come and its effects shall remain for ever then she hath time enough to bewail her own folly and remediless infelicity if we could now think seriously that things must come to that pass and place our selves by holy meditation in the circumstances of that condition and consider what we should then think how miserably deplore our folly how comfortless remember our ill gotten wealth with how much asperity and deep sighing we should call to mind our foolish pride our trifling swearing our beastly drinkings our unreasonable and brutish lusts it could not be but we must grow wiser on a sudden despise the world betake our selves to a strict religion reject all vanity of spirit and be sober and watch unto prayer If any of us had but a strange dream and should in the fears of the night but suppose our selves in Hell and be affrighted with those circumstances of damnation which we can tell of and use in our imperfect notices of things it would effect strange changes upon a ductile and malleable spirit A frequent severe meditation can do more then a seldome and a phantastic dream but an active faith can do more then all the arts and contingencies of fancy or discourse Now it is well with us and we may yet secure it shall be well with us for ever but with in an hour it may be otherwise with any of us all who do not instantly take courses of security But he that does not would in such a change soon come to wish that he might exchange his state with the meanest with the miserablest of all mankind with gallislaves and miners with men condemned to tortures for a good conscience Sed cum pulchra minax succidet membra securis Quam velles spinas tunc habuisse meas Avianus In the day of felling timber the shrub and the bramble are better then the tallest firre or the goodliest Cedar and a poor Saint whose soul is in the hand of Jesus plac'd under the altar over which our high Priest like the Cherubim over the propitiatory intercedes perpetually for the hastening of his glory is better then the greatest Tyrant who if he dies is undone for ever For in the interval there shall be rest and comfort to the one and torment and amazement and hellish confusion to the other and the day of judgement will come and it shall appear to all the world that they whose joys were not in this world were not of all men most miserable because their joys and their life were hid with Christ in God and at the resurrection of the just shall be brought forth and be illustrious beyond all the beauties of the world I have now done with my text and been the expounder of this part of the Divine oracle but here is another text and another Sermon yet Ye have