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
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
and the body too in the chase and prosecution of Truth Veritas in putâ—â— when it lyes deep as a subterranean treasure the mind sends out innumerable thoughts re-inforcing each other in thick successions to dig for and compass that invaluable treasure if it be disguised by misrepresentations and vulgar prejudice and trampled in the dirt under that disguise there is an ability in the mind to discern it by some lines and features which are well known to it and both owne honour and vindicate it under all that dirt and obloquy with more respect than a man will take up a pâ—ece of Gold or a sparkling Dâ—amond out of the gutter it searches after it by many painful deductions of reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Archim and triumphs more in the discovery of it than in all earthly treasures no gratification of sense like that of the mind when it grasps its prey for which it hunted The mind passes through all the works of Creation it views the several creatures on earth considers the fabrick use and beauty of Animals the signatures of Plants penetrating thereby into their Nature and Virtues it views the vast Ocean and the large train of Causes laid together in all these things for the good of man by God whose Name it reads in the most diminutive creature it beholds on earth It can in a moment mount it self from Earth to Heaven view the face thereof describe the motions of the Sun in the Ecliptick calculate Tables for the motions of the Planets and fixed Stars invent convenient Cycles for the computations of Time foretel at a great distance the dismal Eclipses of the Sun and Moon to the very Digâ—â— and the â—ortentous Conjunctions of the Planets to the very minute of their Ingress these are the pleasant imployments of the Understanding But there is an higher game at which this Eagle plays it reckons it self all thiâ—â—â—â—â—ile imploy'd as much beneath its capacity as Domitian in catching flies though these be lawful and pleasant exercises when it hath leisure for them yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise even to penetrate the glorious Mysteries of Redemption to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods and manifold discoveries of it and yet higher than all this it is capable of an immediate sight or facial vision of the blessed God short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble powers and infinite appetite View its Will and you shall find it like a Queen upon the Throne of the Soul swaying the Scepter of Liberty in her hand Culverwell as one expresseth it with all the affections waiting and attending upon her No Tyrant can force it no torment can wrest the golden Scepter of Liberty out of its hand the keys of all the Chambers of the Soul hang at its girdle these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power victorious Grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent but commits no rape upon it by unnatural coaction God accepts its offering though full of imperfections but no service is accepted without it how excellent soever the matter of it View the Conscience and Thoughts with their self-reflexive abilities wherein the Soul retires into it self and sits concealed from all eyes but his that made it judging its own actions and censuring its estate viewing its face in its own glass and correcting the indecencies it discovers there Things of greatest moment and importance are silently transacted in this Council-chamber betwixt the Soul and God so remote from the knowledge of all Creatures that neither Angels 1 Cor. 2.11 Devils or men can know what it is doing there but by uncertain guess or revelation from God here it impleads Rom. 2.15 condemns and acquits it self as at a privy Session with respect to the Judgment of the great Day here it meets with the best of comforts 2 Cor. 1.12 and with the worst of terrors Take a survey of its Passions and Affections and you will find them admirable see how they are placed by Divine Wisdom in the Soul some for defence and safety others for delight and pleasure Anger actuates the Spirits and rouzeth its courage enabling it to break through difficulties Fear keeps Sentinel watching upon all dangers that approach us Hope forestals the good and anticipates the joys of the next Life and thereby supports and strengthens the Soul under all the discouragements and pressures of the present life Love unites it to the chiefest Good he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Zeal is the Dagger which love draws in Gods cause and quarrel to secure it self from sin and testifie its resentments of Gods dishonour O what a Divine spark is the Soul of man well might Christ prefer it in dignity to the whole World 3. Thirdly The worth of a Soul may be gathered and discerned from its subjective capacity and hability both of Grace and Glory It is capable of all the graces of the Spirit of being silled with the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 to live to God here and with God for ever What excellent Graces do adorn some Souls How are all the rooms richly hanged with Divine and costly Hangings that God may dwell in them This makes it like the carved works of the Temple overlaid with pure Gold here is Glory upon Glory a new Creation upon the old in the inmost parts of some Souls is a spiritual Altar erected with this Inscription Holiness to the Lord Here the Soul offers up it self to God in the sacred flames of Love and here they sacrifice their vile affections devoting them to destruction to the glory of their God here God walks with delight even a delight beyond what he takes in all the stately Structures and magnificent adorned Temples in the whole World Isa. 66.1 2. No other Soul besides mans is marriageable to Christ or capable of Espousals to the King of Glory they were not designed and therefore not endued with a capacity for such an honour as this but such a capacity hath every Soul even the meanest on Earth and such honour have all his Saints others may 2 Cor. 11.2 Eph. 5.27 but they are betrothed to Christ in this World and shall be presented without spot before him in the World to come It is now a lovely and excellent Creature in its naked natural state much more beautiful and excellent in its sanctified and gracious state but what shall we say or how shall we conceive of it when all spots of sin are perfectly washed off its beautiful face in Heaven and the glory of the Lord is risen upon it When its filthy garments are taken away and the pure robes of perfect Holiness as well as Righteousness superinduced upon this excellent Creature If the imperfect beauty of it begun in Sanctification enamouâ—ed its Saviour and made him say Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one of the
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
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
considerations wherein there are remarkable differences betwixt Soul and Soul As 1. some Souls are much better lodged and accommodated in their bodies than others are though none dwell at perfect rest and ease God hath lodged some Souls in strong vigorous comely bodies others in feeble crazy deformed and uncomfortable ones The Historian saith of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat The Soul of Galba dwelt in an ill Body And a much better man than Galba was as ill accommodated Iohn wishes in behalf of his beloved Gaius that his body might but prosper as his Soul did Epist. 3. v. 2. Timothy had his often infirmities Indeed the world is full of instances and examples of this kind * 〈◊〉 Bp. of Abâ—lâ—m had so stroâ—g and firm a conâ—titution to eâ—dure severe studies that he is said 〈◊〉 inâ—estina 〈◊〉 to have hâ—d a body of Brass If some Souls had the advantages of such bodies as others have who make little or very bad use of them O what service would they do for God! 2. There is a remarkable difference also betwixt Soul and Soul in respect of natural gifts and abilities of mind Some have great advantages above others in this respect The natural spirits and organs of the body being more brisk and apt the Soul is more vegete vigorous and able to exert it self in its sunctions and operations How clear nimble and firm are the apprehensions fancies and memories of some souls beyond others What a Prodigy of memory fancy and judgment was Father Paul the Venetian and Suarez of whom Strada saith such was the strength of his parts that he had all S. Augustine's works the most copious and various of all the Fathers as it were by heart so that I have seen him saith he †Statim 〈◊〉 loco 〈…〉 readily pointing with the finger to any place or page he disputed of Our Dr. Reynolds excell'd this way to the astonishment of all that knew him so that he was a living Library a third Vniversity But above all the character given by Vives of Budeuâ— is amazing that there was nothing written in Greek or Latin which he had not turned over and examined That both languages were alike to him speaking either with more facility than he did the French his mother tongue and all by the penetrating â—orce of his own natural parts without a Tutor so that †Qâ—o viro Gallia aâ—â—tiore ingeâ—io 〈…〉 produxit hic 〈◊〉 atate nec Itaâ—â—a quidem Lud. Viv. in 1â— cap. de civit Deâ— France never brought forth a man of sharper wit more piercing judgement exact diligence and greater learning nor in his time Italy it self Foelix foecundum ingenium quod in se uno invenit Doctorem Discipulum A happy and fruitful wit which in it self found both a Master and a Scholar And yet Pasquier relates what is much more admirable of a young man who came to Paris in the twentieth year of his age and in the year 1445 and shewed himself so excellent and exact in all the Arts Sciences and Languages that if a man of an ordinary good wit and sound constitution should live an hundred years and during that time study incessantly without eating drinking sleeping or any recreation He could hardly attain to that perfection 3. And yet a far greater difference is made betwixt one Soul and another by the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God This makes yet a greater disparity for it alters and new moulds the frame and temper of the Soul and restores the lost Image of God to it by reason whereof the righteous is truly said to be more excellent than his neighbour Prov. 12.26 This ennobles the Soul and stamps the highest dignity and glory upon it that it is capable of in this world 'T is true it hath naturally an excellency and perpetuity in it above other Beings as Cedar hath not only a beauty and fragrancy but a soundness and durability far beyond other trees of the Wood But when it comes under the sanctification of the spirit then it is as Cedar overlaid with gold 4. Lastly a wonderful difference will be made betwixt one Soul and another by the judgement of God in the great day Some will be blessed and others cursed Souls Matt. 25. ult some received into glory others shut out into everlasting misery Matth. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the kingdom of Heaven but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And that which will be the sting and aggravation of the difference which will then be made will be this Parity and Equality in the nature and capacity of every Soul by reason whereof they that perish will find they were naturally as capable of blessedness as those that enjoy it and that it was their own inexcusable negligence and obstinacy that was their ruine Inference IV. III The Soul a created Substance IF God be the immediate Creator and Former of the Soul of Man Then sin must needs involve the most unnatural evil in it as it is an horrid violation of the very law of nature No title can be so full so absolute as that which Creation gives How clear is this in the light of reason If God created my Soul then my Soul had once no Being at all That it had still remained nothing had not the pleasure of its Creator chosen and called it into the Being it hath out of the millions of meer possible Beings For as there are millions of possible Beings which yet are nothing so there are millions of possible Beings which never shall be at all So that since the pleasure and power of God was the only fountain of my Being he needs must be the rightful owner of it What can be more his own than that whose very Being flowed meerly from him and which had never been at all had he not called it out of nothing And seeing the same pleasure of God which gave it a Being gave it also a reasonable Being capable of and fitted for moral Government by laws which other inferiour natures are incapable of it must needs follow that he is the supream Governour as well as the rightful owner of this Soul Moreover it is plain that he who gave my Soul it's Being and such a Being gave it also all the good it ever had hath or shall have and that it neither is nor hath any thing but what is purely from him And therefore he 〈◊〉 needs â—e my most bountiful benefactor as well as 〈◊〉 owner and supream Governour There is not a Soul which he hath created but stands bound to him in all these ties and titles Now for such a creature to turn rebelliously upon its absolute owner whose only and wholly it is upon its supream Governour to whom it owes intire and absolute Obedience upon its
is here if the Soul naturally looks beyond the line of time to things eternal and cannot bound and confine its thoughts and expectations within the too narrow limits of present things surely there is such a future state as well as Souls made apprehensive of it and propense to close with the discoveries thereof So natural are the notions of a future state to the Souls of men that those who have set themselves designedly to banish them and struggled hard to suppress them as things irksome and grievous to them giving intâ—rruption to their sensual lusts and pleasures Yet still these apprehensions have returned upon them and gotten a just victory over all their objections and prejudices They follow them wheresoever they go they can no more flee from them than from themselves whereby they evidence themselves to be natural and indelible things Inference XI VIII Endued with Vnderstanding Will and Affections HAth God endued the Soul of man with Understanding Will and Affections whereby it is made capable of knowing loving and enjoying God 'T is then no wonder to find the malice and envy of Satan engaged against man more than any other Creature and against the Soul of man rather than any thing else in man It grates that spirit of envy to see the Soul of Man adorning and preparing by sanctification to fill that place in glory from which he fell irrecoverably It cut Haman to the very heart to see the honour that was done to Mordecai much more doth it grate and gall Satan to see what Jesus Christ hath purchased and designed for the Souls of Men. Other creatures being naturally uncapable of this happiness do therefore escape his fury but men shall be sure to feel it as far as he can reach them 1 Pet. 5.8 Your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour He walks to and fro that speaks his diligence seeking whom he may devour that speaks his design his restlessness in doing mischief is all the rest and relief he hath in his own torments 'T is a mark of pure and perfect malice to endeavour to destroy though he knows he shall never be successful in his attempts We read of many bodies possessed by him but he never takes up his quarters in the body of any but with design to mischief the Soul No room but the best in the house will satisfie him no blood so sweet to him him as Soul-blood If he raise persecution against the bodies of men it is to destroy their souls holiness is that he hates and happiness is the Object of his envy The Soul being the Subject of both is therefore pursued by him as his prey Inference XII UPon the consideration both of its excellent nature and divine Original it follows That the corruption and deacing of such an excellent creature by sin deserves to be lamented and greatly bewailed and the recovery of it by sanctification to be studied and diligently prosecuted as the great concern of all men What a Beautiful and Blessed creature was the Soul of Man at first whilst it stood in its integrity His mind was bright clear and apprehensive of the Law and Will of God His Will chearfully complied therewith his sensitive appetite and inferiour powers stood in an obedient subordination God made man upright Eccles. 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straight and equal bending to neither extream The Law of God was fairly engraven upon the table of his heart Principles of holiness and righteousness were inlayed in the very frame of his mind fitting him for an exact and punctual discharge of his duties both to God and Man This was the soundness of his constitution the healthful temper of his inner man Whereby it became the very region of light peace purity and pleasure For think how serene lightsome and placid the state of that Soul must be in which there was no obliquity not a jarr with the divine will But joy and peace continually transfused through all its faculties But sin hath defaced its Beauty raz'd out the divine Image which was its glory and stampt the very Image of Satan upon it Turn'd all its noble powers and faculties against the Author and Fountain of its Being Surely if all the posterity of Adam from the beginning to the end of the world should do nothing else but weep and sigh for the sin and misery of the fall it could not be sufficiently deplored Other sins like single bullets kill particular persons but Adams sin like a Chain-shot mowed down all mankind at once It murthered himself actually all his posterity virtually and Christ himself occasionally O! what a black train of doleful consequents attend this sin It hath darkned the bright eye of the Souls understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 made its complying and obedient will stubborn and rebellious Ioh. 5.40 rendered his tender heart obdurate and senseless Ezek. 36.26 filled its serene and peaceful Conscience with guilt and terror Tit. 1.15 The consideration of these things is very humbling and should cause those that glory in their high and illustrious Descents to wrap their silver Star in Cypress and cover all their glory with a mourning Vail But this is but one part of their duty How should this consideration provoke us to apply our selves with most serious diligence to recover our lost beauty and dignity in the way of sanctification This is the great and most proper use of the Fall as Musculus excellently speaks ut gratiam Christi eo subnixius ambiamus to inflame our desires the more vehemently after grace Sanctification restores the Beauty of the Soul which sin defaced Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 Yea it restores it with this advantage that it shall never be lost again holiness is the beauty of God imprest upon the Soul and the impression is everlasting Other beauty is but a fading flower time will plow up deep furrows upon the fairst faces But this will be fresh to eternity All moral vertues homilitical qualities which adorn and beautifie Nature and make it attractive and lovely in the eyes of men are but separable accidents which Death discinds and crops off like a sweet flower from the stalk Iob 4.21 Doth not their excellency that is in them go away But sanctification is inseparable and will ascend with the Soul into Heaven O! that God would set the glass of the Law before us that we may see what defiled souls we have by nature that we might come by faith to Jesus Christ who cometh to us by water and by blood 1 Ioh. 5.6 Inference XIII TO conclude Upon the consideration of the whole matter before us if this excellent creature the Soul receive both its Being and excellencies from God Then he that formed it must needs have the full and only right to possess and use it and is therefore most injuriously kept out of the possession of it by all unsanctified and disobedient persons The Soul of Man is a building of God he
the redeemed who were to come after him to glory in their several generations Iohn 14.2.3 The Intercession of Christ in Heaven is for the security of our purchased inheritance to us and to prevent any new breaches which might be made by our Sins whereby it might be forfeited and we divested of it again 1 Iohn 2.1 2. All these joyntly make up the foundation of our faith and hope of glory But if our Souls perish or be annihilated at death our Faith Hope and Comforts are all Delusions vain Dreams which do but abuse our fond Imaginations For 1. It was not worth so great a stoop and abasement of the blessed God as he submitted to in his Incarnation wherein he appeared in flesh yea in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 and made himself of no reputation Philip. 2.7 An act that is and ever will be admired by men and Angels I say it was not worth so great a Miracle as this to procure for us the vanishing comfort of a few years and that short-lived comfort no other than a deluding Dream or mocking Phantasm For seeing it consists in hope and expectation from the world to come as the Scriptures every where speak 1 Thes. 5.8 and 2 Cor. 3.12 Rom. 5.3 4 5. if there be no such enjoyments for us there as most certainly there are not if our Souls perish it is but a vanity a thing of nought that was the errand upon which the Son of God came from the fathers bosome to procure for us 2 And for what think you was the blood of God upon the Cross what was so vast and inconceivable a treasure expended to purchase What! the flattering and vain hopes of a few years of which we may say as it was said of the Roman Consulship unius anni volaticum gaudium the fugitive joy of a year yea not only short-lived and vain hopes in themselves but such for the sake whereof we abridge our selves of the pleasures and desires of the flesh 1 Iohn 3.3 and submit our selves to the greatest sufferings in the world Rom. 8.18 for the Hope of Israel am I bound with this chain c. Acts 28.20 was this the Purchace of his bloud was this it for which he sweat and groaned and bled and died was that precious bloud no more worth than such a trifle as this 3 To what purpose did Christ rise again from the dead was it not to be the first-fruits of them that sleep did he not rise as the common Head of Believers to give us assurance we shall not perish and be utterly lost in the grave Col. 1.18 But if our Souls perish at Death there can be no Resurrection and if none then Christ dyed and rose in vain we are yet in our sins and all those absurdities are unavoidable with which the Apostle loads this supposition 1 Cor. 15.13 c. 4 And to as little purpose was his Triumphant Ascension into Heaven if we can have no benefit by it The professed end of his Ascension was to prepare a place for us Iohn 14.2 But to what purpose are those Mansions in the Heavens prepared if the Inhabitants for whom they are prepared be utterly lost And why is he called the forerunner if there be none to follow him as surely there are not if our Souls perish with our Bodies Those Heavenly Mansions that City prepared by God must stand void for ever if this be so 5 To conclude in vain is the Intercession of Christ in Heaven for us if this be so They that shall never come thither have no business there to be transacted by their advocate for them So that the whole Doctrine of Redemption by Christ is utterly subverted by this one supposition 4. As it subverts the Doctrine of Redemption by Christ and all the hopes and comforts we build thereon so it utterly destroys all the works of the Spirit upon the hearts of Believers and makes them vanish into nothing There are divers Acts and Offices of the Spirit of God about and upon our Souls I will only single out three viz. his sanctifying sealing and Comforting work all things of great weight with believers 1. His sanctifying work whereby he alters the frames and tempers of our Souls 2 Cor. 5.17 old things are past away behold all things are become new The declared and direct end of this work of the Spirit upon our Souls is to attemper and dispose them for Heaven Col. 1.12 For seeing nothing that is unclean can enter into the holy place Revel 21.27 And without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 It is necessary that all those that have this hope in them should expect to be partakers of their hopes in the way of purification 1 Iohn 3.3 And this is the ground upon which the people of God do mortifie their lusts and take so much pain with their own hearts Matt. 18.8 counting it better as their Lord tells them to enter into life halt or maimed than having two eyes or hands to be cast into Hell But to what purpose is all this self-denyal all these heart-searchings heart-humblings cryes and tears upon the account of Sin and for an heart suited to the will of God if there be no such life to be enjoyed with God after this animal life is finished If you say there is a present advantage resulting to us in this world Object from our abstinence and self-denial we have the truer and longer enjoyment of our comforts on earth by it Debauchery and licentiousness do not only flat the appetite and debase and alloy the comforts of this World but cut short our lives by the exorbitances and abuses of them Though there be a truth in this worth our noting Sol. yet 1 Morality could have done all this without sanctification there was no need for the pouring out of the Spirit for so low a use and purpose as this 2 And therefore as the wisdom of God would be censured and impeached in sending his spirit for an end which could as well be attained without it so the Veracity of God must needs be affronted by it who as you heard before hath declared our Salvation to be the end of our sanctification 2. His Sealing Witnessing and Assuring work we have a full account in the Scriptures of these Offices and works of the Spirit and some spiritual sense and feeling of them upon our own hearts which are two good assurances that there are such things as his bearing witness with our Spirits Rom. 8.16 his Sealing us to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 his earnests given into our hearts 2 Cor. 1.22 All which acts and works of the Spirit have a direct and clear aspect upon the life to come and the happiness of our Souls in the full enjoyment of God to eternity For it is to that life we are now sealed And of the full sum of that glory that these are the pledges and earnests But if our Souls perish by
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
Rapt from the Body for a short time in an Ecstasie when in a Visional way heavenly things are presented to it Or 2 When the bodily eye is elevated and strengthened above its natural vigour and ability to behold the astonishing Objects of the other World 1 Of the first sort and rank was that famous Rapture of Paul mentioned 2 Cor. 12.2 3. I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago whether in the Body I cannot tell or whether out of the Body I cannot tell God knoweth such an one caught up to the Third Heaven c. * Non constat an Anima Pauli fuerit tunc à corpore separata cum ipse id se nescire fatetur Unde quid illi circae absractionem à sensibus reipsa acciderit affirmare non possumus videlicet num moâ—tuo Corpore per separationâ—m animae extincti fuerint in eo sensus vel non mortuo consâ—piti duntaxat Colâ—eg Connimbr lib. 3. Art 3. p. 512. T is questionable indeed whether the Soul of the Apostle were really separated from his Body whilst he suffered that Ecstasie Or whether his senses were only laid as it were a-sleep for that time he himself could not determine the Question much less can any other but whether so or so this seems evident that his senses were for that time utterly useless to him if his Body was not dead it was all one as if it had been so for any use his Soul then made of it In ecstasi feriari omnes potentias praeter intellectum Aâ—ulen In Ecstasies all the Senses and Powers are idle except the Understanding his Soul for that time seemed to be disjoyned from his Body much as a flame of fire which you shall sometimes see to play and hover at a distance from the Wood and then catching the Fewel again Probably this was that Trance he fell into in the Temple when he was praying mentioned in Acts 22.17 In this Rapture his Soul ascended above this World it was caught up into Paradise into the Third Heaven the place in which Christ's Soul was after his death and there he heard those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter For alas poor Mortals cannot pronounce the Shibboleth of Heaven the heavenly Inhabitants talk in no other Dialect but the Language of Heaven is not properly spoken by any but the Inhabitants of Heaven Now Paul was not admitted into their Society at that time as he was at his death but was only a Spectator a stander by as the Angels are in the Assemblies of the Saints here on earth But O what a day was that day to his Soul It was as one of the days of Heaven no words could signifie to another man what he felt what he tasted in that hour Such favours will not be indulged to many he was a chosen Vessel and appointed to extraordinary Sufferings for Christ and it was necessary his Supports and Encouragements should be answerable Isaiah 6.1 2. Ezekiel 1.1 Dan. 10.8 9. Apoc. 1.17 It was no less extraordinary and wonderful a Vision which Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel and Iohn had such Representations of God as overwhelmed them and made Nature faint under them and no wonder for if the eyes of Creatures be so weak that they cannot directly behold such a glorious Creature as the Sun How much less can they bear the glorious Excellency and Majesty of God 2 And sometimes without an Ecstasie Representations of Christ and the glory of Heaven have been made and the very bodily eye fortified and elevated above its natural vigor and ability to behold them Thus it was with Stephen at his Martyrdom Acts 7.55 56. Who being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God That this was not a sight of faith but an extraordinary sight by the bodily eye is evident from its effect upon his outward man it made his face shine as the face of an Angel 2. There are also beside these ordinary and more common foretasts of Heaven and the glory to come with which many Believers are favoured in this World And such are those which come into the heart upon the steddy and more fixed views of the World to come by Faith and the more raised and Spiritual actings of grace in duty Believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a glorified joy or a joy of the same kind and nature with the joy of glorified Spirits though in an inferiour and allayed degree And yet with the allowance of its allay and rebatement it is like new Wine put into old and crazy Bottles which is ready to make them fly and would do so should they be of any long continuance Stay me saith the Spouse with Flaggons comfort me with Apples I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 The sickness was not the sickness of desires or of grief of that she had complained before But the sickness of Love i. e. She was ready to faint under the insupportable weight of Christs manifested and sealed Love not able to bear what she felt pained with the Love of Christ and the desired cure speaks this to be her Case Stay me with Flaggons comfort me with Apples As if she had said Lord support and under-prop my Soul for it reels staggers and fails under the pressure and weight of thy Love Much like the case of an holy man who cryed out under the overwhelming sense of the Love of Christ shed abroad into his heart in Prayer Hold Lord hold thy poor Creature is a Clay Vessel and can hold no more Though these Joys bring not the Soul into a perfect Ecstasie they certainly bring it as near as may be to it Acts Mon. p. 811. Mr. Fox tells us of one Giles of Bruxels a godly Martyr who in Prison spent most of his time apart from the rest in secret Prayer in which his Soul was so ardent and intent that he often forgot himself and the time and when he was called to Meat he neither saw nor heard those that stood by him till he was lifted up by the arms and then he would gently speak to them as one newly awaked out of a sweet sleep These foretasts of Heaven may from the manner of their conveyance be distinguished into 1. Mediate and into 2. Immediate 1. Mediate in and by the previous use and exercise of Faith heart-Examination c. the Spirit of God concurring with and blessing of such duties as these helps the Soul by them to a sight of its interest in Christ and the glory to come which being gained joy is no more under the Souls command I have with good assurance this account of a Minister who being alone in a Journey and willing to make the best improvement he could of that days Solitude set himself to a close Examination
to be worshipped Secondly That we must acknowledg our selves to be under much darkness as to the way and manner of the converse of Spirits with us Dr. Morâ— of the Immortality of the Soul Lib. 2. c. 16. The most acute and learned Dr. More I find of the same Opinion He affirms that departed Souls are capable of a vital Union with an airy vehicle or Body in which they can easily move from place to place and appear to the Living and act in their own affairs as in detecting Murthers rebuking injurious Executors visiting and counselling their Wives and Children forewarning them of such and such courses c. To which we may add the profession of the Spirit thus appearing of being the Soul of such a one as also the similitude of the person And all this ado is in things very just and serious unfit for a Devil with that care and kindness to promote and as unfit for a good Genius it being below so noble a nature to tell a lye All these things put together and rightly weighed the violence of prejudice not pulling down the balance I dare appeal saith he to any Whether it will not be certainly carried for the present cause and whether any indifferent Judge ought not to conclude if these stories which are so frequent every where and in all Ages concerning the Ghosts of men appearing be but true That it is true also that they are their Ghosts c. These are the strongest Arguments I meet with for the â—ffirmative that the matter is possible it may be so and then adding the credible instances that it is so the matter seems to be determined To this purpose Dr. Sterne alledges several instances out of Scripture as that appearance of Samuel unto Saul and the conference betwixt them as also the Letters that were sent to Iehoram by Elijah after that Elijah was translated to Heaven as appears by comparing 2 Chron. 21.12 with 2 Kings 3.11 In which it appears that in Iehosaphat's time who preceded this Iehoram Elijah was dead and yet in Iehoram's time who succeeded him he is said to receive Letters from Elijah The appearance and conference also betwixt Christ and Moses and Elias upon the Mount in the presence of some of the Disciples confirms it Matth. 17.3 These are principal Scripture-instances others are almost innumerable From among that vast heap I will select some few that are most material and of clearest credit * Insularum Scoâ—icarum incolae ad agros cum pro deploratis habentur accedunt rogant at certo à morte die locoq certo ipâ—as conveniant quod mortâ—i tempore loco praestitutis â—râ—â—stant Sterne ibid. It is a thing saith my Author both known and frequent that the Inhabitants of the Scotish Isles when their Friends are dying come to them and request them that upon such or such a day after their death and in such a place they would meet them which the Dead accordingly do at the time and place agreed upon and have sometimes discourse with them Infinite examples of Murthers saith Dr. More have been discovered by Dreams the Souls of the Persons murthered seeming to appear to some or other asleep and to make their complaints to them giving us a notable example out of Baronius of Marsilius Ficinus who having made a solemn vow with Michael Mercatus after they had been pretty warmly disputing of the immortality of the Soul out of the Principles of their Master Plato that whether of them two die first should appear to his Friend and give him certain information of that truth It was Ficinus his fate to diel first and that not long after this mutual resolution He was mindful of his promise when he had left the Body for Mercatus being very intent at his studies betimes on a morning heard a Horse riding by with all speed and observed that he stopt at his window and therewith heard the voice of his Friend Ficinus crying out aloud O Michael Michael vera vera sunt illa That is O Michael Michael those things are true they are true Wherepou he suddainly opened his window and espying Marsilius upon a white Steed called after him but he vanished out of his sight He sent therefore presently to Florence to know how Marsilius did and understood that he died about that hour he called at his window Much to the same purpose is that so famous and well attested story of the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke Sadducismus Triumphatus second Part p. 183. both of Somerset-shire attested by the worthy and learned Dr. Thomas Dyke a near Kinsman of the Captain's and by Mr. Douch to whom both the Major and Captain were intimately known The summ is this The Major and Captain had many disputes about the Being of a God and the immortality of the Soul in which points they could never be resolved though they much sought for and desired it and therefore it was at last fully agreed betwixt them that he that died first should the third night after his Funeral come betwixt the hours of twelve and one to the little house in the Garden adjoining to Major Sydenham's house at Dulverton in Somerset-shire The Major died first and the Captain happened to lie that very night which was appointed in the same Chamber and Bed with Dr. Dyke he acquainted the Doctor with the appointment and his resolution to attend the place and hour that Night for which purpose he had got the key of that Garden The Doctor could by no means divert his purpose but when the hour came he was upon the place where he waited two hours and an half neither seeing nor hearing any thing more than usual About six Weeks after the Captain and Doctor went to Eaton and lay again in the same Inn but not the same Camber as before at Dulverton The Morning before they went thence the Captain stayed longer than was usual in his Chamber and at length came in to the Doctors Chamber but in a Visage and form much differing from himself with his hair and eyes staring and his whole body shaking and trembling whereat the Doctor wondering demanded what is the matter Cousin Captain The Captain replies I have seen my Major at which the Doctor seeming to smile the Captain said if ever I saw him in my life I saw him but now adding as followeth This Morning said he after it was light some one came to my Bed side and sudainly drawing back the Curtains calls Cap Cap which was the term of familiarity that the Major used to call the Captain by to whom I replied What my Major To which he returns I could not come at the time appointed but I am now come to tell you That there is a God and a very just and terrible one and if you do not turn over a new leaf you will find it so This stuck close to him little Meat would go down with him at
Dinner though an handsom Treat was provided these words were sounding in his ears frequently during the remainder of his life he was never shy or scrupulous to relate it to any that asked him concerning it nor ever mentioned it but with horrour and trepidation they were both men of a brisk humour and jolly Conversation of very quick and keen parts having been both Vniversity and Inns-of-Court Gentlemen The Apparition of the Ghost of Sir George Villiers Father of the Duke of Buckingham giving three solemn warnings by three several Apparitions to his Servant Mr. Parker is a known and credible Story But I will wade no farther into Particulars they are almost innumerable let these suffice for a taste 2 In the next place therefore I will lay down some Concessions about this matter and the First Concession is this That the separated Souls or Spirits of men are capable of performing and executing any Ministry or Service for God if he should please to commissionate them so to do as well as Angels are whom we know he frequently imploys about the persons and affairs of his people on earth Though they become not Angels by their separation as Maximus Tyrius calls them but remain Spirits specifically distinct from them yet are they Spiritual Substances as the Angels are This their nature capacitates them either to live and act out of the Body or to assume as Angels do an aerial Body for the time of their Ministry nor do I know any thing in Scipture or Philosophy repugnant hereunto Concession 2. It cannot be doubted but upon some special and extraordinary reasons and occasions some departed Souls have returned to and appeared in this World by order and commission from God This is too manifest to be doubted by any that understands and believes the instances recorded in Scripture Moses and Elias long after their departure appeared to and talked with Christ upon the holy Mount in the presence of some of his Apostles Matth. 17.3 nor is there any reason to question the reality of their Apparition or to think it to be no more than a Phantasm Non enim conveniâ—bat ut veritas mendacio vel imaginariis testibus probaretur Maldon Capellus in loc or imaginary resemblance of these persons but very Moses and Elias themselves For they came to be Witnesses to Christs Prophetical office and it was not fit so great a point should be attested by imaginary Witnesses or that they should be called Moses and Elias if they were not the very same persons 'T is therefore most likely they both appeared in their own Bodies Credibilius est verè corporibus suis apparnisse Parcus in loc for Moses's Body we know was hidden by the Lord aud Elias his Body immediately translated with his Soul to Heaven when therefore the Lord would send them upon this solemn errand the Soul of Moses probably re-assumed that Body which was never found by man and Elias was already embodied and fit immediately for this Expedition In like manner we read Matth. 27.52 53. that at the Resurrection of our Lord many Bodies of the Saints arose and appeared unto many these were no Phantasms but the very Souls of the departed Saints returned having re-assumed their own Bodies unto this World not only to confirm the truth of Christs Resurrection and adorn that great day But as a Specimen or handsel of the Resurrection of all the Saints in the vertue of his Resurrection at the great Day Nor will I deny but upon some lesser though never without weighty and solemn occasions and reasons God may sometimes send the Souls of the dead back again into this World as in the cases before recited to evidence against the Atheism of men c. Augustine relates a memorable example which fell out at Millan Aug. in lib. de cura promortuis agenda where a certain Citizen being dead there came a Creditor to whom he had been indebted and unjustly demanded the money of his Son The Son knew the Debt was satisfied by his Father but having no Acquittance to shew his Father appeared to him in his sleep and shew'd him where the Acquittance lay whether it were the very Soul of his Father or rather an Angel as Augustine thinks is not certain though the one as well as the other be possible But though rarely and upon some weighty and solemn occasions some Souls have returned and appeared yet I judge this is not frequently done upon slight and ordinary errands and therefore to give you my own thoughts I judge 3 That those Apparitions which seem to be and are generally reputed and taken for the Souls of the Dead are not indeed so but other Spirits putting on the shapes and resemblances of the Dead and for the most part tricks of the Devil to delude or disquiet men Religio Med. Sect. 37. p. 82. In this I think the learned Dr. Brown delivered his judgment more solidly and orthodoxly than in some other points when he saith I believe that the whole frame of a Beast doth perish and is left in the same State after death as before it was martialled into life That the Souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption that they subsist beyond the body and continue by the priviledge of their proper nature and without a Miracle that the Souls of the faithful as they leave earth take possession of Heaven That those Apparitions and Ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering Souls of men but the unquiet Walks of Devils prompting and suggesting us unto mischief blood and Villany And with this Opinion I concur as to the ordinary and common Apparitions of the dead and my Reasons are 1 Because the Scriptures every where describe the state of departed Souls as a fixed state either in Heaven or in Hell and assigns the good or evil done in this World by Spirits not to the departed Spirits of men but to Angels or Devils and it is our duty to regulate our Conceits by Scripture and not according to the vain Philosophy of the Heathens or the Superstitious Traditions and Opinions of Men. As for the Souls of the godly they are at rest with Christ Rev. 14.13 Isai. 57.2 and as fixed as pillars in the house of God Rev. 3.12 And for the wicked their Spirits are confin'd and secured in Hell as in a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 there is a fixed Gulph betwixt them and the living Luke 16.27 28 29 30 31. What good offices are to be done by Spirits for us the Angels are Gods Commission-Officers to do them Hebr. 1.14 They are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation these are the Spirits sent forth to walk to and fro through the earth Zech. 1.10 their Ministry was emblematically represented in Iacob's Vision where they were seen ascending and descending as upon a Ladder betwixt Heaven and Earth Gen. 28.12 Yea their very name Angel is a name of office
signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc fluxâ—runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not
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
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
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
madness wilfulness and obstinacy as the cause of all that eternal misery which we have pull'd down upon our own heads What is it but the rubbing of the wound with Salt and Vinegar Of this torment holy Ioâ— was afraid and therefore resolv'd what in him lay to prevent it when he saith Iob 27.6 My heart i.e. my Conscience shall not reproach me so long as I live O the twits and taunts of Conscience are cruel cuts and lashes to the Soul Fifthly The shameings of Conscience are unsufferable torments Shame arises from the turpitude of discovered actions If some mens secret filthiness were but published in this World it would confound them what then will it be when all shall lie open as it will after this life and their own Consciences shall cast the shame of all upon them They shall not only be derided by God Prov. 1.26 but by their own Consciences also Lastly The fearful expectations of Conscience still looking forward into more and more wrath to come this is the very summ and complement of their misery What makes a Prison so dreadful to a Malefactor but the trembling expectations he there lives under of the approaching Assizes Much after the same rate or rather after the rate of condemned persons preparing for Execution do these Spirits in Prison live in the other World But alas no instance or similitude can reach home to their case PROP. VI. That which makes the torments and terrours of the damned Spirits so extream and terrible is that they are unrelievable miseries and torments for ever They are not capable either of 1. A partial relief by any mitigation or 2. A compleat relief by a final cessation 1. Not of a partial relief by any mitigation could they but divert their thoughts from their misery as they were wont to do in this World drink and forget their sorrows or had they but any hope of the abatement of their misery it would be a relief to them But both these are impossible Their thoughts are fixed and determined to remove them though but for a moment from their misery is as impossible as to remove a Mountain their sin and misery is ever before them As the blessed in Heaven are bono confirmati so fixed and setled in blessedness that they are not diverted one moment from beholding the blessed face of God for they are ever with the Lord so the damned in Hell are malo obfirmati so setled and fixed in the midst of all evil that their thoughts and miseries are inseparable for ever 2. Much less can their undone state admit the least hope of relief by a final cessation of their misery All hope perisheth from them and the perishing of their hope is the plainest proof that can be given of the eternity of their misery For were there but the remotest possibility of deliverance at last hope would hang upon that possibility and whilst hope lives the Soul is not quite dead the death of hope is the death of a mans Spirit the cutting off of the Soul from God and the last act of hope to see or enjoy him for ever is that death which an immortal Soul is capable of suffering Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire is that Sentence which strikes hope and soul dead for ever In these six Propositions you have the true and terrible Representation of the Spirits in Prison or the state of damned Souls I have not mentioned their association with Devils or the dismal place of their confinement which though they compleat their misery yet are not the principal parts of it but rather Accessories to it or Rivers running into the Ocean of their misery The summ of their misery lies in what was opened before and the improvement of it is in that which followeth Inference I. IS this the state of ungodly Souls after death Then it follows that neither death nor annihilation are the worst of evils incident to man Aristotle calls death the most terrible of all terribles and the Schoolmen affirm Annihilation to be a greater evil than the most miserable being but it is neither so nor so the Wrath of God the Worm of Conscience are much more bitter than death The pains of death are natural and bodily pains the Wrath of God and anguish of Conscience are spiritual and inward that is but the pain of a few hours or days these are the unrelieved torments of eternity And as for Annihilation what a favour would the damned account it Indeed if we respect the glory of Gods justice which is exemplified and illustrated in the ruine of these miserable souls it is better they should abide as the eternal monuments thereof than not be at all but with respect to themselves we may say as Christ doth of the Son of Perdition Matth. 26.24 Good had it been for them if they had never been born For a mans Soul to be of no other use than a vessel of wrath to receive the indignation and be filled with the fury of God surely an unâ—timely Birth that was never animated with a reasonable Soul is better than they for alas they seek for death but it flies from them The immortality of their Souls which was their dignity and priviledge above other Creatures is now their misery and that which continually feeds and perpetuates their flame Here is a Being without the comfort of it a Being only to howl and tremble under Divine wrath a Being therefore which they would gladly exchange with the contemptiblest Fly or most loathsome Toad but it cannot be exchanged or annihilated Inference II. HEnce it follows That the pleasures of sin are dear bought and costly pleasures There is a greater disproportion betwixt that pleasure and this wrath than betwixt a drop of Honey and a Sea of Gall. Could a man distil all the imaginable pleasure of sin and drink nothing else but the highest and most refined delights of it all his life though his life should be protracted to the Term of Methuselahs Yet one day or night under the wrath of God would make it a dear bargain But 1. 'T is certain sin hath no such Pleasures to give you they are all imbitter'd either by adverse stroaks of Providence from without or painful and deadly gripes and twinges of Conscience within Iob 20.14 His meat in his Bowels is turned it is the gall of Aspes within him 2. 'T is as certain the time of a sinner is near its Period when he is at the height of his pleasure in sin for look as high delights in God speak the Maturity of a Soul for Heaven and it will not be long before such be in Heaven so the heights of delight in sin answerably speak the Maturity of such a Soul for Hell and it will not be long ere it be there Sin is now a big Embryo and speedily the Soul travels with death 3 According to the measure of delights men have had in sin will be the degrees and measures
and design for its Salvation by Christ in so great depth of counsel that the Angels of Heaven are astonished at it and desire to pry into it Christ in pursuance of this eternal project came from Heaven professedly to seek and to save lost Souls Luke 19.10 He compares himself to a good Shepherd who leaveth the ninety nine to seek one lost sheep and having â—ound it brings it home upon his shoulders rejoycing that he hath found it Luke 15.5 Hell imploys all its skill and policy sets a-work all wiles and stratagems to destroy and ruine it 1 Pet. 5.8 Your adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour The strong man armed gets the first possession of the Soul and with all his forces and policies labours to secure it as his property Luke 11.21 Christ raises all the spiritual Militia the very posse Coeli the Powers of Heaven to rescue it 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And do Heaven and Earth thus contend think you de lana caprina for a thing of nought No no if there were not some singular and peculiar excellency and worth in mans Soul both worlds would never tug and pull at this rate which should win that Prize It was a great Argument of the worth and excellency of Homer that incomparable Poet that seven Cities contended for the honour of his Nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smyrna Rhodes Coâ—ophon Salamis Chins Argos and Athens were all at strife about one poor man who should crown themselves with the honour of his birth but when Heaven and Hell shall contend about a Soul certainly it much more speaks the dignity of it than the contention of seven Cities for one Homer What are all the wooings expostulations and passionate beseechings of Christs Ministers what are all the convictions of Conscience and strong impressions made upon the affections what are all strokes from Heaven upon men in the way of sin I say what are all these but the tuggings of Heaven to draw Souls out of the snares of Hell And what are the hellish temptations that men feel in their hearts the alluring objects presented to their eyes the ensnaring examples that are set round about them but the tuggings of Satan if possible to draw the Souls of men into the same condemnation and misery with himself Would Heaven and Hell be up in Arms as it were and strive at this rate for nothing Thy Soul O man how vilely soever thou depreciatest and slightest it is of high esteem a rich purchace a Creature of nobler rank than thou art aware of The wise Merchant knows the value of Gold and Diamonds though ignorant Indians would part with them for Glass-beads and Tinsel toyes And this leads us to 8. The eighth Evidence of the invaluable worth of Souls which is the joy in Heaven and the rage in Hell for the gain and loss of the Soul of man Christ who came from Heaven and well knew the frame and disposition of the Inhabitants of that City Quoties bene agimus gaudent Angeli tristantur Daemones quoties à bono deviamus Diabolum laetificamus Angelos suo gaudio defraudamus August tells us That there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luke 15.7 10. No sooner is the heart of a sinner darted with conviction broken with sorrow for sin and begins to cry Men and brethren what shall I do but the news is quickly in Heaven and sets all the City of God a rejoycing at it as is in the chief City of a Kingdom when a young Prince is born We never read that Christ laughed in all his time on Earth but we read that he once rejoyced in Spirit Luke 10.21 And what was the occasion of that his joy but the success of the Gospel in the Salvation of the Souls of men Now certainly it must be some great good that so affects Christ and all his Angels in Heaven at the sight of it the degree of a wise mans joy is according to the value of the object thereof no man that is wise will rejoyce feel his heart leap within him for gladness at a small or common thing And as there is joy in Heaven for the saving so certainly there is grief and rage in Hell for the loss of a Soul No sooner had God by Pauls Ministry converted one poor Lydia at Philippi whither he was called by an immediate Express from Heaven for that service but the Devil put all the City into an uproar as if an Enemy had landed on their Coast and raised a violent Persecution which quickly drave him thence Acts 16.9 14 22. And indeed what are all the fierce and cruel persecutions of Gods faithful Ministers but so many efforts of the rage and malice of Hell against them for plucking Souls as so many captives and preys out of his paws For this he owes them a spight and will be sure to pay them if ever he get them at an advantage But all this joy and grief demonstrates the high and great value of the Prize which is won by Heaven and lost by Hell 9. Ninthly The institution of Gospel-Ordinances and the appointment of so many Gospel-Officers purposely for the saving of Souls is no small evidence of what value and esteem they are No man would light and maintain a Lamp fed with golden Oyl and keep it burning from Age to Age if the work to be done by the light of it were not of a very precious and important nature what else are the Dispensations of the Gospel but Lamps burning with golden Oyl to light Souls to Heaven Zech. 4.2 3 4 12. compared a magnificent Vision is there presented to the Prophet viz. a Candlestick of Gold with a Bowl or Cistern upon the top of it and seven Shafts with seven Lamps at the ends thereof all lighted and that these Lamps might have a constant supply of oyl without any accessary humane help there are presented as growing by the Candlestick two fresh and green Olive-trees on each side thereof ver 3. which do empty out of themselves golden Oyl ver 12. naturally dropping and distilling it into that Bowl and the two Pipes thereof to feed the Lamps continually Under this stately Emblem you have a lively representation of the spiritual Gifts and Graces distilled by the Spirit into the Ministers of the Gospel for the use and benefit of the Church as you find not only by the Angels Exposition of it here but by the Spirits allusion to it and accommodation of it in Rev. 11.3 4. See herein what price God puts upon the salvation of Souls Gospel Lamps are maintain'd for their sakes not with the sweat of Ministers brows or the expence and waste of their Spirits but by the precious Gifts and Graces of Gods Spirit continually dropping into them for the use and service of Souls These ministerial Gifts and Graces are Christs
shall be done for them Is there no way for their deliverance O that God would direct and bless the following considerations to them if it may be expected they may at any time get through the brake in which they are involved and find them at leisure to bethink themselves The sixth way to Hell shut up by five Considerations 1. Bethink thy self poor Soul as much as thou art involved and plunged in the necessities and distracting cares of this life others many others as poor as necessitous and every way as much embroil'd in the cares of the world as you are have minded their Souls and taken all care and pains for their Salvation notwithstanding yea though millions of your rank and order are destroyed by these snares of the Devil yet God hath a very great number indeed the greatest of any rank of men among those that are low poor and necessitous in the world The Church is called the Congregation of the poor Psal. 74.20 because it consisteth mostly of men and women of the lowest and most despicable condition in this world They are all poor in Spirit and most of them poor in purse Hearken my beloved Brethren saith Iames hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom Jam. 2.5 Now if others many others as much intangled in the necessities cares and troubles of the world as you have yet struggled through all those difficulties and discouragements to Heaven why should not you strive for Christ and Salvation as well as they Your Souls are as valuable as theirs and their discouragements and hinderances as great and as many as yours 2. Consider your poor and necessitous condition in the world hath something in it of motive and advantage to excite and quicken you to a greater diligence for Salvation than is found in a more full easie and prosperous state for God hath hereby imbitter'd this world to you and made you drink deeper of the troubles of it than other men they have the honey and you the gall they have the flour and you the bran But then as yoâ— have not the pleasures so you have not the snares of a prosperous condition and your daily troubles cares and labours in it do even prompt you to seek rest in Heaven which you cannot find on Earth Can you think you were made for a worse condition than the Beasts what to have two Hells one here and another hereafter Surely as low miserable and despicable as you are you are capable of as much happiness as any of the Nobles of the World and in your low and afflicted condition stand nearer to the door of hope than they do Ah! methinks these thoughts do even put themselves upon you when your spirits are overloaded with the cares and your bodies tired with the labours of this life Is this the life of troubles I must expect on Earth Hath God denied me the pleasures of this World O then let it be my care my study my business to make sure of Christ to win Heaven that I may not be miserable in both Worlds How can you avoid such thoughts or put by such meditations which your very station and condition even forceth upon you 3. Consider how all your troubles in this World would be sweetned and all your burdens lightned if once your Souls were in Christ and in Covenant with God O what hearts-ease would Faith give you What sweet relief would you find in Prayer These things like the opening of a Vein or Tumor when ripe would suddenly cool relieve and ease your spirits Could you but go to God as a Father and pour out your hearts before him and roll all your cares and burdens wants and sorrows upon him you would find a speedy out-let to yâ—ur troubles and an inlet to all peace all comfort and all refreshments such as all the riches honours and fulness of this world cannot give you would then find Providence engage it self for your supply and issue all your troubles to your advantage Heb. 13.5 Isa. 41.17 Psal. 34.9 10. Psal. 91.15 Rom. 8.28 You would suck the breasts of those Promises in the Margent and say all the dainties in the world cannot make you such another Feast You would then see your bread your cloaths and all provisions for you and yours in Gods promises when you are brought to an exigence and would certainly find performances as well as promises all along the course of your life 4. Say not you have no time to mind another world God hath not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity you have one whole day every week allowed you by God and Man for your Souls you have some spare time every day which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises yea most Callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life Besides there are none of you but have and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business and if your hearts were spiritual and set upon Heaven you would find more time than you think on without prejudice to your Callings yea to the great furtherance of them to spend with God I can tell you when and where I have found poor Servants hard at work for Salvation labouring for Christ some in the Fields others in Barns and Stables where they could find any privacy to pour out their Souls to God in prayer As Lovers will make hard shifts to converse together so will the Soul that is devoted to God and in earnest for Heaven And though your opportunities be not so large they may be as sweet as successful and to be sure sincere as those whose condition affords them more time and greater external conveniencies than you enjoy More business is sometimes dispatcht in a quarter of an hour in prayer yea let me say in a few hearty ejaculations of Soul to God in a few minutes than in many long and elaborate duties If thou cast in thy two mites of time into the Treasury of Prayer having no more thou mayst as Christ said of the poor Widow give more than those that cast in of their great abundance of time and Talents 5. Lastly Consider Jesus Christ is no Respecter of persons the poorest and vilest on earth are as welcome to him as the greatest He chose a poor and mean condition in this World himself conversed mostly among the poor never refused any because of his poverty God accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34.19 and that both in respect of their natural constitution as men and their Civil condition as rich or poor men Riches and poverty make a great difference in the respects of men but none at all with God If thou be one of Gods poor he will accept love and honour thee above the greatest if
They run their thoughts forward into Eternity and that to a great depth and then cry What shall I do to be saved They deliberate and weigh in their most advised thoughts what is to be done and that speedily for the escaping of the wrath to come thus they fix those tender weak and hazardous motions which dye away in multitudes of Souls and in the loss of them their seasons of Salvation are also lost 2. The first stirrings and motions of the Spirit upon mens hearts do then become a season of Salvation to them when they are accompanied with spiritual fervent and frequent prayer so it was with Paul Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth It 's a good sign when Souls get alone and affect privacy and retirement to pour out their fears sorrows and requests to God It is in the Espousals of a Soul to Christ as it is in other Marriages a third person may make the motion and bring the Parties together but they only betwixt themselves must conclude and agree the matter Prayer is the first breath which the new Creature draws in and the last ordinarily it breaths out in this world This nourishes and maturates those weak and tender first motions after God and brings them to some consistence and fixedness in the Soul 3. Then do those motions of the Spirit on mens hearts make a season of Salvation to them when they remain and settle in the heart and are in them per modum quietis by way of rest and abode following the man from place to place from day to day so that whatever unpleasing diversions the necessities and incumbrances of this world at any time give yet still they return again upon the heart and will not vanish or suffer any long suspension but in others who lose their blessed advantage and season it 's quite contrary Iam. 1.23 24. They are as one that seeth his natural face in a glass and goeth away and forgetteth what manner of man he was he sees some spot on his face or disorder in his band which he purposeth to correct but one occurrence or another chops in and he forgets what he saw in the glass and so goes all the day with his spot upon him This was an evanid light purpose which came to nothing for want of a present execution just so it is with many in reference to their great concerns but if the impression abide in its strength if it return and follow the Soul and will not let it be quiet it 's like then to prosper and prove the time of Mercy indeed to such Souls 4 An anxious solicitude and inquisitiveness about the means and ways of Salvation speaks an effectual door of Salvation to be set open to the Souls of men Acts 2.37 16.30 Sirs what must I do to be saved Men and brethren what shall we do q. d. we are in a miserable condition O you the Ministers of Christ instruct counsel and shew us what course to take Is there no Balm in Gilead No door of hope in this Valley of Achor Alas we are not able to dwell with our own fears terrors and presages of wrath to come O for a Messenger one among a thousand to teach us the way of Salvation Thus the Lord rivets and fixes those motions in some Souls which vanish like a morning mist or dew in others 5 Lastly That which secures and compleats this work is the execution of those purposes and convictions by falling without delay to the work of Faith and Repentance in good earnest dallying no more with so great a concernment standing no longer at shall I shall I when mean while time flies away and opportunities are in hazard to be lost but bringing their thoughts and debates to a peremptory resolution as the Lepers at Samaria did and seeing themselves shut up to one only door of hope there they resolve to take up their station lying at the feet of Jesus Christ and casting their poor burdened Souls upon him whatever be the issue When the Spirit of God ripens his first motions to this and carries them through that critical season thus far then there is an effectual door of opportunity opened indeed this is an acceptable time a day of Salvation but O how many thousands miscarry in this season and like trees removed from one soil to another dye in the removal But certainly it is the most solemn and important concern of every Soul to watch upon all these seasons of Salvation when God comes nigh to them by convictions and motions of his Spirit and to put the same value upon these things which they do upon their Souls and the Salvation of them This is the door of Hope set open a fresh gale to carry you home to your Port of Glory Salvation is now come nigh to your Souls there is but a little betwixt you and Blessedness Wise and happy is that Soul which knoweth and improveth its season To perswade and press men to discern and improve such seasons as these is the principal work of the Preachers of the Gospel and that special work to which I now address my self in the following Motives and Arguments Argument I. AND first who that hath the free exercise of Reason and the sense of a future eternal Estate would carelesly neglect any season of Salvation whilst he seeth all the rational world so carefully attending and watching all opportunities to promote and secure their lower concerns and designs for the present life Is not the saving of a mans Soul as weighty a concern as the getting of an Estate You cannot but observe how care Merchants are to nick the opportunity which promiseth them a good turn How y are poor Sea-men look out for a wind to wast them to their Port and industriously shift their Sails to improve every slaw that may set them on in their Voyage How many miles Tradesmen will travel to be in season at a Fayr to put off or purchase Goods to their advantage No entertainments recreations or importunities of friends can prevail with any of these to lose a day on which their business depends all things must give way to their business they all understand their seasons and will not be diverted But alas what childish toyes are all these compared with Salvation What is the loss of a little Money to the loss of a mans Soul If a mans life depended upon his being at such a place by such a precise hour sure he would not over-sleep his time that morning and had he but the least fear of coming too late every stroke of the Clock would strike to his heart and yet remisness and carelesness in such a case as this is infinitely more excusable than in the matter of Salvation Certainly the solicitude and care of all the world for the interests thereof yea your own diligence and circumspection in temporal things will be an uncontroulable and confounding self-conviction to you in the day of your account and leave you
many souls become foolish forgetful injudicious c. by their union with ill disposed Bodies Nothing is more sensibly plain and evident than that â—â—ere is a reciprocal Communication betwixt the Soul and Body The Body doth as really though we know not how affect the Soul with its dispositions as the Soul influences it with life and motion The more excellent any form is the more intimate is its union and conjunction with the matter The Soul of man hath therefore a more intimate and perfect union with the Body than light hath with the Air Which is made by some the best Emblem and Similitude to shadow forth this union But the union betwixt them is too intimate to be conceived by the help of any such Similitudes That this infection is by way of Physical agency as a rusty Scabbard infects and defiles a bright Sword when sheathed therein I will not confidently affirm as some do It may be by way of Natural Concomitancy as Estius will have it or to speak as Dr. Reynolds modestly and as becomes men that are conscious of darkness and weakness by way of ineffable resultancy and emanation 3. In summ Original Sin consists in two things viz. 1. In the privation of that original rectitude which ought to be in us 2. In that habitual Concupiscence which carrieth nature to inordinate motions This Privation and inordinate inclination make up that original corruption the rise whereof we are searching for and to bring us as near it as we can come without a daring intrusion into unrevealed Secrets our solid Divines proceed by these steps in answering this Objection 1. If it be demanded how it comes to pass that an Infant becomes guilty if Adam's sin The answer is because he is a child of Adam by natural generation 2. But why is he deprived of that Original rectitude in which Adam was created They answer because Adam lost it by his sin and therefore could not transmit what he had lost to his posterity 3. But how comes he to be inclined to that which is evil Their answer is because he wants that original rectitude For whosoever wants original rectitude naturally inclines to that which is evil And so the propension of Nature to that which is evil seems to be by way of Concomitancy with the defect or want of original righteousness And thus I have given some account of the Nature and Original of the Soul of Man though alas My dim eyes see but little of its excellency and glory Yet by what hath been said it appears the Masterpiece of all God's works of Creation in this lower World But because I suspect the Description I have given of it will be obscure and cloudy to vulgar Readers of a plain and low capacity by reason of divers Philosophical terms which I have been forced to make use of and reckoning my self a debtor to the weak and unlearned as well as others I will endeavour to strip this Description of the Soul for their sakes out of those artificial terms which darken it to them and present it once more in the most plain and intelligible Epitome I am capable to give it in that so the weaker understanding may be able to form a true notion of the Nature and Original of the Soul in this manner This Soul of mine is a true and real Being The Soul a Substance Not a fancy a conceit a very nothing It hath a proper and true Being in it self whether I conceit it or not Nor indeed can I conceive of it but by it It is not such a thing as whiteness is in Snow a meer accident which depends upon the Snow in which it is for the Being it hath and must perish as soon as the Snow is dissolved my Soul doth not so depend upon my Body or any other fellow creature for its Being but is as truly a Substance as my Body is though not of so gross and material a kind and nature My Soul can and will subsist and remain what it is when my Body is separated from it but my Body cannot subsist and remain what it now is when my Soul is separated from it So that I find my Soul to be the most substantial and noble part of me it is not my Body but my Soul which makes me a man And if this depart all the rest of me is but a dead log a lump of inanimate Clay a heap of vile dust and corruption From this independent subsistence it hath in it self and the dependence its properties and affections have upon it I truly apprehend and call it a Substance But yet when I call it a Substance but a Spiritual Substance I must not conceive of it as a gross material palpable substance such as my Body is which I can see and feel No there are spiritual substances as well as gross visible material Substances An Angel is a Spiritual Substance a real creature and yet imperceptible by my sight or touch such a substance is my Soul Spiritual substances are as real and much more excellent than bodily substances are I can neither see hear nor feel it but I both see hear and feel by it My Soul is also a vital Substance A Vitaâ— Substanâ—â— It is a principle of life to my Body It hath a life in it self and quickens my body therewith My Soul is the spring of all the actions and motions of life which I perform It hath been an errour taken in from my childhood That sense is performed in the outward Organs or members of my Body as Touching in the Hand seeing in the Eye Hearing in the Ear c. in them I say and not only by them As if nothing were required to make Sense but an Object and an Organ No no it is not my Eye that seeth nor my Ear that heareth nor my Hand that toucheth but my Soul in and by them performs all this Let but an Apoplex hinder the operations of my Soul in the Brain and of how little use are my Eyes Ears Hands or Feet to me My life is originally in my Soul and secondarily by way of Communication in my Body So that I find my Soul to be a vital as well as a spiritual Substance An Immortal Substance And Being both a vital and Spiritual Substance I must needs conclude it to be an immortal Substance For in such a pure spiritual nature as my Soul is there can be found no seeds or principles of Death Where there is no composition there will be no dissolution My Body indeed having so many jarring humours mixed elements and contrary qualities in it must needs fail and dye at last But my Soul was formed for immortality by the simplicity and spirituality of its nature No sword can pierce it from without nor opposition can destroy it from within Man cannot and God will not endued with Vnderstanding Will and Affections And being an immortal Spirit fitted and framed to live for ever
Ascension-gifts Eph. 4.8 When he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men and what were the Royal gifts of that triumphant day why he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. It is an allusion to the Roman Triumphs wherein the Conqueror did spargere missilia scatter abroad his treasures among the people It is reported of the Palm-tree saith one that when it was first planted in Italy they water'd its roots with Wine to make it take the better with the Soil but God waters our Souls with what is infinitely more costly than Wine he waters them with the Heart-blood of Christ and the precious Gifts and Graces of the Spirit which certainly he would never do if they were not of great worth in his eyes O how many excellent Ministers who were as is said of Iohn burning and shining Lights in their places and generations have spent themselves and how many are there who are willing to spend and be spent as Paul was for the salvation of Souls God is at great expences for them and therefore puts a very high value upon them Now all this respects the Soul of man that is the object of all ministerial labours The Soul is the terminus actionum ad intra the subject on which God works and upon which he spends all those invaluable treasures 'T is the Soul which he aims at and principally designs and levels all to and reckons it not too dear a rate to save them at No man will dig for common stones with golden Mattocks the instruments that would be worn out being of far greater value than the thing This may convince us of what worth our Souls are and at what rates they are set in Gods Book that such instruments are sent abroad into the World and such precious Gifts and Graces like golden Oyl spent continually for their Salvation whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas all are yours 1 Cor. 3.22 i. e. all set apart for the service and salvation of your Souls 10. Tenthly The great encouragements and rewards God propounds and promiseth to them that win Souls speaks their worth and Gods great esteem of them There cannot be a more acceptable service done to God than for a man to set himself heartily and diligently to the Conversion of Souls so many Souls as a man instrumentally saves so many Diadems will God crown him withal in the great Day S. Paul calls his converted Philippians his joy and his crown Phil. 4.1 and tells the converted Thessalonians they were his Crown of rejoycing in the presence of Iesus Christ at his coming 1 Thess. 2.19 There is a full reward assured by promise to those that labour in this great service Dan. 12.3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever The wisdom here spoken of I conceive not to be only that whereby a man is made wise to the salvation of his own Soul but whereby he is also furnished with skill for the saving of other mens Souls according to that Prov. 11.30 He that winneth souls is wise and so the latter Phrase is exegetical of it meaning one and the same thing by being wise and turning many unto righteousness and to put men upon the study of this wisdom he puts a very honourable title upon them calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the justifiers of many as in 1 Tim. 4.16 they are said to save others Here is singular honour put upon the very instruments imploy'd in this honourable service and that is not all but their reward is great hereafter as well as their honour great at present they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and the stars for ever and ever The Firmament shines like a Saphir in it self the Stars and Planets more gloriously again but those that faithfully labour in this work of saving Souls shall shine in Glory for ever and ever when the Firmament shall be parched up as a scrowl O what rewards and honours are here to provoke men to the study of saving Souls God will richly recompense all our pains in this work if we did but only sow the seed in our days and another enters into our labours and waters what we sowed so that neither the first hath the comfort of finishing the work nor the last the honour of beginning it but one did somewhat towards it in the work of Conviction and the other carried it on to greater maturity and perfection and so neither the one or other began and finished the work singly yet both shall rejoyce in Heaven together Ioh. 4.36 You see what honours God puts upon the very instruments imploy'd in this work even the honour to be Saviours under God of mens Souls Iam. 5.20 and what a full reward of glory joy and comfort they shall have in Heaven all which speaks the great value of the Soul with God Such encouragements and such rewards would never have been propounded and promised if God had not a singular estimation of them And the more to quicken his instruments to all diligence in this great work he works upon their fears as well as hopes threatens them with Hell as well as incourages them with the hopes of Heaven tells them he will require the blood of all those Souls that perish by their negligence Their blood saith he will I require at that watch-mans hands Ezek. 33.6 which are rather Thunderbolts than words saith Chrysostom By all which you see what weight God lays upon the saving or losing of Souls such severe charges great encouragements and terrible threats had never been propounded in Scripture if the Souls of men had not been invaluably precious 11. Eleventhly It is no small evidence of the preciousness and invaluable worth of Souls that God manifests so great and tender Care over them and is so much concern'd about the evil that befals them Among many others there are two things in which the tender care of God for the good of Souls is manifested 1. In his tenderness over them in times of distress and danger as a tender father will not leave his sick child in other hands but sits up and watches by him himself and administers the Cordials with his own hands even so the great God expresseth his care and tenderness Isa. 57.15 I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Behold the condescending tenderness of the highest Majesty Is a Soul ready to faint and fail O how soon is God with it with a reviving Cordial in his hand lest the spirit should fail before him and the Soul which he hath made as it is vers 16. yea he put it into
Christs Commission to preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the broken-hearted Isa. 61.1 and not only inserts it in Christs Commission but gives the same in solemn charge to all his inferior Messengers whom he imploys about them Isa. 35.3 Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees say to them that are of a fearful heart Be strong fear not 2. His special regard to Souls is evidenced in his severe prohibitions to all others to do nothing that may be an occasion of ruine to them He charges it upon all That no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way Rom. 14.13 that by the abuse of our own liberty we destroy not him for whom Christ died Rom. 14.15 And what doth all this signifie but the precious and invaluable worth of Souls 12. Lastly It is not the least evidence of the dignity of mans Soul that God hath appointed the whole Host of Angels to be their Guardians and Attendants Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 Are they not It is no doubtful question but the strongest way of affirmation nothing is surer than that they are All Not one of that heavenly Company excepted The highest Angel thinks it no disparagement to serve a Soul for whom Christ die Well may they all stoop to serve them wâ—en they see Christ their Lord hath stooped even to death to save them They are all of them Ministring Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publick Officers to whom their Tutelage is committed to them it belongs to attend serve protect and relieve them The greatest Peers and Barons in the Kingdom think it not below them to wait upon the Heir apparent to the Crown in his Minority and no less dignity is here stampt by God upon the Souls of men whom he calls Heirs of Salvation And in some respect nearer to Christ than themselves are on this account it is that the Angels delight to serve them Christs little ones upon earth have their Angels which always behold the face of God in Heaven Mat. 18.10 and therefore saith our Lord there Take heed you despise not one of these little ones they are greater persons than you are aware of Nor is it enough that one Angel is appointed to wait upon all or many of them but many Angels even a whole Host of them are sometimes sent to attend upon one of them As Iacob was going on his way the Angels of God met him and when he saw them he said This is Gods host Gen. 32.1 2. The same two offices which belong to a Nurse to whom the Father commits his Child belong also to the Angels of Heaven with respect to the Children of God viz. to keep them tenderly whilst they are abroad and bring them home to their Fathers house at last And how clearly doth all this evince and demonstrate the great dignity and value of Souls Was it an Argument of the Grandeur and Magnificence of King Solomon that he had two hundred men with Targets and three hundred men with Shields of beaten Gold for his ordinary Guard every day And is it not a mark of far greater dignity than ever Solomon had in all his glory to have Hosts of Angels attending us In comparison with one of this Guard Solomon himself was but a Worm in all his Magnificence And now lay all these Arguments together and see what they will amount to You have before you no ordinary Creature for 1. it was not produced as other Creatures were by a meer word of command but by the deliberation of the great Council of Heaven and 2. such are the high and noble faculties and powers found in it as render it agreeable to and becoming such a Divine Original Yeâ— 3. by reason of these its admirable powers it becomes a capable subject both of Grace here and Glory hereafter 4. Nor is this its capacity in vain for God hath made glorious preparations for some of them in Heaven 5. And purchased them for Heaven and Heaven for them at an invaluable price even the precious Blood of Christ. 6. And stampt immortality upon their actions as well as natures 7 Both Worlds contend and strive for the Soul as a prize of greatest value 8 Their Conversion to Christ is the Triumph of Heaven and Rage of Hell 9. The Lamps of Gospel-Ordinances are maintained over all the reformed Christian World to light them in their passage to Heaven 10. Great rewards are propounded to all that shall heartily endeavour the salvation of them 11. The care of Heaven is exceeding great and tender over them And 12. the heavenly Host of Angels have the charge of them and reckon it their honour to serve them These things duly weighed bring home the conclusion with demonstrative clearness to every mans understanding That one Soul is of more value than the whole World which was the thing to be proved What remains is the improvement of this excellent subject in these following Inferences Inference I. THE Soul of man appearing to be a Creature of such transcendent dignity and excellency this truth appears of equal clearness with it That it was not made for the body but the body for it and therefore it is a vile abuse of the noble and high-born Soul to subject it to the lusts and enslave it to the drudgery of the inferior and more ignoble part The very Law of Nature assigns the most honourable places and imployments to the most noble and excellent Creatures and the baser and inferior to things of the lowest rank and quality The Sun Moon and Stars are placed by this Law in the Heavens but the Ignis fatuus and the Glow-worm in the Fens and Ditches Princes are set upon Thrones of Glory the Beggers lodg'd in Barns and Stables and if at any time this order of Nature be inverted and the baser suppress and perk over the more noble and honourable Beings it is looked upon as a kind of Prodigy in the Civil World and so Solomon represents it Eccles. 10.7 I have seen servants upon horses and Princes walking as servants upon the earth i. e. I have seen men that are worthy of no better imployments than to rub Horses heels in the Saddle with their Trappings and men who deserve to bear rule and to govern Kingdoms men who for their great ability and integrity deserved to sit at Helm and moderate the Affairs of Kingdoms these have I seen walking as servants upon the earth and this he calls an evil under the Sun that is an Ataxie confusion or disorder in the course of Nature Now there can never be that difference and vast odds betwixt one man and another as there is betwixt the Soul and the body of every man A King upon the Throne is not so much above a Begger that cryes at our doors for a crust as the Soul is above a body for the