Now here the Spirit or holy Ghost is mentioned distinct from God For it is said that This God hath given the Spirit which also Christ so often speaketh of the Father as I need not to insist on it 2. It is an other Rule That in any Scripture where Two Persons are mentioned as concurring in any thing or matter There the other Third Person also must be understood to have his speciall share therein also as when he wisheth grace and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ 'T is certain the holy Ghost is as specially understood as indeed we find him in that Apostolicall blessing as distinctly spoken of as the Father or Christ Thus it must be here Christ must be taken in who also in John is so often said to give the Spirit when the Father gives him as it is said here he hath For this same thing But 3. You have even Christ also not farre off interested in this self-same thing in the next verse and v. 8. Absence from the Lord whilest in the body v. 6. and presence with the Lord when separate from the body v. 8. This Lord is Christ the phrase of the New Testament concerning Christ runs in this style To be with Christ This day with me To be where I am and see my Glory So Christ To be with Christ is best of all and we shall be ever with the Lord So Paul Use 1. Doth God work Us for this thing ere he brings us to it What hath God wrought hitherto upon Thee or Thee in order to this end 'T is a blunt question but the Text puts it in my mouth How many souls are there living in the profession of Christianity that know not what this means to have a work wrought on them a-new upon them over and above what morall Honesty which was Natures portion and the common profession of Christianity addes thereunto by custome and meer education An honest Turk professing also and observing the Principles of his Religion upon the ground of his education onely and a Religion every man must have will as soon go to Heaven as Thou for all thy Religion is founded but upon the like foundation that his is I tell thee that Christian Religion is not a thing so cheap nor Salvation by Christ at so low a rate Thou must have a work upon thy soul suited unto all the truths thus professed in the power and efficacy of them They must enter thy soul by a spirituall faith and frame and mold it anew to a likeness to them Carry home therefore the Caveat our Apostle hath put in ver. 3. If so be that being clothed we be not found naked of Grace and Holiness wrought and Christs Righteousness by spiritual efficacious faith applied Faith in earnest bowing the Soul to be obedient unto Christ as heartily and as honestly as it expects salvation by Christ as without which thou wilt never be saved This is our Religion and when at death thy Soul thy poor lonesome Soul being stript of all things in this world even the Body and all shall come afore the great God and Jesus Christ what will the enquiry be as Matth. 22. 11. When THE KING came in to see the guests he saw a man had not the Wedding-garment he spied him out And the man was speechless v. 12. Take him and hinde him says he and cast him into utter darkness v. 13. The other that were clothed were admitted unto the Marriage and as the Psalmist the words of which are here alluded unto She was brought unto the KING the very Title which in both these places is given to Christ see ver. 11. in rayment of Needle-work and this clothing is of Gods working and so my Text falls in with both There is no admission unto Christ without it This the first Use Use 2. Hath God begun to work this good work in thee he will perfect it whereof the Text gives this assurance that he hath wrought it for this thing that is for this end and God will not lose his end Besides he says he hath given earnest Use 3. Thou Saint be content TO LIVE for whilst thou livest thou art under Gods working in order unto Glory Value life 't is a season of being wrought upon And to be sure thou shalt live no longer than whilst God is some way or other a working this What an advantage is it that all thy sins occasioned by living long shall surely be forgiven and nothing of thy score be uncut off for thee but all the righteousness that is wrought upon thee and wrought by thee and therefore wrought by thee because upon thee for being wrought upon we work and all is rather God hath wrought us than that we have wrought All thy righteousness I say shall remain for ever All the time thou remainest in this life thy Soul is ripening or maturing for Glory How great a comfort is that in explicating the Doctrinal part I gave instance of a Childe in the Womb curiously wrought all that time in order to its living and subsisting afterwards in this world 'T is a dark place the Womb which the Childe is wrought in and it lives there in a stifled condition it cannot breathe it takes nourishment but at the Navel a way invented and prepared of God meerly for that season it lies boiling tossing and tumbling and sleeping away the most of its time and gives now and then a faint stirring to shew it is still alive and it is a life scarce worth the name of life Well but all this is a being wrought and fitted to live another freer and braver life in this world And this is your present case your life is hid it is to come all that you finde in this world is but that God hath wrought you for the self-like thing And if this Childe we spake of should be forced out of the womb afore the due time it would have the more imperfect life in this world So here if you could suppose a Saint should die afore the full birth of his Souls being wrought on Therefore be content to wait Gods leisure until your change shall come Use 4. No matter what befals thee so it works towards this end let whatever be so thou findest God to go on with this design that he works upon thy soul be it upward in communion with himself or downward in disowning thy self thy vileness and corruptions so it works Thou hast afflictions that break thy heart as reproch broke Christs heart says the Psalmist in his name no matter so they work upon thy Soul Know then that they are set awork by the hand that sent them to work a far exceeding weight of glory for thee If by any means says Paul no matter what so the work go on A Carver comes with his Chissels and cuts off this piece and cuts in to that part of the Stone No matter a stately Statue bearing the Image of some Person of Honour is to be set up for perpetuity and is accordingly a framing So though God carves his Image out of thy flesh no matter Comfort thy self and think not much at any condition whilst as Paul says it turns to thy salvation Election sent thee not into this world to have a great Name perhaps God will load it nor to be Rich or to have Power but to work thee for this self-same thing and if thou seest that Plough a going though it makes deep furrows on thy back yea heart yet so that this seed be sown therein rejoyce for thou shalt bring thy sheafs with thee For my self so that I finde Election pursuing its design of making me holy and blessing me with spiritual blessings in heavenly places as Ephes. 1. 4. I care not I would not care what befalls me in this World FINIS Observa quòd non in futuro dicit Parabir nos Non demum parabitur ubi jam induendum est c. Musc. in lucum Eccle. c. 9. v. 10 Psal. 6. v. 5. 1 Cor. 13 8. 2 Cor. 9. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 23. Ver. 25. Magis conveniens videtur ut animae in quibus per prius fuit culpa meritum prius etiam vel puniantur vel praemientur Aquinas cont. Gent. Lib. 4. cap. 91. sect. 3. 2 Cor. 12. Acts 10. 47. (a) 2 Cor. 13. 8 13. (b) 1 Thes. 1. 11 John 6. 28. John 9. 51. Chap. 11. 26. Heb. 10. v. last Jam. 5. v. last {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Joh. 3. Rom. 7. 22 25. Luke 26. 22. Heb. 1. ult. Child of Light walking in Darknesse Psal. 22. See Ainsw. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Numb. 16. 22. Heb. 11. 6. Gen. 15. 1. See Burgensis Maldonat c. Lev. 19 13. Deut. 24. 15. Eccles. 12. 5. In his Myrothecium {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Job 36. 7. 1 Pet. 1. Acti agimus 2 Cor. 9. 9. Psal. 139. 15. Phil. 3.
A State of Glory FOR SPIRITS OF JUST MEN UPON DISSOLUTION DEMONSTRATED A SERMON preached in Pauls Church Aug. 30. 1657. before the Rt. Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London By THO: GOODVVIN D. D. President of Magd. Coll. Oxon. LONDON Printed by J. G. for Robert Dawlman 1657. TICHBORN Mayor Tuesday the first of Septemb. 1657. IT is ordered That Doctor Thomas Goodwin be desired from this Court to print his Sermon at Pauls the last Lord Day And further Mr. Alderm. Thomson is desired to use all endeavours with him to that purpose SADLER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir ROBERT TICHBORNE Lord Major Together with the Honourable COURT OF ALDERMEN Of the Renowned CITY of LONDON Greatly Honoured THis imperfect Piece and almost born out of due time puts it self forth into the world by your Command but like Zarah giving out the hand the body to which that appertained remaining still in the womb For this Sermon is but one member and indeed not so much the Hand as the Foot that is the latter part of a larger Bulk or Body of Sermons preached just afore elswhere upon those foregoing Verses of this Chapter My real purpose after your Order for this one was To have presented the whole entire Discourse unto YOV I found not time so much as leisure and spirits failing me in the performance I have therefore done as the Midwife for that Childe did in the same Gen. 38. 28. bound upon this foot for by your force and in obedience to you it comes wrong and backward this Scarlet thred of Dedication saying as she This is come forth first That if hereafter the rest may see the light You may know if You will vouchsafe it how to own and appropriate them all as Yours as being thus consecrated to You by these in respect of the publication the first-fruits of that whole Lump And now what is my earnest desire and prayer for you but according to the tendency of the matter it might be blessed to be an Helper to your Faith against the Time of your being unclothed of your flesh your going into another world where you all profess to look for another and better CITY that is an Heavenly whose Maker and Builder is God who hath or must work Us for the self-same thing or we perish everlastingly And my Lord I have particularly directed it to wait on your Honour in the contemplation of this very Aim as a Signall whereof Providence and not my Design having seemed to give forth this semblance in that it allotted no other season for it could not come forth one day sooner for its attendance on you but the very DAY of your being VNCLOTHED of your office which are little civil deaths and going out of this your transitory Government over this great CITY the best and best governed in the world But the honour of this performed amongst us you still remain clothed with and will ever wear yea and be clothed upon to a glory for it at the latter day Those things even now said unto you all being the brief Collect of this ensuing Sermon I turne into a Prayer for you all who am Your true Honourer and Servant in the Gospel THO: GOODVVIN Mag. Coll. Oxon. Oct. 23. 1657. 2 COR. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit THere is no point of more moment to All nor of greater comfort to Saints than what shall become of their Souls when they die 'T is our next stage and things that are next use more to affect us And besides it is the beginning and a taking possession of Our Eternity That these words should aim at this self-same thing cannot be discerned without consulting the fore-going part of the Apostles discourse and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the coherence having pitch'd upon what this fifth Verse contributes unto this Argument which alone will require more than this time allotted having also very largely gone through the Exposition of the fore-going Verses elswhere and I now go but on where I left last But yet to make way for the understanding the scope of my Text take The Coherence in brief thus In the 16 Verse of the fore-going Chapter where the Well-head of his Discourse is to be found he shews the extraordinary care God hath of Our inward man to renew it day by day where Inward man is strictly the Soul with its Graces set in opposition unto Our outward man the Body with its appurtenances which he saith daily perisheth that is is in a mouldring and decaying condition Chap. 5. ver. 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens In this first verse of this fifth Chapter he meets with this supposition But what if this outward man or earthly tabernacle be wholly dissolved and pull'd down what then shall become of this inner man And he resolves it thus That if it be dissolved we have an house a building of God in the heavens And what is the WE but this inner man he had spoken of renewed Souls which dwell now in the body as in a tabernacle as the In-mates that can subsist without it And it is as if he had said If this inward man be destituted of one house we have another God that in this life was so careful over this inner man to renew it every day hath made another more ample provision against this great change It is but it 's removing from one house to a better which God hath built As your selves to speak in your own language if Wars should beset you and your Countrey-house were plundred and pull'd down you would comfort your selves with this I have yet a City-house to retire unto Neither is the terming the glory of Heaven and that as it is bestowed upon a separate Soul alien from the Scripture-phrase Luke 16. 9. That when you fail they may receive you into EVERLASTING HABITATIONS Death is a failing 't is your City-phrase also when a man proves Bankrupt A Statute of Bankrupt comes forth then upon your old house Statutum est omnibus semel mori and upon all you have and then it is that there is a receiving or entertaining that otherwise-desolate Soul into everlasting habitations that is into an house eternal in the heavens as the Text Nor yet is the phrase of terming Heaven A City-house remote neither for Heb. 11. ver. 13. Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith Mark that in faith or expectation of what He had told us ver. 10. He looked for a City whose Builder is God What is a City but an aggregation and heap of houses and Inhabitants Multitudes had died afore Abraham and gone to Heaven from Adam Abel Seth downwards and God promiseth him peace at his death and a being gathered to those
separate souls Glory and Happiness 1. From the Condition of the Soul as the immediate subject of Grace wrought in it 2. From Gods Ordination of the Work wrought To raise the soul up to life whilst Sin should bring Dissolution upon the body 3. From the Scope of the Worker God himself who as an Efficient will accomplish the end when his work for that end is finish'd And all these as comprehended in what the very first view and front of the words of my Text hold out God hath wrought us for the self same thing §. But lo a greater matter is here It is not simply said God hath wrought us for this but HE that hath wrought us for this thing is GOD Thereby calling upon us to consider How great an Hand or Efficient is here Even God who hath discovered in a transcendent manner his Glory in the Ordaining and Contriving of this Work unto this great End Take it Not therefore as a bare Demonstration given from Gods working US to this end such as is common to other Agents as hath been said But further a Celebration of the Greatness and Glory of God in his having contrived this with so high an Hand like unto the great God And is as if he had said There is a design in this worthy of God HE hath shewn himself in this to be the great God indeed He that wrought us for this is God When Gods ordinary Works are spoken of it sufficeth himself to say God did Thus or This But when Gods Works of Wonder then often you finde such an illustrious note of Reflection upon and pointing at Him to have done as God And it is ordinary among men when you would commend the known worth of the Artist to say He that wrought this is such a Man so to commend the Workmanship And thus both when the holy Ghost speaks of this Glory it self which is the End for which here His style is Whose Maker and Builder is God Heb. 11. 10. And in like equipage here of preparation to that End he saith He that hath wrought us for this thing is God In this very Chapter 2 Cor. 5. to go no further when the great Work of Salvation in the whole of it is spoken of he prefaceth thus to it All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself c. that is in this transaction he hath appeared like that God of whom all things else are and so more eminently in this than in all or at least any other work What there is said of Salvation in the whole is here of that particular Salvation of a separate Soul You have the like Emphasis put Heb. 2. 10. of bringing many sons to glory it became him says the Text Now put all together and the result is The SECOND POINT That to have provided a Glory for separate Souls of just men wrought upon in this life is a dispensation becoming the great God yea and that there is an artifice and contrivement therein worthy of God and like unto himself such as he hath shewed in other his works of Wonder There are two Branches of this Doctrine which I set otherwise out thus 1. That it is a thing becoming the great God thus to deal with such a separate Soul having been wrought upon 2. That God hath designed and brings forth therein a glorious artifice and contrivement such as argueth him a God Wise in Counsel and Wonderful in Working I. First BRANCH of this second Doctrine That it becomes God The account of this becomingness is best made forth by comparing and bringing together into an enterview both the inward and outward condition of such a Soul and then the relations which God bears to it such as should thereupon move him through his good pleasure thus to deal with it You know I at first undertook chiefly Reasons of Congruity or Becomingness and such always consist of two parts and when the one answereth and suiteth to the other then the Harmony of such a Reason is made up Let US therefore consider 1. What is on the Souls 2. What on Gods part §. I. On the Souls part Therein two things First the species the kinde and intrinsecal rank of being which this creature we call the Soul thus wrought upon stands in afore God 2. The outward condition or case this Soul is left in upon its parting with the body unless God takes it up into glory First for its rank or kinde of being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kinde thereof and in that respect considered apart for its union with the body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other creatures but Angels are You have the Pedegree of man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. the extract of our bodies in ver. 26. He hath made of one blood all nations of men So then on that side as we say in respect of our bodies there is a Consanguinity of all men being made of one blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are Gods off-spring ver. 28. and so on that side there is an alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and IN the very substance of our souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is onely proper to His Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is styled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the fathers of our flesh or bodies see the words which alliance or fatherhood take it as in common with all mens spirits lieth in this That he not onely created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which image or likeness other creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal. 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others reade it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for creation differs from generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but he parents afford the stuff the matter and the formative vertue besides by which our bodies are framed So then in respect of our first creation our souls apart considered are thus allied to God which our bodies are not being Spirits in the very being of them that altogether do owe that their being to him But there is
a taint come upon the souls of all men by sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the onely subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary The Holy of Holies the seat of Gods most spiritual Worship which the body is not but onely as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not onely restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the work-manship or embroidery upon it and both of them the works of God that so look as the gold wrought upon commends the enamel and then again the enamel enhaunceth the value of the gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the body in this world Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a mans flesh and his heart fails Psal. 73. 26. 3. And which is worse0 a mans Faith faileth or ceaseth after death and all his spiritual Knowledge as in this life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this life is cut off It is of all creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked soul comes afore naked God Eccles. 12. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was And the SPIRIT shall RETURN UNTO GOD that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its father again This as to the Souls condition II. God part §. This is a speciall season for God to shew his love to such a soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilest it was in the body nor after when it is united to the body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor soul which is his so neer kindred and alliance it must be done now We read in the 73. Ps. 26. My flesh and my heart faileth as at death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my heart both in this life and at death to support me and my portion for ever in the life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this world he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore v. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again v. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon earth where he had at present many comforts and comforters in comparison OF THEE You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as v. 26. and his estate in heaven earth divide that time portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever when all faile him which he had on earth then God alone becomes his happinesse in heaven But this onely in generall shews what God is and will be to a soul in this condition §. But I having undertaken to proceed by way of congruity I must further more particularly shew how in a correspondency to this inward and outward state of this Soul he shews himself God and how meet and becoming a thing it is for God to receive it into Glory upon the consideration of many Relations which he professedly beareth to such a soul 1. God is a Spirit and thereupon in a speciall manner as Wisd. 11. 26. The Lord a lover of souls above all his other creation So it is there Thou art mercifull to all because they are thine O LORD THOU LOVER OF SOULS God is a Spirit when therefore this naked and withall sublimated spirit by its being born again by his own spirit and so assimilated to God himself a pure spark now freed and severed from its dust and ashes flying up or is carried rather by Spirits the Angels out of their like spirituall love to it as a Spirit unto that great Spirit that element of Spirits it will surely find union and coalition with him and be taken up unto him for if as Christ speaks John 4. 23. God being a Spirit therefore seeks for such as worship in spirit and truth that is he loves delights in such as a man doth in a companion or friend who suits him And doth God seek for such whilest they are on Earth Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him and have such a grand occasion and indeed the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him in such a manner upon such a change as this as they never did before these Spirits also having been the seat the inner Temple of all this spiritual worship and sanctifying of him in this world surely God who sought such afore will now take them into his bosom and glory we also read Isa. 57. 16 17. of the regard he bears to persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superaded consideration that they are souls and spirit so thereby allied to him the lofty one Hear how in this case he utters himself The Spirit would fail afore me sayes he the souls which I have made He speaks of their very souls properly and respectively considered And them it is which he considering and it moves him unto pity for he speaks of that in man whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator The spirit which I have made sayes he and it is
one of the eminent titles he takes into his coat The framer of the spirit of man within him Zach. 12. ch. 1. as in many other places This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in man which is the subject sensible of his immediate wrath I will not contend for ever nor will I be alwayes wroth This I have observed in what is publick of mine Now what moves him to remove his wrath from such an one The spirit would faile says he Now doth God thus professe to have a regard to them in this life and that upon this account that they are Spirits lest they should FAILE or faint and shall we not think that when indeed otherwise they do faile as after death you have heard even now Christ himself expresseth they would and would upon all these considerations before-mentioned sink into utter desolation unlesse they were received into everlasting habitations as Christ there also speaks Do we think that God will not now entertain them The time is now come the full time to have pity on them 2. God at this season forgets not but full well remembers his Relation of being THEIR CREATOUR both by the new also first creation the new reviving ingratiating the remembrance of the first The SOULS which I HAVE MADE said he in Esay But in our Peter this is more expresse and mentioned as that which indeed moves God and should be accordingly a support to our Faith to take care of our Souls when we come to die even upon this account that he is the faithfull creatour of them 1 Pet. 4. last Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the KEEPING OF THEIR SOULS to him in well-doing as unto a FAITHFUL CREATOR He speaks this specially unto such as were continually exposed unto persecution unto death for Christ in those Primitive times which therefore v. 12. he termes the fiery triall and ver. 17. forewarns them of a time of judgement was begun and going on upon the house of God such as they had not yet felt who yet Heb. 10. 32 33 34. had suffered reproch and spoyling of their goods as Peter writes to the same Jews hereupon Peter pertinently instructs them to commit the keeping of their souls unto God At death you know it is that when mens bodies are destroyed and so the season when their souls to be separated therefrom should be committed to Gods care as our Darling as our Translation or lovely soul when separate as others as Christ in David speaks Ps. 22. And Peter had in his eye Christ example and pointed them thereunto who at his death committed his separate Soul or Spirit into the hands of God Luke 23. 46. and the word commit is one and the same in both these places onely there is this difference that whereas Christ sayes Father I commit Peter substitutes another title of Gods there being more than one Relation moving God and strengthening our Faith to this even of faithfull creatour And I understand not the first creation onely or chiefly here meant by Peter but the second creation chiefly which brings into repute and acceptation with God the first again together with its own and so God is thereupon engaged to be faithfull in his care and provision for such souls according to his promises And faithfulnesse doth alwayes respect and refer unto Promises and my reason why thus I understand it is because I find Gods faithfulnesse still annexed unto his calling of us that is converting us which is al one with this new creation Faithfull is he that hath called you that is made you new creatures 1 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 24. And I find that David also urges it upon God as a motive as in other Psalms So Ps. 138. 8. Forsake not the works of thine own hands that is this double workmanship of thine of the first and then superadded unto that of the second creation which he urgeth thereby to move him to perfect the work begun and to be mercifull unto him for ever in the former part of that verse 3. God professeth himself the FATHER of SPIRITS which relation though it speaks his being the Creatour of them at the first yet hath something more of bowels in it it sayes withall something further when it falls out that such Spirits as he is a Father unto by the first creation are also the subjects of His eternall love by Grace and Election unto the Adoption of children as Eph. 1. 3 4 5. see the words Which love having accordingly taken hold of their souls by a work of Grace wrought upon them in this life thereby owning them as his in this case that God that is a father of their Spirits by the law of the first creation is in a more transcendent manner become the father of the same spirits by Grace and the second Creation superadded Hence it falls out in a parallel way that as it was said such souls were become Spirit upon a double account that is spirits for the substance of their being and again spirit by being born again of the spirit so answerably it is that God stands in relation unto them as a father of their spirits upon the like double respect And this is equitable upon a very great account for his relation of Father is more eminent to his Grace by Election and then again by the grace of his second Creation then it could be any way supposed to be by the first creation And therefore is set and pitcht in like singularity and eminency upon the same object that is their spirits And hence it may well yea must be supposed and acknowledged That if God did make such a darling of the Soul such an account of it by creation as to entitle himself so specially the father thereof then certainly this love of grace much more hath in like equipage taken up the same gracious special relation in its kind of Father thereunto not onely because Natura shall never be found to exceed Grace in its favours but that indeed the motives are far greater that God should extend the like and greater priviledges where he meant to love by election and choice then he did where he loved onely by a due and meet law of creation So that when God shall professe himself a father to their spirits speaking to such as are his Elect he strongly insinuateth thereby That he is by Grace likewise the father of their spirits in a peculiar manner And truly that speech of our Saviour at his death confirmes it Father into thy hands I commit my spirit It was not barely as a father of his spirit by creation as our all know but by everlasting love and so in that respect also in a peculiar manner the Father of his spirit and therefore as to a Father he commends his separate Spirit unto him And this he did although he was to rise again in lesse than three whole dayes
space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of Gods being a father of spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerely the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that word and live this life is well interpreted by ver. 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus that if he would have them be subject unto God in holinesse as upon that relation as unto the father of spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one speciall aim of the promise is answerable and hath this eye That God as a Father of their spirits will therefore take care of their spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this life on them and truly when its more proper for him to shew himself a Father then when their souls after their subjection to him in holinesse here accomplished and when that as naked spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashired out of this world and come stript and naked of all but holinesse unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Fathers blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as spirits who as sons that have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the demonstration of this point then all the former The Text sayes He that wrought us for this is God I adde he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of spirits in common and yet withall a father of their spirits out of special love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the spirits of all flesh that is of man Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by grace And these two relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all men So in common answerably he is Your God and Your Father by special grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you finde yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how farre he is a God of the one so farre a Father also extendeth in the other And look how farre that he is our God so farre reacheth also that he is Our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will adde further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant reward which respected the life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of Gods unto us unto two inferences drawn from Abrahams instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christs inference from thence That therefore Abrahams soul lives and Abraham both soul and body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's collection from the same Promise is that God had provided in the mean time for Abrahams soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the story and case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver. 8 9. whereupon ver. 13. it is said That these all died in faith not having received the promises being strangers in the land yea not having a foot of land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose maker and builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from Gods having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his reward and his friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which is spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their deaths The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their
as the context shews which are termed the Lower parts of the earth as when Christ is said Eph. 4. to have descended into the lower part of the earth that is to be conceived in the womb of a Virgin when a child is born a lump of flesh animated with a soul comes forth curiously wrought c. but wrought for what in Davids person in which this was spoken it was for a Kingdome the supremest condition of enjoyments in this World But in every other man that is born it is that he was curiously wrought in a fitnesse and capacity to all things that are in this world made and prepared exactly for it long afore it came into the world you may see it in Adam our first pattern more lively God was busie for six dayes in making this world the Angels all that while stood wondring with themselves to what end or for whom all this was prepared At the end of the sixth day they saw God to set down into the world this little thing called Man and then they ceased their wonderment for they saw all this world prepared aforehand set in mans heart and all in man curiously wrought and fitted for all things made in this world richly to enjoy as 1 Tim. 6. 17. We may apply that in the Text to this it appeared That he that hath man for this self-same thing is God both works of wonder apart and yet as fitted to each other All wonderment exceeding I might much more enlarge upon the suiting of Christ the Head and Husband and the Church His Body and Wife wrought and growing up to him in all ages both apart secretly and hiddenly prepared and each so glorious in themselves and yet put together Let us refer our Admiration hereat untill the latter day Just thus it is in fitting the soul for that glory and again that glory in Heaven for that soul God works the one for the other apart The very similitude in the former verses do import so much He styleth Glory in Heaven a being clothed upon and Holinesse here he compares to an under-garment which that of Glory is to be put over or upon There was never a curious Artist in making Garments that ever took measure of the proportions of an upper and under Garment to fit the one to the other as God hath in proportioning his work upon us here and his preparation of Glory for each of us in the world to come He hath took exact measure and his law is that designed his own workings on both hands afore-hand that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. Now the Artifice of God in both these lies in this That each are hiddenly contrived apart and yet so gloriously matcht as wrought one for the other which is an argument as of two Artificers the one in the East Indies the other in the West should the one make the Case the other make the Watch unbeknown each to other and both workmanships of the highest curiosity in their kind and when both brought together they exquisitely fit the one the other §. And what Have I been telling you all this while an artificiall pleasant Story Doth not this Scripture tell the very same For a close Do but now at last take a view and prospect of our Apostles whole discourse The Round and Cicle whereof begun at v. 16. of ch. 4. and endeth with my Text and do you not find it speak to use the Texts language the very self-same thing 1. He tells us there of an inward man renewed whilest the outward is a perishing to the end it may live and subsist alone when the body is wholly dissolved there he layes his Foundation And is not this all one with what the Text sayes God works Us these souls day by day Even as the child is curiously wrought in the womb to subsist of it self alone in this world so this inward man in that other 2. He then immediately subjoyns ver. 17. that All Afflictions which are nothing else but the Perishings of this outward man as also All things and dispensations else that do befall us they are secretly at work too all that while so set to work by God who works the inner man daily unto such a measure of Grace and these to work and by his ordination procure a proportionable weight for God works all these things in weight and measure our light affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternall WEIGHT of glory as shall in a comely and in the exactest manner answer and suit that curious workmanship on the inward man and it is observable that the same word for working is used in that verse that is used in my Text but yet these are but outwardly a work as inferiour Artificers or Instruments Therefore 3. He further declares 1. verse of this chapter That God himself is at work about this glory who as the Master-workman that hath the draught and platform of all afore him drawn by his own designing he viewing the inward work on us the outward work of meanes and dispensations and knows afore-hand what degree of holinesse to bring us ultimately unto he according unto these as patterns is a framing a building for us in Heaven exactly suited to the working of all the other which building he prepares and makes ready for this inner man to entertain it when the body is dissolved If our earthly house were dissolved we have a building of GOD an house not made with hands of either Men or Means or of our own Graces but OF GOD But every soul hath a state of Glory proportioned to all these ready built for it against this time even as Statues in stone are framed and carved to be set up in such a curious Arch framed for them by the Builder Now then 4. Adde but the words of my Text which is the close of this his discourse And it opens all the Scene He that wrought us for this self-same thing is GOD The Apostles conclusion answers his beginning he began in v. 16. ch. 4. and the circle ends in my Text And This is GOD who is wise in working and wonderfull in counsel §. But there is a third point yet remains Doctrine III. That it is the interest and engagement of all Three persons to see to it that a righteous separate soul be brought to glory at dissolution And this carries it yet higher even to the highest and gives the most superabundant security and assurance of this thing that can be given and superadds above all the former But you will ask me How I fetch this out of my Text Thus 1. You see here are Two Persons expresly named God the Father namely and the Spirit This is a Rule that where the name God and then some besides other of the Two Persons Christ or the Spirit are mentioned therewith as distinct There God is put personally not essentially onely to expresse The Father