without scandal but he knew he had not lived without error but as God had assisted him to avoid the reproach of great crimes so he doubted not but he should finde pardon for the less and indeed I could not but observe that he had in all the time of his sickness a very quiet conscience which is to me an excellent demonstration of the state of his life and of his state of grace and pardon For though he seemed to have a conscience tender and nice if any evil thing had touched it yet I could not but apprehend that his peace was a just peace the mercy of God and the price and effect of the bloud of Jesus He was so joyfull so thankfull so pleased in the Ministeries of the Church that it gave in evidence where his soul was most delighted what it did apprehend the quickest where it did use to dwell and what it did most passionately love He discoursed much of the mercies of God to him repeated the blessings of his life the accidents and instruments of his trouble he loved the cause of his trouble and pardoned them that neither loved it nor him When he had spent great portions of his time of sickness in the service of God and in expectation of the sentence of his life or death at last he understood the still voice of God and that he was to goe where his soul loved to be he still increased his devotion and being admonished as his strength failed him to supply his usual forms and his want of strength and words by short exercise of vertues of faith and patience and the love of God he did it so willingly so well so readily making his eyes his hands and his tongue as long as he could the interpreters of his minde that as long as he was alive we would see what his soul was doing He doubted not of the truth of the promises nor of the goodness of God nor the satisfaction of Christ and the merits of his death nor the fruit of his resurrection nor the prevalency of his intercession nor yet doubted of his own part in them but expected his portion in the regions of blessedness with those who loved God and served him heartily and faithfully in their generations He had so great a patience in his sickness and was so afraid lest he should sin at last that his piety out-did his nature and though the body cannot feel but by the soul yet his soul seemed so little concerned in the passions of the body that I neither observed nor heard of him that he in all his sickness so much as complained with any semblance of impatience He so continued to pray so delighted in hearing Psalms sung which I wish were made as fit to sing by their numbers as they are by their weight that so very much of his time was spent in them that it was very likely when his Lord came he would finde him so doing and he did so for in the midst of prayers he went away and got to Heaven as soon as they and saw them as we hope presented to the throne of grace he went along with them himself and was his own messenger to heaven where although he possibly might prevent his last prayers yet he would not prevent Gods early mercy which as we humbly hope gave him pardon for his sins ease of his pain joy after his sorrow certainty for his fears heaven for earth innocence and impeccability instead of his infirmity Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides Nudaque veritas Quando ullum inveniet parem Faith and justice modesty and pure righteousness made him equal to the worthiest examples he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a good man loving and humble meek and patient he would be sure to be the last in contention and the first at a peace he would injure no man but yet if any man was displeased with him he would speak first and offer words of kindness If any did dispute concerning priority he knew how to get it even by yeelding and compliance walking profitably with his neighbours and humbly with his God and having lived a life of piety he died in a full age an honourable old age in the midst of his friends and in the midst of prayer And although the events of the other world are hidden to us below that we might live in faith and walke in hope and die in charity yet we have great reason to bless God for his mercies to this our Brother and endeavour to comport our selves with a strict religion and a severe repentance with an exemplar patience an exemplar piety with the structures of a holy life and the solemnities of a religious death that we also may as our consident and humble hope is this our Brother doth by the conduct of Angels pass into the hands and bosome of Jesus there to expect the most mercifull sentence of the right hand Come ye blessed Children of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world Amen Lord Jesus Amen Grant this Eternal God for Iesus Christ his sake to whom with thee O Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honour service and dominion love and obedience be confessed due and ever paid by all Angels and all men and all the creatures this day henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS
up and down in white Revel. 3. 4 5. 14. 13. that is as candidates of the resurrection to immortality And this allegory of the Garden of Eden and Paradise was so heartily pursued by the Jews to represent the state of separation that the Essens describe that state by the circumstances and ornaments of a blessed garden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a region that is not troubled with clouds or shours or storms or blasts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but a place which is perpetually refreshed with delicious breaths This was it which the Heathens did dream concerning the Elysian fields for all the notices {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning the regions of separate souls came into Greece from the Barbarians sayes Diodorus Siculus and Tertullian observes although we call that Paradise which is a place appointed to receive the souls of the Saints and that this is separated from the notices of the world by a wall of fire a portion of the torrid zone which he supposes to be meant by the flaming sword of the Angel placed at the gates of Paradise yet sayes he the Elysian fields have already possessed the faith and opinions of men All comes from the same fountain the doctrine of the old Synagogue confirmed by the words of Christ and the commentaries of the Apostles viz. that after death before the day of judgment there is a Paradise for Gods servants a region of rest of comfort and holy expectations And therefore it is remarkable that these words of the Psalmist Nerapias me in medio dierum meorum Psal. 102. v. 25. Snatch me not away in the midst of my dayes in the Hebrew it is Ne facias me ascendere Make me not to ascend or to goe upwards meaning to the supernatural regions of separate souls who after death are in their beginnings of exaltation For to them that die in the Lord death is a preferment it is a part of their great good fortune for death hath not only lost the sting but it brings a coronet in his hand which shall invest and adorne the heads of Saints till that day comes in which the Crown of righteousness shall be brought forth to give them the investiture of an everlasting Kingdome But that I may make up this proposition usefull and clear I am to adde some things by way of supplement 1. This place of separation was called Paradise by the Jews and by Christ and after Christs ascension by S. Iohn because it signifies a place of pleasure and rest and therefore by the same analogy the word may be still used in all the periods of the world though the circumstances or though the state of things be changed It is generally supposed that this had a proper Name and in the Old Testament was called Abrahams bosome that is the region where Abraham Isaac and Iacob did dwell till the comming of Christ But I suppose my selfe to have great reason to dissent from this common opinion for this word of Abrahams bosome being but once used in both the Testaments and then particularly applied to the person of Lazarus must needs signifie the eminence and priviledge of joy that Lazarus had for all that were in the blessed state of separation were not in Abrahams bosome but only the best and the most excellent persons but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with Abraham and the analogy of the phrase to the manner of the Jewish feastings where the best guest did lye in the bosome of the Master that is had the best place makes it most reasonable to believe that Abrahams bosome does not signifie the general state of separation even of the blessed but the choicest place in that state a greater degree of blessedness But because he is the father of the faithful therefore to be with Abraham or to sit down with Abraham in the time of the old Testament did signifie the same thing as to be in Paradise but to be in Abrahams bosome signifies a great eminence of place and comfort which is indulged to the most excellent and the most afflicted 2. Although the state of separation may now also and is by S. Iohn called Paradise because the Allegory still holds perfectly as signifying comfort and holy pleasures yet the spirits of good men are not said to be with Abrahams but to be with Christ and as being with Abraham was the specification of the more general word of Paradise in the old Testament so being with Christ is the specification of it in the New So S. Stephen prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit and S. Paul said I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which expression S. Polycarp also used in his Epistle to the Philippians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are in the place that is due to them they are with the Lord that is in the hands in the custody of the Lord Jesus as appears in the words of S. Steven and S. Paul So S. Ierome Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo sanctorum mixtum choris we know that our Nepotian is with Christ mingled in the quires of Saints Upon this account and it is not at all unreasonable the Church hath conjectur'd that the state of separate souls since the glorification of our Lord is much better'd and advanc'd and their comforts greater because as before Christs coming the expectation of the Saints that slept was fixed upon the revelation of the Messias in his first coming so now it is upon his second coming unto judgment and in his glory This improvement of their condition is well intimated by their being said to be under the Altar that is under the protection of Christ under the powers and benefits of his Priesthood by which he makes continuall intercession both for them and us This place some of the old Doctors understood too literally and from hence they believed that the souls of departed saints were under their material Altars which fancy produced that fond decree of the Councel of Eliberis Can. 3. 4. that wax lights should not by day be burnt in coemeteries inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt left the spirits of Saints should by the light of the diurnal tapers be disquieted This reason though it be trifling and impertinent yet it declares their opinion that they supposed the souls to be neer their reliques which were placed under the altars But better then this their state is described by S. Iohn in these words therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him night and day in his Temple and he that sits upon the throne shall dwell among them with which general words as being modest bounds to our inquiries enough to tell us it is rarely well but enough also to chastise all curious
though this life be lost yet they shall have another and a better a life in which God shall manifest himself to be their God to all the purposes of benefit and eternal blessings This argument was summed up by St. Peter and the sense of it is thus rendred by St. Clement the Bishop of Rome as himself testifies si Deus est juslus animus est immortalis which is perfectly rendred by the words of my text if in this life only we have hope then are we of all men the most miserable but because this cannot be that God who is just and good should suffer them that heartily serve him to be really and finally miserable and yet in this world they are so very frequently therefore in another world they shall live to receive a full recompence of reward Neither is this so to be understood as if the servants of God were so wholly forsaken of him in this world and so permitted to the malice of evil men or the asperities of fortune that they have not many refreshments and great comforts and the perpetual festivities of a holy Conscience for God my Maker is he that giveth songs in the night said Elihu Iob 35. 10. that is God as a reward giveth a chearful spirit and makes a man to sing with joy when other men are sad with the solemn darkness and with the affrights of conscience and the illusions of the night But God who intends vast portions of felicity to his children does not reckon these little joys into the account of the portion of his elect The good things which they have in this world are not little if we account the joys of religion and the peace of conscience amongst things valuable yet whatsoever it is all of it all the blessings of themselves and of their posterity and of their Relatives for their sakes are cast in for intermedial entertainments but their good and their prepared portion shall be hereafter But for the evil it self which they must suffer and overcome it is such a portion of this life as our B. Saviour had injuries and temptations care and persecutions poverty and labour humility and patience it is well it is very well and who can long for or expect better here when his Lord and Saviour had a state of things so very much worse then the worst of our calamities but bad as it is it is to be chosen rather then a better because it is the high way of the cross it is Iacobs ladder upon which the Saints and the King of the Saints did descend and at last ascend to heaven it self and bad as it is it is the method and the inlet to the best it is a sharp but it is a short step to bliss for it is remarkable in the parable of Dives and Lazarus that the poor man the afflicted Saint died first Dives being permitted to his purple and fine linnen to his delicious fare and which he most of all needed to a space of repentance but in the mean time the poor man was rescued from his sad portion of this life and carried into Abrahams bosome where he who was denied in this world to be feasted even with the portion of dogs was placed in the bosome of the Patriarch that is in the highest room for so it was in their discubitus or lying down to meat the chief guest the most beloved person did lean upon the bosome of the Master of the feast so S. Iohn did lean upon the breast of Jesus and so did Lazarus upon the brest of Abraham or else {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sinus Abrahae may be rendred the bay of Abraham alluding to the place of rest where ships put in after a tempestuous and dangerous Navigation the storme was quickly over with the poor man and the Angel of God brought the good mans soul to a safe port where he should be disturbed no more and so saith the spirit Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their labours But this brings me to the second great inquiry If here we live upon hopes and that this is a place of hopes but not this only what other place is there where we shall be blessed in our hope where we shall rest from our labour and our fear and have our hopes in perfection that is all the pleasures which can come from the greatest and the most excellent hope Not in this life only so my Text Therefore hereafter as soon as we die as soon as ever the soule goes from the body it is blessed Blessed I say but not perfect it rejoyces in peace and a holy hope here we have hopes mingled with fear there our hope is heightned with joy and confidence it is all the comfort that can be in the expectation of unmeasurable joyes it is only Not fruition not the joyes of a perfect possession but less then that it is every good thing else But that I may make my way plain I must first remove an objection which seems to overthrow this whole affaire S. Paul intends these words of my text as an argument to prove the resurrection we shall rise again with our bodies for if in this life only we had hopes then were we of all men most miserable meaning that unless there be a resurrection there is no good for us anywhere else but if they that dye in the Lord were happy before the resurrection then we were not of all men most miserable though there were to be no resurrection for the godly are presently happy So that one must fail either the resurrection or the intermedial happinesse the proof of one relies upon the destruction of the other and because we can no other wayes be happy therefore there shall be a resurrection To this I answer that if the godly instantly upon their dissolution had the vision beatifical it is very true that they were not most miserable though there be no resurrection of the dead though the body were turned into its original nothing for the joyes of the sight of God would in the soule alone make them infinite recompence for all the sufferings of this world But that which the Saints have after their dissolution being only the comforts of a holy hope the argument remains good for these intermedial hopes being nothing at all but in relation to the resurrection these hopes do not destroy but confirme it rather and if the resurrection were not to be we should neither have any hopes here nor hopes hereafter And therefore the Apostles word is if here only we had hopes that is if our hopes only related to this life but because our hopes only relate to the life to come and even after this life we are still but in the regions of an inlarged hope this life and that interval are both but the same argument to inferre a resurrection for they are the hopes of that state and the joyes of those hopes and
some better thing for us that without us they should not be made perfect it must also conclude of all alike that they who died since Christ must stay till the last day that they and we and all may be made perfect together And this very thing was told to the spirits of the Martyrs who under the Altar cried How long O Lord c. Rev. 6. 10. that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also shall be fulfilled Upon this account it is that the day of judgment is a day of recompence So said our Blessed Lord himself Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just Luke 14. 14. and this is the day in which all things shall be restored for the Heavens must receive Jesus till the time of restitution of all things Acts 3. 7. and till then the reward is said to be laid up So S. Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the righteous Iudge shall give me in that day and that you may know he means the resurrection and the day of judgment he addes and not to me only but to all them that love his coming 2 Tim. 4. 8. of whom it is certain many shall be alive at that day and therefore cannot before that day receive the crown of righteousness and then also and not till then shall be his appearing but till then it is a depositum The summe is this In the world we walk and live by faith In the state of separation we live by hope and in the resurrection we shall live by an eternal charity Here we see God as in a glass darkly In the separation we shall behold him but it is afar off and after the resurrection we shall see him face to face in the everlasting comprehensions of an intuitive beatitude In this life we are warriors In the separation we are conquerors but we shall not triumph till after the resurrection And in proportion to this is also the state of Devils and damned spirits Art thou come to torment us before the time said the Devils to our B. Saviour there is for them also an appointed time and when that is we learn from S. Iud. 6. They are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Well therefore did S. Iames affirme That the Devils believe and tremble and so do the damned souls with an insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of that day They know that day will come and they know they shall finde an intolerable sentence on that day and they fear infinitely and are in amazement and confusion feeling the worme of conscience and are in the state of Devils who fear God and hate him they tremble but they love him not and yet they die because they would not love him because they would not with all their powers and strengths keep his Commandments This doctrine though of late it hath been laid aside upon the interest of the Church of Rome and for compliance with some other Schools yet was it universally the doctrine of the Primitive Church as appears out of Iustin Martyr who in his dialogues with Tryphon reckons this amongst the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} errors of some men who say there shall be no resurrection of the dead but that as soon as good men are dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their souls are taken up immediately into heaven and the writer of the questions ad Orthodoxos asks qu. 76. q 60. q. 75. whether before the resurrection there shall be a reward of works because to the thief Paradise was promised that day He answers it was fit the thief should goe to Paradise and there perceive what things should be given to the works of faith but there he is kept {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} untill the day of resurrection and reward But in Paradise the soul hath an intellectual perception both of her self and of those things which were under her Concerning which I shall not need to heap up testimonies this only It is the doctrine of the Greek Church unto this day and was the opinion of the greatest part of the Antient Church both Latine and Greek and by degrees was in the West eaten out by the doctrine of Purgatory and invocation of Saints and rejected a little above two hundred years agoe in the Councel of Florence and since that time it hath been more generally taught that the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision before the resurrection even presently upon the dissolution According to which new opinion it will be impossible to understand the meaning of my text and of diverse other places of Scripture which I have now alledged and explicated or at all to perceive the Oeconomy and dispensation of the day of judgment or how it can be a day of discerning or how the reapers the Angels shall bind up the wicked in bundles and throw them into the unquenchable fire or yet how it can be useful or necessary or prudent for Christ to give a solemn sentence upon all the world or how it can be that that day should be so formidable and full of terrors when nothing can affright those that have long enjoyed the beatific presence of God and no thunders or earthquakes can affright them who have upon them the biggest evil in the world I mean the damned who according to this opinion have been in hell for many ages and it can mean nothing but to them that are alive and then it is but a particular not an universal judgment and after all it can pretend to no piety to no Scripture to no reason and only can serve the ends of the Church of Rome who can no way better be confuted in their invocation of Saints then by this truth that the Saints do not yet enjoy the beatific vision and though they are in a state of ease and comfort yet are they not in a state of power and glory and kingdome till the day of judgment This also perfectly does overthrow the doctrine of Purgatory For as the saints departed are not perfect and therefore certainly not to be invocated not to be made our Patrons and advocates so neither are they in such a condition as to be in torment and it is impossible that any wise man should believe that the souls of good men after death should endure the sharp pains of hell and yet at the same time believe those words of Scripture Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works doe follow them Rev. 24. 13. If they can rest in beds of fire and sing hymns of glory in the torments of the damned if their labours are done when their pains are almost infinite then these words of the spirit of God and