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
Πνευματολογια· A TREATISE Of the Soul of Man WHEREIN The Divine Original excellent and immortal Nature of the Soul are opened its Love and Inclination to the Body with the necessity of its separation from it considered and improved The Existence Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after death asserted discussed and variously applyed Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls both Philosophical and Theological stated and determined The Invaluable preciousness of humane Souls and the various Artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy them discovered And the great Duty and interest of all men seasonably and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father Son and Spirit for the Salvation of their Souls argued and pressed By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Iesus Christ late of Dartmouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylides Quid de Turcis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisque omnibus nunc temporis Barbaris Nationibus dicâm Nemo tam Barbarus aut impius est qui non sentiat post mortem superesse loca in quibus animae aut pro malefactis puâ—iantur aut coronentur deliciisque perfruantur pro benefactis Zanch. de Animae immortalitate p. 653. London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1685. To the much honoured his dear Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell and Mr. Edward Crispe of London Merchants and the rest of my worthy Friends in London Ratcliffe Shadwell and Lymehouse Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends AMong all the Creatures in this lower World none deserves to be stiled great Nihil interra magnum praeter hominem nihil in homine praeter mentem Favorin Eâ—coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juvenal Nulla scientia melior illa qua homo novit scripsum relinque ergo caetera teipsum discute per te curre in te confiste à te incipiat cogitatio tua in te finiatur but Man and in Man nothing is found worthy of that Epithet but his Soul The study and knowledge of the Soul was therefore always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time All Ages have magnified these two words know thy self as an Oracle descending from Heaven No knowledge saith Bernard is better than that whereby we know our selves leave other matters therefore and search thy self run through thy self make a stand in thy self let thy thoughts as it were circulate begin and end in thy self Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things thy self being neglected The study and knowledge of Iesus Christ must still be allow'd to be most excellent and necessary But yet the Worth of Necessity of Christ is unknown to Men till the value wants and dangers of their own Souls be first discovered to them The disaffectedness and aversation of men to the study of their own Souls is the more to be admired not only because of the weight and necessity of it but the alluring pleasure and sweetness that is found therein What * Quid jucundius quam scire quid simus quid fuerimus quid â—rimus cum his etiam divina atque suprema illa post obitum Mundique vicissitudines Cardan speaks is experimentally felt by many that scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the Soul of man than to know what he is what he may and shall be and what those Divine and Supream things are which he is to enjoy after death and the Vicissitudes of this present World For we are Creatures conscious to our selves of an immortal Nature and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh and is therefore ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of and designations for a better life than that it now lives in the Body and that we shall not cease to bee when we cease to breathe And certainly my Friends Discourses of the Soul and its immortality of Heaven and of Hell the next and only receptacles of unbodied Spirits were never more seasonable and necessary than in this Atheistical age of the World wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridicul'd and hissed out of the company of many As if those old condemned Hereticks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the Soul as well as Body had been again revived in our days And as the Atheism of some so the tepidity and unconcerned carelessness of the most needs and calls for such potent Remedies as Discourses of this kind do plentifully afford I dare appeal to your charitable Judgments whether the Conversations and Discourses of the Many do indeed look like a serious pursuit of Heaven and a flight from Hell Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent Subject and many earnest desires I have had as I believe all thinking persons must needs have to know what I shall be when I breathe not But when I had engaged my Meditations about it two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein Namely I. The difficulty of the Subject I had chosen And II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it I. As for the Subject such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature and such the knotty Controversies in which it is involv'd that it much better deserves that inscription than Minerva's Temple at Saum did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never did any Mortal reveal me plainly Animam praesentem mentis acie vix aut ne vix quidem assequimur sed qualis sit futura quomodo indagabimus Laboranthic maxima ingenia caligo conatus etiam generosos non rarò eludit Jos. Stern de Morte cap. 20. It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own Souls now in the state of composition and what then can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of Separation The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise even the greatest Witts and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts Many great Scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery have laboured in this field usque ad sudorem pallorem even to sweat and paleness and done little more but intangle themselves and the Subject more than before This cannot but discourage new attempts And yet without some knowledge of the hability and subjective capacity of our Souls to enjoy the good of the World to come even in a state of absence from the Body a principal relief must be cut off from them under the great and manifold tryals they are to encounter in this evil World As for my self I assure you I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this Burthen and have often enough since I undertook it of that
to your inquisitive and searching minds 'T is possible they may be censured by some as undeterminable and unprofitable Curiosities but as I hate a presumptious intrusion into unrevealed Secrets so I think it a weakness to be discouraged in the search of truth so far as it is fit to trace it by such damping and causeless Censures Nor am I sensible I have in any thing transgressed the bounds of Christian Sobriety to gratifie the Palate of a nice and delicate Reader I have also here set before the Reader an Idea or representation of the state and case of damned Souls that if it be the Will of God a seasonable discovery of Hell may be the means of some mens recovery out of the danger of it and closed up the whole with a Demonstration of the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the several dangerous snares and artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy and cast them away for ever This is the design and general scope of the whole and of the principal parts of this Treatise and Oh that God would grant me my hearts desire on your behalf in the perusal of it Even that it may prove a sanctified instrument in his hand both to prepare you for and bring you in love with the unbodied life to make you look with pleasure into your Graves and die by consent of Will as well as necessity of Nature I remember Dr. Staughton in a Sermon preached before King Iames relates a strange Story of a little Child in a Shipwrack fast asleep upon its Mothers lap as she sate upon a piece of the Wrack amidst the Waves the Child being awaked with the noise asked the Mother what those things were she told it they were drowning Waves to swallow them up the Child with a pretty smiling Countenance beg'd a stroke from its Mother to beat away those naughty Waves and chid them as if they had been its Play-mates Death will shortly Shipwrack your Bodies your Souls will sit upon your lips ready to expire as they upon the Wrack ready to go down Would it not be a comfortable and most becoming frame of mind to sit there with as little dread as this little One did among the terrible Waves Surely if our Faith had but first united us with Christ and then loosed our hearts off from this inchanting and ensnaring World we might make a fair step towards this most desireable temper but unbelief and earthly mindedness make us loth to venture I blush to think what bold adventures those men made who upon the Contemplation of the Properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of sight of Land under its conduct and direction and securely trusted both their Lives and Estates to it when all the eyes of Heaven were vail'd from them amid'st the dark Waters and thick Clouds of the Sky when I either start or at least give an unwilling shrug when I think of adventuring out of sight of this World under the more sure and steady direction and conduct of Faith and the Promises To cure these evils in my own and the Readers heart these things are written and in much respect and love tendered to your hands as a Testimony of my Gratitude and deep sense of the many Obligations you have put me under That the Blessings of the Spirit may accompany these Discourses to your Souls afford you some assistance in your last and difficult work of putting them off at death with a becoming chearfulness saying in that hour Can I not see God till this Flesh be laid aside in the Grave Must I die before I can live like my self Then die my Body and go to thy dust that I may be with Christ. With this design and with these hearty Wishes dear and honoured Cousin and worthy Friends I put these Discourses into your hands and remain Your Most obliged Kinsman and Servant Io. Flavell THE PREFACE AMong many other Largesses and rich Endowments bestowed by the Creators bounty upon the Soul of Man the * Demonstravimus à communâ— omnium jam inde à condito orbe gentium ac populâ—rum prâ—sertim bâ—nâ—rum literatorum Consensione animam humanam incorruptibilem immortalem esse â—oque corrupto corpore ipâ—um â—anere superstitem ut in sempiternum aut pro benefactuà Deo coronetur aut pro malefactâ—â—s puniatur Zanch. de Aâ—lmarum immortalâ—tate p. 653. Sentiments and impressions of the World to come and the ability of reflection and self-intuition are peculiar invaluable and heavenly gifts By the former we have a very great Evidence of our own immortality and designation for nobler employments and enjoyments than this imbodied state admits and by the latter we may discern the agreeableness or disagreeableness of our hearts and therein the validity of our title to that expected blessedness But these heavenly gifts are neglected and abused all the World over Degenerate Souls are every where fallen into so deep an Oblivion of their excellent Original Spiritual and Immortal nature and alliance to the Father of Spirits That to use the upbraiding expression of a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyr. Diss. 41. Philosopher they seem to be buried in their Bodies as so many silly Worms that lurk in their holes and are loth to peep forth and look abroad So powerfully do the Cares and Pleasures of this World charm all except a small remnant of regenerate Souls that nothing but some smart stroke of Calamity or the terrible Messengers of death can startle them and even these are not always able to do it and when they do all the effect is but a transient glance at another and an unwilling shrug to leave this World and so to sleep again And thus the Impressions and Sentiments of the World to come which are the natural growth and Off-spring of the Soul are either stifled and supprest as in Atheists or born down by impetuous masterly lusts as in Sensualists And for its self-reflecting and considering Power it seems in many to be a power received in vain It is with most Souls as it is with the Eye which sees not it self though it see all other Objects There be those that have almost finished the course of a long life wherein a great part of their time hath lain upon their hands as a cheap and useless Commodity 〈◊〉 Dei est ista vita mortalis ubi homo vanitati similis factus est dies ejus velut umbra praetereunt Aug. de Civâ—â— lib. 21. c. 24. which they knew not what to do with who yet never spent one solemn entire hour in discourse with their own Souls What serious heart doth not melt into Compassion over the deluded Multitude who are mockt with Dreams and perpetually busied about Trifles Who are after so many frustrated attempts both of their own and all past Ages eagerly pursuing the fleeing shadows who torture and rack their brains to find out the Natures and Qualities
continues its union with the Body It signifies here the rational soul and the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Soul hath a very near affinity with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heavens and indeed there is a nearer affinity betwixt the things viz. Soul and Heaven than there is betwixt the Names The Epithete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Living the Arabick renders a rational Soul and indeed none but a rational deserves the name of a living Soul For all other forms or Souls which are of an earthly extract do both depend on and dye with the matter out of which they were educed But this being of another Nature a spiritual and substantial Being is therefore rightly stiled a living Soul The Chaldee renders it a Speaking Soul And indeed it deserves a remarque that the ability of Speech is conferred on no other Soul but mans Other creatures have apt and excellent Organs Birds can modulate the Air and form it into sweet delicious notes and charming sounds but no creature except man whose soul is of an heavenly nature and extraction can articulate the sound and form it into words by which the notions and sentiments of one Soul are in a noble apt and expeditious manner conveyed to the understanding of another Soul And indeed what should any other creature do with the faculty or power of speech without a principle of Reason to guide and govern it It is sufficient to them that they discern each others meaning by dumb signs much after the manner that we traded at first with the Indians But speech is proper only to the rational or living Soul However we render it a living a rational or a speaking Soul it distingisheth the soul of man from all other Souls 2. We find here the best account that ever was given of the Origin of the Soul of man or whence it came and from whom it derives its Being O what a dust and pudder have the disputes and contests of Philosophers raised about this matter which is cleared in a few words in this Scripture * Sufflavit ad ostendendum animam hominis ab extriâ—seâ—o esse per câ—tationem simulqut creando corpori insulam Poli Synops. in locum God breathed into his Nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living Soul which plainly speaks it to be the immediate effect of Gods creating power Not a result from the matter no no results flow è sinu materiae out of the bosom of matter but this comes ex halitu divino from the inspiration of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh But this is a spirit descending from the Father of spirits God formed it but not out of any praeexistent matter whether Coelestial or Terrestrial much less out of himself as the * The Stoicks saith Simplicius call the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pars vâ—l membrum Dil and Seneca Deum in bumano corpore hospitantem Which comes near to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoicks speak but out of nothing An high-born Creature it is but no particle of the Deity The indivisible and immutable Essence of God is utterly repugnant to such Notions and therefore they speak not strictly and warily enough that are bold to call it a Ray or an Emanation from God A Spirit it is and flows by way of Creation immediately from the Father of Spirits but yet 't is a spirit of another inferiour rank and order 3. We have also the account of the way and manner of its infusion into the body viz. by the same breath of God which gave it its being It is therefore a rational scriptural and justifiable expression of S. Augustine creando infunditur infundendo creatur It is infused in creating and created in infusing Though Dr. Brown * 〈◊〉 Midiâ— Seâ—t â— 6. too slightingly calls it a meer Rhetorical Antimetathesis Some of the Fathers as Iustine Irenaens and Tertullian were of opinion That the Son of God assumed a humane shape at this time in which afterward he often appeared to the Fathers as a Prelude to his true and real incarnation and took Dust or Clay in his hands out of which he formed the body of man according to the pattern of that body in which he appeared And that being done he afterwards by breathing infused the â—oul into it But I rather think it 's an Anthropopathy or usual figure in speech by which the spirit of God stoops to the imbecillity of our understanding's He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Heb. lifes But this plural word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes rather the twofold life of man in this world and in that to come or the several faculties and powers belonging to one and the same soul viz. the intellective sensitive and vegetative Offices thereof than that there are more souls than one essentially differing in one and the same man for that as * Impassibile est in uno homine esse plures animas per essentiam differentes sed una tantum est anima quae vigitativae sensitivae intellâ—ctivae officiis sâ—ngitur Aquin â—a Q. 26. Art 2. Aquinas truly saith is impossible We cannot trace the way of the spirit or tell in what manner it was united with this clod of Earth But it is enough that he who formed it did also unite or marry it to the body This is clear it came not by way of natural resultancy from the body but by way of inspiration from the Lord. Not from the warm bosom of the Matter but from the breath of its Maker 4. Lastly we have here the Nexus Copula tye or band by which it is united with the body of man viz. the breath of his i.e. of mans nostrils It is a most astonishing mysterie to see heaven and earth married together in one person The dust of the ground and an immortal spirit clasping each other with such dear embraces and tender love Such a noble and divine guest to take up its residence within the mudd-walls of flesh and blood Alas how little affinity and yet what dear affection is found betwixt them Now that which so sweetly links these two different natures together and holds them in union is nothing else but the breath of our nostrils as the Text speaks It came in with the breath whilst breath stays with us it cannot go from us and as soon as the breath departs it departs also All the rich Elixirs and Cordials in the world cannot perswade it to stay one minute after the breath is gone One puff of breath will carry away the wisest holiest and most desirable soul that ever dwelt in flesh and blood When our breath is corrupt our days are extinct Job 1â— 1 Thou takest away their breath they dye and return to their dust Psal. 104.29 Out of the Text thus opened arise two doctrinal Propositions which I shall insist upon viz. Doct. I. That the Soul of man is of
his own feet and the Bird enjoy himself as well yea better in the open Fields and Woods than in the Cage neither depend as to Being or action on the Horse or Cage 3. Both Scripture and Philosophy consent in this that the Soul is the chief most noble and principal part of Man from which the whole Man is and ought to be denominated So Gen. 46.26 All the Souls that came with Iacob into Aegypt i. e. all the persons as the Latines say tot capita so many Heads or Persons The Apostle in 2 Cor. 5.8 seems to exclude the body from the notion of personality when he saith We are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord that We a term of personality is there given to the Soul exclusively of the Body for the Body cannot be absent from it self but We that is the Souls of Believers may be both absent from it and present with Christ. To this we may add 2 Cor. 4.16 where the Soul is called the Man and the inner Man too the body being but the external face or shadow of the Man And to this Philosophy agrees The best Philosophers are so far from thinking that the body is the substantial part of Man and the Soul a thing dependent on it that contrarily they affirm that the body depends upon the Soul * Anima corpus animatum conservat sustentat ubâ— autem illa reliquit corpus perit animatum corpus animalis ratio Anima non est in corpore tanquam in loco cùm à loco circuâ— scâ—iâ—i nequeat tota per totum meat corpus non et pars in qua non tota adsit non enim à corpore tenetur sed ipsa tenet Corpus Neque est in corpore ut in vase vel in utre sed potius in ipsa est Corpus Nyâ—â—en de Anima lib. 2. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima cujusque est quisqus and that it is the Soul that conserves and sustains it And that the Body is in the Soul rather than the Soul in the Body And that which is seen is not the Man but that is the Man which is invisible That the body might be kill'd and the Man not hurt meaning the Soul which only deserves the name of Man Now if it be the chief part of Man and that which is only worthy the name of a Man and from which therefore the whole is and ought to be denominated a Man If it be so far from depending on the body or being contained within the body that the body rather depends on it and is in it then surely the Soul must be what we describe it to be a substantial Being 4. It is past all Controversie that the Soul is a Substance because it is the Subject of Properties Affections and Habits which is the very strict and formal notion of a Substance All the affections and passions of Hope Desire Love Delight Fear Sorrow and the rest are all rooted in it and spring out of it and so for Habits Arts and Sciences * A 〈◊〉 Subjectum 〈…〉 omnium viâ—â—â—tum vitiorum Sâ—â—entiâ—rum Artium Buchan loc Com. p. 86. 't is the Soul in which they are lodged and seated Having once gotten a Promptitude to act either by some strong or by some frequently repeated actings they abide in the Soul even when the Acts are intermitted as in sleep a Navigator Scribe or Musician are really Artists when they are neither Sailing Writing or Playing Because the habits still remain in their minds as is evident in this that when they awake they can perform their several works without learning the rules of their Art anew 2 A Vital Substance II. The Soul is a vital Substance i. e. A Substance which hath an essential principle of Life in it self A living active Being A living Soul saith Moses in the Text and hereby it is distinguished from and opposed to matter or body The Soul moves it self and the body too it hath a self-moving Virtue or Power in it self whereas the matter or body is wholly passive and is moved and acted not by it self but by this vital Spirit James 2.26 The body without the Spirit is dead It acts not at all but as it is acted by this invisible spirit This is so plain that it admits of sensible proof and demonstration Take meer matter and compound or divide it alter it and change it how you will you can never make it see feel hear or act vitally without a quickning and actuating Soul Yet we must still remember that this active vital principle the Soul though it hath this vital Power in it self it hath it not from it self but in a constant receptive dependance upon God the first Cause both of its Being and Power 3 A Spiritual Substance III. It is a Spiritual Substance All Substances are not gross material visible and palpable substances but there are spiritual and immaterial as well as corporeal substances discernable by Sight or Touch. To deny this were to turn a downright Sadducee and to deny the existence of Angels and Spirits Acts 23.8 The word Substance as it is applied to the Soul of Man puzzles and confounds the dark understandings of some that know not what to make of an immaterial Substance whereas in this place it is no more than * A Substance in this use of the word is that which depends not in respect of its Being upon any other fellow creature as Accidents and Qualities do whose Being is by having their in-being in another fellow creature as their subject but this Being The Soul exists in it self substare accidentibus i. e. to be a subject in which properties affections and habits are seated and subjected This is a spiritual Substance and is frequently in Scripture called a Spirit into thy hands I commit my spirit Luke 23.46 Lord Iesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 and so frequently all over the Scriptures And the spirituality of its nature appears 1. by its Descent in a peculiar way from the Father of Spirits 2. in that it rejoyceth in the essential Properties of a Spirit 3. That at Death it returns to that great Spirit who was its Efficient and Former 1. It descends in a peculiar way from the Father of Spirits as hath been shewn in the opening of this Text God stiles himself its Father Heb. 12.9 it s Former Zech. 12.1 'T is true he giveth to all living things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life and breath Acts 1â— 25 Other Souls are from him as well as the rational Soul but in a far different way and Manner They flow not immediately from him by Creation Gen. 1.24 27. as this doth It is said Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind but God created Man in his own Image Which seems plainly to make a specifical difference betwixt the reasonable and all other Souls 2. It
rejoyceth in the essential Properties of a Spirit for it is an incorporeal Substance as Spirits are It hath not partes extra partes extension of parts nor is it divisible as the body is It hath not Dimensions and Figures as matter hath but is a most pure invisible and as the acute and judicious Dr. More expresseth it an indiscerpible Substance It hath the Principle of Life and Motion in it self or rather it is such a Principle it self and is not moved as the dull and sluggish matter is per aliud by another It s efficacy is great though it be unseen and not liable to the Test of our touch as no spiritual substances are A Spirit saith Christ hath not Flesh and Bones Luke 24.39 We both grant and feel that the Soul hath a love and inclination to the body which indeed is no more than it is necessary it should have yet can we no more inferr its Corporeity from that love to the body than we can infer the Corporeity of Angels from their affection and benevolent love to men It is a Spirit of a nature vastly different from the body in which it is immersed Mr. How 's Funeral Serm. p. 9 10. There is saith a learned Author no greater mystery in nature than the union betwixt the Soul and Body That a Mind and Spirit should be so ty'd and linkt to a clod of Clay that while that remains in a due temper it cannot by any art or power free it self What so much a-kin are a Mind and a piece of Earth a Clod and a Thought that they should be thus affixed to one another Certainly the heavenly pure Bodies do not differ so much from a dunghil as the Soul and Body differ they differ but as more pure and less pure matter but these as material and immaterial If we consider wherein consists the Being of a Body and wherein that of a Soul and then compare them the matter will be clear We cannot come to an apprehension of their Beings but by considering their primary passions and properties whereby they make discovery of themselves The first and primary affection of a body * Philosophical Essay â— 2. §. 2. p. 39. as is rightly observed is that extension of parts whereof it is compounded and a capacity of Division upon which as upon the fundamental mode the particular Dimensions that is the figures and the local motion do depend Again for the Being of our Souls if we reflect upon our selves we shall find that all our knowledge of them resolves into this that we are Beings conscious to our selves of several kinds of cogitations that by our outward senses we apprehend bodily things present and by our imagination we apprehend things absent And that we oft recover into our apprehension things past and gone and upon our perception of things we find our selves variously affected Let these two properties of a Soul and Body be compared and upon the first view of a considering mind it will appear that Divisibility is not Apprehension or Judgment or Desire or Discourse That to cut a body into several parts or put it into several shapes or bring it to several motions or mix it after several ways will never bring it to apprehend or desire No man can think the combining of Fire and Air and Water and Earth should make the lump of it to know or comprehend what is done to it or by it We see manifestly that upon the division of the body the Soul remains entire and undivided It is not the loss of a Leg or Arm or Eye that can maim the Understanding or the Will or cut off the affections Nay it pervades the body it dwells in and is whole in the whole and whole in every * Understand iâ— negatively that the Soul is not in the parts of the body per partes part in one part and part in another seeing it is indivisible and hath no parts part which it could never do if it self were material Yea it comprehends in its understanding the body or matter in which it is lodged and more than that it can and doth form conceptions of pure spiritual and immaterial Beings which have no Dimensions or Figures all which shâ—ws it to be no corporeal but a Spiritual and immaterial Substance 3. As it derives its Being from the Father of Spirits in a peculiar way and rejoyceth in its spiritual properties so at death it returns to that great Spirit from whence it came It is not annihilated or resolved into soft Air or suckt up again by the Element of Fire or catcht back again into the soul of the World as some have dreamed but it returns to God who gave it to give an account of it self to him and receive its Judgment from him Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it Eccles. 12.7 Each part of Man to its like dust to dust and spirit to spirit Not that the Soul is resolved into God as the Body is into Earth but as God created it a rational Spirit conscious to it self of moral good and evil so when it hath finisht its time in the body it must appear before the God of the Spirits of all flesh its Arbiter and final Judge By all which we see that as it is elevated too high on the one hand when it is made a particle of God himself not only the Creature but a part of God as * Anima autem mentis particeps facta non solum Dei opus est verum etiam pars neque ab â—o sed de eo ex eo facta Plut. de Qu. Platon Plutarch and †Quomoda credibile vidatur tam axiguam mentem humanam membranulâ etrebri aut corde â—aud â—mplis spaciis inâ—lusam tantam Coeli mundique magnitudinem capere nisi illius divinae fâ—licisque animae particula esset indivisibilis Philo. Philo Iudaeus and others have term'd it a Spirit it is but of another and inferiour kind So it is degraded too low when it is affirmed to be matter though the purest finest and most subtle in nature which approacheth nearest to the nature of a spirit A Spirit it is as much as an Angel is a Spirit though it be a spirit of another species This is the name it is known by throughout the Scriptures In a word it is void of mixture and composition there are no jarring qualities compounded Elements or divisible parts in the Soul as there are in bodies but it is a pure simple invisible and indivisible Substance which proves its spirituality and brings us to the fourth particular viz. IV. It is an immortal Substance 4 An immortal Substance The simplicity and spirituality of its nature of which I spake before plainly shews us that it is in its very nature designed for Immortality for such a being or Substance as this hath none of the seeds of Corruption and Death in
humane souls to be created together before their bodies and placed in some glorious and suitable Mansions as the Stars till at last growing weary of Heavenly and falling in love with Earthly things for a punishment of that Crime they were cast into Bodies as into so many Prisons Origen suckt in this Notion of the praeexistence of Souls And upon this supposition it was that Porphyry tells us in the life of Plotinus that he blushed as often as he thought of his being in a Body as a man that had lived in reputation and honour blushes when he is lodged in a Prison The ground on which the Stoicks bottomed their Opinion was the great dignity and excellency of the Soul which inclined them to think they had never been degraded and abased as they are by dwelling in such vile bodies but for their faults And that it was for some former sin of theirs that they slid down into gross matter and were caught into a vital union with it Whereas had they not sinned they had lived in celestial and splendid habitations more suitable to their dignity But this is a pure creature of fancy for 1. no Soul in the world is conscious to it self of such a praeexistence nor can remember when it was owner of any other habitation than that it now dwells in 2. Nor doth the Scripture give us the least hint of any such thing Some indeed would catch hold of that expression Gen. 2. 2. God rested the seventh day from all the works which he had made And it is true he did so the work of Creation was finished and sealed up as to any new species or kind of creatures to be created no other sort of souls will ever be created than that which was at first But yet God still creates individual Souls My father worketh hitherto and I work of the same kind and nature with Adams Soul And 3. for their detrusion into these bodies as a punishment of their sins in the former state if we speak of sin in Individuals or particular persons the Scripture mentions none either original or actual defiling any Soul in any other way but by its union with the body Praeexistence therefore is but a Dream But to me it 's clear that the Soul receives not its being by Traduction or Generation for that which is generable is also corruptible but the spiritual immortal Soul as it hath been proved to be is not subject to Corruption Nor is it imaginable how a Soul should be produced out of matter which is not endued with reason Or how a bodily Substance can impart that to another which it hath not in it self If it be said the Soul of the child proceeds from the Soul of the Parents that cannot be for spiritual Substances are impartible and nothing can be discinded from them Absâ—rdum est aliunde esse animam â—â—stâ—am aliunde animam Adae cum omnes sunt ejusdem speciti Zanch. And it is absurd to think the Soul of Adam should spring from one Original and the souls of all his off-spring from another whilst both his and theirs are of one and the same Nature and species To all which let me add that as this Assertion of their Creation is most reasonable so it is most scriptural It is reasonable to think and say †Nalla virtus aâ—liâ—a agit ultâ—a sâ—â—m genus sâ—d Anima â—â—tellectiva excedit totum genus corporae natarae cum sit sâ—bstantia sâ—iritualis c. Conâ—ubâ— that no active power can act beyond or above the proper Sphere of its activity and ability But if the Soul be elicited out of the power of matter here would be an effect produced abundantly more noble and excellent than his cause And as it is most reasonable so it is most Scriptural To this purpose divers Testimonies of Scripture are cited and produced by our Divines amongst which we may single out these four which are of special remark and use Heb. 12.9 Furthermore we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Here God is called the Father of Spirits or of Souls and that in an emphatical Antithesis or contradistinction to our natural Fathers who are called the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies only The true scope and sense of this Text is with great judgment and clearness given us by that learned and judicious Divine Mr. * Pembâ—e de Origine Animae p. 59. Nihil apertins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ista Antithesi Carnem corpusque à pareâ—tibâ—s animas à Deo accipimus Quod si vilioris partis Authores qui minus in nos juris habent patienter caâ—ligantes fâ—â—â—imus quà m aequiore animo â—â—remus eâ—m qui sâ—premum in nos jus obtinet utpote partis quae in nobis est praestantiâ—sima unicus Datoâ— Conditorquâ— Pemble in these words Nothing is more plain and emphatical than this Antithesis We receive our flesh or body from our Parents but our souls from God if then we patiently bear the chastisements of our Parents who are Authors of the vilest part and have the least right or power over us with how much more equal a mind should we bear his chastisements who hath the supream right to us as he is the Father and only giver of that which is most excellent in us viz. our souls or spirits Here it seems evident that our souls flow not to us in the material Chanel of fleshly generation or descent as our bodies do but immediately from God their proper Father in the way of Creation Yet he begets them not out of his own Essence or Substance as Christ his natural Son is begotten but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing that had been before as Theodoret well expresseth it Agreeable hereunto is that place also in †Testimonium satis clarum quo docâ—mur pari passâ— haectria ambulare expansionem câ—â—li fâ—â—dationem teâ—rae â—ormationem animae ratioâ—alis Zech. 12.1 The Lord which stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the foundations of the Earth and formeth the spirit of man within him Where the forming of the spirit or soul of Man is associated with those two other glorious effects of Gods creating power namely the expansion of the Heavens and laying the foundations of the Earth all three are here equally assumed by the Lord as his remarkable and glorious works of Creation He that created the one did as much create the other Now the two former we â—ind frequently instanced in Scripture as the effects of his creating Power or works implying the Almighty power of God and therefore are presented as strong props to our Faith when it is weak and staggering for want of visible matter of incouragement Isa. 40.22 and 42.5 Ierem. 10.12 Iob 9.8 Psal. 104.2 q. d. Are my people in Captivity and their Faith nonplust and at a loss
because there 's nothing in sight that hath a tendency to their deliverance no prepared matter for their Salvation why let them consider who it was that created the Heavens and the Earth yea and their Souls also which are so perplexed with doubts out of nothing the same God that did this can also create Deliverance for his people though there be no praeexistent matter to work it out of Râ—solâ—it Soâ—omon utramque â—ominis partem in suâ— prima principia Ut ergo corpus in terram unde sâ—mptum est resolvâ—t ita etiam si anima ex â—â—ablâ—â—tia câ—lâ—â—ti vel ex anima ut â—lato ait mâ—â—di esset facta in eam resolâ—isset Solomon 〈…〉 simpâ—iciteâ— de ipsa dicit eaâ— reditâ—ram ad Deâ—m qui dedâ—t illam docet eam è nihito in quod resolvi non possâ—t creaâ—am esse Zanch. Add to this that excellent place of Solomon in Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Where he shews us what becomes of Man and how each part of which he consists is bestowed and disposed of after his Dissolution by Death And thus he states it These two constitutive parts of Man are a Soul and a Body These two parts have two distinct Originals The Body as to its material cause is Dust the Soul in its nature is a Spirit and as to its Origin it proceeded from the Father of Spirits 't is his own creature in an immediate way He gave it He gave it the being it hath by Creation and gave it to us i.e. to our bodies by Inspiration Now qualis Genesis talis Analysis When death dissolves the union which is betwixt them each part returns to that from whence it came dust to dust and the Spirit to God that gave it The Body is expressed by its material cause dust the Soul only by its efficient cause as the gift of God because it had no material cause at all nor was made out of any praeexistent matter as the Body was And therefore Solomon here speaks of God as if he had only to do with the Soul leaving the Body to its material and instrumental causes with whom he concurrs by a general influence 'T is God not Man alone or God by Man that hath given us these bodies but 't is not Man but God alone who hath given us these souls He therefore passeth by the Body and speaks of the Soul as the gift of God because that part of Man and that only flows immediately from God and at death returns to him that gave it All these expressions The Father of Spirits the former of the spirit in Man the Giver of the Spirit how agreeable are they to each other and all of them to the point under hand that the Soul flows from God by immediate Creation You see it hath no principle out of which according to the order of nature it did arise as the body had and therefore it hath no principle into which according to the order of nature it can be returned as the body hath but returns to God its efficient cause if reconciled to a Father not only by Creation but Adoption if unreconciled as a creature guilty of unnatural Rebellion against the God that formed it to be judged II. God created and infused it into the body with an inherent inclination and affection to it Anima quae est corporis organici perfectio corpus necessariâ—â— est non est enim forma separata i e. propriè forma est itaque materiam requirit usque adâ—o ut anima à corpore sâ—jâ—â—cta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tamen inclinationem retine â—t suam quam corporis resurrectio coâ—seâ—uitur The nature of the Soul and Body are vastly different there is no affinity or similitude betwixt them but it is in this case as in that of Marriage Two persons of vastly different Educations Constitutions and Inclinations coming under Gods Ordinance into the nearest relation to each other find their affections knit and endeared by their relation to a degree beyond that which results from the union of blood So it is here Whence this affection rises in what acts it is discovered and for what reason implanted will be at large discovered in a distinct branch of the following Discourse to which it is assigned Mean while I find my self concerned to vindicate what hath been here asserted from the Arguments which are urged against the immediate Creation and infusion of the Soul and in defence of the opinion of its Traduction from the Parents To conceal or dissemble these Arguments and Objections Cameronis praelect in Matth. p. 121. would be but a betraying of the truth I have here asserted and give occasion for some jealousie that they are unanswerable To come then to an issue and first It is urged Object 1. that it is manifest in it self and generally yielded that the souls of all other creatures come by generation and therefore its probable that humane souls flow in the same Chanel also There is a specifick difference betwixt rational souls Sol. and the souls of all other creatures and therefore no force at all in the consequence A material form may rise out of matter but a Spiritual rational Being as the Soul of Man is cannot so rise being much more noble and excellent than Matter is What Animal is there in the world out of whose Soul the acts of reason spring and flow as they do out of humane Souls Are they capable of inventing or which is much less of learning the Arts and Sciences Can they correct their senses and demonstrate a Star to be far greater than the whole Earth which to the eye seems no bigger than the rowel of a Spurr Do they foreknow the Positions and Combinations of the Planets and the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon many years before they suffer them And if they cannot perform these acts of reason as it is sure they cannot how much less can they know fear love or delight in God and long for the enjoyment of him These things do plainly evince humane Souls to be of another species and therefore of an higher Original than the souls of Brutes If all have one common nature and Original why are they not all capable of performing the same rational and Religious Acts Object 2. But though it should be granted that the Soul of the first Man was by immediate Creation and Inspiration from God yet it follows not that the souls of all his posterity must be so too God might create him with a power of begeting other souls after his own Image The first tree was created with its seed in it self to propagate its kind and so might the first Man Sol. 1. Trees Animals and such like were not created immediately out of nothing as the Soul of Man was but the Earth was the praeexistent matter out of which they
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
noble Souls in the manner of life with the Beasts that perish Our Tables differ little from the Crib at which they feed or our Houses from the Stalls and Stables in which they lie down to rest in respect of any Divine worship or Heavenly communication that is to be heard there Happy had it been for such men if so they live and dye that their souls had been of no higher Extraction or larger Capacity or longer Duration than that of a Beast for then as their comforts so also their miseries had ended at death And such they will one day wish they had been A Separate Soul immediately capable of Blessedness Inference II. THe Soul of Man being a Substance and not depending in its Being on the Body or any other fellow creature There can be no reason on the Souls account why its blessedness should be delayed till the Resurrection of the Body 'T is a great mistake and 't is well 't is so that the Soul is capable only of social Glory or a Blessedness in partnership with the Body And that it can neither exert its own powers nor enjoy its own happiness in the absence of the body The opinion of a sleeping interval took its riâ—e from this errour as it is usual for one mistake to beget another they conceived the Soul to be so dependent upon the Body at least in all its operations that when death rends it from the Body it must needs be left as in a swoon or sleep unable to exert its proper powers or enjoy that felicity which we ascribe to it in its state of separation But certainly its substantial Nature being considered it will be found that what perfection soever the body recieves from the Soul and how necessary soever its dependence upon it is * Anima rationâ—â—iâ— nihil 〈…〉 possâ—tâ—r 〈◊〉 Coâ—imâ—r Disp. 2. Art 3. The Soul receives not its perfection from the Body nor doth it necessarily depend on it in its principal operations but it can live and act out of a Body as well as in it Yea I doubt not but it enjoys it self in a much more sweet and perfect liberty than ever it did or could whilst it was clogged and fettered with a body of flesh Doubtless * Proculdubio cum â—i mortis expâ—imitur de câ—â—â—â—â—tione caâ—nâ—s ipsa eâ—pressiâ—ne colatu 〈…〉 to de oâ—panâ—o coâ—pore â—umpit in apertâ—m ad mâ—ram pâ—â—am sua◠〈◊〉 statim semetipsam in expeditione substantiae recognoscit ut de somno emergens ab imaginibas ad veritates Tertul. in lib. de Anima saith Tertullian when it is separated and as it were strained by death it comes out of darkness into its own pure perfect light and quickly finds it self a substantial Being able to act freely in that light Before the eyes of the dead body are closed I doubt not but the believing Soul with open eyes beholdeth the face of Jesus Christ Luk. 23.43 Philip. 1.23 but this will also be further spoken to hereafter II Immediately Created Inference III. THe Souls of men being created immediately out of nothing and not seminally traduced it follows That all souls by nature are of equal value and dignity One Soul is not more excellent honourable or precious than another But all by nature equally precious The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust is in its own nature of equal dignity and value with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne And this appears to be so 1. First because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain viz. the creating power of God They were not made better or worse finer or courser matter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of nothing at all The same Almighty power was put forth to the forming of one as of another All Souls are mine saith he that created them Ezek. 18 4. The Soul of the Child as well as the Father the Soul of the Beggar as well as the King Those that had no praeexistent matter but received their beings from the same efficient cause must needs be equal in their original nature and value The bodies of men which are formed out of matter do greatly differ from one another some are moulded as we say è meliori luto out of better and finer Clay some are more exact elegant vigorous and beautiful than others but Souls having no matter of which they consist are not so differenced 2. Secondly All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God They need no other powers faculties or capacities than they are by nature endued with if these be but sanctified and devoted to God to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face We pass through the fields and take up an Egg which lies under a clod and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter yea but in that Egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious Lark as it may be at the same time we see mounting Heavenward and singing delicious notes above So 't is here Those poor despised souls that are now lodged in crazy despicable bodies on Earth have in their Natures a capacity for the same imployments and enjoyments with those in Heaven They have no higher Original than these have and these have the same capacity and hability with them They are Beings improvable by grace to the highest perfections attainable by any Creature If thou be never so mean base and despicable a creature in other respects yet hast thou a Soul which hath the same alliance to the Father of Spirits the same capacity to enjoy him in glory that the most excellent and renowned Saints ever had 3. Thirdly All Souls are rated and valued in Gods book and account at one and the same price and therefore by nature are of equal worth and dignity Under the Law the Rich and the Poor were to give the same Ransom Exod. 30.15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel The Redemption of Souls by the Blood of Christ costs one and the same price The poorest and most despised Soul that believes in Jesus is as much indebted to him for the Ransom of his Soul as the greatest and most illustrious person in the World Moses Abraham Paul c. did not cost Christ one farthing more than poor Lazarus or the meanest among all the Saints did The Righteousness of Christ is unto all and upon all that believe and there is no difference Rom. 3.22 But yet we must not understand this Parity of humane Souls universally or in all respects Though being of one species or common nature they are all equal and those of them that are purchased by the blood of Christ are all purchased at one rate Yet there are divers other respects and
which you could never have come to the knowledge of any other way those that are without it are gropeing or feeling after God in the dark Acts 17.27 Poor Souls are conscious to themselves that there is a just and terrible God and that their sins offend and provoke him but how to atone the offended Deity they know not Mica 6.6 7. But the way of Reconciliation and life is clearly discovered to us by the Gospel 2 As it manifests and reveals Eternal life to us so it frames and moulds our hearts as Gods sanctifying Instrument for the enjoyment of it 'T is not only the Instrument of Revelation but of Salvation the word of life as well as the word of light Philip. 2.16 It can open your hearts as well as your eyes and is therefore to be entertained as that which is the first rank of Blessings a peerless and inestimable Blessing Inference VIII IF our Souls be immortal certainly our enemies are not so formidable as we are apt by our sinful fears to represent them They may when God permits them destroy your Bodies they cannot touch or destroy your Souls Matth. 16.28 As to your Bodies no enemy can touch them till there be leave and permission given them by God Iob 1.10 The Bodies of the Saints as well as their Souls are within the line or hedge of Divine Providence They are securely fenced sometimes mediately by the ministry of Angels Psal. 34.7 And sometimes immediately by his own hand and power Zech. 2.5 As to their Souls whatever power Enemies may have upon them when divine permission opens a gap in the hedge of Providence for them yet they cannot reach their Souls to hurt them or destroy them but by their own consent They can destroy our perishing flesh it is obnoxious to their malice and rage they cannot reach home to the Soul no Sword can cut asunder the band of Union betwixt them and Christ they would be dreadful Enemies indeed if they could do so Why then do we tremble and fear at this rate as if Soul and Body were at their mercy and in their power and hand The Souls of those Martyrs were in safety under the Altar in Heaven they were cloathed with white Robes when their Bodies were given to be meat to the Fowls of Heaven and Beasts of the Earth The Devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the Saints he tears the nest but the bird escapes he cracks the Shell but loseth the Kernel Two things make a powerful defensative against our fears 1 That all our Enemies are in the hand of Providence 2 That all providences are steered by that promise Rom. 8.28 Inference IX IF Souls be Immortal Then there must needs be a vast difference betwixt the aspects and influences of death upon the Godly and Vngodly O if Souls would but seriously consider what an alteration death will make upon their condition for evil or for good how useful would such meditations be to them 1 They must be disseized and turned out of these houses of Clay and live in a state of separation from them of this there is an inevitable necessity Eccles. 8.8 'T is in vain to say I am not ready ready or unready they must depart when their lease is out 'T is as vain to say I am not willing for willing or unwilling they must be gone there 's no hanging back and begging Lord let death take another at this time and spare me for no man dies by a Proxy 2 The time of our Souls departure is at hand 2 Pet. 1.13 14. Iob 16.22 The most firm and well built body can stand but a few days but our ruinons Tabernacles give our Souls warning that the day of their departure is at hand The lamp of life is almost burnt down the glass of time almost run yet a few a very few days and nights more and then time nights and days shall be no more 3 When that most certain and near approaching time is come wonderful alterations will be made on the state of all Souls Godly and Ungodly 1 A marvellous alteration will then be made on the Souls of the Godly For 1 no sooner is the dividing stroak given by death and the parting pull over but they shall find themselves in arms of Angels mounting them through the upper Regions in a few moments far above all the aspectable Heavens Luke 16.22 The airy Region is indeed the place where Devils inhabit and have their haunts and walks but Angels are the Saints Convoy through Satans Territories from the arms of mourning Friends into the welcome arms of officious and benevolent Angels 2 from the sight and converses of men to the sight of God Christ and the general assembly of blessed and sinless Spirits The Soul takes its leave of all men at death Isa. 38.11 Farewell vain World with all the mixed and imperfect comforts of it and welcome the more sweet suitable and satisfying company of Father Son and Spirit holy Angels and perfected Saints Heb. 12.23 3 From the bondage of corruption to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom so much is implied Heb. 12.23 The Spirits of just men made perfect 4 From all fears doubtings and questionings of our conditions and anxious debates of our title to Christ to the clearest fullest and most satisfying assurance for what a man sees how can he doubt of it 5 From all burdens of affliction inward and outward under which we have groaned all our days to everlasting rest and ease 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3. O what a blessed change to the righteous must this be 2 A marvellous change will also be then made upon the Souls of the ungodly who shall then part from 1 all their comforts and pleasant enjoyments in the World for here they had their consolation Luke 16.25 here was all their Portion Psal. 17.14 And in a moment find themselves arrested and seized by Satan as Gods Gaoler hurrying them away to the prison of Hell 1 Pet. 3.19 There to be reserved to the judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. 2 From under the means of Grace Life and Salvation to a state perfectly void of all means instruments and opportunities of Salvation Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 never to hear the joyful sound of preaching or praying any more never to hear the wooing voice of the blessed Bridegroom saying Come unto me come unto me any more 3 From all their vain ungrounded presumptuous hopes of Heaven into absolute and final desperation of mercy The very sinews and nerves of hope are cut by death Prov. 14.32 The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death These are the great and astonishing alterations that will be made upon our Souls after they part with the Bodies which they now inhabit O that we who cannot but be conscious to our selves that we must overlive our Bodies were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into after that separation which is
Mic. 5.7 2. No grace is or can be acted here without the clog of a contrary corruption upon its heel Rom. 7.21 When I would do good evil is present with me Every beam of faith is presently darkned by a cloud of unbelief Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Saepè in libro experientiae legimus quomodo à corde nostro relinquimar nunc est nobisâ—um nunc alibi nunc avoâ—at nunc recurrit in sola lubricitate manens Bern. We often read in the Book of experience saith one what an inconstant fickle thing the heart is in duties Now it is with us by and by it 's fled away and gone we know not where to find it It is constant only in its inconstancy and lubricity There is iniquity in our most holy things which needs pardon Exod. 28.38 Our best duties have enough in them to damn us as well as our worst sins but in that perfect state above grace flows purely out of the Soul as beams do from the Sun or crystal streams from the purest Fountain No impure or imperfect acts proceed from Spirits made perfect 3. Here the graces of the Saints are never or very rarely acted in their highest and most intense degree When they love God most fervently there is some coldness in their love Who comes up to the height of that rule Matt. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength When we meditate on God it is not in the depth of our thoughts without some wanderings and extravagancies 't is very hard if not impossible for the Soul to stand long in its full bent to God But in Heaven it doth so and will do so for ever without any relaxation or remission of its fervour Christ among the Saints and Angels in Heaven is as a mighty Load-stone cast in amongst many Needles which leap to him and fix themselves inseparably upon him They all act in glory as the fire doth here to the utmost of their power and ability There is no note lower than Glory to God in the highest 4 The most spiritual Souls on earth who live most with God have and must have their dayly and frequent intermissions The necessities of the Body as well as the defectiveness of their graces require and necessitate it to be so Our hands with Moses will hang down and grow weary Our affections will cool and fall do what we can But as the Spirits of just men made perfect know no remissions in the degree so neither any intermissions in the actings of their grace They shall serve him day and night in his Temple Rev. 7.15 You that would purchase the continuance of your spiritual comforts but for a day with all that you have in this World will there enjoy them at full without any intermitting throughout eternity 5. If the best hearts on earth be at any time more than ordinarily enlarged in spiritual comforts they need presently some humbling providence to hide pride from their eyes Even Paul himself must have a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him Bernard could never perform any duty with comfortable enlargement but he seemed to hear his own heart whisper thus benè fecisti Bernarde O well done Bernard But in Heaven the highest comforts are injoyed in the deepest humility and the intire glory is ascribed to God without any unworthy defalcations Rev. 4.10 They put not the Crown upon their own heads but Christs they cast down their Crowns and fall down at the feet of him that sitteth upon the Throne 6. All Assemblies for worship in this World are mixed They consist of Regenerate and Unregenerate living and dead Souls this spoils the harmony and allays the comfort of mutual Communion In a Congregation consisting of a 1000 persons Ah! How few comparatively are there that are heartily concerned in the Duty But it is not so above There are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands before the Throne loving adoring praising and triumphing together and not a jaring string in all their Harps 7. Here the worship of God is impured mixed and adulterated by the sinful additions and inventions of men This gracious Souls groan under as an heavy burden sighing and praying for Reformation as knowing they can expect no more of Gods presence than there is of his Order and Institution in Worship But above all the Worship is pure the least pin in the heavenly Tabernacle is according to the perfect pattern of the divine Will 8. We have here Duties of divers kinds and natures to perform All our time is not to be spent in loving praising and delighting in God but we must turn our selves also to searching watching and Soul-humbling work Sometimes we are called to get up our hearts to the highest praise and then to humble them to the dust for sin and judgments One while to sing his praises and another while to sigh even to the breaking of our loins but the Spirits of just men made perfect have but one kind of imployment viz praising loving and delighting in God There is no groaning sighing searching or watching-work in that state 9. The most illuminated Believers on Earth have but dark and crude apprehensions of Christs intercession work in Heaven or of the way and manner in which it is there performed by him We know indeed that our High-Priest is for us entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 That he appears in that most holy place for us Heb. 9.24 That he there represents his sufferings for us to God standing before him as a Lamb that had been slain Rev. 5.6 That he offers up our prayers with his incense to God Rev. 8.3 But the immediate intuition of the whole performance by the person of Christ in Heaven the beholding of him in his work there with the smiles and honours the delight and satisfaction of the Father in his Person and Work certainly this must be a far different thing and what must make more deep and suitable impressions upon our hearts than ever the most affecting view of them by Faith at this distance could do 10. In such ravishing sights and joyful ascriptions of glory to him that sâ—tteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore all the separated Spirits of the just are imployed and wholly taken up in Heaven as they come in their several times thither and will be so imploy'd in that Temple-service unto the end of the World when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father and thenceforth God shall be all in all The illustration and confirmation of this assertion we have in these two or three particulars 1 That all the Spirits of just men from the beginning of the World until Christs ascension into Heaven did enter into Heaven as a place of rest as a City prepared for them of God Heb. 11.16 and did enjoy blessedness and Glory there but yet there seems to
Absent from the Body and present with the Lord. It hath now no body to clog or cloud it nor can it complain of distance from God as it did in this World O at what rate must we conceive the love and delight of a Soul under these great advantages to cast out their very Spirits as I may say in their glorious Activities and Exercises Well then here you find A Spirit naturally endued with Understanding Will and Affections in these Faculties and Affections the habits of Grace permanently rooted which therefore accompany it in its ascension to glory an ability to use and exercise these Faculties and Graces and that in a more excellent degree and manner than it did or could in this World the subject and habits inherent being now both made perfect The clog of flesh knockt off and all distance from God removed by its coming home to him even as near as the capacity of the Soul can admit Conceive such a Spirit so qualified now rankt in its proper order among innumerable other holy and blessed Spirits which surround the Throne of God beholding his face with infinite delectation and acting all its Powers and Graces to the highest in the worshipping praising loving and admiring him that sitteth on the Throne and the Lamb for evermore And then you have a true though imperfect Idea or Notion of the Spirit of a just man made perfect I will not here make use of the other Glass to represent a damned Soul separate for a time from its Body and for ever from the Lord that will be shewn you in its proper place Querie 2. QUERIE II. Whether there be any difference in the separation of Gracious Souls from their Bodies and if so in what particulars doth th◠difference appear Sol. §. 1. For the clear stating and satisfying of this Question I will lay down some things negatively and some things positively about it On the negative part I desire two things may be noted 1. First That there is no difference betwixt the separation of one gracious Soul and another in point of safety Every regenerate Soul is fully secured in and by Jesus Christ from the danger of perishing and is out of hazzard of the Wrath to come This must needs be so because all that are in Christ are equally justified by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness without difference to them all Rom. 3.22 Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference By vertue whereof they are all equally secured from Wrath to come one as well as another as all that sailed with Paul so all that die in Christ come safe to the shoar of Glory and not one of them is lost The sting of Death smites none that are in Christ. 2. Secondly There is no difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men in respect of the supporting presence of God with them in that their hour of distress that Promise belongs to them all Psal. 91.15 I will be with him in trouble and so doth that Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Their God is certainly with them all to order the Circumstances of their death and all the Occurrences of that day to his glory and their good Supports I have said a good man in such an hour though Suavities I want and so they have also who meet with the hardest tug at death But notwithstanding their equality in these Priviledges there is a great difference betwixt the departing Souls of just men And this difference is manifest both in the I. External Circumstances of their death II. Internal Circumstances of their death I. In the External Circumstances of their death all have not one and the same passage to Heaven in all respects for 1 First some go thither by the ordinary road of a natural death from their Beds and the arms of lamenting friends to the arms and bosome of Jesus Christ But others swim through the Red Sea to Canaan from a Scaffold to the Throne from a Gibbet or Stake to their Fathers house from insulting Enemies to their triumphant Brethren the Palm-bearing Multitude This is a rough but honourable way to Glory 2 Some lie long under the hand of death before it dispatch them it approaches them by slow and lingering paces they feel every step of death distinctly as it comes on towards them But others are favoured with a quick dispatch a short passage from hence to Glory Hezekiah feared a pineing sickness Isa. 38.10 12. what he feared many feel O how many Days yea Weeks and Months have many gracious Souls dwelt upon the brink of the Pit crying How long Lord how long 3 The pains and throes of death are more acute and sharp to some of Gods people than to others Death is bitter in the most mild and gentle form of it Two such dear and intimate Friends as the Soul and Body are cannot part without some tears groans or sighs and those more deep and emphatical than the groans and sighs of the living use to be But yet comparatively speaking the death of one may be stiled sweet and easie to anothers Latimer and Ridley found it so though burnt in the same flame In this respect all things come alike to all and the same difference is found in the worst as well as in the best men Some like Sheep are laid in the Grave Psal. 49.14 others die in the bitterness of their Soul Iob 21.25 and by this no man knows either love or hatred II. There are beside these some remarkable Internal differences in the dissolution of good men the sum whereof is in this 1. That some gracious Souls have a very hard strait difficult entrance into Heaven just as it is with Ships that sail by a very bare wind all their art care and pains will but just weather some head-land or Cape they steer fast by some dangerous Rock or Sand and with a thousand fears and dangers win their Port at last Saved they are but yet to use the Apostles phrase scarcely saved or saved as by fire And this difficulty ariseth to them from one or all these causes 1 It ordinarily ariseth from the weakness of their faith which is in many Souls without either the light of evidence or strength of reliance neither able to dissolve their doubts nor steadily repose their hearts and thus they die much at the rate they lived poor doubting and cloudy though gracious Souls They can neither speak much of the comfort of past experiences nor of the present foretasts of Heaven 2 The violent assaults and batteries of temptations make the passage exceeding difficult to some O the sharp conflicts and dreadful combates many poor Souls endure upon a death-bed O the charges of hypocrisie fortified by neglects of duty formality and bye-ends in duty falls into sin after conviction and humiliation c. all which the Soul is apt to yield to
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
themselves first into a deep guilt by compliance with Antichrist and receiving his mark then into an Hell upon Earth the remorse and horrour of their own consciences which gives them no rest day nor night he immediately subjoyns v. 13. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord yea from henceforth saith the spirit c. Oh 't is a special blessing and favour to be hid out of the way of those temptations and torments in a seasonable and quiet grave Argument IX YOur fixed aversation and unwillingness to die will provoke God to imbitter your lives with much more affliction than you have yet felt or would feel if your hearts were more mortified and weaned in this point You cannot think of your own deaths with pleasure no nor yet with patience Well take heed lest this draw down such troubles upon you as shall make you at last to say with Iob chap. 10. v. 1. My Soul is weary of my life An expression much like that 2 Sam. 1.9 Anguish is come upon me because my life is whole in me My Soul is hardened or become cruel against my life as the Chaldee renders it There is a twofold weariness of life one from an excellency of spirit a noble principle the ardent love of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Another from the meer pressures of affliction and anguish of Spirit under heavy and successive stroaks from the hand of God and men Is it not more excellent and desireable to groan for death under a pressure of love to Christ than of afflictions from Christ I am convinced that very many of our afflictions come upon this score and account to make us willing to dye Is it not sad that God is forced to bring death upon all our comfortable and desireable things in this World before he can gain our consents to be gone Why will you put God upon such work as this Why cannot he have your hearts at a cheaper rate If you could dye many of your comforts for ought I know might live Had Iacob come to Absalom when he sent for him the first or second time Absalom had never set his field of Barly on fire 2 Sam. 14.30 And if we were more obedient to the will of God in this matter 't is likely he would not consume your health and Estates and Relations with such heavy strâ—â—ks as he hath done and will yet farther do except your wills be more compliant Alas To cut off your comforts one after another and make you live a groaning life the Lord hath no pleasure in it but rather he had you should lose these things than that he should lose your hearts on Earth or company in Heaven Impatiens aegrotus crudelem facit Medicum Argument X. THe decree of death cannot be reversed nor is there any other ordinary passage for the Soul into Glory but through the gates of death Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to die but after that the Iudgment There is but one way to pass out of the obscure suffocating life in the Womb into the more free and nobler life in the World viz. through the Throes and Agonies of Birth And there is ordinarily but one way to pass from this sinning groaning life we live in this World to the enjoyment of God and the Glory above but through the Agonies of death You must cast as it were your Secundine once again I mean this vile body before you can be happy Heaven cannot come down to you you cannot see God and live Exod. 33.20 It would certainly confound and break you to pieces like an earthen Pitcher should God but ray forth his Glory upon you in the state you now are and it is sure you cannot expect the extraordinary savour of such a translation as Enoch had Hebr. 11.5 Or as those Believers shall have that shall be found alive at Christ's coming 1 Thes. 4.17 You must go the common road that all the Saints go but though you cannot avoid you may sweeten it God will not reverse his Decree but you may and ought to arm your selves against the fears of it Ahashuerus would not re-call the Proclamation he had emitted against the Iews but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves against their Enemies 'T is much so here the Sentence cannot be revoked but yet he gives you leave yea he commands you to arm your selves against death and defie it and trample it under the feet of Faith Argument XI WHen you find your hearts reluctate at the thoughts of leaving the Body and the comforts of this World then consider how willingly and chearfully Iesus Christ left Heaven and the Bosome of his Father to come down to this World for your sakes Pr. 8.30 31. Ps. 40.7 Loe I come c. O compare the frames of your hearts with his in this point and shame your selves out of so unbecoming a temper of Spirit 1 He left Heaven and all the Delights and Glory of it to come down to this World to be abased and humbled to the lowest you leave this World of sin and misery to ascend to Heaven to be exalted to the highest He came hither to be impoverished you go thither to be enriched 2 Cor. 8.9 yet he came willingly and we go grudgingly 2 He came from Heaven to Earth to be made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 we go from Earth to Heaven to be fully and everlastingly delivered from sin yet he came more willingly to bear our sins than we go to be delivered from them 3 He came to take a body of Flesh to suffer and die in Heb. 2.24 you leave your Bodies that you may never suffer in or by them any more 4 As his Incarnation was a deep abasement so his death was the most bitter death that ever was tasted by any from the beginning or ever shall to the end of the World and yet how obediently doth he submit to both at the Father's Call Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished Ah Christians your death cannot have the ten thousandth part of that bitterness in it that Christ's had I remember one of the Martyrs being asked why his heart was so light at death returned this answer because Christs heart was so heavy at his death O there is a vast difference betwixt one and the other the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law was in his death Gal. 3.13 but there is neither Wrath nor Curse in your death who die in the Lord Rom. 8.1 God forsook him when he hanged upon the Tree in the Agonies of death Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But you shall not be forsaken He will make all your Bed in sickness Psal. 41.3 He will never leave you nor forsake you Heb. 13.5 Yet he regretted not but went as a Sheep or Lamb Isa. 53.7 O reason
They looked upon trifles as things of greatest necessity and the most necessary things as meer trifles putting the greatest weight and value upon that which little concerned them and none at all upon their greatest concernment in the whole World Luke 12.21 Secondly The perpetual diversions that the trifles of this World gave them from the main use and end of their time O what a hurry and thick succession of earthly business and encumbrances filled up their days So that they could find no time to go alone and think of the awful and weighty concernments of the World to come Iames 5.5 Thirdly The total waste and expence of the only season of Salvation about these vanished impertinent trifles which is never more to be recovered Eccles. 9 10. Fourthly That these deluding shadows the pleasures of a moment is all they had in exchange for their Souls a goodly price it was valued at Matth. 16.26 Fifthly That by such a life they have not only ruined their own Souls but put their posterity by their education of them in the same course of life into the same path of destruction in which they went to Hell before them Psal. 49.13 Their posterity approve their saying Inference X. HOw rational and commendable is the courage and resolution of those Christians who chuse to bear all the sufferings in this World from the hands of men rather than to defile and wound their consciences with sin and thereby expose their Souls to the wrath of God for ever That which men now call Pride Humour Fancy and Stubbornness will one day appear to be their great wisdom and the excellency of their Spirits It is the tenderness of their Consciences not the pride and stoutness of their stomachs which makes them inflexible to sin they know the terrours of a wounded Conscience and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men than fall by known sin into the hands of an angry God Try them in other matters wherein the glory of God and peace or purity of their Consciences are not concerned and see if you can charge them with stubbornness and singularity It was the excellency of the Spirits of the Primitive Christians that they durst to tell the Emperour to his face when he threatned them with torments Pardon us O Emperour thou threatnest us with a Prison Ignoscâ— Imperator tu carcerem miâ—aris Deus Gehennam but God with Hell Do we call that ingenuity and good Nature which makes the mind foâ—t and tractable to temptations and will rather venture upon guilt than be esteemed singular Salvian tells us of some in his time Mali esse coâ—untur ne viies habiantur who were compelled to be evil lest they should be accounted vile and was that their excellency May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here O in what honour and repute is Christ among Christians when Religion shall make them base and ignoble He that understands what the punishment of sin will be in Hell should endure all things rather than yield to sin on Earth Indeed if you that threaten and tempt others to violate their Consciences could bear the wrath of God for them in Hell it were somewhat but we know there is no suffering by a Proxy there they tremble at the word of God and have felt the burden of guilt and dare not yield to sin though they yield their Estates and Bodies to prevent it Inference XI HOw patiently should we bear the afflictions of this life by which sin is prevented and purged The discipline of our Spirits belongs to God the Father of Spirits he corrects us here that we may not be punished hereafter 1 Cor 11.32 We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World It is better for us to groan under afflictions on Earth than to roar under revenging wrath in Hell Parents who are wise as well as tender had rather hear their children sob and cry under the rod than stand with halters about their necks on the ladder bewailing the destructive indulgence of their Parents Your chastisements when sanctified are preventive of all the misery opened before It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God because you smart under his rod as it would be to accuse your dearest friend of cruelty because he strain'd your arm to snatch you from the fall of an house or wall which he saw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins If we had less affliction we should have more guilt We see how apt we are to break over the hedg and go astray from God with all the clogs of affliction designed for our restraint what should we do if we had no clog at all It is better for you to be whipt to Heaven with all the rods of affliction than coached to Hell with all the pleasures of the World Christian thy God sees if thou do not that all these troubles are few enough to save thee from sin and Hell Thy corruptions require all these rods and all little enough If need be ye are in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 If there be need for it thy dearest comforts on Earth shall die that thy Soul may live but if thy mortification to them render their removal needless thou and they shall live together 'T is better be preserved in brine than rot in Honey Sanctified afflictions working under the efficacy of the blood of Christ are the safest way to our Souls Inference XII HOw doleful a change doth the death of wicked men make upon them from Palaces on Earth to the Prison of Hell No sooner is the Soul of a wicked man stept out of his own door at death but the Serjeants of Hell are immediatly upon it serving the dreadful summons on the Law-condemned wretch This arrest terrifies it more than the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall did him Dan. 5.5 How are all a mans apprehensions changed in a moment Out of what a deep sleep are most and out of what a pleasant dream of Heaven are some awaked and startled at death by the dreadful arrest and summons of God to condemnation How quickly would all a sinners mirth be dampt and turned into houlings in this World if Conscience were but throughly awakened It is but for God to change our apprehensions now and it would be done in a moment but the eyes of most mens Souls are not opened till death hath shut their bodily eyes and then how suddain and how sad a change is made in one day O think what it is to pass from all the pleasures and delights of this World into the torments and miseries of that World from a pleasant Habitation into an infernal Prison from the depth of security to the extremity of desperation from the arms and bosoms of dearest Friends and Relations to the Society of damned Spirits Lord what a change is here Had a gracious change been made upon their hearts by grace no such doleful change
chains of thy neck what will its beauty and his delight in it be in the state of perfectâ—punc Glorification As we imagine the Circles in the Heavens to be vastly greater than those we view upon the Globe so must we imagine in the case before us 4. Fourthly The preparations God makes for Souls in Heaven speak their great worth and value When you lift up your eyes to Heaven and behold that bespangled Azure Canopy beset and inlaid with so many golden Studs and sparkling Gems you see but the floor or pavement of that place which God hath prepared for some Souls He furnished this World for us before he put us into it but as delightful and beautiful as it is it is no more to be compared with the Fathers house in Heaven than the smallest ruined Chapel your eyes ever beheld is to be compared with Solomons Temple when it stood in all its shining glory When you see a stately magnificent Structure built richest Hangings and Furniture prepared to adorn it you conclude some great persons are to come thither such preparations speak the quality of the Guests Now Heaven yea the Heaven of Heavens the Palace of the great King the Presence-chamber of the Godhead is prepared not only by Gods Decree and Christs Death but by his Ascension thither in our Names and as our Forerunner for all renewed and redeemed Souls Ioh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And where is the place prepared for them but in his Fathers house the same place the very same house where the Father Son and Spirit themselves do dwell such is the love of Christ to Souls that he will not dwell in one house and they in another but as he speaks Ioh. 12.26 Where I am there shall my servant also be There is room enough in the Fathers house for Christ and all the Souls he redeemed to live and dwell together for evermore His Ascension thither was in the capacity of a common or publick person to take Livery and Seisin of those many mansions for them which are to be filled with their inhabitants as they come thither in their respective times and orders 5. Fifthly The great price with which they were redeemed and purchased speaks their dignity and value No wise man will purchase a trifle at a great price much less the most wise God Now the redemption of every Soul stood in on less than the most precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. You know saith the Apostle there that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold But with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot All the gold and silver in the world was no Ransom for one Soul nay all the blood of the Creatures had it been shed as a Sacrifice to the glory of Justice or even the blood which is most dear to us as being derived from our own I mean the blood of our dear Children even of our first-born the beginning of our strength which usually have the strength of affection I say none of this could purchase a pardon for the smallest sin that ever any Soul committed much less was it able to purchase the Soul it self Micah 6.6 7. Thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl or our first-born are no ransom to God for the sin of the Soul It is only the precious Blood of Christ that is a just ransom or counterprice as it 's called Matth. 20.28 Now who can compute the value of that Blood such was the worth of the Blood of Christ which by the communication of properties is truly stiled the Blood of God that one drop of it is above the estimations of men and Angels and yet before the Soul of the meanest man or woman in the World could be redeemed every drop of his Blood must be shed for no less than his Death could be a price for our Souls Hence then we evidently discern an invaluable worth in Souls A whole Kingdom is taxed when a King is to be ransomed the delight and darling of Gods Soul must dye when our Souls are to be redeemed O the worth of Souls 6. Sixthly This evidences the transcendent dignity and worth of Souls that Eternity is stampt upon their actions and theirs only of all the Beings in this World the acts of Souls are immortal as their Nature is whereas the actions of other Animals having neither moral goodness or moral evil in them pass away as their Beings do The Apostle therefore in Gal. 6.7 compares the actions of men in this world to seed sown and tells us of everlasting fruits we shall reap from them in the next life they have the same respect to a future account that seed hath to the Harvest he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity i. e. everlasting disappointment and misery Prov. 22.8 and they that now sow in tears shall then reap in joy Psal. 126.5 every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of sorrow and this makes the great difference betwixt the actions of a rational Soul and those done by Beasts and if it were not so man would then be wholly sway'd by sense and present things as the beasts are and all Religion would vanish with this distinction of actions Our actions are considerable two ways physically and morally in the first sense they are transient in the last permanent a word is past assoon as spoken but yet it must and will be recalled and brought into the Judgment of the great Day Matth. 12.36 whatever therefore a man shall speak think or do once spoken thought or done it becomes eternal and abides for ever Now what is it that puts so great a difference betwixt humane and brutal actions but the excellent Nature of the reasonable Soul 'T is this which stamps immortality upon humane actions and is at once a clear proof both of the immortality and dignity of the Soul of man above all other Creatures in this World 7. Seventhly The contention of both Worlds the strife of Heaven and Hell about the Soul of man speaks it a most precious and invaluable Treasure The Soul of man is the Prize about which Heaven and Hell contend the great design of Heaven is to save it and all the plots of Hell to ruine it Man is a Borderer betwixt both Kingdoms he lives here upon the Confines of the spiritual and material World and therefore Scaliger fitly calls him Vtriusque mundi nexus one in whom both worlds meet his body is of the earth earthly his Soul the off-spring of a Deity heavenly It is then no wonder to find such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward such â—allies from Heaven to rescue and save it such incursions from Hell to captivate and ruine it The infinite Wisdom of God hath laid the plot
the Lord prosper it by the Blessing of his Spirit on the hearts of them that read it Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for and Sold by Francis Tyton Bookseller at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the Temple-Gate Books in Folio SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Gâ—illim's Display of Heraldry with large Additions Roll's Abridgment French His Reports in 2 Vol. French Cook 's Reports in 3 Vol. English Dalton's Office of Sheriffs with many Additions Country Justice The Tryal and Condemnation of Edward Fitzharris Esq for High Treason at the Bar of the Court of Kings Bench at Westminster on Thursday Iune 9. 1681. As also the Tryal and Condemnation of Dr. Oliver Plunket Titular Primate of Ireland for High Treason The Arraignment and Plea of Edward Fitzharris Esq with all the Arguments in Law and Proceedings of the Kings Bench thereupon in Easter Term 1681. Lawson's Theopolitica or a Body of Divinity containing the Rules of the special Government of God according to which he orders the immortal and intellectual Creatures Angels and Men to their final and eternal Estate c. Cradock's Harmony of the Four Evangelists Strong 's Discourse of the two Covenants wherein the nature differences and effects of the Covenant of Works and of Grace are distinctly and practically discussed c. Bishop Gauden's Tears Sighs Complaints and Prayers of the Church of England Morrice on the Sacrament Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning Petavius's History of the World The History of the valorous and witty Knight Errant Don Quixote Habington's History of Edward IV. King of England The History of the Wars of Italy rendred into English by Henry Earl of Monmouth Books in Quarto Mr. Flavel's Fountain of Life opened or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory c. The Method of Grace in bringing home the Eternal Redemption continued by the Father and carried on by the Son through the effectual Application of the Spirit unto Gods Elect being the second part of Gospel-Redemption Discourse of the Immortality of the Soul Dr. Patrick's Parable of the Pilgrim Two Sermons preached at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Iacomb and Mr. Greg. Dr. Tenison of Idolatry A Sermon concerning the discretion of giving of Alms preached at St. Sepulchres Church London instead of the Spittle upon Wednesday in Easter-week 1681. Mr. Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest. Reasons of the Christian Religion Sermon of Repentance Murcot's Works Strong 's God 's Shepherd or the Man God's Fellow Vengeance of the Temple Voice from Heaven Blackwood on Matthew Alleyn's Scripture-Chronology Burroughs on Gospel-Reconciliation Sympson of Unbelief Gregory's Moot-Book Englished by Hughs Crompton's Jurisdiction of Courts Swinburn of Wills Spelman de Sepultura Buck on the Beatitudes Special Law-Cases Books in Octavo Flavel's Divine Conduct or the Mystery of Providence Dr. Patrick's Jewish Hypocrisie Mensa Mystica or a Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper In which the Ends of its Institution are so manifested our Addresses to it so directed our Behaviour there and afterwards so composed that we may not lose the benefits which are to be received by it In which several Prayers and Thanksgivings are now inserted to make it of more general use Divine Arithmetick or the Art of Numbring our days being a Sermon preached Iune 17. 1659. at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Iacomb B. D. at St. Mary Woolnoth Lombardstreet A brief Exposition of the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer Iacomb's Catechism with a brief Exposition of the Creed and Ten Commandments Baxter's right Method for a setled Peace of Conscience and spiritual Comfort in 32 Directions Lawson against Hobbs Dr. Fowler 's Design of Christianity Maynard's Law of God ratified Row's Emmanuel Saints Temptations Strong 's Will of Man subjected to God's Will Gale's Theophile a Treatise of Christ's Love Gearing of Pride Wotton's Remains Alleyn's King Henry VII a Poem Ianna Linguarum Speed's Travellers Companion Chamberlain's Compleat Justice Zouch of the Jurisdiction of the Admiralty Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium Books in small 8â— 12 0 and 24 0 Dr. Patrick's Hearts Ease or a Remedy against all Troubles with a consolatory Discourse particularly directed to those who are their Friends and dear Relations Flavel's Touchstone of Sincerity or the signs of Grace and Symptoms of Hypocrisie opened in a practical Treatise upon Rev. 3.17 18. being the second Part of the Saint indeed Baxter's Universal Concord Catholick Unity The true Catholick Mischief of self-Ignorance Strong 's Worm that dieth not or the certainty of Hell-Torments Heavenly Creature Lawrence of Christ's Power over bodily Diseases Whateley's Redemption of Time Vines on the Saints nearness to God Row's Heavenly and Earthly Mindedness Sydenham on Infant-Baptism and singing of Psalms Swafield of the Saints Failings The Life of Mr. Iohn Row of Crediton in Devon Gearing of Prayer Of Providence Perkin's Catechism The Calvinists Cabinet unlockt The Spanish Inquisition The Schism of the Mass. Wotton's Letters Chaucer's Ghost The Office of the Houswife Loves Journal Finche's Law in 4 Books Eng. Meriton's Guide to Constables A new Book of Instruments Clayton's Reports Fleetwood's Justice Sheppard's Office of a Justice Britton The History of Eurialus and Lucretia Horace with Minelius his Notes Grotius de Veritate Christianae Religionis c. Valerius Maximus Quintus Curtius The Christian Pattern by Thomas à Kempis The Wisdom of the Just.