acute Thalyaeus in Anat. Samosat quaest 2. And whereas some do much urge Luke 1.35 to prove that Christ was the Son of God by reason of his miraculous Conception because 't is immediately added Wherefore also that holy thing that shall be Born of Thee shall be called the Son of God. This I say will not serve their purpose And if from hence they could make such a knot as we could not untie yet that would not make the matter e're the clearer on their side And whether we can search the depth of that sacred Text or no yet we may soon be perswaded that this his miraculous conception was not the chief reason of his being or being called the Son of God. For if so he must have been the Son of the Holy Ghost because this work is peculiarly ascribed to him in the foregoing verse But Christ we are told is the Son of the Father John 2.3 and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4.6 2. If Christ was the Son of God on account of his miraculous conception then he began to be so when that began But 't is not so certainly For he was the Son of God long before and was so called Psal 2.7.12 and he had Glory with his Father before the World was Joh. 17.5 He was therefore the Eternal Son of the Father as our Church speaketh on account of an eternal and unspeakable Generation And being a Person of infinite Dignity his Love must needs be of infinite value so that the utmost conceivable kindness of all the Angels in Heaven if they were as many as the drops in the Sea and the Sands on the Shore would be utterly inconsiderable in comparison of His and exceed the Understandings of mortal Men almost as far as it doth their Deservings which by the next Section may farther appear SECT XIV Discovering the Greatness of Christ's Love in what he did and suffered for Sinners That the sense of the love of Christ will be the special matter of the joy of Just Mens Souls after Death will easily be granted and may in its place be farther proved At present I think it my Duty and full enough to my purpose to set forth the greatness of his Love in the great things that he did and suffered for Sinners sake And first I may fitly instance in his taking our nature into unity with his own Divine Person so as to become true and very Man like unto us Sin excepted If St. John so much admired that such as we should be called the Sons of God by Adoption Behold what manner of Love is this 1 John 3.1 How then may we wonder at that Love that moved the Son of God from Everlasting to become the Son of Man in Time What a height of kindness and condescension was that which moved the most High and Holy one to stoop so low for our sakes and Salvation Sure the utmost kindness that the best of Creatures can have towards us in comparison of this Love of Christ is but as a drop to the Sea or as a Mote in the Sun to the whole frame of Nature For let us but think with our selves what a wondrous thing it was that the Son of God should vouchsafe to take our Nature on him and be made in the likeness of sinfull Flesh Rom. 8.3 well may we say in this as the Psalmist doth Lord what is Man that thou art mindfull of him For the Nature of Man that is corrupt with sin and subject to the darkness of the Grave what is this I say to him who is the Light of the City of God and had Glory with the Father before the World was John 17.5 Thus therefore to assume our Nature might seem a matter infinitely below him but that his love thought nothing so And as he took Humane Nature to himself so in it he did those excellent things that expressed the greatness of his Love towards Men and the care he took of their eternal Salvation He came into the World to save Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 He went about doing good preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and working the most absolute uncontrollable miracles for Confirmation of his holy Doctrine leading them in the way to Heaven by his own blessed example bearing patiently the greatest Slanders and suffering the contradictions of Sinners against himself Heb. 12.3 Overcoming daily their evil with good and inviting them to himself to come unto him that they might have Life And the eminency of his Love and Goodness will be especially visible in the evils that he suffered and voluntarily exposed himself to for the sake of Sinners which being compared with the excellency and innocency of his Person will easily appear to exceed the most enlarged thoughts of Men and Angels As to this therefore I must say with the Apostle who is sufficient for these things And as it was said of old who hath declared his Generation So I may as justly who can declare his Humiliation and Passion and that Sacred Depth of Divine Love that was discovered therein That he whom the Heaven of Heavens could not contain and of whom they borrow their Brightness and Glory should be laid in a Manger and live in Meanness and Obscurity That He who is Rich from all Eternity should in time become poor for our Sakes That He who was the God of Israel the Author and Maintainer of the Water of Life Rev. 22.1 should Himself be subject to Weariness and Thirst and be fain to refresh himself with so weak a Cordial as the Water of Jacob's Well John 4. That He whom the Highest Angels worshipped should be abused by the basest Men be reviled and scorn'd buffeted and spitted on and at last be Crucified between two Malefactours as if he had been the worst of the Three That He who was purer than all the created Inhabitants of the high and holy Place should suffer himself to be tempted to Sin and bear Day by Day the vilest Assaults of the unclean Spirit Math. 4. That He who upholdeth all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. should be weak and faint and in the midst of sorrows give up the Ghost That He who was the Heir of all things and the Son of the Blessed should be deprived of all Comforts and cry out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and in a word fall under Condemnation and be made a Curse Gal. 3.13 Wonder Christian Reader wonder evermore at that Superlative Love which moved him to do and suffer such marvellous things for such as we Methinks our Hearts should be mightily affected with it and our whole Souls be swallowed up as it were in this blessed and boundless Ocean And because we can know but little of it whilst we live let us be content to dye that our Souls may know it better For certainly the perfect Knowledge and Enjoyment of this transcendent Love of Christ must needs be no less than
is that no Persecutors can damn the Souls of God's Servants I wou'd fain know why they suppose him to have taught so plain a truth in so dark a manner For how shall we be certain that killing means Damnation in that place when it signifieth no such thing in any other Scriptures Others can fancy the meaning is that men cannot kill the Soul for ever or for good and all as we say But that 's as vain as the former and appears to be so by the same reason for then there should be no more said of the Soul than may be said of the Body for they cannot kill the Body for ever it shall be alive after death has done its worst It shall be raised Incorruptible 1 Cor. 15. and this mortal must put on Immortality And that the word kill in St. Matthew must be meant of killing for ever no proof can be pretended to either from the phrase or circumstances or scope of the place and therefore it might be sufficient to deny it without confuting it Others again would evade the force of this Text of St. Matthew by comparing it with Luk. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body but after that have no more that they can do where there is nothing said of the Impossibility of killing the Soul. And indeed as a Kingdom is most in danger when it is divided against it self so Religion they perceive is most powerfully resisted when it is opposed by its own strength by that blessed word which is at once its rule and support But it cannot be used for so ill a purpose without gross ignorance or great perversness as may easily be exemplified in the said Objection For first both these Texts are from the same Spirit of Truth and however the latter be expressed yet the former is the word of Christ also and he really meaneth as he speaketh therein And if Men could any way make the Soul of Man to cease to be a living Soul it would signifie little to say that they cannot kill it since on that supposal they may do as much whether it be properly called killing or no nor would that Man well escape the imputation of a Blasphemer that should say the infinite wisedom would speak so vainly on any occasion Obj. But yet St. Luke doth not so express it and St. Matthew say some may be expounded by S. Luke Sol. 1. Though it be not so expressed by St. Luke yet where it is so expressed I desire the liberty of believing it true 2. There is no necessity in this affair of expounding the one by the other and if there were it may seem fitter to expound Luk. 12.4 by Mat. 10.28 than contrarily for that of Matthew is more special and particular than that of Luke And if any will say our Saviour did not intend to teach us the Souls immortality in the former because he did not mention it in the latter yet we must not suffer their confidence to carry it as we say or take their word for it Nor can they require us so to doe unless they should pretend to Mr. Hobbs's profoundness or a greater Man's infallibility Having supposed and in part proved that the Soul of Man remains alive after his Body is dead the next particular I would premise is this that it is a Subject capable of joy or sorrow after it leaves the Body according as it leaveth it in a State of Sin or a State of Grace It is not like some sort of Insects in the depth of Winter that have a vital principle without motion or operation that are alive and seem as insensible as if they were dead I know some would perswade us the Soul sleeps after Death but their great errors in other things may fully excuse us from believing them in this and I think it as strange a fancy as can enter into the Head of any Man that hath his understanding well awake for as the Psalmist says of God He that made the Eye shall he not see So we may say of the Soul that which gives sense to the Body shall not it perceive especially since it liveth after it leaves the Body as hath been proved SECT I. The Happiness of good Mens Souls in their Separation from the Body asserted and the probability of it discovered BEfore the proof and Vindication of this point it may be proper to shew the probability of it that they who are not perswaded 't is true may not be over confident that it is false by shewing the judgment of Eminent Writers that are presumed able to judge of a matter of this nature And if I were to satisfie a Romanist of it I might cite the noted Men of his Church i.e. 1. Aquin. their great Schoolman Sum. prim 2 dae quest 4. Art. 5. Aliqui dicunt quod Animae separatae ad beatitudinem non perveniunt c. Some says he tell us that good Mens Souls come not to Blessedness till the day of Judgment But this is plainly false In like manner goes Bellarmine in his tract de Arte Moriendi and especially in Lib. de ascens mentis grad 2 chap. 5. p. 35. Quid mirum ait si Angeli beatae Animae c. Where he joins together the Angels and Just Mens Souls doubting the happiness of the one no more than the other So grad 7. cap. 5. Quibus perpetuus Dies est c. Speaking of the same 'T is always day with them they know no darkness of sin or sorrow Tho. Ã Kempis de imitat Christi lib. 1. cap. 23. Sect. 6. Drexel Heliotrop l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. Cajetan in Philip. 1.23 most plainly in several passages that I need not transcribe But I leave these and rather cite our Protestant Worthies Musculus in Math. 17. Mors piorum Egressus est ex mundo ad patrem c. i. e. The death of Godly ones is a going out of this World to their Heavenly Father therefore to be desired more than to be dreaded Zanchius in Philip 1.23 Quanam sui parte c. In what respect did Paul desire after his dissolution to be with Christ Not in respect of his Body apparently therefore of his Soul therefore his Soul was capable of that Happiness immediately after death Others speak to the same purpose as follows D. Joh. Maccov de Anim. fept in explic Theorem 2. Ursin Catech. part 2. Resp ad quest 42. Paraeus in Rom. 6. Resp ad Dub. 9. Alsted Theol. Casuum p. 172. Piscator in Philip. 1. Essenius in Triumpho Crucis de satisf Christi lib. 1. sect 4 cap. 3 part 1. Dan. Chamiet lib. 25. cap. 2. de Beatitudine Jos Stegman Photin disp 52. q. 1. Jo. Scarpii curs theol de purgatorio Palan syntagmo l. 7 cap. 5. Arnoldus Lux. in Tenebr p. 418. D. Henr. Altingius L. C. Loc. 5. Controvers 2. To whom I may add a few of our English Worthies and those are as good as a great many Bp. Usher
I find not that the contrary minded have made any exceptions against this proof that are worthy any serious consideration And for that of the Apostle Heb. 12.23 I take it to be no less convincing For what but the Souls of good Men can be supposed to be called the Spirits of just Men made perfect For it cannot be said of the Angels they being distinguished from them in the same verse nor can it be meant of the Persons of Men Bodies and Souls united for these are called Men and not Spirits much less the Spirits of just Men. Obj. But we find in Scripture the Angels that have a charge over the faithfull are called their Angels and why may they not be called their Spirits being Spirits indeed Ans The question in this matter is not whether they may not be so called in some sense or respect but whether in that Text they are so called and I say they are not for two Reasons 1. Because the Angels are mentioned just before as was intimated and they are never called the Spirits of Men or the Spirits of the Just in Scripture 2. Because these are spoken of as made perfect as the things that are imperfect are brought to perfection by degrees for so the original signifieth now the Holy Angels never were destitute of any perfection that their nature needeth Since therefore it must be only the Souls of the Just that there are called the Spirits of the Just it will be easie to conclude the point from it For 't is evident it cannot be meant of their Spirits or Souls while in the Body here on Earth for in this state they are not made perfect but have a great deal of sinfull imperfection in them not as though I were already perfect said St. Paul of himself And 't is said they are made perfect that is already perfect and therefore is not spoken of that perfection which they shall have hereafter at the Resurrection of their Bodies nor can the scope of the place or context favour the interpreting of it concerning their state on Earth and since it cannot be understood of their Souls in their Bodies on Earth nor at the Resurrection then it must be meant of their Souls in their separated state And if in that state they are they are more perfect than before they were they must certainly be more happy also SECT V. The same Doctrine proved from Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours c. HAving urged several Scriptures for my purpose I shall now only add this unto them And if any Person doubts whether this will prove the happy state of Just Mens Souls in separation from their Bodies he must be a Man of doubtfull Religion But for the business let us note in what manner the truth was manifested I heard said St. John a voice from Heaven saying to me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Note also that it is not spoken of Men as living on Earth or in Heaven but of them as dying in the Lord in his Faith and Fear Blessed are those Dead It is added from henceforth from the time of their dying And how can we think it would be said Blessed are those Dead if they did not obtain some blessed privilege by dying if death did not bring more good to their Souls than hurt to their Bodies then we have the Spirit asserting it yea saith the Spirit Together with one part or property of their blessedness they rest from their Labours from all their troubles whatsoever And this Rest must include a positive happiness in the Love and Peace of their gracious God For a meer Negative or Privative Rest consisting in a bare Freedom from Pain and Trouble is no more than the Beasts partake of when the Horse is dead there 's an end of his weariness as well as his work And I hope we may safely believe that a dead Christian that shewed himself such in his life is in a better state presently after Death than a dead Beast can be and he whose Religion is any thing stronger than his Atheism will account this Text an evidence of it And this shall suffice for Confirmation of the point and I doubt not but it may be some satisfaction to those that seek the truth in Love and humbly implore the guidance of God's Holy Spirit In the next place I am to make good my method and so to vindicate this truth from exceptions and defend it from that violence which some have offered unto it SECT VI. The Happiness of Just Mens Souls in the state of separation vindicated AS to contend for the truth is no unlawfull strife by clearing and confirming it so to maintain it against objections is not unnecessary And I know not whether some may not expect it But before I answer Mens Cavils against this comfortable Doctrine it may not be amiss to say something to those that would dissuade us from medling with matters of this nature For to what purpose say they should we trouble our selves about it For if we believe the Servants of God shall have an Eternity of Happiness after the Resurrection is not that sufficient for us whether our Souls can be happy in their separation or not Whether it is kindness or crosness Religion or Sin that moves men to talk after this rate I shall not now enquire Sure I am It is our Duty to search the Scriptures and blessed be God for the liberty of doing so And certainly 't is not below us to search them for this purpose if perhaps we may find satisfaction about it which that we may I trust will be acknowledged by the unprejudiced Reader Things revealed do belong to us and that this is revealed may easily be perceived by what has been insisted on about it And he that grants it a truth will never deny it to be a comfortable one whatsoever also Christians may undervalue methinks they should not despise the Consolations of the Scripture which will hold when other comforts fail And though it be not very delightfull to deal with the confident cavils of deceived Sinners yet to prevent their mischief I am willing to bestow a few lines upon them As for Scripture that they use to oppose this truth by 't is especially that of the Psalmist Ps 6.5 In death there is no Remembrance of thee and in the Grave who shall give thee Thanks But must not they be very quick-sighted that can find in the place of Darkness an Argument against this encouraging Doctrine But how little this Text maketh against it a few words will shew For. 1. The Psalmist doth not say there is no Remembrance of God after Death but thus In Death there is no Remembrance of thee viz. In that which is in Death or under Death's power even the Body Or then there is no such Remembrance of God as in the time of Life for the
that it can afford for my part I must needs say I do not admire it And now I shall take leave to declare my Sentiments herein with submission to better Judgments and a Willingness to be farther informed And 1. by way of Concession I grant that the perfection of happiness properly so called or in respect of the Compositum or whole Man is reserved to the day of Judgment Then the Lord will give his Righteous Servants the Crown of Righteousness and the eternal weight of Glory as St. Paul speaketh 2. I grant there is a state of Christians in this Life that may be called a Blessedness which yet is accompanied with no small imperfection because they daily lodge an Enemy of God and have sin dwelling in them If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves But 3. that a holy Soul after death has not the perfection of Happiness or less of Happiness than it needeth or desireth this I cannot comply with Here therefore I shall attempt to prove that the departed Souls of the Just are in a State of perfect Happiness and have all that spiritual comfort from the God of all comfort which on any account they have need of and such a Happiness I think we may justly call perfect and is all that I wish to my own Soul in its absence from the Body Now for this let us consider the state of Sanctified Souls after their removal from their Bodies They have certainly Life and Sense and Knowledge and all the essential perfections that belong to them as spiritual substances St. Stephen doubtless would not have said when his Enemies were killing him Lord Jesus Receive my Spirit if he had not believed that his Soul should continue in its spiritual Being after his Body was dead Now the Souls of such if they have not all the Happiness that they need then they must know so much or not if we say they do not know it we shall hardly prove that they know any thing else and so comply with the Socinian Dream of the Souls sleeping after death And in reason what are they more like to know than their own State But if then they know themselves destitute of any Happiness that they need that knowledge must be matter of trouble and dissatisfaction unto them and so at that rate the Souls of the Just shall be in part really unhappy which those that judge of them by the Scriptures will not believe 2. If in their separated State they have a perfect enjoyment of God they must be perfectly happy by the confession of all those that know wherein Happiness consisteth And that in that State they have a perfect enjoyment of God is one would think no hard matter to make evident For nothing but sin can hinder the Soul from a perfect Communion with God and comfort in Him. The Prophet tells the People of nothing but their Iniquities that could separate between them and their God he means apparently in point of comfort Esay 59.2 But their iniquities we have seen already do not follow them into the other World their Souls are not under the defilements of sin when they leave the Body and go into the glorious presence of the holy one The Apostle calls them the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Heb. 12. and the Psalmist tells us no evil shall dwell with him 3. To be ever with the Lord in his special glorious presence is spoken of as the very top of our Felicity and the principal matter of a Christian's Comfort 1 Thes 4.17 18. And this Happiness the departed Spirits of the Just do partake of To depart and be with Christ says St. Paul Phil. 1.23 and in 2 Cor. 5.8 Desiring rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. If therefore the one proveth the complete Happiness of the whole Man as such the other as well proveth the perfect Happiness of the Soul as such Go on therefore O Faithfull Christian in thy Christian course with Faithfulness and Diligence with Christian courage and Resolution and let thy Soul magnifie the Lord for it shall shortly want for no Felicity SECT XII Treating of the Nature of this Happiness and the Joy that attends it BEing come unto these points I am in the depths indeed and may well say as St. Paul who is sufficient for these things But having engaged in this Service 't is fit I should go on with it and perform it as God shall enable me Here then I am to consider the happy privileges of a Sanctified Soul in its state of Separation And 1. its Sanctification I mean full and perfect by which it is freed from all the evil of sin for the present and all the danger of it for the future as the Apostle calls them the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Heb. 12.23 That this is meant of the Souls of the faithfull is generally granted and 't is common in Scripture for the Soul to be spoken of under the name of Spirit The dust the Body shall return to the Earth but the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 And St. Stephen in like sort commended his Soul to his Saviour Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Acts. 7.59 And in that Text to the Hebrews The Spirits of Just Men can signifie nothing but their Souls because mention is made of Angels in the verse before from whom therefore they are plainly distinguished And their being made perfect must needs be meant of perfection in Grace and Holiness for as to any perfection in a natural sense they had it as much before in this World yea the state of the Soul in its Separation without the perfection of Grace in it may be thought to be a state of greater imperfection than before it was in Now ponder with thy self Reader of this particular and think what a blessed condition this must be If he is stiled Blessed whose Iniquity is forgiven Psal 32.1 How Blessed then may they be accounted that have all their Iniquities pardoned and removed also What a Happiness is it to be freed from all possibility of sinning If St. Paul so much lamented the In-being of Sin complaining that when he would do good evil was present with him Rom. 7. and called himself Wretched Man for that very reason How glad may we think would he have been if at that very hour he could have assured himself that he should never be troubled with it any more a privilege which after death his Soul was perfectly instated in If the poor Man that I have read of was so much delighted to behold the Face of that Physician that had cured him of his fainting Sleeps and frightfull Dreams O then with what transcendent Joy and Gladness will a gracious Soul reflect upon the Love of its Redeemer when he hath freed it from all degrees of sinfulness and healed all its Infirmities for ever Oh what sacred and satisfying Irradiations will it receive from the Sun
of Righteousness when the Spirit of Glory hath perfected all its Graces and delivered it from all the darkness of sin And in being free from sin it shall be free from all other evils as he that is freed from his Debt is secured from all arrests and troubles that relate to it for whatsoever our God may be pleased to doe out of Sovereignty and without respect to his Creature 's sin as 't is supposed Job's Afflictions came on him in that way Yet Divines agree that God did never lay Affliction on his People but while they had sin dwelling in them so that the Souls of his Servants after Death are rid of all other evil as well as of sin They shall then be no more disturbed by any Enemies of their Peace the Regions of the unseen World they are then in shall be always Serene The Ocean of Eternity shall be calm and comfortable to them Then they shall have no more to doe with the Temptations of Satan the Mocks of the Profane the Snarls and Censures of proud-hearted Hypocrites These shall follow the upright no farther than the Grave For their end is Peace Psal 37.37 How found and substantial will the Soul's Joy be when it sees it self safe in the Arms of God's Love beyond the sphere of sin and sorrow which should move it to bear the more contentedly the Troubles and Temptations of this Transitory Life In particular the gracious Soul shall then have the excellencies that are most essential to true Happiness and be perfected in the Knowledge and love of God in Christ St. Paul himself though he knew much more of Christ than most ever did or shall do in this World and had the Revelations of things too great to be uttered 2 Cor. 12. Yet his knowledge had a real imperfection at the same time We know but in part 1 Cor. 13.9 and vers 12. Now I know in part but as it follows then I shall know as I am known I will not play the Critick on that phrase nor search curiously into the depths of it 't is for our purpose clear enough for it must be meant of perfection of knowledge because 't is opposed to a knowing in part If any say it is to be understood especially of the state at the Resurrection I shall not gainsay it But I see not why it may not be applyed also to the Soul in its Separation For as the particle Now doth confessedly denote the state of this Life so the particle Then doth as plainly intimate any time or state after this Life ended And he might express it so if it were properly and primarily meant of the Soul in its Separation from the Body As when he said Phil. 1. I desire to depart and be with Christ Which Being with Christ is confessedly intended in respect of his Soul. Nor is it easie to conceive how his Soul 's being with Christ after Death should be so much a better condition than any in this Life if therein it had not perfection in the Knowledge and Love of Christ For on Earth he had a great measure of them and was daily tending forwards towards perfection and was assured that nothing should separate him from the Love of Christ Rom. 8. Surely therefore a holy Soul will not want for knowledge when it has left the World. How can it be any thing less than perfectly light in the Lord when it shall be perfectly and gloriously present with him And who is able to tell us what a Joy and Blessedness this must be If I could know my God and Saviour with such a powerfull spiritual and affecting knowledge as some good Men have had on Earth my heart should be glad and my spirit rejoyce though I were utterly despised in the World and had not one hours health all the days of my Life yet all their knowledge here was imperfect as we have seen And how much better shall that state be where all sinfull imperfections shall be done away If the Mystery of Christ and Salvation by him be such a glorious thing that the Angels of Heaven desire to look into it 1 Pet. 1.12 O then what abundant matter of satisfaction and joy will it yield to all those blessed Souls to whom it doth really and eternally belong and to whom the worth and excellency of it with their interest in it is fully discovered by the Spirit of Grace and Revelation 2. Another privilege that holy Souls shall have after their departure hence is their Company They shall then converse with the best of Creatures and such as never offended their good God I mean the Holy Angels After Death they shall be as it were made Free of that Company and see themselves Members of that Blessed Society united in and under the same Head Christ Jesus Now indeed if they should see but one of those immortal Spirits standing be fore them with his Crown of Glory compassing them about with a Light brighter than that of the Sun offering to draw nigh unto them and asking to joyn with them in the Praises of the great Jehovah such a sight probably would more astonish them than rejoyce them because the sense of their sinfulness might cast a Damp upon their Hearts and make them unfit for the heavenly employment But it shall be otherwise with their Souls when they are fully conformed to their Maker's Will and as free from sin as the Angels of his presence for the Angels of Heaven and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect are Members of that happy Society which Divines use to call the Church Triumphant and therefore are related to one another by a far nearer and nobler Relation than that of Fellow Creatures of which the learned may consult Polanus in Syntag. and H. Altingii Theol. Nov. problemat p. 616. In a word they are called in the Gospel Their Angels Math. 18.10 And we cannot think that those blessed Spirits above that have ministred to them and by Gods appointment took charge of them and especially rejoyced at their Conversion Luke 15.10 I say we cannot think they will do any thing less than joyfully congratulate their safe Arrival at the state of perfect purity and peace and chiefly as it is the proper Fruit of the Will of God and the purchase of his Christ Surely the holy Inhabitants of the best World will not be strange to Holy Souls when they come into it nor are they like the foolish Hypocrites of the Earth that delight to shew themselves proud and scornfull and look with an evil eye upon the welfare of others 3. As I question not a Holy Communion and Converse between the Angels of God and the perfected Spirits of the Just so hitherto I can as little doubt their knowledge of one another and their satisfaction in each others Happiness in their state of Separation at least and especially those of them that were before more nearly related and were wont to join together in God's Service and
late Metaphysical Pen has laid it down as a Theorem Desiderat Anima separata iterum cum corpore conjngi i.e. The separated Soul desires to be united to its Body Answ As to this I think that of St. Paul to the Coloss may fitly be remembred Take heed lest any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vain Deceit For indeed Some things that go under that Name are sufficiently vain and deceitfull And as to this the Soul's desire to be united to the Body again if meant of the Souls of the Just to me seemeth no excellent Notion nor can I conceive how men should know it if it were so indeed Their Arguments for it I am not satisfied in and I hope it is excusable if I venture to urge one or two against it 1. If a good Christian's Soul when absent from the Body doth actually and properly desire to be joyned to it as a sick man desireth health or a Prisoner Liberty then whilst separate it must wish to be in another condition as the Sick wisheth his health But the separated Soul of a good Christian doth not wish it self at that time any other condition for being perfectly sanctified it is perfectly satisfied in the Will of God who crowneth it with his loving kindness and is better unto it than the Body and all the comforts here below 2. If such a Soul thus desireth to be in the Body then the Being in the Body seems to it a better and more desirable State but that it doth not nor cannot without Delusion for St. Paul tells us to depart and be with Christ is far better Philip. 1. And if in any sense it desires to be joyned to its Body yet it desires this only in God's appointed time for the reason afore given Ob. 4. But may it not grieve a Man to think of leaving his old Friends and Acquaintance and going into that World and State which he never saw nor ever spake with any that did Answ Doubtless this is that which lyeth hid in the hearts of many though they speak not to any such purpose And an evil Heart of unbelief may be much moved by it But how little cause a Godly Christian hath to be unwilling to dye on this Account a few words may suffice to make manifest For 1. He that is such indeed hath his Will in some good measure resigned up to his God whose Will is that He and his Friends should not dwell always together in this World. 2. The Friends that he leaveth at Death are but fellow Creatures and sinfull ones too such Friends as may afflict him as well as comfort him in a word such as may hinder as well as help in the way towards Heaven Nor can their greatest Friendship be firm and constant to him any farther than God's Favour doth make it so nor do them any good without his good providence But by Death the Sanctified Soul is translated into a far better condition to enjoy that most gracious glorious God who was his first and best Friend to whose undeserved goodness he was absolutely beholding for all the kindness that ever any Creature shew'd him In short that blessed God to whom all Nations as the Prophet speaks are as nothing and vanity that God whose Name alone is excellent and his Glory above the Heavens whose Power is Omnipotency whose Time is Eternity whose Bounty is unspeakable and whose Benignity is better than Life Psal 63.3 And touching the other part of the Objection viz. the Strangeness of the State that the Soul doth enter upon nothing but gross infidelity can make it seem of any weight For 1. Strangeness in it self hath no harm in it When the man that was born blind had Sight given him by Our Saviour it was doubtless a Strange thing to him to perceive the Light which he never did before nor could have any Ideas of yet the change was not grievous but joyous unto him How much more must it be so with that blessed Change to a Blessedness that changeth not which a gracious Soul shall find after Death And 2. as to such a Strangeness as consisteth in unacquaintedness I take it to be a strange Fancy without any ground at all in Scripture or Reason yea the contrary seems very evident from Scripture For as to their God the Case is clear in their absence from the Body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 And that it is meant of a more special and comfortable presence with him than before they had may easily be gathered from the Apostle's Scope in that place and is partly proved in a foregoing Section where that most comfortable Text is insisted on And how can they but have a nearer Communion with him when they are freed from Ignorance and Unbelief and all those things that are offensive in his Sight And concerning the Creatures also I humbly conceive that the Souls of such Persons do not want for Acquaintance with them How can we imagine that those Holy Angels should desire to be strange to those Souls in another World that delighted to do them good in this World and rejoyced in their Grace and Repentance Luke 15.10 Will those heavenly Inhabitants chuse to be at a Distance with them when they are most perfectly united to their glorious Lord and Head Jesus Christ the Righteous This let them believe that can for my part I hate the Thoughts of so gross a Solecism And I see no cause to doubt of the spiritual Communion and Converse of Holy Souls with each other in this their State of Separation The knowing one another can be no inconvenience when they are compleated in Grace and perfected in Love. That Charity and Joy are found in the perfected Spirits of the Just is confessed by all that believe them to such and to partake of any Happiness after Death And how can these Affections more properly be exercised among them than in Rejoycing at each others Happiness And how can that be without the Knowledge of each other and of their happy State And to this I shall only add the position of the Learned Maccovius Communicant Animae Separatae c. Separated Souls do communicate their minds to one another De Anima Sep. Cap. 4. Ob. 5. But say some it is not Dying but sorrowfull Dying that we are so unwilling of Alas we are so haunted with horrible Temptations and our Faith and Hope are so sadly shaken therewith that we fear lest we should dye in Despair which also we are the more amazed at because we are told that Despair is a most horrid Sin such as spoileth all at once as we say and stops up as it were the current of God's Mercy towards us Answ This Objection I cannot but think fit to deal with and I am the more willing to do so for the Satisfaction of those whose Religious Friends may have dyed in Doubts and Fears and with no Appearance of comfort For which end I lay down the
this I cannot conceive to be such a heinous Sin or such a dangerous Case For example If through Melancholy or Satan's Suggestions he be brought to think that he is under the guilt of the unpardonable Sin then he cannot chuse but despair of being pardoned And though I believe it is a great truth that no true Christian shall ever be guilty of the unpardonable Sin having an interest in Christ and there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ even such as walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 2. and for other reasons that need not now be named Yet I doubt not but such a one may fear he is under it and verily think so I remember Mr. Fox tells us it was the case of Mr. John Glover a Person of exemplary Piety So that Despair in such persons and on such grounds may be reckoned amongst those Frailties and Infirmities which our God doth pardon of course to his adopted Children in Christ He is what he is stiled their Heavenly Father Mat. 6. and we can easily understand that the Child is incomparably safer by his Father's Hold of him than by any Hold that he can take of his Father He is their God for ever Ps 48.14 and no Darkness or Discomfort no Terrour of Life or shadow of Death shall ever deprive them of their Interest in him or disanull his purpose of Grace which was towards them in Christ Jesus before the World began Ob. 6. But after all this you may perhaps when your turn comes be as much afraid to Dye as others are Answ Very like so I can say nothing to the contrary nor can I tell in the least how it will be with me in point of comfort at my last Hour I well know that of my self I am as nothing and all my Sufficiency is of God. I shall therefore fear the last Enemy either much or little or not at all according as that King Eternal shall be pleased to grant or to withhold the Influences and Assistances of his Holy Spirit If he should leave me to my self to the Power of Temptation to the Doubts and Sins of my own Heart I know my Spirit would fail on a suddain and I should look like those that have been seven Days dead But good Reader how weak soever I or others may be yet our God is Strong and Faithfull and True and the Empyrean Heaven may sooner fall and perish than the least part of his promised Goodness fail Go on therefore O Christian in the good Way with a good Courage and Resolution Live upon Christ and live unto him and serve that blessed Lord with Joyfulness of Heart Fear not the Reproach of Men nor be afraid of their Revilings Endeavour to bring Glory to the Name of Christ by walking more and more as becomes his Gospel and then never value a thousand hard Censures and disgracefull Names or any other cruel Arts that Hell can invent to discourage Religion by For e're long through the tender Mercies of our God thou shalt be above the reach of all thy Enemies when thou removest from the best of thy Friends on Earth thou shalt dwell with those that Love thee better When thy Soul shall leave this malignant World it shall see the Love of the Lord Jesus that free that full that glorious Love which is better than Life and stronger than Death which makes the Host of Heaven glad and fills the Seraphins with Sacred Joy. A POSTSCRIPT Attempting the Resolution of a weighty Question with an Appendix to the 13th Section concerning Christ's Filiation in a Letter to a Learned Authour SIR I am satisfied in your Opinion of the Necessity or at least the Expediency of Answering those Opposers who enquire how 't is likely the Soul can Act when 't is without its Body to act in since it apparently dependeth on the Body in its Operations and its actings are evidently hindered when the Body is indisposed by Sleep or Sickness c. Which I hope may in part be solved by the ensuing Considerations 1. That the Soul 's depending on the Body in some of its Actings doth only prove that it hath need of the Body in it's present State wherein it was appointed to act in it and by it 2. That the Soul doth act in some ways very much when the Body least contributes to its Operation Even in Sleep it self the Soul is not wholly unactive for it then acteth by Thoughts and Dreams And as some tell us they seldom wake but out of some Degree of Dreaming So 't is impossible for any to prove that they did not dream or exercise a thinking power in their deepest Sleeps for that may be though they do not remember it Some Mens Fancies and Consciences have acted most strangely when their Bodies have lain as dead many Hours together declaring when they came to their Senses what a sad case they had been in and thought themselves to have been in Hell. 3. That its Dependance on the Body in some of its Operations doth not prove its Dependance on it in All or in those that are most natural to it as Understanding and Willing Hoping or Fearing Joying or Sorrowing 4. That God who hath told us in his word that it is Immortal and cannot be Killed Math. 10.28 doth know how to preserve its operating power without the help of a Weak and Dying Body If its Life and Being doth not depend upon its union with the Body why should we conceive its Operation and Apprehension to depend on it 5. Though the Soul in its Separation be without its Terrestrial Body yet it may not therefore be concluded to have No Body to Act in for it may have an Aërial Body which was so far from being counted absurd by the Ancients that they did suppose the Angels themselves to be in some sense embodied Creatures And perhaps it may be hard to prove that the Holy Apostle doth not mean some such thing when he saith we desire to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 and verse 4. not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon 6. When the same Apostle had in his Rapture to the third Heaven such Divine Discoveries as he could not utter he assures us that he could not tell us in what State he had them Whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Which it seems was very remarkable since it is mentioned twice in those verses Now how can it be imagined that the Apostle should make it his business to declare that he knew not whether he had those Revelations in the Body or out of it if the Soul without its Terrestrial Body were an Unactive and Insensible thing Sir I have also considered farther about the great Point we were discoursing of whether Christ be the Son of God on the Account of his miraculous Conception and for the Negative I would humbly offer these Reasons 1. Because the Affirmative seems to enervate the Arguments that Orthodox Divines use to prove him the Son of God by Real and Eternal Generation or at least to take away the necessity of arguing about it For they will say what need any Man seek such a ground of his Sonship if he may fitly be called the Son of God upon a far different Account 2. Because Christ is not therefore called the Son of God in any Scripture unless it be in Luke 1.35 And I think it hath not yet been proved that he is so called in that place on that Account for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the only Nerve that the proof of the contrary-minded is fastened on which methinks should afford no cogent Argument For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be consequential as well as causal And 't is hard to find any thing in that Text or context that will prove it to be causal And possibly the Conjunctive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may make against it 3. Relationes se mutuò ponunt If therefore Christ be the Son of God upon several grounds he must have several Filiations in Respect of God and so should be more than one Son of God unless a Man suppose his miraculous Conception to be the only Reason why he is called the Son of God which as it will never be granted by the Orthodox so I think it is not asserted by any at all 4. It seems needless for Christ to have any other Filiation in Respect of God than what is grounded on Eternal Generation As to himself 't is plain he hath no need And there seems to be as little need of it as to us Because his Eternal Sonship is every way sufficient to enoble the Humane Nature and to put a glorious Value upon what he did and suffered for us I have not consulted Authours upon this Occasion So that this is but the Result of my own Thoughts which may have need of Rectification and the whole Sir is humbly submitted to your favourable yet impartial Censure by Your Obliged Servant J. B. FINIS Books Printed for Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard A Dialogue between a Pastor and Parishioner touching the Lord's Supper Wherein the most material Doubts and Scruples about Receiving that Holy Sacrament are removed and the Way thereto discovered to be both Plain and Pleasant Very usefull for private Christians in these Scrupulous Times With some short Prayers fitted for that Occasion and a Morning and Evening Prayer for the Vse of Private Families By Michael Altham Vicar of Latton in Essex The Second Edition Rest for the Heavy-Laden Promised by our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to all Sincere Believers Practically discoursed upon By Clement Elis Rector of Kirkby in Nortinghamshire Author of the Gentile Sinner Some Queries to Protestants Answered And an Explanation of the Roman Catholick's Belief in Four Great Points considered 1. Concerning their Church 2. Their Worship 3. Justification 4. 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