〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels-fellows Luk 20.36 it is indifferent to our purpose Let us only consider them all as intelligent Spiritual Beings full of Holy Light Life active Power and Love to their common Lord and one another And can we imagine their state to be a State of torpid silence idleness and inactivity or that they have not much higher and nobler work to do there than they can have in such a World as this or in such bodies as here they lugg to and fro And the Scriptures are not altogether silent concerning the distinct orders of those glorious Creatures that inhabit all the Heavens with this upper Hades must be understood to contain Tho' it hath not provided to gratifie any ones curiosity so far as to give us particular accounts of their differences and distinctions And though we are not warranted to believe such conjectures concerning them as we find in in the supposititions Dionysius ' his Celestial Hierarchy or much less the idler dreams of Valentinus and the Gnosticks about their Aeones with divers more such fictions yet we are not to neglect what God hath expresly told us viz. That giving us some Account of the Creation in the Hades or the invisible part of it there are Thrones Dominions Principalities Powers Angels and elsewhere Archangels Authorities Col. 1.16 with 1 Pet. 3.21 which being terms that import Order and Government can scarce allow us not to conceive that of all those numberless multitudes of glorious Creatures that râ—plenish and people those spacious Regions of Light and Bliss there are none who belong not to some or other of those Principalities and Dominions Whence therefore nothing is more obvious than to conceive that whosoever is adjoyned to them ascending out of our Woâ—ld presently hath his Station assigned him is made to know his post and how he is to be employed in the seâ—vice and adoration of the Sovereign Lord of all and in paying the most regular homage to the Thâ—one of God and the Lamb. It being still to be remembred that God is not worshiped there or here as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as though he needed any thing since he gives to all breath and being and all things Acts 17. But that the felicity of his most excellent Creatures doth in great part consist in acting perpetually according to the dictate of a just right mind And that therefor tehey take highest pleasure in prostration in casting down their Crowns in shrinking even into nothing before the Original Eternal Subsistent Being that he may be owned as the all in all because they follow herein a most satisfy'd judgment and express it when they say Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 And worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Riches and Wisdom and Strength c. ch 5.12 And they that rest not Night or Day from such high and glorious employments have they nothing to do Or will we say or think because we see not how the Heavenly Potentates lead on their bright Legions to present themselves before the Throne to tender their obeysance or receive commands and dispatches to this or that far remote Dynasty or suppose to such and such a mighty Star whereof there are so numberless myriads And why should we suppose them not replenish't with glorious Inhabitants Whither they fly as quick as thought with joyful speed under the All-seeing Eye glad to execute wise and just commands upon all occasions But alas in all this we can but darken Counsel with words without knowledge We cannot pretend to knowledge in these things yet if from Scripture intimations and the concurrent reason of things we only make suppositions of what may be not conclusions of what is let our thoughts ascend as much higher as they can I see not why they should fall lower than all this And because we cannot be positive Will we therefore say or think there can be no such thing or nothing but dull inactivity in those Regions Because that other World is Hades and we see nothing shall we make little or next to nothing of it We should think it very absurd reasoning if we should use it in reference to such mean trifles in comparison and say there is no such thing as Pomp and State no such thing as Action or Business in the Courr of Spain or France of Persia or Japan because no sound from thence strikes our Ear or the beams of Majesty there dazle not our Eye I should indeed think it very unreasonable to make meer magnitude or vast extent of space filled up with nothing but void air Ether or other fine matter call it by what name you will alone or by it self a very considerable note of excellency of the other invisible World above this visible World of ours But I reckon it much more unreasonable and unenforc't to say no more by any Principles either of Philosophy or Religion finding this World of ours a baser part of the Creation so full of Life and of living Inhabitants of one degree or another to suppose the nobler parts of the Universe still ascending upwards generally unpeopled and desert when it is so conceivable in it self and so aptly tending to magnifie our Creator and Redeemer that all the upper Regions be fully inhabited with intelligent creatures whether meer Spirits unclothed with any thing material or united with some or other matter we need not determine And whereas Scripture plainly intimates that the Apostate revolted Spirits that fell from God and kept not their first Stations were vastly numerous we have hence scope enough for our thoughts to conceive that so spacious Regions being replenisht with intelligent Creatures always innocent and happy the delinquents compared with them may be as despicable for their paucity as they are detestable for their apostacy And that the horrid Hades wherein they are reserved to the blackness of Darkness for ever may be no more in proportion nay unexpressibly less than some little Rocky Island appointed as a place of punishment for Criminals in comparison of a flourishing vast Empire fully peopled with industrious rich sober-minded and unhappy Inhabitants We might further consider 3. The high perfection they presently attain to who are removed though in their younger years out of this into that other World The Spirits of just Men are there said to be made perfect Waving the Olympick Metaphor which is at most but the thing signifying That which is signified cannot be less than the concurrence of Natural and Moral Perfection The perfecting of all our faculties mind will and active power and of all holy and gracious excellencies knowledge wisdom love holiness The Apostle makes the difference be as that of a Child and that of a Man 1 Cor. 13. And would any one that hath a Child he delights in wish him to be a Child always and
of it by chance too but when and as it happens This is worse than Paganish Blindness for besides what from their Poets the vulgar have been made to believe concerning the three fatal Sisters to whom they ascribed no less than Deity concern'd in measuring every ones Life The grave discourses which some of them have writ concerning Providence and its extent to the lesser intermediate concerns of Life much more to that their final great concern of Death will be a standing Testimony against the too-prevailing Christian Scepticism they ought to excuse the Soloecism who make it of this wretched Age But such among us as will allow themselves the liberty to think want not opportunity and means by which they may be assur'd that not an imaginary but real Deity is immediately and constantly concern'd in measuring our Time in this World What an awful thought is this And it leads to a 2 Inference That it is a great thing to die The Son of God the Redeemer of man hath an immediate presidency over this affair He signalizes himself by it who could not suppose he should be magnified by a trifle We slightly say such a one is Dead Consider the matter in it self and 't is great A reasonable Soul hath chang'd States an intelligent Spirit is gone out of our world The life of a Gnat a Fly those little Automata or self moving things how admirable a production is it It becomes no man to despise what no man can imitate We praise the Pencil that well describes the external figure of such an Animalculum such a little Creature but the internal vital self moving power and the motion itself what Art can express But an humane life how important a thing is it T was one of Plato's thanksgivings that God had made him a man How careful a guard hath God set over every mans life fencing it by the severest Law If any man shed mans blood by man shall his blood be shed and how weighty is the annexed reason For in the image of God he made man This then highly greatens this matter He therefore reserves it wholly to himself as one of his peculiarities to dispose of such a life I am he that kills and makes alive We find it One of his high titles The God of the Spirits of all flesh He had what was much greater to glory in that he was The Father of spirits indefinitely spoken When he hath all the heavenly Regions the spacious Hades Peopled with such Inhabitants whose dwelling is not with flesh and for vast multitudes of them that never was that yet looking down into this little world of ours this minute spot of his creation and observing that here were Spirits dwelling in flesh he should please to be sâ—ylâ—d also the God of those Spirits signifies this to be with him too an appropriate glory a glory which he will not communicate farther then he communicates Godhead And that he held it a divine right to measure the time unto each of them of their abode in flesh determine when they shall dislodge This cannot be thought on-aright without a becoming most profound reverence of him on this account How sharp a rebuke is given to that haughty Prince The God in whose hands thy breath is hast thou not glorified That would prepare the way and we should be easily led on were we once come to think with reverence to think also with pleasure of this case that our life and every breath we draw is under such a Divine Superintendency The H. Psalmist speaks of it with high complacency as the matter of his Song that he had a God presiding over his life So he tells us he would have each 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composed not more of Night and Day than of Prayer and Praise directed to God under this notion as the God of his life Psal. 42.8 And he speaks it not grudgingly but as the ground of his trust and boast Psal. 31.14 15. I trusted in thee O Lord I â—aid thou art my God my times are in thy hand That this Key is in the hand of the Great Emmanuel God with us will be thought on with frequency when it is thought on with delight 3. Our Life on Earth is under the constant strict observation of our Lord Christ. He waits when to turn the Key and shut it up Thro' the whole of that time which by deferring he measures out to us we are under his Eye as in a state of probation He takes continual notice how we acquit our selves For his turning the Key at last is a judicial act therefore supposes diligent observation and proceeds upon it He that hath this Key is also said in the next Chapter verse 18. to have Eyes like a flame of fire with these he observes what he hath against one or another ver 20. And with most indulgent patience gives a space of Repentance ver 21. and notes it down if any then repent not as we there also find Did secure Sinners consider this how he beholds them with a flame in his Eye and the Key in his hand would they dare still to trifle If they did apprehend how he in this posture stands over them in all their vain dalliances idle impertinencies bold adventures insolent attempts against his Laws and Goverâ—ment presumptuous affronts of his high Authority Yea or but in their drowsie slumbrings their lingering delays their neglects of offered Grace Did they consider what notice he takes how they demean themselves under every Sermon they hear in every Prayer wherein they are to joyn with others or which perhaps for customs sake they put up alone by themselves How theiâ— hearts are mov'd or unmov'd by every repeâ—ted Call that is given them to turn to God get their Peace made by application of their Redeemer's reconciling Blood In what Agonies would they be what pangs of trembling would they feel within themselves lest the Key should turn before their great work be done 4. Whatsoever ill designs by this observation he discovers 't is easie to him to prevent One turn of this Key of Death besides the many other ways that are obvious to him disappoints them all and in that day all their thoughts perish 'T is not therefore from inadvertency indifferency or impotency but deep counsel that they are permitted to be driven on so far He that sitteth in the Heavens laughs and he knows their day is coming He can turn this Key when he will 5. His Power as to every ones Death cannot be avoided or withstood The act of this Key is definitive and ends the business No man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in Death Eccles. 8.8 'T is in vain to struggle when the Key is turn'd the Power of the Keys where it is supremely lodg'd is absolutely decisive and their Effect permanent and irrevocable That Soul therefore for whose Exit the Key is turned must thereupon then
Hades to reduc'd Apostates to Penitent Believing Self-devoting Sinners for this it was necessary he â—â—ould put on Man be found here in fashion as a Man take on him the foâ—m of a Seâ—vant become obedient to Death even that servile punishment the Death of the Croâ—s Phil. 2.7 8. For this he is highly exalted into this Power that every Knee might bow to him in hope of Saving Mercy ver 9 10. compared with Isa 45.22 23. He had the Keys without this of the Supernal Hades to shut out all offenders and of the infernal to shut them up for ever But that he might have them to absolve repenting believers and admit them into Heaven and only to shut up in Hell implacable Enemies For this he must Die and live again He was to be slain and hanged on a Tree that he might be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance and Remission of Sin Act. 5.30 31. That to this intent he might be Lord of the Dead and the Living he must both Die and Rise and Live so as to Die no more Rom. 14.9 These Keys for this purpose he was only to have upon these terms He had a right to punish as an offended God but to Pardon and Save as a Mediating Sin expiating God-Man But as he was to do the part of a Mediator he must act equally between the disagreeing Parties He was to deal impartially on both sides To render back entire to the injur'd Ruler of the World his violated Rights and to obtain for us his forfeited favour as entire And undertook therefore when as a Sacrifice he was to be slain to redeem us to God by his Blood Rev. 5.9 To give him back his revolted Creature Holy Pure Subject and Serviceable as by his methods he shall be at last and procure for him Pardon Acceptance and Eternal Blessedness When therefore he was to do for us the part of a Redeemer he was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law not from the Command of it to save us from the Wrath of God not from his Government Had it been otherwise so firm and indissoluble is the connection between our Duty and 〈◊〉 fâ—licity that the Sovereign Ruler had been eternally injured and We not advantaged Were we to have been set free from the preceptive obligation of God's Holy Law than most of all from that most fundamental precept Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thine Heart Soul Might and Mind Had this been Redemption Which supposes only what is Evil and Hurtful as that we are to be Redeemed from This were a Strange sort of Self-repugnant Redemption not from Sin and Misery but from our Duty and Felicity This were so to be Redeemed as to be still Lost and every way lost both to God and to our selves for ever Redeemed from loving God! What a monstrous Thought Redeemed from what is the great Active and Fruitive Principle The source of Obedience and Blessedness The Eternal Spring even in the Heavenly State of Adoration and Fruition This had been to legitimate everlasting Enmity and Rebellion against the Blessed God and to Redeem us into an eternal Hell of horrour and misery to our selves This had been to cut off from the Supream Ruler of the World for ever so considerable a â—imb of his most rightful Dominion and to leave us as miserable as everlasting separation from the fountain of life and blessedness could make us When therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was to Redeem us from the Curse of the Law it was that the Promised Spirit might be given to us Gal. 3.13 14. who should write the Law in our Hearts Jer. 31.33 Ezek. 36.27 Fulfil the Righteousness of it in us by causing us to walk after his dictates according to that Law regenerating us begetting us after Gods Image and making us partakers of a Godlike nature So we through the Law becâ—me Dead to the malediction and curse of it that we may Live to God more devoted Lives than ever Gal. 2.19 Thus is Gods lost creature given back to him with the greatest advantage also to it self With this design it is apparent our Lord Redeemed us and by his Redemption acquired these Keys Nor are we to doubt but in the use of them he will dispense exactly according to this just and merciful design And what a perverse distorted Mind is that which can so much as wish it should be otherwise viz. That he should save us to the Eternal wrong of him that made us and so as that we should be nothing the better i. e. that he should save us without saving us And hath this no pleasant comfortable aspect upon a lost World that he who hath these Keys will use them for such purposes i. e. to admit to eternal bliss and save to the uttermost all that will come to God by him not willing to be everlastingly alienated from the life of God because he ever lives to make intercession or to transact and negotiate for them as that word signifies and that in a rightful way and even by the power of these Keys 8. That there must be some important Reason why the other World is to us unseen and so truly bears the Name of Hades This expresses the state of the case as in fact it is tha it is a World lying out of our sight and into which our dim and weak Eye cannot penetrate That other state of things is spoken of therefore as hidden from us by a vail When our Lord Jesus is said to have passed into the Heavens Heb. 4.14 he is also said to have entered into that within the vail Heb. 16.19 20. alluding to that in the Temple of Solomon and before that in Moses's Tabernacle but expresly signifying that the Holy places into which Christ entred not those made with hands which were the Figure of the true but Heaven it self filled with the glorious presence of God where he appears for us Heb. 9.24 is also vailed from us As also the Glory of the other State is said to be a Glory as yet to be revealed Rom. 8.18 And we are told Job 26.9 The great God holdeth back the face of his Throne and above ver 6. 't is represented as a Divine Prerogative that Sheol which is there groundlesly rendred Hell the vast Hades is only naked before him lies entirely open to his view and therein the dark and horrid part of it Destruction by which peculiarly must be meant Hell is to him without a covering not moâ—e hidden from his Eye Which shews this to be the Divine pleasure so God will have it be who could have expos'd all to common view if he had pleased But because he orders all things according to the Counsel of his will Ephes. 1.11 we must conceive some weighty reason did induce hereto that whatsoever lies beyond this present state of things should be concealed from our immediate view and so come uno nomine to be all called Hades And
place to place might be directed by him in the VVorld Have you never said if thou go not with me carry me not hence How safely and fearlesly may you follow him blindfold or in the dark any whither not only from place to place in this World but from world to world how lightsome soever the one and gloomy and dark the other may seem to you Darkness and light are to him alike To him Hades is no Hades nor is the dark way that leads into it to him an untrodden path Shrink not at the thoughts of this translation though it be not by escaping Death but even through the jaws of it VVe commonly excuse our aversion to Die by alledging that Nature regrets it But we do not enough consider that in such a compounded sort of creature as we are the word Nature must be ambiguous There is in us a sensitive Nature that regrets it but taking the case as it is now stated can we think it tolerable that it should be regretted by the reasonable Nature unto which if we appeal can we suppose it so untrue to its self as not to assert its own Superiority or to judge it fit that an intelligent immortal Spirit capable of so great things in another World should be content with a long abode here Only to keep a well-figured piece of Flesh from putrifying or give it the satisfaction of tasting meats and drinks that are grateful to it for a few years And if for a few why not for many and when those many were expired why not for as many more And the same reason always remaining why not for alwaies The case is thus put because the common meaning of this allegation that Nature regâ—ets or abhors this dissolution is not that they are concerned for their Souls how it may fare with them in another World which the most little mind or trouble themselves about but that they are to have what is grateful to them in this World And was this the end a reasonable Spirit was made for when without reason sense were alike capable of the same sort of gratifications VVhat Law what Equity what rule of Decency can oblige the Soul of a Man capable of the Society and Enjoyments of Angels to this piece of Self-denial for the sake of his incomparably baser Body Or can make it fit that the nobler and more excellent Nature should be eternally subservient to the meaner and more ignoble Especially considering that if according to the case supposed the two last foregoing directions be complyed with there is a sort of Divine Nature superadded to the whole Humane Nature that cannot but prompt the Soul ennobled by it to aspire to suitable even to the highest operations and enjoyments whereof it is capable and which are not attainable in this present bodily state And if there were still a dispute between Nature and Nature it s enough that the great Lord of Hades and of this present sensible World too will determine it In a far lower instance when the General of an Army commands it upon an enterprize wherein life is to be hazarded it would be an ill excuse of a cowardly declining to say their Nature regrets and dreads the adventure The thing is necessary Against what is so unavoidable as Death that is an abject mind that reluctates Come then let us imbolden our selves and when he brings the Key dare to die It is to obey and enjoy him who is our life and our all Say we chearfully each of us Lord Jesus receive my Spirit into thy hands I commit it who hast Redeemed it 8. Let us quietly submit to Divine Disposal when our dear Friends and Relatives are by Death taken away from us For consider into what hands this affair is put of ordering every ones decease and removal out of this into the other World and who hath these Keys 'T is such a one whose right if we use our thoughts we will not allow our selves to dispute or to censure his administration His Original Right is that of a Creator and a God For all things were Created for him and by him Col. 1.16 And without him was nothing made that was made Joh. 1.2 â—he First and the Last to all things v. 17. His supervening Right was that of a Redeemer as hath been already noted from this context and as such he had it by acquisition dying to obtain it overcoming Death I am he that liveth and was dead And then as he elsewhere declares by constitution All Power is given me both in Heaven and on Earth Mat. 28.19 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports rightful Power And who are we or any Relatives of ours whom all the Power of Heaven and Earth hath no right to touch What exempt jurisdiction can we pretend our selves to belong unto Or will we adventure to say not denying his right he did not use it well in this case who is more fitly qualifyed to Judge than he that hath these Keys And let this matter be yet more throughly discuss't What is it that we find fault with in the removal of this or that person that was near and delightful to us Is it that he was to Die at all or that he Dy'd so soon If we say the former Do we blame the constitution appointing all Men once to Die by which this World is made a portal to another for all Men and whence it was necessary none should stay long in this but only pass thorough into that World wherein every one is to have is everlasting abode Or is it that when we think it not unfit this should be the general and common course there should yet have been a particular dispensation for this Friend or Relation of mine Let the former be supposâ—â— the thing we quarrel at and consider the intolerable consequences of the matters being otherwise as the case is with this Apostate Sinful World Such as upon second better-weighed thoughts we would abhor to admit into our minds even as the matter of a wish What would we wish to Mankind a sinning immortality on this Earth before which a wise Heathen profest to prefer one Day vertuously spent Would we wish this World to be the everlasting Stage of indignities and affronts to him that made it Would we wish there should never be a judgment Day and that all the wise righteous Councels of Heaven should be ranverst overturned only to comport with our terrene sensual inclinations Is this our dutifulness and loyal affection to our Blessed Lord the Author of our Beings and the God of our â—ives whose rights and honours should be infinitely dearer to us than our selves Is it our kindness to our selves and all others of our kind and order that are all naturally capable and many by gracious vouchsafement sitly qualified to enjoy a perfect felicity in another World that we would have all together confined for ever to this Region of darkness impurity and
A DISCOURSE Concerning the Redeemer's Dominion over the Invisible World AND THE Entrance thereinto by Death Some part whereof was preached on occasion of the Death of JOHN HOGHTON Esq eldest Son of Sir Charles Hoghton of Hoghton-Tower in the County of Lancaster Baronet By JOHN HOWE Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Hall 1699. TO THE Most deservedly Honoured AND Truly Honourable Sir CHARLES HOGHTON AND THE Lady MARY HOGHTON Of Hoghton-Tower Grace Mercy and Peace c. YOU will I know count it no indecency that when God hath so nearly many Years ago join'd you in Relation in Affection and now so lately in the Affliction equally common to you both I do also join your Names on the same paper and make this solemn Address to you together It is by the inestimable favour of Heaven that the mutual Interest God hath given you in each other as it obliges doth also as I have great reason to hope effectually dispose and enable you so not only to partake in the Comforts but in the Sorrows that are common to you both as that the former shall be greatly increased and the latter proportionably allay'd and mitigated thereby Thus is the Advantage of your Conjugal State both represented in God's Designation and apprehended in your own Experience And you are to consider the Blessing of God herein as having a peculiarity in it not being extended to all so related neither to all that were great in this World nor to all that were Pious and Good Great worldly Felicity hath been rendered insipid and spiritless Great Calamities much the more bitter by the want of a meet mutual helpfulness between such Relations A Great and a Good Man in his time A Prince as he is thought to have been in his Country a Man that was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed Evil when he lost not one not the eldest only of his numerous Offspring as you have but all at once seven Sons and three Daughters with such concomitant Circumstances of accumulated Afflictions as blessed be God are not in your Case and might now expect some relief from his other self the nearest and most inward Companion of his Life and partaker of his Joys and Sorrows All the Succour he hath from her was â—n impious endeavour to provoke and irritate his Spirit that taunting Scoff Dost thou still retain thy Integrity and that horrid Advice Curse God and Die Whereas that rational religious Soul-composing Thought shall we receive good things at the hand of God and not also evil things was deeply fixed in the mind of the one how much more effectually relieving had it been if it had circulated between both the Relatives and they had alternately propounded and enlarged upon it to one another With you I cannot doubt it hath been so and that you have made it your Business to improve your mutual Interest not to aggravate but to alleviate your Affliction each to other You have both of you great occasion and obligation to revolve and recount to each other the many good things you have received at the hand of God to mitigate what there is of Evil in this dispensation Both of you have sprung of Religious and Honourable Families favoured of God valued and beloved in the Countries where he had planted them They have been both seats of Religion and of the Worship of God The Resorts of his Servants Houses of Mercy to the Indigent Of Justice to the vitious Of Patronage to the sober and vertuous Of good Example to all about them You were both dedicated to God early and he gave early Testimony of his accepting the Dedication He began with you both betimes blessing your Education and owning you for his by disposing and forming your Spirits to own betimes the God of your Fathers He hath blessed you indeed adding the spiritual Blessings in heavenly things to your many earthly Comforts Which Jabez mighâ— mean not content with a common Blessing and the more probably from the acceptance he found 1 Chron. 4.9 10. God granted his Request as Solomon's 1 Kings 2.10 When his Request was as little vulgaâ— You both concurred in the Dedication of this your Son as in the rest of yours and I doubt not with great seriousness you Covenanted with God in Christ to be his God And if he enabled you to be in good earnest herein even that was of special Grace and Favour and ought to come into the account of the many good things you â—ave received of God's hand as offering to God willingly did in the estimate of David when the Oblation was of a meaner kind 1 Chron. 29.14 But then you ought to consider what the import and meaning was of that your Covenant wherein you accepted God in Christ to be the God of your Son and dedicated him to God through Christ to be his Was it not absolute and without limitation that God should be a God to him entirely and without reserve and that he should be his absolutely and be dispos'd of by him at his Pleasure Otherwise there was a repugnancy and contradiction in the very terms of your Covenant To be a God to him Is not God the name of a Being incapable of limitation Doth it not signify infinite unlimited Power and Goodness To be a God to any one therefore under restriction is to be a God to him and no God And so to Covenant with God can neither have sincerity in it nor good sense He can be under no restraint in the exercises of his Power and Goodness towards any to whom he vouchsafes to be their God in Covenant but what he is pleased to lay upon himself which must be from his own Wisdom and good Pleasure to which in covenanting we refer our selves with particular Faith in reference to what he hath expresly promis'd and with general that all shall be well where his Promise is not express But from our selves nothing can be prescribed to him He must be our all or nothing in point of Enjoyment as our Sovereign all-comprehending Good in point of Government as our Sovereign all-disposing Lord. So we take him in Covenanting with him for our selves and ours For he so propounds and offers himself to us If we accept and take him accordingly there is a Covenant between him and us otherwise we refuse him and there is no Covenant When he promises as to his part he promises his all to be God all-sufficient to us to be ours in all his Fulness according to our measure and capacity we are not straitned in him but in our selves He undertakes to be to us and do for us all that it belongs to him as a God to be and do To give us Grace and Glory about which there can be no dispute or doubt they are always and immutably good And to withhold from us no good thing Here are comprehended with the
forthwith depart willing or unwilling ready or unready 6. Souls that go out of this World of ours on the turn of this Key go not out of being He that hath this Key of Death hath also the Key of Hades a Key and a Key When he uses the former to let them out from this he uses the latter to give them their Inlet into the other World and into the one or the other part of it into the upper or the lower Hades as the state of their case is and doth require Our business is not now with Pagans to whom the Oracles of God are unknown If it were the best and wisest of them who so commonly speak of Souls going into Hades never thought of their going no whither nor therefore that they were nothing They had reasons then which they thought cogent that induced them tho' unassisted with Divine Revelation to conclude they surviv'd their forsaken bodies And what else could any unbrib'd understanding conclude or conceive When we find they have powers belonging to them which we can much more easily apprehend capable of being acted without help from the body than by it We are sure they can form thoughts purposes desires hopes for it is matter of fact they do it and coherent thoughts and thoughts arising from thoughts one from another Yea thoughts abstracted from any thing corporeal the notions of right and wrong of Vertue and Vice of moral good and evil with some agreeable resolves Thoughts quite above the sphere of matter so as to form a notion of the Mind it self of a spiritual Being as unexceptionable a one as we can form of a body Yea of an Original self subsistent Mind and Spiâ—iâ— the Former and Maker of all other T is much more apprehensible since we certainly know that all this is done that it is done without any help of the body than how flesh or blood or bones or nerves or brains or any corporeal thâ—ng should contribute to such Methods of thinking or to any thought at all And if it can be conceivâ—d that a Spirit can act without dependence on a body what should hinder but we may as well conceive it to subsist and live without such dependence And when we find this power of thought belongs to somewhat in us that lives since the deserted Carkass thinks not how reasonable is it to suppose that as the body lives not of it self or life is not essential to it for life may be retir'd and gone and it remain as we see it doth the same body still that the soul to which the power of thought belongs lâ—ves of it self not independently on the first cause but essentially so as to receive life and essence together from that cause or life included in its essence so as that it shall be the same thing to it to be and to live And hereupon how obvious is it to apprehend that the Soul is such a thing as can live in the Body which when it doth the Body lives by it a precarious borrowed life and that can live out of the Body leaving it when it doth so to drop and die These Sentiments were so reasonable as generally to prevail with the more deeply thinking part of Mankind Philosophers of all sorts a few excepted whose Notions were manifestly formed by vicious inclination in the Pagan World where was nothing higher than Reason to govern But we have life and immortality brought to light in the Gospel and are forewarned by it that these will be the measures of the final Judgment to give eternal life at last to them who by a patient continuance in well-doing seek honour glory and immortality To the rest indignation and wrath c. because there is no respect of persons with God As supposing the discovery of another World even by natural light much more by the addition of supernatural to be so clear as that the Rule of the Vniversal Judgment even for all is most righteously to be taken from hence and that there is nothing but a resolution of living wickedly to be opposed to it It is also no slight consideration that a susceptibleness of Religion should among the Creatures that dwell on Earth be so appropriate and peculiar to Man and some rare Instances excepted as far diffused as Humane Nature So as to induce some very considering Men of the Antients as well as Moderns both Pagans and Christians to think Religion the more probable specifying Difference of Man than Reason And whence should so common an impression be but from a cause as common Or how can we avoid to think that this signature upon the Soul of Man a capacity of Religion should be from the same hand that formed the spirit of Man within him and that a Natural Religiousness and Humane Nature it self had the same Author But who sees not that Religion as such hath a final reference to a future state He was no despicable Writer tho' not a Christian that positively affirmed hope towards God to be essential to Man and that they that had it not were not partakers of the Rational Nature 'T is so much the more a deplorable and monstrous thing that so many not only against the light of their own Reason but of Divine Revelation are so industrious to unman themselves And having so effectually in a great degree done it really and in practice aim to do it in a more compendious way notionally and in principle too And make use or shew of Reason to prove themselves not to be reasonable Creatures or to divest themselves of the principal dignity and distinction of the Rational Nature And are incomparably herein more unnatural than such as we commonly count 〈◊〉 upon themselves who only act against their own bodily life but these against the much nobler life of their Soul They against the life of an individual These against their own whole species at once And how deplorable is their case that count it their interest to be in no possibility of being happy when yet their so great dread of a future state as to urge them upon doing the most notorious violence to their own faculties to rid themselves of it is a very convictive Argument of its reality For their dread still pursues and sticks close to them This shews it lies deep in the nature of things which they cannot alter The terrible Image is still before their Eyes and their principal Refuge lies only in diverting in not attending to it And they can so little trust to their own Sophistical reasonings against it that when they have done all they can they must owe what they have of ease and quiet in their own Minds not so much to any strength of reason they apprehend in their own thoughts as in not thinking A bold jeast may sometimes provoke others laughter when it doth not extinguish their own fear A suspicion a formido oppositi will still remain a misgiving that they cannot
correspondent things to be practised and done which must also suppose dispositions and frames of Heart and Spirit agreeable thereto 1. Let us Live expecting a period to be ere long put to our Life on Earth For remember there are Keys put into a great hand for this very purpose that holds them not in vain His Power is of equal extent with the Law he is to proceed by And by that it is appointed for all once to Die Therefore as in the Execution he cannot exceed so he will not come short of this appointment When that once shall be it belongs to him to determine And from the course we may observe him to hold as it is uncertain to all it can be very remote to none How short is the measure of a Span 'T is an absurd vanity â—o promise our selves that which is in the power of another How Wise and Prudent a thing to accommodate our selves composedly to his pleasure in whose power we are And to live as Men continually expecting to die There are bands of Death out of which when they once take hold we cannot free our selves But there are also bands of Life not less troublesome or dangerous 'T is our great concern to be daily by degrees loosening and disentangling our selves from these bands and for preventing the necessity of a violent Rupture To be daily disingaging our Hearts from an ensnaring World and the too close embraces of an over indulged Body Tell them resolutely I must leave them whensoever my great Lord turns the Key for me and I know not how soon that may be It is equally unhappy and foolish to be ingaged in the pursuit of an impossibility or in a War with necessity the former whereof cannot be obtained the latter cannot but overcome We owe so much to our selves and to the ease and quiet of our own Minds to be reconciled at all times to that which may befal us at any time How confounding a thing is surprizal by that which our selves regret and dread How unaccountable and ignominious must it be to pretend to be surprized with what we have so great reason always to expect And whereof we are so oft forewarned Is it no part of Christian watchfulness to wait for such an hour Tho' that waiting all the days of our appointed time mentioned John 14.14 refers to another change than that of Death viz. as the foregoing and following verses shew That of the Resurrection yet it cannot but be equally requisite upon a no less important reason And the requests that the Lord would make us know our end and the measure of our Days that we may know how frail we are Psal. 39.4 And that he would teach us so to number our Days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Psal 90.12 are equally monitory to the same purpose as the most express Precepts As also the many Directions we have to watch and wait for our Lords appearance and coming are as applicable to this purpose For whensoever his Key opens our passage out of this World and These Bodies Hades opens too and he particularly appears to us in as decisive a judgment of our case as his universal appearance and judgment will at last give for all The placid agreement of our Minds and Spirits with Divine determination both as to the thing and time of our departure hence will prevent the trouble and ungratefulness of being surpriz'd and our continual expectation of it will prevent any surprizal at all Let this then be an agreed resolution with us to endeavour being in such a posture as that we may be capable of saying Lord whensoever thou shalt move thy Key and tell me this night or this hour I 'll require thy Soul thou shalt not O Lord prevent mine expectation or ever find me counting upon many years injoyment of any thing this world can entertain me with In further pursuance hereof 2. Be not over-intent on designs for this present World which would suppose you to count upon long abode in it Let them be always laid with a supposition you may this way even by one turn of this Key be prevented of bringing them about and let them be pursued with indifferency so as that disappointment even this way may not be a grievance A thing made up of thought and design as our Mind and Spirit naturally is will be designing one way or other nor ought we to attempt that violence upon our own Natures as to endeavour the stupifying of the intelligent designing Mind which the Author of Nature hath put into us Only let us so lay our designs as that how many soever we form that may be liable to this sort of disappointment we may still have one greater and more important so regularly and surely laid that no turn of this Key shall be in any possibility to frustrate but promote it rather The design for the Kingdom of God to be first sought with his Righteousness Mat. 6.33 or which is puâ—sued by seeking Glory Honour and Immortality to the actual attainment of Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 may if prescribed methods be duly observed have this felicity always attending it to be â—ucessfully pursued while we live and effected when we Die But this is an unaccountable vanity under the Sun that Men too generally form such projects that they are disappointed both when they do not compass them and when they do If they do not they have lost their labour if they do they are not worth it They dream they are Eating and injoying the fruit of their labour but they awake and their Soul is empty And if at length they think of laying wiser and more valuable designs the Key turns and not having fixed their resolution and begun aright they and all their thoughts foolish or more wise perish together Because there is a fit season for every fit undertaking a time and judgment for every purpose or a critical time such as is by Judgment affixt to every such purpose Eccles. 8.6 and because also Men know not their time c. 9.12 therefore their Misery is great upon the Earth and as Birds caught in a snare they are snared in an evil time that falleth suddenly upon them O miserable miserable Mortals So are your immortal Spirits misimployed and lost Their most valuable design for another World is seldom thought on in season their little designs for this World they contrive and pâ—osecute with that confidence as if they thought the World to be theirs and themselves their own and they had no â—ord over them This rude insolence that holy Apostle animadverts upon of such as say To Day or to Morrow we will goe to such a City and continue there a â—ear and Buy and Sell and get Gain whereas they know not what shall be on the morrow And What is their Life a Vapour c. So much of Duty and becoming Behaviour is in the mean time forgotten as to say If the Lord will we shall live
misery Or if it displease us that our Relatives are not by some special dispensation excepted from the common Law of Mortality we would surely as much have expected an exemption our selves otherwise our dying away from them would make the so much regretted separation as well as theirs from us And what then if we were required to draw up our petition to put it into express words to turn our wish for our selves and all our Relatives and peculiar Friends into a formed solemn prayer to this effect that we are content the Law stand in force that all the World should Die with only the exception of some few Names viz. our own and of our Kindred and more inward Friends What ashamed confounded creatures should we be upon the view of our own request Would we not presently be for quelling and suppressing it easily yield to be non-suited without more ado What pretence can we have not to think others as apt to make the same request for them and theirs And if all the rest of the World shall Die would we and our Friends dwell here alone or would we have this World be continued habitable only on this private account to gratifie a Family And if we our Friends be holy heavenly minded persons how kind were it to wish to our selves and them when fit for the Society of Angels and Blessed Spirits above a perpetual abode in this low Earthly State VVould we not now upon riper second thoughts rather be content that things should rest as they are and he that hath these Keys use them his own way But if by all this we are put quite out of conceit with the desire of a terrestrial immortality All that the matter finally results into is that we think such a Relative of ours Dyed too soon VVe would not have coveted for him an Eternity on Earth but only more time And how much more or for what If we were to set the time 't is like that when it comes we should be as averse to a separation if coexistent then as now and so we revolve into the exploded desire of a terrestrial immortality back again at last If we were to assign the reason of our desire that would seem as in the present case a plausible one to some which is mentioned by Plutarch in his consolation to Apollonius for the loss of his Son concerning another such case as he instances in many of one Elysius an Italian whose loss of his Son Euthynous was much aggravated by this that he was a great Heir But what was said to that there and what is further to be said to any thing of that kind I shall reserve to a more proper place It is a more weighty Allegation and of more common concernment When an useful person is gone and one very capable of becoming very eminently so And this requires deeper consideration and sundry things ought to be considered in order to the quieting their minds who are apt to behold such darker dispensations in the course of Providence with amusement and disturbance of Spirit i. e. When they see persons of excellent endowments and external advantages beyond the most cut off in their Prime while the World is cumbred with Drones never likely to do good and pestered with such as are like to prove plagues to it and do great hurt and mischief to the Age wherein they live An ancient and not uncommon scruple to pious observers heretofore Wherefore says Holy Job do the wicked live become old yea are mighty in power Their seed is established in their sight Ch. 21.7 8. When his Seed was cut off before his Eyes And here let us consider 1. That this World is in Apostacy from God And though he is pleased to use apt means for its recovery he doth what he thinks fit herein of meer grace and favour and is under no obligation to do all that he can His dispensation herein must correspond to and bear upon it the impress of other Divine perfections his Wisdom Holiness Justice as well as Grace And for Grace it self whereas all since the Apostacy lie together in a fearful gulf of impurity and misery and some made more early sensible hereof than the most do stretch out a craving hand and cry for help If now a merciful hand reacht down from Heaven take hold of them and pluck them sooner out Is this disagreeable to the God of all Grace to make some such instances and vouchsafe them an earlier deliverance tho' they might being longer delayed be some way helpful to others that continue stupid and insensible 2. VVhen he hath done much in an Age still obstinately unreclaimable he may be supposed to let one appear only with a promising aspect and in just displeasure presently withdraw him that they may understand they have forfeited such a blessing to this or that Country as such a one might have proved 3. This may awaken some the more to prize and improve the encouragements they may have from such as remain or shall spring up in their stead who are gone and to bless God that the weight of his interest and of the cause of Religion doth not hang and depend upon the slender thred of this Mans Life The God of the Spirits of all Flesh can raise up instruments as he pleases and will to serve his own purposes though not ours 4. He will have it known that tho' he uses instruments he needs them not 'T is a piece of Divine Royalty and Magnificence that when he hath prepared polish'd such an utensile so as to be capable of great service he can lay it by without loss 5. They that are most qualified to be of greatest use in this World are thereby also the more capable of blessedness in the other 'T is owing to his most munificent bounty that he may vouchsafe to reward sincere intentions as highly as great services He took David's having it in his Heart to build him an House as kindly as Solomon's building him one And as much magnifies himself in testifying his acceptance of such as he discharges from his Service here at the third hour as of them whom he engages not in it till the eleventh 6. Of their early Piety he makes great present use in this World testifying his acceptance of their works generally in his word and particularly by the reputation he procures to them in the minds and consciences of such as were best able to judge and even of all that knew them which may be truly accounted a Divine testimony both in respect of the object which hath on it a Divine impress and speaks the self recommending power of true goodness which is the Image of God and in respect of the subject shews the Dominion God hath over minds engaging not only good Men to behold with complacency of such pleasant blooming goodness correspondent to their own but even bad Men to approve in these others what they entertain not in themselves
a place of Torment Not to mention other passages where he uses the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the same purpose Divers others of of the Greek Poets are cited by several ready to our hanâ—s with which I shall not cumber these pages That one â— enough and nothing can be fuller to our purpose which is quoted by Clem. Alexandr Str. l. 5. as well as by sundry others and ascribed to the Comic Diphilus tho' by others to another Philemon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Hades we reckon there are two paths the one of the righteous the other of the wicked plainly shewing that Hades was understood to contain Heaven and Hell Plato when in his Phaedo he tells us that he that comes into Hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not initiated and duly prepared is thrown into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stinking Lake but he that comes into it fitly purified shall dwell with the Gods as expresly signifies Hades to include the same opposite states of misery and felicity In that Dialogue called Axiochus tho' supposed not to be his written by one that sufficiently knew the meaning of such a word we are told that when Men die they are brought into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Field of Truth where sit Judges that examine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what manner of life every one lived while he dwelt in the body that they who while they liv'd here were inspir'd by a good Genius or Spirit go into the Region of pious Men having before they came into Hades been purified such as led their lives wickedly are hurried by Furies up and down Chaos in the Region of the wicked In the third Book de Repub. Plato blames the Poets that they represent the state of things in Hades too frightfully when they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praise it rather Plutarch de Superst brings in Plato speaking of Hades as a Person or a God Dis or Pluto as they frequently do and says he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benign or friendly to Men therefore not a tormentor of them only Caelius Rhodigin quotes this same passage of Plutarch and takes notice that our Saviour speaks of the state of Torment by another word not Hades but Gebenna which sufficiently shews how he understood it himself And whereas there are who disagree to this notation of this word that makes it signifie unseen as some will fetch it from the Hebr. and go as far back as Adam in their search alledging for this the Authority of an old Sibyll will have it go for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifie as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unpleasant nothing is plainer than that this other is the common notion which tho' Fancy hath not a greater Dominion in any thing than in Etymology would make one shy of stretching invention to find how to differ from the generality Therefore Calepin upon this word tells us that the Greek Grammarians do against the nature of the Etymon which plainly enough shews what they understood that to be generally direct its beginning to be writ with the asper spirit but yet he makes it signifie obscure or not visible And tho' Plato is endeavoured to be hook't in to the deriving it from Adam by a very far fetch yet 't is plain that his calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a place before referr'd to shews he understood it to signifie invisible And so Lexicons will commonly derive it Vulgo says Caelius Rhodis But its extensiveness as comprehending a state of happiness is our principal concern which way as we might shew by many more instances the common stream carries it Pausanias in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of Hermes according to Homer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did lead Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not be thought to mean they were then universally miserable Sext. Empir is an Authority good enough for the meaning of a Greek word When Adversus Mathem he tells us tho' by way of objection all men have a common notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the Genitive with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Homer and others do another word house or abode in the Dative being understood And yet as to the thing he afterwards distinguishes Poets Fables and what from the nature of the Soul it self all have a common apprehension of As also Diog. Laert. hath the same phrase mentioning the Writings of Protagoras who he says wrote one Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the Genitive as here after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hath been usual on the mentioned account And tho' his Books were burnt by the Athenians because of the dubious Title of one of them concerning the Gods So that we have not opportunity to know what his Opinion of Hades was we have reason more than enough to think he understood it not of a state of Torment only for Evil Spirits * Primate Usher's Judgment may be seen in his Answer to the Jesuits Challenge that this word properly signifies the other World the place or state of the Dead So that Heaven it self may be comprehended in it Grot. on Luk. 16.23 Makes Hades most certainly to signifie a place withdrawn from our sight spoken of the body the grave of the soul all that Region wherein 't is separate from the body So that as Dives was in Hades so was Lazarus too but in separate Regions For both Paradise and Hell or as the Grecians were wont to speak Elysii and Tartara were in Hades You may have in him more Quotations from the Poets the sense of the Essenes from Josephus and passages from divers of the Fathers to the same purpose Dr. Hammonds mind was the same copiously exprest on Matt. 11.20 But differs from Grot. in ascribing to Philemon the Jambicks above recited which the other gives to Diphilus Dr. Lightsoot is full to the same purpose On the 4th Art of the Creed And tho' Bellarmin will have this word always signifie Hell which if it do with Sheol the correspondent word Jacob desired to go to Hell to his Son as Dr. H. argues Camero as good a Judge thinks except once it never dâ—es If any desire to see more to this purpose with little trouble to themselves let them peruse Martinius's Lexic on the word Inserus or Insernus I could refer them to many more whom I foâ—bear to mention Only if any think in some or other Text of Scripture this word must signifie Hell only since it is of that latitude as to signifie Heaven in other places an impartial view of the circumstances of the Text must determine whether there it be meant of the one or the other or both * Maimonides * Weems Pirke R. Elieâ—er Edit per G. H. Varst C. F. Dan. 5.23 2 Tim. 1.10 Rom. 2.7 v. 8. v. 11. Philo Judeuâ— Quod Detâ—r potiori insid sole◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—al 3.13 14. Rom. â— 3. â— Heb. 10.38 c. 12.1 2 Cor. 5.7 Heb. 11.2 Heb. 9.26 Jam. 4.13 14 15. * Neque quiâ— quam reperit dignuâ— quâ—d eum temporsuâ— permutare Sen. Gen. 45. Isa. 9.6 Sen. Joh. 5.23 Psal. 45.6 11. Joh. 20.28 * Miser est quicunque non vult Mundo secum moriente mori Sen. Tr. Cicer. Heb. 11.4 Non est quòd quenquam propter canos aut rugas putes diu vixisse Non ille diu vixit sed diu fuit Sen. * Computation by the Honourable Francis Roberts Esq Philosoph Transactions for the Months March and April 1694. * Bolton in his four last things who speaking of Heaven directs us to guess the immeasurable magnitude of it as otherwise so By the incredible distance from the Earth to the Starry Firmament and adds If I should here tell you the several computations of Astronomers in this kind the summs would seem to exceed all possibility of belief And he annexes in his Margin sundry computations which I shall not here recite you may find them in the Author himself p. 21. And yet besides as he further adds the late learnedest of them place above the 8th sphere wherein all those gâ—orious Lamps shine so bright three moving Orbs more Now the Empyrean Heâ—ven comprehends all these How incomprehensible then must its compass â—nd greatness necessarily be But he supposes it possible the adventure of Mathematicians may be too audacious and peremptory c. And concludes the height and extent of the Heavens to be beyond all Human investigation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sen. â—r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 14.19 Rom. 5.2 Corn. Nep Frag. Plâ—tarch de gerun◠〈◊〉
if the reason of Gods conduct and the course of his dispensation herein had been equally hidden as that State it self is it had been a bold presumption to enquire and prie into it modesty and reverence should have restrained us But when we find it holds a manifest agreement with other parts of his Counsel that are sufficiently revealed and that the excellency of the Divine Wisdom is most conspicuous and principally to be beheld and admired in ordering the apt congruities and correspondencies of things with each other and especially of the ends he proposes to himself with the Methods and Ways he takes to effect them 't were very great oscitancy and an undutiful negligence not to observe them when they stand in view that we may render him his due acknowledgments and honour thereupon 'T is manifest that as God did not create Man at first in that which he designed to be his final State but as a Probationer in a State of Trial in order to a further State So when he Apostatized and fell from God he was graciously pleased to order for him a New Tryal and put him into the hands of his merciful Redeemer who is intrusted with these Keys and with the Power of Life and Death over him to be managed and exercised according to the terms plainly set down and declared in His Gospel Wheresoever he is with sufficient evidence revealed and made known Men immediately come under obligation to believe in him to intrust and commit themselves into the same hands to rely upon the truth of his Word in every thing he reveals as the ground of their submitting to his Authority in every thing he requires What concerns their present practice he hath plainly shewn them so much as it was requisite they should preapprehend of future Retributions Rewards and Punishments he hath revealed also not that they should have the knowledge hereof by immediate inspection but by taking his word That as their first Transgression was founded in Infidelity that they did not believe God but a lying Spiâ—it against him their first step in their Recovery and return to God should be to believe him and take his word about things thâ—y have themselves no immediate sight or knowledge of This point was by no means to be quitted to the first Apostates As if Gods saying to them if you Transgress you shall Die or go into Hades was no sufficient inforcement of the Precept unless he had given them a distinct view of the States of felicity or misery which their Obedience or Disobedience would lead them into This had been to give away the whole cause to the revolted Rebels and rather to conâ—ess errour and oversight in the Divine Government than impute fault to the impugners of it This being the State of the Case How suitable had it been to the design of this Second Trial to be made with Men to withdraw the vail and let every ones own Eyes be their informers of all the Glories of the Heavenly State and hereupon proclaim and preach the Gospel to them that they should all partake herein that would entirely deny themselves come off from their own bottom give themselves up absolutely to the Interest Love Service and Communion of their Redeemer and of God in him To fortifie them against the assaults and dangers of their Earthly Pilgrimage by reversing that Rule The Just shall live by Faith even that Faith which is the Substance of the things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen or by inverting the method that in reference to such things We are to walk by Faith not by Sight and letting it be We are to walk by Sight not by Faith And that lest any should refuse such Compliance with their Great Lord Whole Hades should be no longer so but made naked before them and the covering of Hell and Destruction be taken off and their own Eyes behold the infernal horrors their own Ears hear the shrieks and howlings of accursed Creatures that having rejected their Redeemer are rejected by him We are not here to consider what course would most certainly effect their Salvation but what most became the Wise Holy God to preserve the Dignity of his own Government and save them too otherwise Almighty Power could save all at once As therefore we have cause to acknowledge the kindness and compassion of our Blessed Lord who hath these Keys in giving us for the kind such notices as he hath of the state of the things in Hades So we have equal cause to admire his Wisdom that he giâ—es us not those of another kind that should more powerfully strike sense and amaze us more but instruct us less That continues it to be Hades still a state of things to us unseen as yet As the case would have been on the other supposition the most generous noble part of our Religion had been sullied or lost the Tryal of our Faith which is to be found unto Praise Honour and Glory at the appearinâ— of Jesus Christ even upon this account that they who had not seen him in his mean circumstances on Earth nor did now see him amidst all the Glories of his exalted State yet believing lov'd him and rejoyced in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. This Faith and all the glorious tryals of it with its admirable atchievements and performances whereby the Elders heretofore obtained so good a Report and high renown on Earth and which filled the World with wonder had all vanished into obscurity and Darkness i. e. If they had believed no more or no greater things than every Man besides had the immediate view of by his own Eye-sight And yet the trial had been greater on another Account than the Divine Wisdom in conjunction with Goodness and Compassion thought fit ordinarily to put sincere Christians upon For who could with any tolerable patience have endured longer abode on Earth after they should once have had the glory of the Heavenly state immediately set in view before their Eyes especially considering not so much the Sufferings as the impurities of their present State What for great reason was a special vouchsafement to one Apostle was for as great to be common to all Christians How great is the Wisdom and Mercy of our Blessed Lord in this partial concealment of our future State and that while so much as is sufficient is revealed there is yet an Hades upon it and it may still be said It doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.2 But as these Majestick Life-breathing words of our Great Lord do plainly offer the things that have been mentioned and many more such that might occur to our Thoughts and Meditation so will they be thought on in vain if they be not followed and answered by suitable Dispositions and Actions of Heart and Life Therefore the further use we are to make of this great Subject will be to lay down 2. Divers
Ephes. 4.10 Whose Arithmetick will suffice to tell how many they are whose Vranography to describe how far that is We need not impose it upon our selves to judge their rules infallible who being of no mean understanding nor indiligent in their enquiries have thought it not improbable that there may be fixed Stars within view at that distance from our Earth that a movable in as swift motion as that of a Bullet shot from a Canon would be fifty thousand years in passing from the one to the other But how much remoter that Star may be from the utmost verge of the Universe is left altogether unimaginable I have been told that a very ingenious Artist going about in exact proportions to describe the Orb or Vortex to which our Sun belongs on as large a Table as could be convenient for him to work upon was at a loss to find a spot not too big in proportion for our Earth and big enough whereupon to place the point made very fine of one foot of his Compass If any suspect extravagancy in our Modern Computations let him take a view of what is discoursed to this purpose by a Writer of most unexceptionable wisdom and sobriety as well as most eminent sanctity in his time Now when the Lord of this vast universe beheld upon this little spot intelligent creatures in transgression and misery that he did so compassionately concern himself for the recovery of such as should by apt methods be induc't to comply with his merciful design and appoint his own Eternal Son to be their Redeemer in order whereto as he was God with God he must also become Man among Men one of themselves and so as God-Man for his kindness to some be constituted universal Lord of all Shall meer pity towards this World greaten it above the other But we are not left without ground to apprehend a more immediate Reason for his being as Redeemer made Head and Lord of all those Creatures that were the Original Inhabitants of the Invisible World For when it had been said Col. 1.16 That all things were created by him not only the visible things on Earth but the invisible things in Heaven here is a regression to these latter who were before for their greater dignity generally first mentioned and now some enumeration given of them whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers and all things again repeated that these might appear expresly included said over again to be created by him and for him which was sufficient to express his creative Right in them 'T is presently subjoyned v. 17. And he is before all thinâ—s and by him all things consist All owe their stability to him viz. The mentioned â—hrones Dominions c. as well as other things But how or upon what terms That we might understand his Redemptory right was not here to be overlook't 't is shortly after added and having made Peace by the Blood of his Cross it pleased the Father to be repeated out of what went before by him to reconcile all things to himself and this by him iterated q. d. by him shedding his Blood on the Cross whether they be things on Earth or things in Heaven lest the Thrones Dominions mentioned before should be forgot And a word is used accommodable enough to the several purposes before expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth not always suppose enmity but more generally signifie upon a sort of commutation or valuable consideration to procure or conciliate or make a thing more firmly ones own or assure it to himself though 't is afterwards used in the stricter sense v. 21. I have often considered with wonder and pleasure that whereas God is called by that higher and far more extensive Name the Father of Spirits He is also pleased so graciously to vouchsafe as to be styl'd the God of the Spirits of all Flesh and thereby to signifie that having an order of Spirits so meanly lodged that inhabit frail and mortal Flesh though he have a world of Spirits to converse with whose dwelling is not with Flesh yet he disdains not a Relation to so mean and abject Spirits his Off-spring also in our World And that because this was the place of offending delinquents that he would recover the Redeemer should sort himself with them and as they were partakers of Flesh and Blood himself likewise take part of the same This was great and Godlike and speaks the largeness and amplitude of an all comprehending mind common to Father and Son and capable of so applying it self to the greatest things as not to neglect the least And therefore so muâ—h the more magnifies God and our Redeemer by how much the less considerable we and our World are But that hence we should so over magnifie this World as if nothing were considerable that lies without its compass is most perversly to misconstrue the most amazing condescension The Spirit of God by Holy David teaches us to reason the quite contrary way And from the consideration he had of the vastness and splendor of the upper World of the Heavens the Moon and Stars c. not to magnifie but diminish our World of Mankind and say What is Man And let us further consider 2. The inexpressible numerousness of the other Worlds Inhabitants with the excellencies wherein they shine and the orders they are ranked into and how unlikely is it that Holy Souls that go thither should want employment Great concourse and Multitudeâ— of People make places of business in this World and must much more do so where creatures of the most Spiritual and active Natures must be supposed to have their residence Scripture speaks of Myriads which we read an innumerable company of Angels besides all the Spirits of Just Men Heb. 12. Who are sometimes said to be more than any one which we causlesly render Man could number Rev. 7. And when we are told of many Heavens above all which our Lord Jesus is said to have ascended are all those Heavens only empty solitudes uninhabited glorious deserts When we find how full of vitality this base Earth of ours is how replenish't with living creatures not only on the surface but within it how unreasonable is it to suppose the nobler parts of the universe to be less Peopled with Inhabitants of proportionable spirituality activity liveliness and vigour to the several Regions which the remoter they are from dull Earth must be supposed still the finer and apt to afford fit and suitable habitations to such Creatures Whether we suppose pure unclothed Spirits be to the Natives in all those Heavens all comprehended under the one Name of Angels or whether as some think of all Created Spirits that they have all vital union with some or other vehicles Ethereal or Celestial more or less fine and pure as the Region is to which they belong having gradually associated unto them the Spirits of Holy Men gone from us which are said to be