of Birds Beasts and Plants indeed any thing rather than their own Souls which are certainly the most excellent Creatures that inhabit this World They know the true value and worth of other things but are not able to estimate the dignity of that high-born Spirit which is within them A Spirit which without the addition of any more natural Faculties or Powers if those it hath be but sanctified and devoted to God is capable of the highest Perfections and Fruitions even compleat Conformity to God and the satisfying Visions of God throughout eternity They Herd themselves with Beasts who are capable of an equality with Angels O what compassionate tears must such a consideration as this draw from the eyes of all that understand the worth of Souls As for me it hath been my sin and is now the matter of my Sorrow that whilst Myriads of Souls of no higher Original than mine are some of them beholding the highest Majesty in Heaven and others giving all diligence to make sure their Salvation on earth I was carried away so many years in the course of this World like a drop with the Current of the Tide wholly forgetting my best self my invaluable Soul whilst I prodigally wasted the stores of my time and thoughts upon Vanities that long since passed away as the waters which are remembred no more * Nec enim pudet Sanctoâ— viros postquam renovata corda fuerint per resipiscentiam lapsus sui dedecoris ad dei gloriam meminisse Nihil nobis decedit quod cedit in illius honorem qui praeteritis peccatis nostris ab inferno nos transfert in Coelum Brightman in Cantic p. 12. It shall be no shame to me to confess this folly since the matter of my Confession shall go to the glory of my God I studied to know many other things but I knew not my self It was with me as with a Servant to whom the Master commits two things viz. The Child and the Child's Clothes the Servant is very careful of the Clothes washes and brushes starches and steels them and keeps them safe and clean but the Child is forgotten and lost My Body which is but the Garment of my Soul I kept and nourished with excessive care but my Soul was long forgotten and had been lost for ever as others daily are had not God rouz'd it by the Convictions of his Spirit out of that deep Oblivion and deadly slumber When the God that formed it out of free grace to the work of his own hands had thus recovered it to a sense of its own worth and danger my next work was to get it united with Christ and thereby secured from wrath to come Which I found to be a work of difficulty to effect if it be yet effected and a work of time to clear though but to the degree of good hope through grace And since the hopes and evidences of Salvation began to spring up in my Soul and settle the state thereof I found these three great words viz. Christ Soul and Eternity to have a far different and more awful sound in my ear than ever they used to have I looked on them from that time as things of greatest certainty and most awful Solemnity These things have lain with some weight upon my thoughts and I have felt at certain seasons a strong inclination to sequester my self from all other Studies and spend my last days and most fixed Meditations upon these three great and weighty Subjects I know the subject matter of my Studies and Enquiries be it never so weighty doth not therefore make my Meditations and Discourses upon it great and weighty Nor am I such a vain Opinionaâ—or as to imagine my Discourses every way suitable to the dignity of such Subjects No no the more I think and study about them the more I discern the indistinctness darkness crudity and confusion of my own conceptions and expressions of such great and transcendent things as those But In magnis voluisse sat est I resolved to do what I could and accordingly some years past I finished and published in two parts the Doctrine of Christ and by the acceptation and success the Lord gave that He hath encouraged me to go on in this Second part of my work how unequal soever my Shoulders are to the burden of it The Nature Original Immortality and Capacity of mine own Soul for the present lodged in and related to this vile Body destinated to Corruption Together with its Existence Imployment Perfection Converse with God and other Spirits both of its own and of a Superiour Rank and Order when it shall as I know it shortly must put off this its Tabernacle These things have a long time been the matters of my limited desires to understand so far as I could see the Pillar of fire God in his Word enlightening my way to the knowledge of them Yea such is the value I have for them that I have given them the next place in my esteem to the knowledge of Iesus Christ and my interest in him God hath formed me as he hath other men a prospecting Creature I feel my self yet uncentred and short of that state of rest and satisfaction to which my Soul in its Natural and Spiritual Capacity hath a Designation I find that I am in a continual motion towards my everlasting abode and the expence of my time and many Infirmities tell me I am not far from it By all which I am strongly prompted to look forward and acquaint my self as much as I can with my next place state and imployment I look with a greedy and inquisitive eye that way Yet would I not be guilty of an unwarrantable Curiosity in searching into unrevealed things how willing soever I am to put up my head by faith into the World above and to know the things which Iesus Christ hath purchased and prepared for me and all the rest that are waiting for his appearance and Kingdom I feel my Curiosity checked and repressed by that Elegant Paronomasia Rom. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In all things I would be wise unto Sobriety I groan under the effects of Adam's itching Ambition to know and would not by repeating his sin increase my own misery Nor yet would I be scared by his Example into the contrary evil of neglecting the means God hath afforded me to know all that I can know of his revealed Will. * Cui â—niâ— veritas comâ—erta sine Deo Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu Cui Spiritus â—ccommodatus sine fide Tertul de Anima The helps Philosophy affords in some parts of this Discourse are too great to be despised and too small to be admired I confess I read the Definitions of the Soul given by the Ancient Philosophers with a Compassionate smile When Thales calls it a Nature without Repose Asclepiades an Exercitation of sense Hesiod a thing composed of Earth and Water Parmenides
and perfect than when the Body in an Ecstasie is laid aside as to any use or assistance of the mind The Soul for that space uses not the Bodies assistance as the very words Ecstasie and Rapture convince us Si autem hoc non est ex natura animae sed per accidens hoc convenit ei ex to quod corpori alligatur sicut Platonics posuâ—runt de facili quaestio solvi possit Nam remoto impedimento corporis rediret anima ad suam naturam Aquin. p. 1. Q. 8. Art 1. 2. To understand by Species doth not agree to the Soul naturally and necessarily but by accident as it is now in Union with the Body Were it but once loosed from the Body it would understand better without them than ever it did in the Body by them A Man that is on Horse-back must move according to the motion of the Horse he rides but if he were on Foot he then uses his own proper motion as he pleaseth So here But though we grant the Soul doth in many cases now make use of Phantasms and that the agitation of the Spirits which are in the Brain and Heart are conjunct with its acts of Cogitation and Intellection Yet as a searching Scholar well observes The Spirits are rather Subjects than Instruments of those actions And the whole essence of those acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits As when we use a Pen in writing or a Knife in cutting How 's Blessedness pag. 174 175. there is an operation of the Soul upon them before there can be any operation by them They act as they are first acted and so do these bodily Spirits So that to speak properly the Body is bettered by the use the Soul makes of it in these its noble actions but the Soul is not advantaged by being tied to such a Body It can do its own work without it its operations follow its essence not the Body to which it is for a time united In summ 'T is much more absonous and difficult to conceive a stupefied benumbed and unactive Soul whose very nature is to be active lively and always in motion than it is to conceive a Soul freed from the shackles and clogs of the Body acting freely according to its own nature I wish the favourers of this Opinion may take heed lest it carry them farther than they intend even to a denial of its Existence and Immortality and turn them into down-right Sâ—matists or Atheists PROP. VI. That the separated Souls of the just having finished all their work of obedience on earth and the Spirit having finished all his work of Sanctification upon them they do ascend to God with all the habits of Grace inherent in them and all the comfortable improvements of their Graces accompanying and following them THis Proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four Branches 1 When a gracious Soul is separated from the Body all its work of obedience in this World is finished Therefore death is called the finishing of our course Acts 20.24 the night when man works no more Iohn 9.4 There is no working in the grave Eccles. 9.10 for death dissolves the Compositum and removes the Soul immediately to another World where it can act for it self only but not for others as it was wont to do on earth I shall see man no more saith Hezekiah with the Inhabitants of the World Isaiah 38.11 that which was said of David's death is as true of every Christian that having served his Generation according to the Will of God he fell asleep Acts 13.36 I do not say this lower World receives no benefit at all by them after their death for though they can speak no more write no more pray for and instruct the Inhabitants of this World no more nor exhibit to them the beauty of Religion in any new acts or examples of theirs which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedience on earth Yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the Body still remains after they are gone as the Apostle speaks of Abel Hebr. 11.4 Who being dead yet speaketh This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth long after they are gone to Heaven And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us for the good of Posterity that after our decease as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.15 they may have our words and examples in remembrance But for any service to be done de novo after death it is not to be expected We have accomplished as an Hireling our day and have not a stroke more to do 2 As all our work of obedience is then finished by us so at death all the Work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory not a stroke more to be done upon it afterward which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory whereof I shall speak in another Proposition as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments which are totally laid aside as things of no more use after this stroke is given Adepto fine cessant media Means are useless when the end is attain'd There is no work saith Solomon in the Grave How short soever the Souls stay and abode in the Body was though it were regenerated one day and separated the next yet all that is wrought upon it which God ever intended should be wrought in this World and there is no preparation-work in the other World 3 But though the Soul leave all the means of grace behind it yet it carries away with it to Heaven all those habits of grace which were planted and improved in it in this World by the blessing of the Spirit upon those means though it leave the Ordinances it loseth not the effects and fruits of them though they cease their effects still live The truth dwelleth in us and shall be in us for ever 1 John 2.17 The Seed of God remaineth in us 1 John 3.9 Common gifts fall at death but saving grace sticks fast in the Soul and ascends with it into glory Gracious habits are inseparable Glory doth not destroy but perfect them They are the Souls meetness for Heaven Col. 1.12 and therefore it shall not come into his presence leaving its meetness behind it In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this World if we carry it not along with us into that World seeing all his works upon us in this life have a respect and relation to the life to come Look therefore as the same natural Faculties and Powers which the Soul had though it could not use them in its imperfect Body in the Womb came with it into this World where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life so the habits of Grace which by Regeneration are here
drops not down from Heaven in a night-dream as the Turks fable their Alcoran to have done in that lailato hanzili night of demission as they call it no no the righteous themselves are scarcely saved many seek but few find strive therefore as men and women that are heartily concerned for their own Salvation Sit not with folded arms like so many heaps of stupidity and sloth whilst the door of Hope is yet open and such a sweet voice from Heaven calls to you saying Strive Souls strive if ever you expect to be partakers of the Blessedness that is here to be enjoyed strive to the uttermost of your abilities and opportunities Such an Heaven is worth striving to obtain such an Hell is worth striving to escape such an invaluable Soul is worth striving to save I confess Heaven is not the purchace or reward of your striving No Soul shall boastingly say there Is not this the Glory which my duties and diligence purchased for me And yet on the other side it is as true that without striving you shall never set foot there Say not it depends upon the pleasure of God and not upon your diligence for it is his declared will and pleasure to bring men to Glory in the way though not for the sake of their own striving as in the works of your civil Calling you know all the care toil and sweat of the Husbandman avails nothing of it self except the Sun and Rain quicken and ripen the Fruits of the Earth and yet no wise man will neglect plowing and harrowing sowing and weeding because these labours avail not without the influences of Heaven but waits for them in the way of his duty and diligence rational hope sets all the world awork Do they plow in hope and sow in hope and will not you pray in hope and hear in hope You that know your Souls to be hitherto strangers to Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit how is it that you take them not aside sometimes out of the distracting noise and hurries of the world and thus bemoan them O my poor graceless Christless miserable Soul how sad a case art thou in others have but thou never feltest the burden of sin thousands in the World are striving and labouring searching and praying to make their Calling and Election sure whilst thou sittest still with folded hands in a supine regardlesness of the misery that is hastening on upon thee Canst thou endure the devouring wrath of God Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings Hast thou fancied a tolerable Hell Or is it easie to perish Why dost thou not cast thy self at the feet of Christ and cry as long as breath will last Lord pity a sinful miserable undone and self-condemning Soul Lord smite this rockie heart subdue this stubborn will heal and save an undone Soul ready to perish The characters of death are upon it it must be changed or condemned and that in a little time Bowels of pity hear the cry of a Soul distressed and ready to perish And you that do not understand the case and slate your Souls are in you have never a Bible near you O turn to those places 1 Cor. 6.9 10. where you will presently find the more obvious marks and characters God hath set upon the children of perdition and if you find not your self in that Catalogue among the unrighteous Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners c. then turn to Ioh. 3.3 and solemnly ask thy own Soul this question Am I born again Am I a new Creature Or still in the same condition I was born in What solid evidence of the new birth have I to rely upon if I were now within a few gasps of death Am not I the man or woman who live in the very same sins which the Word of God makes the Symptoms and Characters of Damnation And doth not my Conscience witness against me that I am utterly void and destitute of all that saving Grace and a meer stranger to the regenerating work of the Spirit without which there can be no well-bottom'd hope of Salvation And if so are not the tokens of death upon me Am not I a person markt out for misery And shall I sit still in a state of so much danger and not once strive to make an escape from the wrath to come Is this vile body worth so much toil and labour to support and preserve it And is not my 〈◊〉 worth as much care and diligence to secure it from the everlasting wrath of the great just and terrible God O that the consideration of the wrath to come the multitudes all the world over preparing as fuel for it and the door of opportunity yet held open to Souls by the hand of Grace to escape that wrath might prevail with thy heart Reader to strive and that to the uttermost to secure thy precious Soul from the impending ruine EPHES. 5.16 Redeeming the time or opportunity because the days are evil TIme is deservedly reckoned among the most precious mercies of this life and that which makes it so valuable are the commodious seasons and opportunities for Salvation which are vouchsafed to us therein Opportunity is the golden spot of Time the sweet and beautiful flower growing upon the stalk of Time If Time be a Ring of Gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opportunity is the rich Diamond that gives it both its value and glory The Apostle well knew the value of Time and seeing how prodigally it was wasted by the most doth therefore in this place earnestly press all men to redeem save and improve it with the utmost diligence In this and the former Verse We have 1. The Duty injoyned Walk circumspectly We have 2. The Injunction explained 1. More generally Not as fools but as wise 2. More particularly Redeeming the time 3. The Exhortation strongly inforced with a powerful Motive Because the days are evil Among these Particulars my Discourse is principally concerned about the Redemption of Time or Opportunities which in this life are graciously vouchsased us in order to that which is to come and here it will be needful To inquire 1. What the Apostle means by Time 2. What by the Redemption of Time 1. Time is taken more largely or strictly according to the double acceptation of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth sometimes Time and sometimes Occasion Season or Opportunity and accordingly is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus and Tempestivitas the latter is the word here used and denotes the commodiousness and fitness of some parts of Time above others for the successful and prosperous management and accomplishment of our main and great business in this world which is to secure our interest in Christ and glorifie God in a course of fruitful obedience For these great and weighty purposes our time is graciously lengthened out and many fit opportunities presented to us in the
grave and necessary Caution of the Poet Sumite materiam vestris qui scribitis â—quam viribus versate diù quid ferre recusent quid valeant humeri Horace to wield and poise the burden as Porters use to do before I undertook it Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius as some may do me for undertaking the Controversie of that Age because saith he Non habet satis humerorum his shoulders are too weak for it And yet I know mens labours prosper not according to the art and elegancy of the composure but according to the divine blessing which pleaseth to accompany them Ruffinus tells us of a learned Philosopher at the Council of Nice who stoutly defended his Thesis against the greatest Witts and Scholars there and yet was at last fairly vanquished by a man of no extraordinary parts of which Conquest the Philosopher gave this candid and ingenuous account Against words said he I opposed words and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of speaking But when instead of words power came out of the mouth of the Speaker words could no longer withstand truth nor man oppose the power of God O that my weak endeavours might prosper under the like influence of the Spirit upon the hearts of them that shall read this inartificial but well-meant Discourse I am little concerned about the Contempts and Censures of fastidious Readers I have resolved to say nothing that exceeds Sobriety nor to provoke any man except my dissent from his unproved Dictates must be his provocation Perhaps there are some doubts and difficulties relating to this Subject which will never be fully solved till we come to Heaven For Man by the Fall being less than himself doth not understand himself nor will ever perfectly do so until he be fully restored to himself which will not be whilst he dwells in a Body of sin and death And yet it is to me past doubt that this as well as other Subjects might have been much more cleared than it is if instead of the proud Contendings of masterly Wits for Victory all had humbly and peaceably applied themselves to the impartial search of truth Truth like an Orient Pearl in the bottom of a River would have discovered it self by its native lustre and radiancy had not the feet of Heathen Philosophers cunning Atheists and daring School Divines disturbed and foul'd the stream 2. And as the difficulties of the Subject are many so many have been the interruptions and Avocations I have met with whilst it was under my hand Which I mention for no other end but to procure a more favourable Censure from you if it appear less exact than you expected to find it Such as it is I do with much respect and affection tender it to your hands humbly requesting the blessing of the Spirit may accompany it to your hearts If you will but allow your selves to think close to the matter before you I doubt not but you may find somewhat in it apt both to inform your minds and quicken your affections I know you have a multiplicity of business under your hands but yet I hope your great concern makes all others daily to give place and that how clamorous and importunate soever the Affairs of this World be you both can and do find time to sit alone and bethink your selves of a much more important business you have to do My Friends we are Borderers upon Eternity we live upon the Confines of the Spiritual and Immaterial World We must shortly be associated with bodyless Beings and shall have after a few days are past no more concerns for Meat Drink and Sleep buying and selling Habitations and Relations than the Angels of God now have Beside we live here in a State of Tryal Man as Scaliger fitly calls him is Utriusque Mundi nexus one in whom both Worlds do meet his Body participates of the lower his Soul of the upper World Hence it is he finds such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward both Worlds as it were contending for this invaluable prize the precious Soul All Christs Ordinances are instituted and his Officers ordained for no other use or end but the Salvation of Souls Books are valuable according to their Conducibility to this end How rich a Reward of my Labours shall I account it if this Treatise of the Soul may but promote the Sanctification and Salvation of any Readers Soul To your hands I first tender it It becomes your Property not only as a Debt of Justice the fulfilling of a Promise made you long since upon your joynt and earnest desires for the publication of it but as an acknowledgment of the many Favours I have received from you to one of you I stand obliged in the Bond of Relation and under the sense of many Kindnesses beyond whatever such a degree of Relation can be supposed to exact You have here a succinct account of the Nature Faculties and Original of the Soul of Man as also of its infusion into the Body by God without intitling himself to the guilt and sin resulting from that their Union You will also find the breath of your Nostrils to be the Nexus Tie or Bond which holds your Souls and Bodies in a personal Union and that whilst the due Crasis and Temperament of the Body remains and Breath continues your Souls hang as by a weak and slender thread over the state of a vast Eternity in Heaven or in Hell Which will inform you both of the value of your breath and the best way of improving it whilst you enjoy it The Immortality of the Soul is here asserted proved and vindicated from the most considerable Objections so that it will evidently appear to you by this Discourse you do not cease to be when you cease to breathe And seeing they will over-live all Temporal Enjoyments they must necessarily perish as to all their Joys Comforts and Hopes which is all the Death that can be incident to an Immortal Spirit if they be not in the proper season secured and provided of that never-perishing food of Souls God in Christ their Portion for ever Here you will find the Grounds and Reasons of that strong inclination which you all feel them to have to your Bodies and the necessity notwithstanding that of their divorce and separation from their beloved Bodies and that it would manifestly be to their prejudice if it should be otherwise And to overcome the unreasonable Aversations of Believers and bring them to a more becoming chearful submission to the Laws of death whensoever the Writ of Ejection shall be served upon them You will here find a representation of that blessed life comely order and most delightful employment of the incorporeal People inhabiting the City of God wherein beside those sweet Meditations which are proper to feast your hungry affections you will meet with divers unusual though not vain or unuseful Questions stated and resolved which will be a grateful entertainment
were produced by the word of Gods blessing and power but mans Soul was immediately breathed into him by God and had no praeexistent matter at all And besides all humane souls being of one species have therefore one and the same Original The Soul of the poorest child is of equal Dignity with the Soul of Adam And if we consult Iob 33.4 we shall find Elihu giving us there the same account and almost in the same words of the Original of his Soul that Moses in my Text gives us of the Original of Adams Soul The Spirit of God hath formed me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life But it is evident Sol. 2. souls spring not from the Parent as one Plant or Animal doth from another For they have their seed in themselves apt and proper to produce their kind but the seed of souls is not to be found in man It is not to be found in his Body for then as was said before a spiritual and nobler Essence must be produced out of a material and baser matter i.e. the matter must give to the Soul that which it hath not in it self Nor is it to be found in his Soul for the Soul being a pure simple and indivisible Being can suffer nothing to be discinded from it towards the production of another Soul A spirit as the Soul is is Substantia simplex impartibilis an uncompounded and indiscerpible or impartible Being Nor can it spring partly from the Body and partly from the Soul as from con-causes for then it should be partly corporeal and partly incorporeal as its causes are So that there is no Matter Seed or principle of Souls found in man and to be sure as Baronius strongly argues * Pateâ— neque producit animam filii ex aliqua re praeâ—â—ilente neque producit eam ex nulla 〈◊〉 praeexistente hâ—c enimâ—est creare eâ—go nullo modo eam producit Baronius dissert secunda de Origine Animae p. 120. he cannot produce a Soul without praeexistent matter for that were to make him Omnipotent and assign a creating power to a creature Besides that which is generable is also corruptible as we see Trees Animals c. which are produced that way to be but the Soul is not corruptible as hath in part been already proved and will more fully in the following Discourse So that Adam's Soul and the Souls of his posterity spring not from each other but all from God by Creation If the Soul be created and infused immediately by God Object 3. either it comes out of his hands pure or impure if pure how comes it to be defiled and tainted with sin If impure how do we free God from being the Author of sin If the question be Sol whether souls be pure or impure as soon as they are united with their bodies the answer is They are impure and tainted as soon as united For the union constitutes a child of Adam and consequently a sinful impure creature But if it respect the condition and state in which God created them I answer with Baronius †Aniâ—â—â—â—strae à Deo creante 〈◊〉 aâ—cipiunt puritatem sâ—u justitiam neque imparitatem propensionem ad malum Seâ— tantâ—m essentiam spiritualem proprieâ—ates ab essentia dimanâ—â—tes Baron exerciâ— p. 103. They are created neither morally pure nor impure they receive neither purity nor impurity from him but only their naked essence and the natural powers and properties flowing therefrom He inspires not any impurity into them for he cannot be the Author of Sin who is the Revenger of it Nor doth he create them in their original purity and rectitude for the sin of Adam lost that and God justly withholds it from his posterity Who wonders saith one Ienkins on Jude Vol. 1. p. 559. to see the Children the Palaces and Gardens of Traitors to droop and decay and the Arms of his House and badge of his nobility to be defaced and reversed That which is abused by man to the dishonour of God may justly be destroyed I add in this case or withheld by God to the detriment of man Adam voluntarily and actually deprived himself and meritoriously deprived all his posterity of that original righteousness and purity in which he was created As an holy God he cannot inspire any impurity and as a just and righteous God he may and doth withhold or create them void and destitute of that holiness and righteousness which was once their Happiness and Glory Object 4. But how come they then to be defiled and tainted with original sin It 's confessed God did not impure them and the body cannot for it being matter cannot act upon a spirit yea of it self it 's a dead lump and cannot act at all Sol. What if this be one of those mysteries reserved for the world to come about which we cannot in this state solve every difficulty that may be moved Must we therefore deny its divine original What if I cannot understand some mysteries â—an sinâ—e the 〈◊〉 bein◠〈…〉 understands noâ— himâ—eâ—â— nor will 〈…〉 restored to himself in glory 〈…〉 p. 33â— or answer some questions about the Hypostatical union of the two natures in the wonderful Person of our Emmanuel must I therefore question whether he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-Man We must remain ignorant of some things about our own souls till we come into the condition of the spirits of just men made perfect Mean time I think it much more our concernment to study how we may get sin out of our souls than to puzzle our brains to find how it came into them But that the Objector may not take this for an handsome slide or go-by to this great Objection I return to it in a few particulars 1. That I think not original sin follows either part singly The Soul say some in the moment of 〈◊〉 creation and infusion by God being united with the Body by the plastick and formative vertue of the parental seed the Parent may be truly said to generate the man though he do not produce the form Because proper generation consists in the union and not the production of parts So that Original sin is not propagated from Body to Body noâ— yet from Soul to Soul but from man to man it comes in neither by the Soul alone nor by the body alone a part from the Soul but upon the union and conjunction of both in one person 'T is the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam and as such only we are capable of being infected with his sin 2. And whereas it is so confidently asserted in the Objection That sin cannot come into the Soul by or from the body because it being matter cannot act upon a Spirit I say this is gratis dictum easily spoken but difficultly proved Cannot the Body act upon or influence the Soul Pray then how comes it to pass that so
respects the excellency of the Spiritual above the Animal life not in point of Priority for that which is natural is before that which is spiritual and it must be so because the natural Soul is the recipient Subject of the spirits quickning and sanctifying operations but in point of dignity and real excellency To how little purpose or rather to what a dismal and miserable purpose are we made living souls except the Lord from Heaven by his quickning power make us spiritual and holy Souls The natural Soul rules and uses the body as * Corpus organo simile est anima Aâ—tificis ratioâ—em obtinet Irenaeus lib. 2. an Artificer doth his Tools and except the Lord renew it by grace Satan will rule that which rules thee and so all thy members will be instruments of inquity to fight against God The actions performed by our bodies are justly reputed and reckon'd by God to the Soul †Omnia quaecunque fecerit corpus sive bonum sive malum animae reputantur Origen in Job because the Soul is the spring of all its motions the fountain of its life and operations What it doth by the body its instrument is as if it were done immediately by it self for without the Soul it can do nothing Inference VII V A Spiritual Substance MOreover from the immaterial and spiritual nature of the Soul we are informed That Communion with God and the enjoyment of him are the true and proper intentions and purposes for which the Soul of Man was created Such a nature as this is not fitted to live upon gross material and perishing things as the body doth The food of every creature is agreeable to its nature one cannot subsist upon that which another doth As we see among the several sorts of Animals what is food to one is none to another In the same Plant there is found a root which is food for Swine a stalk which is food for Sheep a flower which feeds the Bee and a seed on which the Bird lives The Sheep cannot live upon the root as the Swine doth nor the Bird upon the flower as the Bee doth But every one feeds upon the different parts of the Plant which are agreeable to its Nature So it is here our bodies being of an earthly material Nature can live upon things earthly and material as most agreeable to them they can relish and suck out the sweetness of these things but the Soul can find nothing in them suitable to its nature and appetite it must have spiritual food or perish It were therefore too brutish and unworthy of a man that understood the nature of his own Soul to chear it up with the stores of earthly provisions made for it as he did Luk. 12.20 I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry Alas the Soul can no more eat drink and be merry with carnal things than the Body can with spiritual and immaterial things It cannot feed upon bread that perisheth it can relish no more in the best and daintiest fare of an earthly growth than in the White of an Egg But bring it to a reconciled God in Christ to the Covenant of Grace and the sweet promises of the Gospel set before it the joyes comforts and earnests of the Spirit and if it be a sanctified renewed Soul it can make a rich Feast upon these These make it a â—east of fat things full of Marrow as it is expressed Isaiah 25.6 Spiritual things are proper food for spiritual and immaterial Souls VI A Spiritual Substance Inference VIII THE spiritual nature of the Soul farther informs us That no acceptable service can be performed to God except the Soul be imployed and ingaged therein The Body hath its part and share in Gods worship as well as the Soul but its part is inconsiderable in comparison Prov. 23.26 My Son give me thy heart i. e. thy Soul thy Spirit The holy and religious acts of the Soul are suitable to the nature of the Object of worship Iohn 4.24 God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth Spirits only can have Communion with that great Spirit They were made spirits for that very end that they might be capable of converse with the Father of Spirits They that worship him must worship in Spirit and in Truth That is with inward love fear delight and desires of Soul that is to worship him in our spirits And in Truth i. e. according to the rule of his word which prescribes our duty Spirit respects the inward power Truth the outward form The former strikes at Hypocrisie the latter at Superstition and Idolatry The one opposes the inventions of our Heads the other the loosness and formality of our Hearts No doubt but the service of the body is due to God and expected by him for both the souls and bodies of his people are bought with a price and therefore he expects we glorifie him with our souls and bodies which are his But the service of the body is not accepted of him otherwise than as it is animated and enlivened by an obedient Soul and both sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Separate from these bodily exercise profits nothing 1 Tim. 4.8 What pleasure can God take in the fruits and evidences of mens Hypocrisie Ezek. 33.31 Holy Paul appeals to God in this matter Rom. 1.9 God is my witness saith he whom I serve with my spirit q. d. I serve God in my spirit and he knows that I do so I dare appeal to him who searches my heart that it is not idle and unconcerned in his service The Lord humble us the best of us for our careless dead gadding and vain spirits even when we are engaged in his solemn services O that we were once so spiritual to follow every excursion from his service with a groan and retract every wandring thought with a deep sigh Alas a cold and wandring spirit in duty is the disease of most good men and the very temper and constitution of all unsanctified ones It is a weighty and excellent expression of the Iews in their Euchologium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b. â— qâ—a re potius praeveniâ—m faciem 〈◊〉 nisi spiritu meo nihil enim est homini praeciosius animâ suà or Prayer-Book Wherewithall shall I come before his face unless it be with my spirit For man hath nothing more precious to present to God than his Soul Indeed it is the best man hath thy heart is thy totum posse 't is all that thou art able to present to him If thou cast thy Soul into thy duty thou dost as the poor Widow did cast in all that thou hast And in such an offering the great God takes more pleasure than in all the external costly pompous ceremonies adorned Temples aâ—â— external devotions in the World It is a remarkable anâ—â—â—tonishing expression of
his own in this case Isai. 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build to me and where is the place of my rest For all these things have mine hands made and all these things have been saith the Lord but unto this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word q. d. Think not to please me with magnificent Temples and adorned Altars if I had pleasure in such things Heaven is a more glorious Throne than any you can build me and yet I have more delight in a poor contrite spirit that trembles with an holy awe and reverence at my word than I have in Heaven or Earth or all the works of my hands in either O if there had been more trembling at his word there had not been such trembling as now there is under fears of the loss and removal of it Some can superstitiously reverence and kiss the sacred dust of the sanctuary as they call it and express a great deal of zeal for the externals of religion but little consider how small the interest of these things is in Religion and how little God looks at or regards them Inference IX HOw much are the spirits of men sunk by sin below the dignity and excellency of their Nature Our Souls are Spirits by nature yet have they naturally no delight in things spiritual They decline that which is homogeneal and suitable to Spirits and rellish nothing but what is carnal and unsuitable to them How are its affections inverted and misplaced by sin That noble spiritual Heaven-born creature the Soul whose Element and Centre God alone should be is now fallen into a deep Oblivion both of God and it self and wholly spends its strength in the pursuit of sensual and earthly enjoyments and becomes a meer drudge and slave to the body Carnal things now measure out and govern its delights and hopes its fears and sorrows O how unseemly is it to bâ—â—â—ld such an high-born spirit lackying up and down the Woâ—â—d in the service of the perishing flesh Their heart saith the Prophet goeth after their Covetousness Ezek. 33.31 as a Servant at the beck or nod of his Master O! how many are there to be found in every place who melt down the precious affections and strength of their Souls in sensitive brutish Pleasures and Delights Iames 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasures upon Earth as the Fish in the Water or rather as the Eel in the Mud never once lifting up a thought or desire to the spiritual and eternal pleasures that are at Gods right hand Our Creation did not set us so low we are made capable of better and higher things God did not inspire such a noble excellent spiritual Soul into us meerly to salt our bodies or carry them up and down this world for a few years to gaze at the vanities of it It was a great saying of an Heathen * Maior sum ad majora natus quam â—t carporis â—ti sim mancipium Seneca I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a slave to my body We have a spirit about us that might better understand its Original and know it is so base a Being as its daily imployments speak it to be The Lord raise our apprehensions to a due value of the dignity of our own Souls that we may turn from these sordid imployments with a generous disdain and set our affections on what is agreeable to and worthy of an high-born spirit Inference X. VII The Soul an immortal Substance IS the Soul of Man a Vital Spiritual and immortal Substance Then it is no wonder that we find the resentments and impressions of the world to come naturally ingraven upon the Souls of men all the world over These impressions and sentiments of another life after this do as naturally and necessarily spring out of an immortal Nature as branches spring out of the body of a Tree or feathers out of the body of a Bird. So fairly and firmly are the characters and impressions of the life to come sealed upon the immortal spirits of all men that no man can offer violence to this truth but he must also do violence to his own Soul and unman himself by the denial of it Who feels not a cheariness to spring from his absolving and an horrour from his accusing Conscience Neither of which could rise from any other prinple than this We arâ— Beings conscious to our selves of a future State and that our Souls do not vanish when our breath doth That we cease not to be when we cease to breathe And this is common to the most Barbarous and Salvage Heathens They shew saith the Apostle the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing them witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another By the work of the Law understand the summ and substance of the Ten Commandments comprizing the duties to be done and the sins to be avoided This work of the Law is said to be written upon the Hearts of the Gentiles who had no external written Law upon their hearts it was written though many of them gave themselves over to all uncleanness and they shewed or gave evidence and proof that there was such a Law written upon their hearts They shewed it two ways 1. Some of them shewed it in their Temperance Righteousness and moral honesty wherein they excelled many of us who have far greater Advantages and Obligations 2. In the efficacy of their Consciences which as it clear'd and comforâ—ed them for things well done so it witnessed against them yea judg'd and condemned them for things ill done And these evidences of a Law written on the heart are to be found where-ever men are to be found Their ignorance and barbarity cannot stifle these sentiments and impressions of a future State and a just Tribunal to which all must come And the universality of it plainly evinces that it springs not out of Education but the very nature of an immortal Soul Let none say that these universal impressions are but the effects of an universal Tradition which hath been time out of mind spread among the Nations of the World For as no such universal Tradition can be proved so if it could the very propension that is found in the minds of all men living to embrace and close with the proposals of a life to come will evince the agreeableness of them to the nature of an immortal Soul Yea the natural closing of the Soul with these Proposals will amount to an evidence of the reality and existence of thosâ— invisible things For as the natural senses and their Organs prove that there are colours sounds savours and juices as well as or rather because there are Eyes Ears c. naturally fitted to close with and receive them so it
Soul may be evinced from the everlasting habits which are subjected and inherent in it If these habits abide for ever certainly so must the Souls in which they are planted The Souls of good Men are the good Ground in which the Seed of Grace is sown by the Spirit Matth. 13.23 i. e the subjects in which gracious properties and affections do inhere and dwell which is the formal notion of a Substance and these implanted Graces are everlasting things So Iohn 4.14 It shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life i. e. the Graces of the Spirit shall be in Believers permanent habits fixed Principles which shall never decay And therefore that Seed of Grace which is cast into their Souls at their Regeneration is in 1 Pet. 1.23 called incorruptible Seed which liveth and abideth for ever and it is incorruptible not only considered abstractly in its own simple nature but concretely as it is in the sanctified Soul its Subject for it is said 1 Iohn 3.9 The Seed of God remaineth in him It abideth for ever in the Soul If then these two things be clear to us viz. 1. That the Habits of Grace be everlasting 2. That they are inseparable from sanctified Souls It must needs follow that the Soul their Subject is so too an everlasting and immortal Soul And how plainly do both these Propositions lie before us in the Scriptures As for the immortal and interminable nature of saving Grace it is plain to him that considers not only what the fore cited Scriptures speak about it calling it incorruptible Seed a Well of Water springing up into everlasting life But add to these what is said of these Divine qualities in 2 Pet. 1.4 where they are called the Divine Nature and Ephes. 4.18 The life of God noting the perpetuity of these Principles in Believers as well as their resemblance of God in Holiness who are endowed with them I know it is a great question among Divines An gratia in renatis sit naturà essentià suà interminabilis Whether these Principles of Grace in the Regenerate be everlasting and interminable in their own nature and essence For my own part I think that God only is naturally essentially and absolutely interminable and immortal But these gracious Habits planted by him in the Soul are so by vertue of Gods Appointment Promise and Covenant And sure it is that by reason hereof they are interminate which is enough for my purpose if they be not essentially interminable Though Grace be but a Creature and therefore hath a pesse mori yet it is a Creature begotten by the Word and Spirit of God which live and abide for ever and a Creature within the Promise and Covenant of God by reason whereof it can never actually dye And then as for the inseparableness of these Graces from the Souls in whom they are planted how clear is this from 1 Iohn 2.27 where sanctifying Grace is compared to an Unction and this Unction is said to abide in them And 1 Iohn 3.9 't is called the Seed of God which remaineth in the Soul All our natural and moral Excellencies and Endowments go away when we dye Iob 4.21 Doth not their Excellency that is in them go away Men may out-live their acquired Gifts but not their supernatural Graces These stick by the Soul as Ruth to Naomi and where it goes they go too so that when the Soul is dislodged by Death all its Graces ascend up with it into Glory it carries away all its Faith Love Delight in God all its comfortable experiences and fruits of Communion with God along with it to Heaven For Death is so far from divesting the Soul of its Graces that it perfects in a Moment all that was defective in them 1 Cor. 13.10 When that which is perfect shall come then that which is in part shall be done away as the Twilight is done away when the Sun is up and at its Zenith So then Grace never dyeth and this never-dying Grace is inseparable from its Subject by which it is plain to him that considers That as Graces so Souls abide for ever But this only proves the Immortality of regenerate Souls Object It doth so Sol. but then consider as there be gracious habits in the regenerate that never dye so there are vicious habits in the unregenerate that can never be separated from them in the world to come Hence Iohn 8.21 They are said to dye in their sins and Iob 20.11 Their iniquities ly down with them in the dust and Ezek. 24.13 They shall never be purged Remarkable is that place Revel 22. v. 11. Let him that is filthy be filthy still And if guilt stick so fast and sin be so deeply engraven in impenitent Souls they also must remain for ever to bear the punishment of them Argument V. THE Immortality of the Soul of Man may be evinced from the Dignity of Man above all other Creatures Angels only excepted and his Dominion over them all In this the Scriptures are clear that Man is the Master-piece of all Gods other work Psal. 8.5 6. For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou hast made him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet Other Creatures were made for his service and he is crowned King over them all One Man is of more worth than all the inferiour Creatures But wherein is his Dignity and excellency above all other Creatures if not in respect of the capacity and immortality of his Soul Sure it can be found no where else for as to the Body many of the Creatures excel man in the perfections of Sense greatness of Strength agility of Members c. Nos Aper auditu praecellit aranea tactu vultur odoratu linx visu simia gustu And for beauty Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of the Lilies of the Field The Beasts and Fowls enjoy more pleasure and live divested of those cares and cumbers which perplex and wear out the lives of men It cannot be in respect of bodily perfections or pleasures that man excels other Creatures If you say he excels them all in respect of that noble endowment of Reason which is peculiar to man and his singular excellency above them all 'T is true this is his glory but if you deprive the reasonable Soul of Immortality you despoil it of all both its glory and comfort and put the reasonable into a worse condition than the unreasonable and brutish Creatures for if the Soul may dye with the Body and man perish as the Beast happier is the life of the Beast which is perplexed with no cares nor fears about futurities our Reason serves to little other purpose but to be an engine of Torture a meer Rack to our Souls Certainly the Priviledge of Man doth not consist in that as abstracted from
but myriads in the plural number and set down indefinitely too may note many millions of Angels and therefore we fitly tender it to an innumerable company of Angels They had the ministry of Angels as well as we thousands of them ministred to the Lord in the dispensation of the Law at Sinai Psal. 68.17 But this notwithstanding we are come to a much clearer knowledge both of their present Ministry for us on earth Heb. 1.14 and of our fellowship and equality with them in Heaven Luke 20.36 3 Ye are come to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written or enrolled in Heaven This also greatly commends and amplifies the priviledges of New Testament-Believers the Church of God in former ages was circumscribed and shut up within the narrow limits of one small Kingdom which was as a garden inclosed out of a waste wilderness but now by the calling in of the Gentiles the Church is extended far and wide Eph. 3.5 6. It is become a great Assembly comprizing the Believers of all Nations under Heaven and so speaking of them collectively it is the general convention or Assembly which is also dignified and ennobled by two illustrious characters viz. 1 that it is the Church of the first-born i. e. consisting of Members dignified and priviledged above others Primogeniti Israelitarum scripti crant in matricula terrestri hi vero in albo coelesti as the first-born among the Israelites did excel their younger Brethreâ— 2 That their names are written in Heaven i. e. registred or enrolled in Gods book as Children and Heirs of the Heavenly inheritance as the first-born in Israel were registred in order to the Priesthood Num 3.40 41. 4 Ye are come to God the Iudge of all But why to God the Judge this seems to spoil the harmony and jar with the other parts of the discourse No no they are come to God as a righteous Judge who as such will pardon them 1 Iohn 1.9 crown them 2 Tim. 4.8 and avenge them on all their oppressing and persecuting Enemies 1 Thes. 1.5 6 7. 5 And to the Spirits of just men made perfect A most glorious priviledge indeed in which we are distinctly to consider 1. The quality of those with whom we are associated or taken into fellowship 2. The way and manner of our association with them 1. The Quality of those with whom we are associated or to whom we are said to be come and they are described by three characters viz. 1 1 Spirits of Men. viz. 2 Spirits of just Men. viz. 3 Spirits of just Men perfected or consummated 1 They are called Spirits that is immaterial substances strictly opposed to Bodies which are no way the objects of our exteriour Senses neither visible to the eye nor sensible to the touch which were called properly Souls whilst they animated Bodies in this lower World but now being loosed and separated from them by death and existing alone in the World above they are properly and strictly stiled Spirits 3 They are the Spirits of just Men. Man may be termed just two ways 1 by a full discharge and acquittance from the guilt of all his sins and so believers are just men even whilst they live on Earth groaning under other imperfections Acts 13.39 or 2 by a total freedom from the pollution of any sin And though in this sence there is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.22 yet even in this sense Adam was just before the Fall Eccles. 7.29 according to his original constitution and all believers are so in their glorified condition all sin being perfectly purged out of them and its existence utterly destroyed in them On which account 3 They are called the Spirits of just men made perfect or consummate The word perfect is not here to be understood absolutely but synecdochically they are not perfect in every respect for one part of these just Men lies rotting in the grave but they are perfected for so much as concerns their Spirit though the flesh perish and lie in dishonour yet their Spirits being once loosed from the Body and freed radically and perfectly from sin are presently admitted to the facial vision and fruition of God which is the culminating point as I may call it higher than which the Spirit of man aspires not and attaining to this it is for so much as concerns it self made perfect Even as a Body at last lodg'd in its centre gravitates no more but is at perfect rest so it is with the Spirit of man come home to God in glory 't is now consummate no more need to be done to make it as perfectly happy as it is capable to be made which is the first thing to be considered viz the Quality of those with whom we are associated 2. The second follows namely the way and manner of our association with these blessed Spirits of just Men noted iâ— this expression we are come He saith not we shall come hereafter when the Resurrection hath restored our Bodies or after the general Judgment but we are come to these Spirits of just Men. The meaning whereof we may take up in these three particulars 1 We that live under the Gospel-light are come to a clearer apprehension sight and knowledge of the blessed and happy estate of the Souls of the righteous after death than ever they had or ordinarily could have who lived under the Types and shadows of the Law Eph. 3.4 5. And so we are come to them in respect of clearer apprehension 2 We are come to those blessed Spirits in our Representative Christ who hath carried our nature into the very midst of them and whom they all behold with highest admiration and delight By Christ who is entred into that holy place where these Spirits of just Men live we are come into a near relation with them For he being the common head both to them in Heaven and to us on Earth we and they consequently make but one Body or society Eph. 2.19 whereupon notwithstanding the different and remote Countries they and we live in we are said to sit together with them in Heavenly places Ephes. 3.15 and Ephes. 2.6 3 We are come That is we are as good as come or we are upon the matter come there remains nothing betwixt them and us but a puff of breath a little space of time which shortens every moment we are come to the very borders of their Country and there is nothing to speak of betwixt them and us and by this expression we are come he teacheth us to account and reckon those things as present which so shortly will be present to us and to look upon them as if they already were which is the highest and most comfortable life of Faith we can live on Earth Hence the Note is DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death are immediately perfected in themselves and associated with others alike
signifying a Messenger or one sent And for the mischief done by Spirits in this World the Scriptures ascribe that to the Devils those unquiet Spirits have their Walks in this World they compass the whole earth and walk up and down in it Iob 1.7 and 1 Pet. 5.8 they can assume any shape yea I doubt not but he can act their Bodies when dead as well as he did their Souls and Bodies when alive how great his power is this way appears in what is so often done by him in the Bodies of Witches They are not ordinarily therefore the Spirits of men but other Spirits that appear to us 2 If God should ordinarily permit the Spirits of men inhabiting the other World a liberty so frequently to visit this what a gap would it open for Satan to beguile and deceive the living Quid enim idololatriam inter Ethnicos Christianos magis propagavit Hinc fluxâ—runt multae perigrinationes monasteria delubra dits festi alia Lav. In Job 33. What might he not by this means impose upon weak and credulous Mortals There hath been a great deal of Superstition and Idolatry already introduced under this pretence he hath often personated Saints departed and pretended himself to be the Ghost of some venerable person whose love to the Souls of the people and care for their Salvation drew him from Heaven to reveal some special Secret to them Swarms of Errors and superstitious and idolatrous Opinions and Practices are this way conveyed by the tricks and artifices of Satan among the Papists which I will not blot my Paper withal only I desire it may be considered that if this were a thing so frequently permitted by God as is pretended upon what dangerous terms had he left his Church in this World seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another or a true Messenger from Heaven from a counterfeit and pretended one But God hath tied us to the sure and standing rule of his Word forbidding us to give heed to any other voice or spirit leading us another way Isa. 8.19 2 Thes. 2.1 2. Gall. 1.8 It was therefore a discreet reply which one of the Ancients made when in Prayer a Vision of Christ appeared to him and told him Thy Prayers are heard for thou art worthy The good man immediately clapt his hands upon his eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it is enough for me that I shall behold him in Heaven To conclude My Opinion upon the whole matter is this that although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary cases as at the transfiguration and Resurrection of Christ. God did and perhaps sometimes though rarely may order or permit departed Souls to return into this World yet for the most part I judge those Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but other Spirits and for the most part evil ones Lib. de cura pro mortuis Of this Judgment was St. Augustine who when he had at full related the Story above of the Fathers Ghost directing his Son to the Acquittance yet will not allow it to be the very soul of his Father but an Angel where he farther adds If saith he the souls of the dead might be present in our affairs they would not forsake us in this sort especially my Mother Monica who in her life could never be without me surely she would not thus leave me being dead Object 1. Objection 1. But it was pleaded before that we allow the Apparitions of Angels and departed Souls if they be not Angels at least are equal unto Angels and in respect of their late relation to us are more propense to help us than Spirits of another sort can be supposed to be Sol. Solution It seems too bold an imposing upon Soveraign Wisdom to tell him what Messengers are fittest for him to send and imploy in his service who hath taught him or been his Counsellor Object 2. Object 2. But these offices seem to pertain properly to them as they are not only fellow-members but the most excellent members of the mystical Body to whom it belongs to assist the meaner and weaker Sol. Sol. If there be any force of reason in this Plea it carries it rather for the Angels than for departed Souls for Angels are gather'd under the same common head with the Saints the Text tells us we are come to an innumerable company of Angels they and the Saints are fellow Citizens and we know they are a more noble order of Spirits and as for their love to the Elect it is exceeding great as great to be sure as the departed Souls of our dearest Relatives can be For after death they sustain no more civil Relations to us all that they do sustain is as fellow members of the same body or fellow Citizens which Angels also are as well as they Object 3. Object But saith the Doctor the reason why all Nations pay so great honour and religious care to the Wills of the Dead is a supposition that they still continue in the same mind after death and will avenge the Falsifications of Trusts upon injurious Executors else no reason can be given why so great a stress should be laid upon the Will of the Dead Sol. Sol. This is gratis dictum to say no worse a cheap and unwary expression can no reason be given for the religious observance of the Testaments of the dead but this Supposition I deny it for though they that made them be dead yet God who is witness to all such acts and trusts liveth and though they cannot avenge the frauds and injustice of men he both can and will do it 1 Thes. 4.6 which I think is a weightier ground and reason to inforce duty upon men than the fear of Ghosts Besides This is a case wherein all the living are concerned all that die must commit a trust to them that survive and if frauds should be committed with impunity who could safely repose confidence in another Quod tangit omnes tangi debet ab omnibus that which is of general concernment and becomes every mans interest infers a general Obligation upon all As for the Letters of Elijah 't is a Vanity to think they came Post from Heaven no no they were doubtless left behind him out of due care to the Government and produced in that fit occasion Object 4. Object 4. But what need of a Law to prohibit Necromancy or consultation with the Dead if it were not practicable Sol. Sol. I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed Souls but it was a conversing with the Devil who personated the dead and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God or he might possibly raise the Bodies of wicked men and appear in them but I think the Spirits of the dead return not
very Birds and Beasts are by nature enabled to signifie to each other their Inclinations and that the Spirits of just men which are the best of all humane Spirits and that when made perfect too which is the best and highest state attainable by them should have none but live at a greater disadvantage in this respect than they did or the very Birds and Beasts in this World do The summ of my thoughts about this matter I will lay down in the following Sections §. 1. The state of Heaven as was at large open'd in our eleventh Proposition being an Association of Angels and blessed Souls for the glorifying and praising of God in his Temple there and this Worship being carried on by joint consent as appears by their joint ascriptions of Glory to God Rev. 7.9 10 11 12 they must of necessity for the orderly carrying on of this heavenly Worship understand each others mind and communicate their thoughts for without this 't is not imaginable how a joint or common service in which thousands of thousands are imployed can be decorously and orderly managed except we conceive of them as so many Machines or wind-instruments that are managed by an intelligent Agent though themselves be senseless and meerly passive certainly their consent is a different thing from that of the Keys of an Harpsicord or strings of a Lute they are Intelligent Beings who understand their own and each others mind and beside without this ability that Society in Heaven would be less comfortable as to mutual refreshing fellowship than the Society of the Saints is here So that it is not to be doubted but these Noble and Excellent Spirits can and do Communicate their thoughts to each other and that in a most excellent way §. 2. But yet we cannot imagine these Communications betwixt them to be by words formed by such instruments and Organs of Speech as we now use for they are bodiless Beings words and articulate sounds are fitted to the use and service of embodied Spirits It is therefore probable that they conveigh and communicate their minds to one another as the blessed Angels do Ceâ—â—tat Angelos linguas non habâ—â—e est autem in 〈◊〉 aliqâ—â—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 linguis per quod conceâ—tas sibi muâ—â— tradunt Lights not with Tongues of flesh though we read of the Tongues of Angels 1 Cor. 13.1 but in a way somewhat analogous to this though much more noble and excellent For look as the Scripture stiles the most excellent food Angels food so the most excellent Speech or most eloquent Tongues Angels Tongues The purest Rhetorick that ever flowed from the lips of the most charming Orator is but babling to the Language of Angels or of Spirits made perfect When Paul was rapt into the third Heaven where he was admitted to the sight and hearing of this blessed Assembly it 's said he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words unspeakable Spiritual Language such as his Tongue neither could or ought to utter such as none but heavenly Inhabitants can speak and Dan. 8.13 I heard saith Daniel one Saint speaking and another Saint said unto that certain Saint that spake c. He heard the enquiries of the Angels desiring to know the Mystery from the Mouth of Christ. A Language they have but not like ours §. 3. The Communications of Angels and Souls in Heaven is therefore conceived to be an ability in those blessed Spirits silently and without sound to instil and insinuate their minds and thoughts to each other by a meer act of their Wills just as we now speak to God or our selves in our hearts Dicimur nobis ipsis in animo loqui cum aliquid actu cogitamus animo volvimus cogitamus autem actu ex voluntatis imperio hoc est cum volumus Zanch. when our lips do not move or the least outward sign appears There are two ways by which the Souls of men speak one outwardly by the Instruments of Speech or sensible signs the other inwardly without sound or sign This inward silent Speech is nothing else but an act of the Will calling forth such things into our actual Thoughts and Meditations which before lay hid and quiet in the Memory or habit of knowledge These thoughts or actual revolvings of things in the mind is in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Word or Speech in the heart Deut. 15.9 Take heed to thy self that there be not a wicked word in thy heart we translate a wicked thought thoughts are the words and voice of the Soul and so Matth. 9.3 they spake within themselves i.e. their Souls spake though their lips moved not all Meditation is an inward Speech in the Soul and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferently signifies both to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum puncto sinistro locutus est oâ—e aut corde cogitavit meditatus est and to meditate The Objects which we revolve in our thoughts are so many Companions with whom we converse and thus a man like Heinsius may be in the midst of abundance of excellent Company when he is all alone And this is silent talk to our selves without any sound or noise Object But you will say though the Spirit of a man can thus talk to or with it self Duo sunt oâ—lia aliorum respectu quorum nisi utrumque à te referetur fieri non potest ut que tu habes in intellecta corde tuo oâ—culta â—a alius habere cognosâ—ere queat urum ex parte animi est voluntas nisi enim quae occulâ—a latent in corde tuo ea vilis aliis patefieri quis ea percipiatâ— alterum est ipsum corpus carniâ—m ac proindè licèt quasi aperto priori interiorique ostio velis que in animo volvis alicui patefacere nisi tamen hoc etiam alterum externum reâ—eres nullo modo ab aliis hominibus cognosci poterunt Zâ—nch de operibus Dei lib. 3. cap. 19. yet this can signifie nothing to others For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man that is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 It is not therefore enough to open this internal door of the Will for except we open also the external door of the lips no man can know our minds or be admitted into the secrets of our Souls should we never so earnestly desire that another should know our mind except we please also to discover it by word or sign he cannot know it and therefore an act of the Will is not sufficient without some external signification superadded And these Souls being bodiless can give no such outward signification There is indeed a necessity among men in this World to unlock another door beside that of their Will Sol. to communicate the Secrets of their hearts to others Quoniam igitur Angeli iis carent crassis corporibus idcirco nihil impedit quo minus qâ—â— unus Angelus in sua versat mente
ea alter videat nisi ejus voluntas si enim ea nolit ab altero resciri Nunquam nisi Deo reâ—â—ilante rescientur Zanch. ubi supra but Angels and the Spirits of men having no Bodies consequently have but one door to wit that of the Will to open and the opening thereof which is done by one act or desire in a moment is enough to discover so much of their minds as they would have discovered to another Spirit If they keep the door of their Will shut no Angel or Spirit can know what is in their thoughts without a Revelation from God and if they but will or desire others should know no words can so fully manifest one mans mind to another as such an act of the will doth manifest theirs And this saith learned Zanchy is the Tongue of Angels and the same way the Spirits of men have to make known their minds in the unbodied state It is but the turning of the Key of the Will and their thoughts or desires are presently seen and known by others to whom they will discover them as a mans face is seen in a glass when he pleaseth to turn his face to it Would one Spirit make known his mind to another it is but to will he should know it and it is immediately known §. 4. This Internal way of speaking and Communication among Spirits is much more noble perfect and excellent than that which is in use among us by words and signs and that in two respects viz. in respect 1. Of clearness in respect 2. Of dispatch and speed 1. Spiritual Language is more clearly expressive of the mind and thoughts than words writings or any other External signs can be The greatest Masters of Language do often cloud their meaning for want of words fit and full enough to express it truth suffers by the Poverty and Ambiguity of words many Controversies are but meer strifes about words and scufflings in the dark by the mistakes of each others sense and meaning few have the ability of putting their own meanings into apt proper and full expressions and if they can yet others to whom they speak want an answerable ability of understanding and clearness of apprehension to receive it If we could discern the true and natural sense of things just as it is in the mind of the Speaker or Writer How many Controversies would be thereby quickly ended But Spirits unbodied so conveigh their sense and mind to one another that there can be no mistakes no darkning of Counsel by words without knowledge but one receives it just as it lies in the others mind 2. Spiritual Language is more easie and of quicker dispatch Some men have voluble Tongues and are much more ready and presential than others their Tongues are as the Pen of a ready Scribe and others no less ready with their hands which keep pace with yea out-run the Tongue of the Speaker as Martial notes Martial Epig. lib. 14. Ep. 176. Currant verba licet manus est velocior illis Nondum lingua suum dextra peregit opus Yet all this is but bungling work to the ready dispatch of Spirits one act of the Will opens the Window to discern the mind of another clearly so that the converse of Spirits must needs be more excellent in both respects than any we are accustomed to or acquainted with in this World I will shut up this Question with One COROLLARY Long to be associated with the Spirits of just men made perfect You that are going to joyn that blessed Assembly will even in this respect gain an invaluable advantage 'T is true there is much of comfort in the present Converses of embodied and imperfect Saints 't is sweet to fast and pray to sigh and groan together 't is sweeter to rejoyce and praise our God together 'T is sweet to talk of Heaven with our faces thitherward but alas what is this to the converses that are among the Spirits of just men made perfect With what melting hearts have we sometimes sate under the doctrine of the Gospel How have our ears been chained with delight to the Preacher's lips whilst he hath been discoursing of those ravishing subjects Christ and Heaven But alas How dry and dull a thing is the best of this to the language of Heaven Three things debase and spoil the communications of the Saints on Earth viz. the darkness dulness and frothiness thereof 1. The darkness and ignorance of our understanding How crude weak and indigested are our highest and purest notions of spiritual things We speak of them but as children 1 Cor. 13.11 For alas the vail is yet upon our faces The Body of sin and the Body of flesh cast a very dark shadow upon the world to come But the apprehensions of separated Souls are most bright and clear This darkness begets mistakes mistakes beget so many quarrels and janglings that our fellowship on earth loseth at once both its profit and pleasure 2. There is much dulness and deadness accompanying the Communion of Saints on earth abundance of precious time is wasted among us in unprofitable silence and when we engage in discourses of Heaven that discourse is often little better than silence Our words freeze betwixt our lips and we speak not with that concernedness and warmth of Spirit which suits with such subjects It is not so among our brethren above their affections are at the highest peg giving glory to God in the highest 3. To conclude in the discourses of the best men on Earth there is too much froth and vanity Many words like water run away at the wast spout but there God is the Centre in which all terminates O therefore let us long to be among the unbodied people This World will never suit us with companions in all things agreeable to the desires of our hearts The best company are got together in the upper room an hour there is better than an Age below What ever fellowship Saints leave on earth they shall be sure to find better in Heaven QUERIE VI. Whether the separated Souls of the just in Heaven do incline to a re-union with their own Bodies and how that re-union is at last effected That these blessed Souls have no such inclination or desire these reasons seem to perswade 1. That their Bodies whilst they lived in them were no better than so many Prisons Many were the prejudices damages and miseries they sustained and suffered in them Animam conceptu suo obstruit obscurat concretione carnis inâ—aecat unde illi velut per carneum specular obsoletior lux verum est Proculdubio cum vi mortus exprimitur de concretione carnis ipsa expressione colatur certè de oppanso corporis â—râ—mpit in apertam ad meram puram suam lucem Tertul. de Anima It kept them at an uncomfortable distance from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Their bemoaning cries spake their uneasie state How often hath every gracious Soul
of their torment in Hell Rev. 18.7 so much torment and sorrow as there was delight and pleasure in sin 4. To conclude the pleasures of sin are but for a season as you read Heb. 11.25 but the wrath of God in Hell is for ever and ever There is a time when the pleasures of sin cannot be called pleasure to come but the Wrath of God that will still be wrath to come O consider for what a trifle you sell your Souls When Lysimachus parted with his Kingdom for a draught of water he said when he had drank it For how short a pleasure have I sold a Kingdom And Ionathan lamented 1 Sam. 14.43 I tasted but a little Honey and I must die Satan would not charm so powerfully as he doth with the pleasures of sin if this point were well believed and heartily applied Inference III. WHat a matchless madness is it to cast the Soul into Gods Prison to save the Body out of Mans Prison Men have their Prisons and God hath his but because the one is an Object of Sense and the other an Object of Faith that only is feared and this slighted all over this unbelieving World except by a very small number of men who tremble at the Word of God Now this I say is the height of madness and will appear to be so in a just Collation of both in a few Particulars 1 Mans Prison restrains the Body only Gods Prison Soul and Body Matt. 10.28 The Spirits of Men as my Text speaks are the Prisoners there O what a vast odds doth this single difference make A thousand times more than the captivating and binding of the greatest King or Emperour differs from the imprisonment of a poor Mechanick or Vagrant Beggar 2 In Mans Prison there are many comforts and unspeakable refreshments from Heaven but in Gods Prison none but the direct contrary You read of the Apostles Acts 16.25 how they sang in the Prison the Spirit of God made them a Banquet of heavenly Ioys and they could not but sing at it though their feet were in the stocks their Spirits were never more at liberty Algerius dated his Letters from the delectable Orchard of the Leonine Prison where saith he flows the sweetest Nectar Another tells us Christ was always kind to him but since he became a Prisoner for him he even overcame himself in kindness I verily think saith he the Chains of my Lord are all overlaid with pure Gold and his Cross perfumed but the worst terrours of the Prisoners in Hell come from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes. 1.9 God is a terrour to them 3 The cause for which a man is cast into Prison by men may be his Dâ—ty and so his Conscience must be at least quiet if not joyful in such Sufferings So it was with Paul Acts 28.20 For the hope of Israel am I bound with this Chain This diffuses Joy and Peace through the Conscience into the whole man but the cause for which men are cast into Gods Prison is their sin and guilt which armes their own Consciences against them and makes them as you heard before Self-tormentors terrours to themselves What odds is here 4 In Mans Prison the most excellent Company and sweet Society may be found Paul and Silas were fellow Prisoners In Queen Maries days the most excellent Company to be found in England was in the Prisons Prisons were turned into Churches But in Gods Prison no better Society is to be found than that of Devils and damned Reprobates Matth. 25.41 5 In Mans Prison there is hope of a comfortable deliverance but in Gods Prison none Matt. 5.26 Thou shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the last Mite 'T is an everlasting Prison Compare these few obvious Particulars and judge then what is to be thought of that man who stands readier to cast himself into any guilt than into the least Suffering What is it but as if a man should offer his Neck to the Sword to save his hand The Lord convince us what trifles our Estates Liberties and Lives are to our Souls or to the peace and purity of our Consciences Inference IV. WHat an invaluable mercy is the pardon of sin which sets the Soul out of all danger of going to this prison When the debt is satisfied a man may walk as boldly before the prison door as he doth before his own they that owe nothing fear no Bayliffs 'T is the Law as I said before that commits men to Prison a Mittimus is but an instrument of Law but the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in them that believe Rom. 8.4 Yea they are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 There can be no process of Law against them For who shall condemn when it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 34. And that divine justice might be no bar to our faith or comfort he adds It is Christ that died and yet farther to assure us that his death hath made plenary satisfaction to God for all our sins and debts it added Yea rather that is risen again q. d. If the debts of believers to God were not fully paid and satisfied for by the blood of Christ how comes it to pass that our Surety is discharged as by his Resurrection he appears to be O Believer thy Bonds are Cancelled the hand-writing that was against thee is nailed to the Cross the blood of Christ hath done that for thee that all the Gold and Silver in the World could not do 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It is a counter price 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eâ—t pretium ex adverso respondent fully answering to thy debts Matth. 20.28 And hence to the Eternal joy of thy heart result three properties of thy pardon which are able to make thine eyes gush out with tears of joy whilst thou art reading of it 1. It is a free pardon to thy Soul though it cost Christ dear it costs thee nothing We have redemption even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 The project of it was Gods not thine the price for it was Christs blood not thine the glory and riches of free grace are illustriously displayed in thy forgiveness 2. It is as full as it is free a compleat and perfect cause produceth a compleat and perfect effect Acts 13.39 Iustified from all things what ever thy sins be for nature number or circumstances of aggravation they cannot exceed the value of the meritorious cause of Remission The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin 3. It must be as firm as it is free and full even an irrevocable pardon for ever more Christ did not shed his blood at an hazzard the way of justification by faith makes the promise sure Rom. 4 16. The justified shall never come again under condemnation O the unspeakable joy that flows from this Spring O the triumphs of faith upon this foundation It is not ravishing melting overwhelming and amazing
They looked upon trifles as things of greatest necessity and the most necessary things as meer trifles putting the greatest weight and value upon that which little concerned them and none at all upon their greatest concernment in the whole World Luke 12.21 Secondly The perpetual diversions that the trifles of this World gave them from the main use and end of their time O what a hurry and thick succession of earthly business and encumbrances filled up their days So that they could find no time to go alone and think of the awful and weighty concernments of the World to come Iames 5.5 Thirdly The total waste and expence of the only season of Salvation about these vanished impertinent trifles which is never more to be recovered Eccles. 9 10. Fourthly That these deluding shadows the pleasures of a moment is all they had in exchange for their Souls a goodly price it was valued at Matth. 16.26 Fifthly That by such a life they have not only ruined their own Souls but put their posterity by their education of them in the same course of life into the same path of destruction in which they went to Hell before them Psal. 49.13 Their posterity approve their saying Inference X. HOw rational and commendable is the courage and resolution of those Christians who chuse to bear all the sufferings in this World from the hands of men rather than to defile and wound their consciences with sin and thereby expose their Souls to the wrath of God for ever That which men now call Pride Humour Fancy and Stubbornness will one day appear to be their great wisdom and the excellency of their Spirits It is the tenderness of their Consciences not the pride and stoutness of their stomachs which makes them inflexible to sin they know the terrours of a wounded Conscience and had rather endure any other trouble from the hands of men than fall by known sin into the hands of an angry God Try them in other matters wherein the glory of God and peace or purity of their Consciences are not concerned and see if you can charge them with stubbornness and singularity It was the excellency of the Spirits of the Primitive Christians that they durst to tell the Emperour to his face when he threatned them with torments Pardon us O Emperour thou threatnest us with a Prison Ignoscâ— Imperator tu carcerem miâ—aris Deus Gehennam but God with Hell Do we call that ingenuity and good Nature which makes the mind foâ—t and tractable to temptations and will rather venture upon guilt than be esteemed singular Salvian tells us of some in his time Mali esse coâ—untur ne viies habiantur who were compelled to be evil lest they should be accounted vile and was that their excellency May I not fitly apply the words of Salvian here O in what honour and repute is Christ among Christians when Religion shall make them base and ignoble He that understands what the punishment of sin will be in Hell should endure all things rather than yield to sin on Earth Indeed if you that threaten and tempt others to violate their Consciences could bear the wrath of God for them in Hell it were somewhat but we know there is no suffering by a Proxy there they tremble at the word of God and have felt the burden of guilt and dare not yield to sin though they yield their Estates and Bodies to prevent it Inference XI HOw patiently should we bear the afflictions of this life by which sin is prevented and purged The discipline of our Spirits belongs to God the Father of Spirits he corrects us here that we may not be punished hereafter 1 Cor 11.32 We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World It is better for us to groan under afflictions on Earth than to roar under revenging wrath in Hell Parents who are wise as well as tender had rather hear their children sob and cry under the rod than stand with halters about their necks on the ladder bewailing the destructive indulgence of their Parents Your chastisements when sanctified are preventive of all the misery opened before It is therefore as unreasonable to murmur against God because you smart under his rod as it would be to accuse your dearest friend of cruelty because he strain'd your arm to snatch you from the fall of an house or wall which he saw ready to crush and overwhelm you in its ruins If we had less affliction we should have more guilt We see how apt we are to break over the hedg and go astray from God with all the clogs of affliction designed for our restraint what should we do if we had no clog at all It is better for you to be whipt to Heaven with all the rods of affliction than coached to Hell with all the pleasures of the World Christian thy God sees if thou do not that all these troubles are few enough to save thee from sin and Hell Thy corruptions require all these rods and all little enough If need be ye are in heaviness 1 Pet. 1.6 If there be need for it thy dearest comforts on Earth shall die that thy Soul may live but if thy mortification to them render their removal needless thou and they shall live together 'T is better be preserved in brine than rot in Honey Sanctified afflictions working under the efficacy of the blood of Christ are the safest way to our Souls Inference XII HOw doleful a change doth the death of wicked men make upon them from Palaces on Earth to the Prison of Hell No sooner is the Soul of a wicked man stept out of his own door at death but the Serjeants of Hell are immediatly upon it serving the dreadful summons on the Law-condemned wretch This arrest terrifies it more than the hand-writing upon the plaister of the Wall did him Dan. 5.5 How are all a mans apprehensions changed in a moment Out of what a deep sleep are most and out of what a pleasant dream of Heaven are some awaked and startled at death by the dreadful arrest and summons of God to condemnation How quickly would all a sinners mirth be dampt and turned into houlings in this World if Conscience were but throughly awakened It is but for God to change our apprehensions now and it would be done in a moment but the eyes of most mens Souls are not opened till death hath shut their bodily eyes and then how suddain and how sad a change is made in one day O think what it is to pass from all the pleasures and delights of this World into the torments and miseries of that World from a pleasant Habitation into an infernal Prison from the depth of security to the extremity of desperation from the arms and bosoms of dearest Friends and Relations to the Society of damned Spirits Lord what a change is here Had a gracious change been made upon their hearts by grace no such doleful change
and plunge their Souls into guilt and danger This was the result of all their debates with the flesh in the hour of temptation Cannot we live but to the dishonour of Christ and ruine of our own Souls by sinful compliance against our Conscienceâ— then welcome the worst of deaths rather than such a life Look into the stories of the Martyrs and you shall find this was the rule they still governed themselves by a Dungeon a Stake a Gibbet any thing rather than guilt upon the inner man death was welcome even in its most dreadful form to escape ruine to their precious and immortal Souls One kissed the Apparitor that brought him the tidings of his death Another being advised when he came to the critical point on which his life depended to have a care of himself So I will said he I will be as careful as I can of my best self my Soul These men understood the value and precious worth of their own Souls and certainly we shall never prove couragious and constant in sufferings till we understand the worth of our Souls as they did Consider and compare these sufferings in a few obvious particulars and then determine the matter in thine own breast 1. How much easier it is to endure the torments of men in our bodies than to feel the terrors of God in our Consciences Can the Creature strike with an arm like God O think what it is for the wrath of God to come into a mans bowels like water and like oyl into his bones as the expression is Psal. 109.18 Sure there is no compare betwixt the strokes of God and men 2. The sufferings of the body are but for a moment When the Proconsul told Polycarp that he would tame him with fire he replied Your fire shall burn but for the space of an hour and then it shall be extinguished but the fire that shall devour the wicked will never be quenched the sufferings of a moment are nothing to eternal sufferings 3. Sufferings for Christ are usually sweetned and made easie by the consolations of the Spirit but Hell-torments have no relief they admit of no ease 4. The life you shall live in that body for whose sake you have damned your Souls will not be worth the having it will be a life without comfort light or joy and what is there in life separate from the joy and comfort of life 5. In a word if you sacrifice your bodies for God and your Souls freely offer them up in love to Christ and his Truth your Souls will joyfully receive and meet them again at the Resurrection of the Just but if your poor Souls be now ensnared and destroyed by their fond indulgence to their bodies you will leave them at death despairing and meet them at the Resurrection howling Inference IX TO conclude If the Soul be so invaluably precious how great and irreparable a loss must the loss of a Soul to all Eternity be There is a double loss of the Soul of man the one in Adam which loss is recoverable by Christ the other by final impenitence and unbelief cutting it off from Christ and this is irreparable and irrecoverable Souls lost by Adams sin are within the reach of the arms of Christ but in the shipwrack of personal infidelity there is no plank to save the Soul so cast away Of all losses this is the most lamentable yet what more common O what a shrlek doth the unregenerate Soul make when it sees whereto it must and that there is no remedy Three cries are dreadful to hear on Earth yet all three are drown'd by a more terrible cry in the other World The cry of a condemned Prisoner at the Bar the cry of drowning Seamen and Passengers in a shipwrack the cries of Souldiers conquer'd in the field all these are fearful cries yet nothing to that of a Soul cast away to all Eternity and lost in the depth of Hell If a man as Chrysostome well observes lose an eye an arm a hand or leg it is a great loss but yet if one be lost there is another to help him for omnia Deus dedit duplicia God hath given us all those members double animam verò unam but we have but one Soul and if that be damned there is not another to be saved And it is no small aggravation to this loss that it was a wilful loss We had the offers and means of Salvation plentifully afforded us we were warn'd of this danger over and over we were intreated and beseecht upon the knee of importunity not to throw away our Souls by an obstinate rejection of Christ and Grace we saw the diligence and care of others for the salvation of their Souls some rejoycing in the comfortable assurance of it and others giving all diligence to make their calling and election sure we knew that our Souls were as capable of blessedness as any of those that are in enjoying God in Heaven or panting after that enjoyment on Earth yea some Souls that are now irrecoverably gone and many others who are going after them once were and now are not far from the Kingdom of God they had convictions of sin a sense of their lost and miserable state they began to treat with Christ in Prayer to converse with his Ministers and People about their condition and after all this even when they seemed to have clean escaped the snares of Satan to be again intangled and overcome when even come to Harbours mouth to be driven back again and cast away upon the Rocks O what a loss will this be O thou that createdst Souls with a capacity to know love and enjoy thee for ever who out of thine unsearchable Grace â—entest thine own Son out of thy bosom to seek and save that which was lost pity those poor Souls that cannot pity themselves let mercy yet interpose it self betwixt them and eternal ruine awaken them out of their pleasant slumber though it be at the brink of damnation lest they perish and there be none to deliver them DOCT. II. How precious and invaluable soever the Soul of man is it may be lost and cast away for ever This Proposition is supposed and implied in our Saviours words in the Text and plainly expressed in Matth. 7.13 Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat The way to Hell is throng'd with Passengers 't is a beaten rode one draws another along with him and scoffs at those that are afraid to follow 1 Pet. 4.4 Facilis descensus Averni 't is pleasant sailing with the Wind and Tide Infernus ab inferendo dicitur quia ita inferuntur praecipitantur â—t nunquam ascensuri sint Some derive the word Hell from a Verb which signifies to carry or thrust in millions go in but none return thence millions are gone down already and millions more are coming after as fast as Satan and their own lusts can
Atheist bethink thy self pause a while examine thine own breast whatever thy vile Atheistical thoughts sometimes are is there not at other times a fear of the contrary A jealousie that all these things which thou deridest and sportest thy wicked fancy with may and will prove true at last When thou readest or hearest that Text Ioh. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already His Mittimus is already made for Hell Doth not thy Conscience give thee a secret gird like a stitch in thy side Dare you venture all upon this issue that if those things you find in the Word be true you will stand to the hazard of them If that be a truth Mark 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned you will be content to be damned Or if Rom. 8.13 be a truth That they which live after the flesh shall dye you will run the hazard and bear the penalty of eternal death If Heb. 12.14 prove true That without holiness no man shall see God you will be content to be banished from his presence for evermore Speak your hearts in this matter and tell us Don't you live betwixt Atheistical surmises that all these are but cunning artifices and fears that at last they will prove the greatest Verities 4. Hath not God given you all the satisfaction you can reasonably desire of the undoubted truth and certainty of his Word What would you have which you have not already Would you have a Voice from Heaven the Scriptures you read or hear are a more sure Word than such a Voice would be 2 Pet. 1.19 or would you have a Messenger from Hell He that believeth not the written Word neither would believe if one should rise from the dead Luke 16 31. View the innate Characters of the Scriptures is it not altogether pure and holy full of Divine Wisdom and awful Majesty and in every respect such as evidenceth its Author to be the wise holy and just God who searcheth the hearts and reins Look upon the Seals and Confirmations of it hath not God confirmed it by divers Miracles from Heaven a Seal which neither Men or Devils could counterfeit And don't you see the blessing and power of God accompanying it in the Conversion and wonderful change of mens hearts and lives which can be done by no other hand than Gods Say not the Miracles which confirm the Gospel are but uncertain Traditions and except you your selves see them wrought you cannot believe them There are a thousand things which you do believe though you never saw them and what you require for your satisfaction every man may require the same for his and so Christ must live in all parts of this World and repeat his Miracles over and over in all Ages to satisfie the unreasonable incredulity of those that question their truth after the fullest Confirmation and Seal hath been given that is capable to be given or the heart of man can desire should be given and if all this should be done you might be as far from believing as now you are for many of those that saw and heard the things wrought by Christ contradicted and blasphemed and so might you 5. Satan who undermines your assent to these things is forced to give his own he that tempts you to look on them as Fables himself knows and is convinced that they are realities the Devils also believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 they know and feel the truth of these things though it be their great design and interest to shake your assent to them they know Christ is the Son of God and that there will be a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that there are Torments prepared for themselves and all whom they seduce from God Matth. 8.29 If you ungod God you must unman your selves yea not only make your selves less than men but worse than Devils 6. In a word let thy own heart O Atheist be Judge whether these be real doubts still sticking in your minds after you have done all that becomes men to do for satisfaction in such important cases Or whether they be not such Principles as you willingly â—oment and nourish in your hearts as a protection to your sensual lusts whose pleasures you would fain have without interruptions and over-awings by the fears of a Judgment to come and a righteous retribution from a just and terrible God! Examine your hearts in that point and you will soon find the cheat to be in that I here point you to you have not studied the word impartially nor brought your doubts and scruples with an humble unbiassed teachable spirit to those that are wise and able to resolve them much less prayed for the Spirit of Illumination but willingly entertained whatever Atheistical Wits invent or the Devil suggests as a Defensative against the checks of Conscience and fears of Hell in the way of sin You are loth those things should be true which the Scriptures speak and are glad of any colourable argument or pretence to still your own Consciences Is not this the case The Lord stop your desperate course your paths lead to Hell The ninth way of losing the precious Soul opened IX Precious Souls are daily plunged into the gulph of perdition by Prophaneness and Debauchery How many every where lye wallowing in this puddle glorying in their shame and running into all excess of riot The Hypocrite steals to Hell in a private close way of concealed sin but the prophane gallop along the publick road at noon-day They declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not Isa. 3.9 The shew of their countenance testifieth against them The Hypocrite hath devotion in his countenance and Heaven in his mouth you know not by his words or countenance whither he is going but the prophane hide it not they are past shame and above blushing at the horridst impieties Look as God hath some Servants more eminent forward and couragious in the ways of Godliness than others men that will not hide their Principles or be ashamed of the ways of Godliness in the face of danger so the Devil hath some Servants as eminent for wickedness who scorn to sneak to Hell by concealment of their wickedness but avow and owne it without fear or shame in the open sight of Heaven and Earth Where-ever they come they defile the Air they breathe in with horrid blasphemies and obscene discourses not to be named and leave a strong scent of Hell behind them This Age hath brought forth multitudes of these Monsters the reproach and shame of the Nation that bred them I have little hope to stop one of them in the career and full speed to Hell They have lost the sense of sin the restraints of Shame and fear and then what is left to check them in their course I cannot hope that such a Discourse as this shall ever come into their hands except it be to sacrifice it to the flames yet not knowing the ways of Providence which
without Plea or Apology for your supine neglects of the seasons of Salvation Argument II. SEcondly The consideration of the uncertainty and slippery nature of these spiritual seasons must awaken in us all care and diligence to secure and improve them This nick of opportunity is tempus labile a slippery season it is but short in it self and very uncertain To day whilst it is said to day saith the Apostle if ye will hear his voice Heb. 3.15 q. d. you have now a short uncertain but most precious and valuable season for your Souls lay hold on it whilst it is called to day for if this season be let slip the time to come is called by another name that is not to day but to morrow Your time is the present time take heed of procrastinating and putting it off till that which is called to day which is your only season be past and gone This precious inch of time though it be more worth than all the other greater parts and portions of your time yet it is as much in fluxu in hasty motion and expence as other parts of time are and being once lost is never more to be recalled or recovered Few men know or understand it whilst it is current other seasons for natural or civil actions are known and stated but the time of Grace is not so easily discerned and therefore commonly mistaken and lost and this comes to pass partly through 1. Presumptuous Hopes 2. Discouraging Fears 1. Presumptuous Hopes which put it too far forth and perswade us this season is yet to come that we have before us Praesumendo sperant sperando perâ—unt and that to morrow shall be as to day Thus through presumption men hope and by their presumptuous hopes they perish this is the ruine of most Souls that perish 2. Discouraging Fears put it too far back and represent it as long since past and gone whilst it is yet in being and in our hands By such pangs of desperation Satan cuts the very nerves of industry and diligence and causes Souls to yield themselves as by consent for lost and hopeless even whilst the Gospel is opening their eyes to see their sin and misery which is a part of the work in order to their recovery Thus the eyes of thousands are dazled that they cannot discern the season of Mercy and so it slides from them as if it had never been God came near them in the means of their Conversion yea and nearer than that in the motions of his Spirit upon their Consciences and Affections but they knew not the time of their visitation and now the things of their peace are hidden from their eyes Had those Convictions been obeyed and those purposes that were begotten in their hearts been followed home by answerable executions of them happy had they been to all Eternity but their careless neglects have quenched them and the door is shut and who knows whether it may be opened any more O dally not with the Spirit of God resist not his calls his motions upon the Soul are tender things they may soon be quenched and never recovered Argument III. NEglect not the seasons of Mercy the day of Grace because opportunity facilitates the great work of your Salvation it is much easier to be done in such a season than it can be afterwards an impression is easily made upon wax when it is melted but stay a while till it be hardned and if you lay the greatest weight upon the seal it leaves not its impress upon it Much so it is with the heart there is a season when God makes it soft and yielding when the affections are thawed and melted under the Word Conscience is full of sense and activity the will pliable now is the time to set in with the motions of the Spirit there is now a gale from Heaven if you will take it and if not it tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men Neglect of the season is the loss of the Soul The heart like melted wax will naturally harden again and then to how little purpose are your own feeble essays Heb. 3.15 't is both easie and successful striving when the Spirit of God strives in you and with you you are now workers together with God and such work goes on smoothly and sweetly that which is in motion is easily moved but if once the heart be set you may tug to little purpose Argument IV. THE infinite importance and weight of Salvation is alone instead of all motives and arguments to make men prize and improve every proper season for it It is no ordinary concern it is your life yea it is your eternal life The solemnity and awfulness of such a business as this is enough to swallow up the spirit of a man O what an awful found have such words as these Ever with the Lord Suppose you saw the Glory of Heaven the full reward of all the labours and sufferings of the Saints the blessed harvest of all their prayers tears diligence and self-denial in this world or suppose you had a true representation of the Torments of Hell and could but hear the wailings of the damned for the neglect of the season of Mercy and their passionate but vain wishes for one of those days which they have lost would you think any care any pains any self-denial too much to save and redeem one of these opportunities Surely you would have a far higher estimation of them than ever you had in your lives A Tryal for a mans whole Estate is accounted a solemn business among men the Cast of a Dye for a mans life is a weighty action and seldom done without anxiety of the mind and trembling of the hand yet both these are but Childrens Play compared with Salvation-work Three things put an unspeakable solemnity upon this matter it is the precious Soul which is above all valuation that lies at stake and is to be saved or lost The saving or losing of it is not for a time but for ever and this is the only season in which it will be eternally saved or cast away all hangs upon a little inch of time which being over-slipt and lost is never more to be recalled or recovered Lord with what serious spirits deep and weighty consideration fears and tremblings of heart should men and women attend the seasons of their Salvation Believe it Reader since thy Soul projected its first thought there never was a more weighty and concerning subject than this presented to thy thoughts O therefore let not thy thoughts trifle about it and slide from it as they use to do in other things of common concernment Argument V. IF we set any value upon the true pleasure of life or solid comforâ— of our Souls at death let us by no means neglect the special seasons and opportunities of Salvation we now enjoy These two things the pleasure of life and comfort in death should be prized by every