all these Considerations thereby also exhorteth them to that which is the only true Wisdom even to turn unto the Lord so to escape that Wrath that is to come And he as an holy Man that knew the Terror of the Lord doth thus persuade Men And O let our Souls be persuaded by it And to this end USE I Would first persuade you to believe that there is this Wrath to come VVe knowing the Terror of the Lord that is our selves being assured by believing that such a Wrath is in the Heart and Breast of God against impenitent Sinners as also understanding what and how dreadful that Wrath is we do persuade Men 2 Cor. 5. 11. And for Men to apprehend and believe it is the first most effectual Engine to persuade them by God did not ere he placed these Souls of ours in our Bodies first carry them down to Hell and then up to Heaven that so we having a fore-knowledg of either by Sight and Sense might then be left to act in this World accordingly But God hath left only the Revelation of both these unto Faith in this World by the Word Heb. 11. 7. 'T is said Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with Fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his House By the which he condemned the VVorld and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith You know how the Day of this great Wrath to come the Day of Judgment is assimilated by Christ to the Days of Noah Mat. 24. 37 38 39. And that among other in respect of the Security and Unbelief that is and will be afore it comes in the Hearts of Men about it which is Christ's special scope there And the place in the Hebrews cited answerably reckoneth that Faith of Noah who being forewarned of the Flood was moved with Fear and prepared an Ark to save himself and his Family amongst those other Instances of Saving Faith which that Chapter doth enumerate as that which had this Wrath to come signified thereby in his eye Shewing withal the Foundation of the Condemnation of that World to lie in this That though Noah declared this Wrath to come unto them by his Preaching and Example for as he was a Preacher of Righteousness so of this Wrath as Enoch also had been yet they believed it not because it was unseen as the words of that 7th Verse are For these things then happened in Types of what was to fall out concerning this great Wrath to come that Destruction of the old World being but the shadow of this as expresly 't is interpreted to be 1 Pet. 3. 20. The Spirits in Prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing The like Figure whereunto is Baptism which now also saves us If the Ark was of Salvation then the Flood of Damnation and that then as the word also now evidently shews This Wrath it is a thing to come as that of the Flood then was to them stiled therefore the Wrath to come and so it is a thing not seen and so is reckoned amongst the Objects of Faith Men indeed have some lesser stitches in Conscience afore-hand both from it and about it but little do they imagine that these will or should ever become the matter of such torturing Aches as they rise up to in the end Men do as little imagine this of these fore-running Warnings or secret Gripings and Twitches as the Old World did then that the usual Clouds of Heaven that caused Storms would have ever swell'd to the drowning of the World Nor indeed doth this fall out to Mens Souls until the Curse or Wrath of God enters like Oil into their Bones as the Psalmist speaks of Judas Psal 109. 18. For this Wrath is in the mean time a thing hidden in the Breast and Bosom of the Almighty and is therefore termed a Treasure of Wrath A Treasure because hid so Treasures use to be they are termed hidden Treasures Prov. 2. 4. and elsewhere And for the same reason the coming of it upon Men is called the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of Luk. 19. 42. God As the things belonging to Mens Peace so their Destruction are hidden from their Eyes Though Damnation slumbers not 2 Pet. 2. 3. but is in its March and proceedeth in its approaches towards them every hour nearer and nearer yet Men slumber in respect of the belief thereof and not so much as dream of it in their Slumber 1 Thess 5. 3 6 9. The Apostle's complaint there is the same in effect with that of Moses Who knows the Power of thine Anger so as to apply his Heart to Wisdom The Baptist who began the publishing of the Gospel he began it with forewarning Men of this Wrath and stiled it the Wrath to come And Christ whose office was to preach that Gospel seconds him therein and terms it Hell-Fire c. Now observe how he speaks to the Pharisees about it O ye Generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the Wrath to come Mat. 3. 7. 'T is Vox admirantis as if he had said 'T is strange that the Preaching of Wrath to come should any way startle yours so hardened Hearts as to see you here attending at my Sermons and that the Consideration thereof should any way arrest or make any dint upon your Souls The reason of his Wonder was because indeed Men believe it not or very slightly Who hath demonstrated it unto you as his word is And Christ useth the very same word about this matter Luke 12. 5. I will forewarn you or demonstrate to you whom you shall fear even him that can destroy in Hell All this still tends to shew how hidden it is from the most of Men. The very same Unbelief is more darkly and in other terms expressed in the Old Testament Deut. 32. 29. O that they would consider their latter end And Eccles 11. 8 9. Remember the Days of Darkness for they are many But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Now to help you a little in the belief of this Besides what the Scriptures speak hereof 1. Consult thine own Heart Thou hast a busy Principle within thee Conscience that like a Spy sent in from an adverse Party into anothers Quarters observes and takes notice of all that passeth not thy Actions or Speeches only but what is done in thy Privy-Chamber or Closet of thy Soul and not only so but thou mayest hear the noise of his Pen still a running and punctually writing that which it observeth and there is not a Motion a Lust a Desire a Purpose an End a flying Thought but it diligently doth set down and can give thee the Sense thereof and thou canst not stop the Course hereof And what is the meaning of all this but that thy Judgment is continually a preparing thine Examination a taking
of a contrary vertue or effect he compares the Curse of God on his Soul unto a spiritual Oyl of a piercing penetrating Violence that strikes in as Quicksilver into the Bones and Nervous Parts and fills them with unsufferable Torments He compareth also this Curse and the Effects of it unto such painful Diseases as are caused by sharp Corroding Waters in the Bowels as of the Gout in the Bowels which when it possesseth those Inwards is mortal and intolerable The Apostle's Allusion elsewhere is correspondent to both these of the Psalmist when he says The Word of God through the Power of the Spirit is a savour of Death unto Death in some Mens Hearts as of Life unto Life in others 2 Cor. 2. 16. The meaning whereof is that look as venemous and sulphurous Vapours and Damps in Mines and Caverns arising out of the Earth do strike up such scents or smells as often kill by extinguishing the Spirits of those that descend into them Such exhalations of Hell and Wrath doth the Spirit of God by the Word preached exhale and draw forth and cause to ascend in some Mens Consciences which gives them the very scent of Hell it self They are the Savour or Odour of Death afore-hand unto Death and Damnation and so are Vapours of the same kind out of the same Matter that is laid up in the Mine or Treasury it self as those out of the Earth use to be The second thing requisite to be added for the compleating the Demonstration is That such immediate Impressions of Divine Wrath in this Life are sure and certain Evidences I say not as to what Persons but of what kind of Torment it is which in the fulness of it befalleth Men in Hell and that both do proceed from the same immediate Cause This needs not much probation for the Instances afore given carry their own evidence with them of this thing to any intelligent Reader And this general Reason for it will readily occur to any ones Thoughts that surely God will not punish them in Hell with a Punishment of lesser sort or kind for we speak not now of comparisons of Degrees than what his Dispensation reacheth forth unto some Men in this Life For that is the proper day and time and season of Wrath and of the fierceness of his Wrath in which the Fruits of their own doings are every way in their full Ripeness and Maturity to be returned to them and these inflictions in this Life are but the Buds and the Blooms that preceed yet both from the same Root and Cause Now to be punish'd by God's Wrath but mediately through the force only of created Instruments c. as of material Fire or the like if that were all the Punishment there this were certainly by a lower kind or sort than to be punish'd immediately from the Wrath of God it self As will abundantly appear in the second Section when I shall set out the dreadfulness of such a Punishment But let us particularly weigh the Instances themselves as we have singly and apart delivered them 1. Those Dispensations to wicked and bad Men as Judas c. 2. The same as they are exemplified in good and holy Men as Heman c. And either of them will afford an Argument for the proof of this Proposition in Hand 1. These direful Impressions of God's immediate Wrath when they do befal wicked Men what are they to them Not only Pledges or Fore-runners of that Punishment to come for such all sorts of Afflictions are unto wicked Men. But further these are Spices and Grudgings and lesser intermitting Fits of those future fiery burning and continued Calentures and Feavers yea Earnest-Penies of Hell and so of the same kind with what in full Men shall there receive As we use to say and speak of those glorious Joys which some Saints aforehand have the priviledge to partake of that they are pure drops of those Rivers of Pleasure flowing immediately from the same Fountain of Life So we may as confidently say of those breakings forth of Wrath upon wicked Mens Souls here that they are the sippings of that Cup of Wrath without mixture as the Revelation Rev. 14. 10. distinguisheth it from those in this Life whereof the Wicked must drink the Dregs though it be Eternity unto the bottom And therefore we may make a true and warrantable measure of what all such Men are to look for in Hell by what some few of them do partake of here And the Argument is strong every way from the one of these unto the other For as Heaven and Hell are Parallel in a way of contraries as out of Rom. 9. 22 23. hath been shewn So those unspeakable glorious Joys and these contrary extraordinary Horrors and Anguishes on the other hand do hold Parallel also in being in their several kinds Prelibations and Tastes of what is to come in the other World And in this very posture and tendency doth the Apostle set these two Dispensations together in this Life in a Parallel way as in Rom. 9. he doth the other whilst in the same Scripture 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. He compares those Joys common in those times in them that are saved to the breakings forth at the opening of the Gospel as of a Box of Spiknard of a sweet Odour or Savour of Life unto Life namely of the Life to come afore-hand sensing their Souls with some of those Perfumes that are fetcht from that Country and only grow there and on the contrary such also he declares those precursory Savours or Odours of Death in their kind to be which do arise from the threatnings of the same Word in Horrors upon many that perish which he pronounceth to be the very Evaporations of that Lake of Fire and Brimstone Rev. 20. 14 which is the second Death in stiling them the Odour or Savour of Death unto Death so speaks he These Men often smell the scent of Hell in their Consciences and the Spirits of it do strike up into their Souls The very Ashes and Smoak of that Vesuvius or Aetna of Hell I allude unto the last Words of Deut. 32. 22. do fall upon them which lighting upon Men in this Life do as those Ashes of the Furnace Exod. 9. 8 9 10. miraculously did they cause sores and blains upon Mens Consciences And however if the Apostle did therewithal intend the more common Dispensations by the Word and so both the ordinary and extraordinary of which we now speak Yet still take and compare those extraordinary Joys in the one as a Savour of Life with the extraordinary Horrors that are the Savour of Death unto the other and in their Proportion there is still the like reason of both as to the matter in hand and an alike persignificancy in either of those two eternal Estates Again that each of these are alike by and from God and by his more immediate Hand dispensed This I take from that Phil. 1. 28. and submit the
and Body c. or his downfal from a petty Kingdom Did these begin now at length so sadly to return upon him so as in the end his Spirit should begin to take them in and lay them at length to Heart which at first he in an holy Gallantry had made so light of Oh no he had fully concocted and digested all that had been occasioned from all or any of these and had quieted himself with one or two good Cordials namely that the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken and blessed be the Name of the Lord Chap. 1. 21. And again shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord and not evil Chap. 2. 10. which had carried away all that Sorrow might have been stirring in him from these What might be the matter then that was the cause of these so high disturbances The next Words ver 4. do enform us For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me the Poyson whereof drinks up my Spirits The Terrors of God do set themselves in Array against me Let us go on duly to weigh and consider these Passages of his Heman he in his Horrors had complained Psal 88. 7. That God's Wrath lay hard or heavy on him and says no more of it But Job here He in like manner feeling the like weight thereof goes about to express how heavy and how great the burthen was of his Grief that was caused thereby And he calls for a mighty Scale to weigh it in Such a Scale as might be large enough to contain all the Sands of the Sea Oh that my Grief were throughly weighed and my Calamities laid in the Ballance together for now it would be heavier than the Sand of the Sea His meaning is that to have his Grief and Calamity put in one of the Scales and the Sand of the Sea in the other his Calamity would be infinitely heavier His invention was heightned by what he really felt The greatness of it made him Eloquent For as Love so deep sense of Misery useth so to do And he pitcheth as you see upon the weightiness of Sand to express it by which is of all things the weightiest as Solomon tells us Prov. 27. 3. A Stone is heavy and the Sand is weighty Yea and the Sand of the Sea which take both those Sands within the Sea at the bottom of it and those also scattered without on the Shoar they do make an immence bulk and body condensated if they were gathered together into one heap as the Waters were into one place when God made the Sea Job had a most sublime Fancy as the high strains of that whole Book shew And this is in view a compaparison vast and great enough one would think as could be used But yet further observe how he breaks off that attempt of his to express it by this or by any such comparisons though in appearance never so hyperbolical Which breaking off his next Speech utters My Words says he are swallowed up As a small thing is swallowed up of a greater as a drop of the Ocean as one small scattered Sand would be in the bulk of all those Sands of the Sea when cast in among them So were all these his vast expressions and comparisons he had used although thus great which yet from all Rhetoricians would have had the name of Hyperboles far exceeding the reality But yet in his sense and feeling were swallowed up by the thing it self I feel my Words fall short says he so Broughton paraphraseth on those Words And therefore he cuts himself off from using any more or higher decipherings of it of any kind if any could have been found as being all but meer Metaphors too light and holding no weight with that far exceeding weight of Misery he felt as the Apostle on the contrary comparing present Afflictions and the Glory to come together speaks but Job here he gives it clean over as a thing unexpressible And in stead of all Essays that way he chooseth rather to speak and shew the Cause thereof the same which I in this Treatise have endeavoured to do And thereby he sets forth in a Reality the dreadfulness of it indeed And more than by all things whatever that his Grief could have been compared unto This you have in these Words For the Arrows of the Almighty are within me he had sores without in his Body and Afflictions in his outward Man or Condition Fears without and Terrors within he complains not that you hear of them at all Oh but they are these Arrows that are within me says he the Arrows of the Almighty That is which none but an Almighty Hand could shoot and shoot so deep such Arrows as could come out of no other Forge or Quiver The Soul of a Man is a Spirit of a vast depth and God and God alone can shoot up into it unto the Arrow Head And yet again besides the strength of the Arm that shoots them and the forkedness of the Arrows themselves they were all as Arrows that are dipt in Poyson envenomed with the guilt of his Sins which as Chap. 13. 23. 26. God had now set on upon his Soul Thou makest me possess the Sins of my Youth Thus it follows in the next Words And the Poyson thereof drinks up my Spirit They do not only let out the Spirits which Wounds made by other Arrows use to do but they drink them up The Strength and Violence of the Venom of them had such an Efficacy on his very Soul and the very Spirit and Life thereof as they drank all up Again it follows And the Terrors of God have set themselves in array against me God drew forth his Wrath as it were into an ordered Army into Rank and File at once to fall upon him If one Man had an whole Army set against him and each armed Man therein were to shoot a Bullet or an Arrow into him at once and if withal we could make the Supposition that that Man should have his Life still renewed after each Wound given so as never to dye and yet they still to renew to shoot all at once every moment how dreadful is this to any ones Thoughts thereof but yet these are but Men not God whose Arrows he says these were Oh that he would destroy me says Job that is kill me out-right so ver 8 9. Oh that I might have my Request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for Even that it would please God to destroy me and that he would let loose his Hand and cut me off Well But Job canst thou not stir up thy Spirits and harden thy self against all these present Sorrows The Spirit of Man will bear its Infirmity if it be steel'd with resolution To this Job himself gives answer by way of preoccupation to this effect That if Death indeed or a being utterly cut off should come upon me with all that Host of Fears whereof elsewhere Job tells us Death
TWO DISCOURSES I. Of the Punishment of Sin in Hell Demonstrating the Wrath of God to be the immediate Cause thereof II. Proving a State of Glory for Just Men upon their Dissolution BY THO. GOODWIN D. D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard M. DC XCIII To the Reader THo we judg it needless to speak much of this eminent Author whose Praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches yet we could not but give some account of the publishing of these small Tracts at this time Many who well knew how mighty this Man of God was in the Scriptures and how skilful from his great Abilities and long Experience in the interpreting of them have impatiently desired the publishing of his Labours but that being a Work of time it was thought fit to gratify them in the interim with this short Treatise And tho his excellency lay chiefly in wading into the great Deeps of the Gospel yet among many other Discourses this of Hell was made choice of wherein we think you have the true scriptural Notion of it We judged that such a rousing Argument might not be unseasonable in so secure and Atheistical an Age as this and that the Profound Mysteries of the Gospel excellently discovered in his Lectures upon the Ephesians might be the more welcom to those who have known the Terrors of the Lord or have their Senses exercised to discern spiritual things Upon the request of some we have also added a Discourse of the State of Glory for the Saints immediately after this Life being very suitable to Times of Suffering since it was the constant Method of the Apostles to keep up in the Eyes of the Primitive Saints the Glory of another World as what was proper to support them under the Sufferings of this And 't was one main design of the Transfiguration of Christ in the presence of Peter James and John who were to be great Sufferers in the Times of the New Testament as Moses and Elias had been under the Old intimating what the Saints in after Ages might expect in a Conformity to Christ after all their Sufferings We therefore judg both Treatises fitly joined together Punishments and Rewards being great Motives which God proposeth to Obedience and Perseverance in Holiness and are both necessary at this time to be urged the one to awaken hardened and secure Persons the other to encourage Christians to go on in a holy Course through all the difficulties of this degenerate Age. That both Discourses may be bless'd of God to the ends for which they were designed shall be the Prayer of Thankfull Owen James Barron The Contents HEb 10. 30 31. 2 Thes 1. 8 9. Rom. 22. explained at large from page 1 to 5. § I. Chap. 1. The Subject of the Discourse set out and reduced to 2 Heads 1. That God's Wrath is the immediate Cause of the Punishment of Sin in Hell 2. The dreadfulness of that Punishment inferred and argued therefrom from p. 5. to p. 8. Chap. 2. The first Sort of Proofs from divers Scriptures from p. 8. to p. 21. Chap. 3. Rom. 9. 23. explicated only so far as concerns the Execution Several particulars in the words that shew the power of God's Wrath to be the immediate inflicting Cause and immediately inflicting the Punishment An Explication of Rom. 2. 8 9. added for confirmation of all p. 21 to 35. Chap. 4. That this immediate Wrath of God is set forth in Scripture unto us under the similitude of Fire and fiery Indignation The Examples of persons devoured by Fire in the old Testament shadows of this Punishment by the immediate Wrath of God This the fire wherein the Devil and his Angels be tormented p. 36 to 55. Chap. 5. A second sort of proofs Demonstrations from Instances both of wicked and holy Men who have felt in this life Impressions of God's immediate Wrath And that such Impressions are Evidences of what in the fulness is in Hell p. 55. to 78. Chap. 6. Containing the Reasons 1. God's Justice 2. Avenging Wrath otherwise not satisfied A Demonstration added p. 78 to 111. Chap. 7. A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other divine Truths p. 111 to 115. § II. The dreadfulness of the Punishment in Hell argued from all and each of the particulars treated of in the former section page 115 to 117. § 1. The first head of Demonstrations from this in general that it is a falling into the hands of God immediately p. 117 to 132. § 2. The 2d head of Demonstrations from the capacity of the Soul the subject of this Punishment and this that it is the destruction of the Soul p. 132 to 140. § 3. The 3d. head of Demonstration drawn from the final causes formerly mentioned As 1. The Glory of God 2. The manifestation of his Power p. 141 to 156. § 4. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying God's Justice which is the 2d particular Attribute p. 156 to 167. § 5. Demonstrations taken from the satisfying of avenging Wrath the 3d. particular Attribute p. 167 to 177. § 6. A fourth head of Demonstrations drawn from those Instances both of good and bad Men their having suffered those kind of Terrors in this life p. 177 to 191. § 7. The last head of Demonstrations that it is a falling into the hands of the living God and what that further superadds to the dreadfulness of the Punishment p. 191 to 197. § III. Some Vses Corollaries Meditations p. 197 to 257. A SERMON intituled An immediate State of Glory for the Spirits of Just Men upon dissolution demonstrated from 2 Cor. 5. 5. pag. 259. ad finem A DISCOURSE OF THE Punishment of Sin in HELL DEMONSTRATING That the Wrath of God is the immediate Cause of that PUNISHMENT HEB. 10. 30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again The Lord shall judg his People It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God 2 THESS 1. 8 9. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power ROM 9. 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endureth with much long-suffering the vessels of Wrath fitted to destruction WHat Hell and Destruction are is a Mystery as well as what Heaven is And the true and proper Notion or Conception of either are a Riddle to the most of Men. As Eye hath not seen Ear not heard nor hath it entred into the Heart of Man the Natural Man what God hath prepared for those that love him so nor what God hath prepared for them that hate him For it is the same and no other punishment but that which is prepared
Vessels of Mercy all will acknowledg that when it is spoken of as in relation to Heaven as here it is that importeth Souls their being set apart to be immediately filled with the Love and Mercy of God that as God is Love so that they as Vessels swim in that Ocean for ever That they dwell in God immediately and are filled with fulness of him And why should not then this other of being Vessels of Wrath be intended in the same Sense also and that Sense be urged accordingly Especially seeing it is evident that one scope of the Apostle here was to make a Parallel between the eternal Glorification of the one and eternal Destruction of the other and accordingly between what are to be the Causes of them And if so the Law of this Parallel will also carry it to this that as the Saints in Heaven have an immediate Participation of God that likewise in Hell there shall be oppositely an immediate Participation of God's Wrath. In Heaven they are not said to be Vessels of Mercy because God shews them Mercy only by created Benefits or Gifts bestowed or because they have God's Mercy communicated by Creatures though it must be affirmed that there is a confluence of these but because God himself appears all in Love Mercy and Kindness to them And it is not nothing that according to the same Analogy of Speech unto this Particular in multitudes of Scriptures in the New Testament This Destruction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Singularity Eminency and simply stiled Wrath and the Wrath of God And so it bears away that Denomination from all other Punishments by Creatures except that by Magistrates in God's stead and who bear the Image of God Rom. 13. 5. so bearing the Name of its immediate Cause The Baptist he began that stile in the New Testament The Wrath to come Mat. 3. by way of destinction from all that is executed in this Life And the whole New Testament afterwards much useth that Phrase As when the day of Judgment is stiled the day of Wrath Rom. 2. And elsewhere It is equivalent to say a Child of Hell Mat. 23. 15. And a Child of Wrath Eph. 2. 3. To say fitted to Destruction as Rom. 9. and ordained to Wrath 1 Thess 5. 9. To say Damnation hasteneth 2 Pet. 2. 3. And the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Col. 3. 6. As in like manner on the contrary Saved from Wrath Rom. 5. Delivered from Wrath through Christ 1 Thess 1. ult is all one and saved from Death and Hell elsewhere And this is usually termed the Wrath of God so Joel 3. ult Col. 3. 6. and Eph. 5. 6. Rom. 9. 22. That which I would observe from both is that according to the general Analogy of common Speech in all Languages the punishment as the Effect bearing the Denomination of that which is the immediate Instrument of the principal Agent in that Punishment Thus the torture by the Rack is called the Rack whipping the Rod. So in Deaths Crucifying was termed the Cross Hanging the Gallows Thus 't is in the Punishments which Men execute That in like Analogy of Speech this ultimate Punishment should so generally be termed Wrath and the Wrath of God by way of eminency and difference from all other fore-running effects of Wrath executed by Creatures in this Life this still strengthens the former Notion that it is indeed the Wrath of this God it self in a way of eminent difference from what by Creatures he doth in Wrath pour out that is the inflicter of that Punishment I shall for the close of this cast in one Scripture-Testimony more both to confirm this Interpretation of Wrath given upon Rom. 9. and the whole of the Point in hand It is IV. Rom. 2. 8 9. Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish unto every Soul of Man that doth evil c. I observed afore from the second Verse of this Chapter how that this Punishment was termed both the Judgment of God ver 2. as denoting God to be the Judge and also Wrath as of God the Avenger Now in these Words ver 8 9. the Apostle pursueth the latter more fully when he says Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish to every Soul of Man These are two pairs or Conjugates of Causes and Effects 1. Indignation and Wrath as the Causes 2. Tribulation and Anguish as the two Effects and that on the Souls of Men which are the Vessels of this Wrath and Indignation and Subjects of that Tribulation and Anguish thence arising And truly his instancing in the Soul which though it often signifies the whole Person yet here seems purposely done as being that in or of Man which alone is immediately capable of this Indignation and Wrath of God and the Impressions or Effects of Anguish there-from and is the proper seat of that Anguish and Tribulation And that Phrase of Wrath its being said to be treasured up in the 5th verse suits this For what is the Treasury or Magazine thereof but the Heart and Bosom of God Himself in which it lyes hid as Treasures use to do in some secret place Even as the Saints Life is said to be hid in God Col. 3. 3. compare Deut. 32. 24. I shall but further superadd that noticed Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium Damnatorum Famed by Gerard in his Common Place De inferno Sect. 30. out of Luther's Enarrations or Commentary upon Genesis Chap. 45. upon the 14 15. ver Also by Fabritius saying of Luther which out of deep experience of the Wrath of God in his Soul at his first Humiliation and Conversion he had learned The Wrath of God is Hell the Hell of Devils and all damned Spirits CHAP. IV. That this immediate Wrath of God is in Scripture set forth unto us under the Similitude of Fire and fiery Indignation The Examples of Persons devoured by Fire in the Old Testament Shadows of this Punishment by the immediate Wrath of God This the Fire wherein the Devil and his Angels are tormented THere hath been nothing more divertive of the Thoughts of Men from apprehending or so much as imagining God's immediate Wrath to be a cause of that Punishment in Hell then that the Scriptures do so often make mention of Fire c. as the Instrument thereof and so Mens conceptions do terminate therein and go no further But I shall rather on the other hand make an Argument of it Namely that indeed the Scriptures do set out this immediate Wrath of God under the Similitude Resemblance and Representation of Fire and that sometimes when Hell-fire is spoken of the Wrath of God is intended thereby Unto which I yet Preface this That I must not nor dare I say that there is no material Fire in Hell ordained for Punishment to Mens Bodies but that it is Rational that the Body having sinned as well as the Soul it should have a meet recompence of Reward suited thereto
and God's Wrath. Again ver 10. destroyed of the Destroyer Who was the Destroyer then Angels So Heb. 11. 28. And what Destruction or Destroyer under the Gospel is it that is typified out by these even God Himself who as by Christ is said to kill the Soul and destroy Body and Soul in Hell So ere the Apostle took off his Pen from prosecuting that Argument in the very same Chapter he in full effect says as much in setting afore them how it was God's Power and Wrath instead of those other Destroyers with which Sinners have now to do ver 22. Do you provoke the Lord to Jealousie are you stronger than he I might confirm this Notion from other Types 1 Cor. 15. 44 45. This fore-laid To approach nearer to our purpose in hand there are two things further to be done 1. as touching the Type it self what kind of Fire that was which devoured them And the manner of their Deaths The Fire was another manner of Fire than this our Elementary common Fire This was Fire from Heaven and therefore said to be a Fire from the Lord that devoured them it was such a Fire as blasts of Lightning are which strike and blast and shrivel the Spirits of a Living Body in an instant which is evident by the manner of their Deaths The Hebrew Doctors say of it that it was a Fire which burnt their Souls not their Bodies their meaning is their Bodies were not consumed or devoured by it for Lev. 10. 5. 't is said They carried their Bodies and Coats into the Tent as untouch'd It was therefore such a Fire as Lightning is from Heaven which useth to strike and lick up Mens Spirits in an instant when yet in the mean time it consumes not breaks not so much as Skin or Flesh which our Elementary Fire preys first and most upon It was therefore a far subtiller Fire then Culinary or Kitchin Fire which suitably served as the fittest and nearest Type of this fiery Indignation and of the vengeance which it executes And this was but the Shadow The second is What the substance answering to these Types should be This I shall set out by two things 1. What is the thing or subject devoured by this fiery Indignation It is the immortal Souls of Men these are the Fewel which this Fire doth prey upon As to the truth of the thing it self I need not insist on it But the Analogy of that as the Shadow and this as typified thereby that is the matter afore me Let it be considered that the Death and Destruction of the immortal Soul in Man could not any other way be more lively shadowed forth than by such a devouring as Moses word is or licking up the vital and animal Spirits that run in the Body when yet the Body it self remains unburnt Thereby demonstrating that it was such a Fire as struck immediately at that which is the Fountain of Life it self in the Body and at that which is the Bond the Vinculum the Tye of Union between Soul and Body for such are those Spirits And yet not so much as to singe the outward bulk or carcase of the Body There could have been nothing invented in the whole compass of Nature to have born a resemblance so near to shadow forth the Immortal Soul as those spirits running in Man's Blood and Arteries do which some affirm to be the very Animal and Vital Soul in Man Sure I am they are as the Oyl whereby Life is preserved and fed and in the Blood is the Life says Moses our best Interpreter in this Neither doth this Shadow hold a Similitude in this particular only but in another like case as evidently The pouring forth of the Blood of the Beasts that were Sacrificed under the Old Law was particularly ordained to signify Christ his pouring forth his Soul unto Death as Esay speaks As well as in general that the Sacrifice of those Beasts did typifie forth Christ's Sacrifice in the whole of it And this was as near a Representation of that Particular as could any way be made by what was corporeal in Beasts or else in the whole Creation for a Sacrifice of Mankind or the Blood of Men God liked not to be made to him in his Worship could possibly have been found to pourtray it forth The second thing is that the substance shadowed forth by that Fire was no other than the Indignation or Wrath of the great God Himself which is termed Fiery Indignation here For Proof of which I insist not that some Shim thereof this Shadow it self doth cast in Moses his saying again and again in Terminis that a Fire from the Lord c. which hath a great Emphasis and Resemblance of this in it But for proof I ask First Where shall we find or how Omnes ignes hujus Mundi sunt ut ignis Pictus ad ignem 〈◊〉 shall we imagine any created Fire so to exceed that Fire from Heaven recorded in that Story and so far exceeding it as the Substance doth a Shadow or such as should melt down Immortal Souls You may sooner invent or imagine a Fire so much comparatively hotter than that of the Sun it self which is the contract of Fire and Light and so much exceeding it as should be able to shrivel up this Sun into a burnt black Coal as to imagine any such created Fire so transcending this of Lightning from Heaven as shall thus devour reasonable Souls and Immortal Spirits that in the substance of them as being Spirits do bear the image of God In what Furnace will you think to find such a Fire No where but in the Bosom of him who hath here said Vengeance is mine even of God himself 2. To confirm this What created Fire can be conceived more subtile or powerful than the Angels themselves are conceived to be whom as Heb. 1. 7. out of the Psalms the Apostle compareth to Flames of Fire that is in our European Language to Lightning Now then I ask when Christ says Mat. 25. 41. Go into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels shewing that Man's Punishment shall be from the same hand that the Punishment of those evil Angels is what Fire can be supposed such that can work on Angelical Natures who themselves have Power over Fire of Fire of Lightning from Heaven as in Jobs case was seen None other but that which as the Apostle resolves us if we will rest in it That our God is a consuming Rev. 14. Fire Heb. 12. ult So that considering the State and Condition of the Devil I cannot but celebrate that fore-cited conclusive Speech of Luthers Ira Dei est infernus Diaboli omnium damnatorum It is the Wrath of God that is the Hell of the Devil and of all the damned For there can be no other Fire in which the Devils can be tormented Outward washings may as soon reach Conscience as Heb. 9. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 21. as such created
and cut me off Which with other Passages in that Chapter I shall after open at large Again Chap. 13. 24 26. Thou holdest me for thine Enemy thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my Youth also Chap. 16. ver 12 13 14 15. God He also hath taken me by my Neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark His Archers compass me about he cleaveth my Reins asunder and doth not spare He breaketh me with breach upon breach He runneth upon me as a Gyant I shall here only single out that of Heman which is a most full one and alone sufficient and reserve the explicating that of Job's Case wholly unto the setting forth the dreadfulness which is the subject of the second Section Heman complains at the third verse of that Psal 88. My Soul is full of Trouble c. And what was the matter of that trouble and the inflicting cause hereof ver 7. Thy Wrath lies hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves Selah those Words Thy Wrath lies hard c. others read sustains it self or bears up it self upon me which is as if a Giant should with his whole weight stay himself upon a Child And thou hast afflicted me with all thy Waves The Waves of that immense Ocean of Wrath for unto such Waves he again compares these Terrors in ver 16 17. he says they came over him continually and overwhelmed his Soul as billows of the Sea wallowing and tumbling upon a Jonah cast into them And ver 14 15 16. he sets out his condition such as wherein there was not only a privation of God's Favour and that God seemed to reject his Soul as if he never meant more to look upon it or regard it so ver 14. Why castest thou off my Soul But further positively ver 15. I suffer thy Terrors And ver 16. Thy fierce Wrath goes over me Thy Terrors have cut me off The blows which God gave his Soul were so hard and sharp that to his feeling they not only wounded or cut into but cut off his Soul at every stroak The like follows ver 17. And this put him into the condition of Men in Hell I am free among the dead ver 5. that is of that Society Number and Company and as one of them that are cut off from thy Hand or as the Margent renders it by thy Hand All which are as if he had said they are not the stroaks of Creatures I feel or of thine Anger as conveyed by Creature distresses but of thine own immediate hand and such as those that are in Hell it self do feel from thee These are Notes and Degrees beyond and higher than the Ela of Dolours from or by the hands of Creatures though set on by God They are Strains of another Key the doleful Air of which doth sound another hand and stroak purely Divine that did immediately strike upon their Heart-strings that spake these things These are the resoundings of blows and stroaks which God's own immediate Hand gave upon the bare Spirit of one wounded by him he that attentively listens to them will soon perceive and esteem as they said this Man stricken and smitten of God himself Creature-distresses give a far less report But that it was God's own immediate hand is more plainly by himself expressed ver 16. Thy Terrors have cut me off and ver 15. while I suffer thy Terrors I am distracted and ready to dye from my Youth up as in the same verse Thy Terrors so he termeth them he speaking to God or the Terrors of Thee that is first From Thee efficiently and from thy hand setting them on And 2. Of Thee as arising As David stiles his Thoughts of God Psal 139. 17. Thy Thoughts in me from and with dreadful apprehensions and thoughts of Thee objectively and of Thy sore displeasure represented to my Soul by Thee And so God's Terrors are every way set forth in distinction from distresses from Creatures or such as are made mediately by or from Creature-afflictings although they also be from God Thus in like Phrase of Speech it is appositely said 1 Pet. 3. 14. Be not afraid of their Terror he speaks it of Men that were Persecutors and threatned the Saints Their Terror objectivè That is The Terror of them or that Terror which the apprehension of their Power Greatness Strength Threatnings c. may possibly work in you In a like Sense thy Terror here is spoken of God And the other great Apostle speaking of this ultimate Punishment of Hell he in like Phrase termeth it The Terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 11. That is that Terror which is peculiar and proper to him in and to the Souls of Men who is the terrible God as he stiles himself in Moses and says Nahum Who can abide or stand in the fierceness of his Anger There are further two effects which Heman there relateth of this his having suffered these Terrors or that befel his Spirit whilst these Terrors were upon him 1. That he was continually ready to die the Wrath that lay on him was so heavy as it even well-nigh thrust his Soul out every moment and made the Spirit to fail And secondly it made him not himself as we say put him out of his right Mind Whilst I suffer thy Terrors I am distracted For the intention of a Soul taken up with and extended by the Wrath of God is such and is wound up so high as the String is ready to crack You usually term this in such Persons deeply wounded trouble of Conscience but that is more common whereas this Dispensation requires an higher Word it is indeed the Wrath of God or the Terror of God in Conscience making it as a fiery Oven within it self as the Psalmist speaks This for the instances of Good Men. A second Instance is of Bad and Wicked Men. What was it caused Judas to hang himself The Prophecy of the Psalmist and the Apostles reference to it have resolved us That it was the Curse or Wrath of God entring into his Soul The Psalm is the hundred and ninth which was penned on purpose about him the Apostle's Reference and Application is in Acts 1. 20. In the Psalm 't is said ver 18. as he loved Cursing that is Sin which is that accursed thing afore God so the Curse of God came into his Bowels or inwards like Water and like Oyl into his Bones and filled all within him full of Anguish and Torment And so was fulfilled that Saying Indignation and Wrath namely of God caused Tribulation and Anguish in his Soul The Similitudes or Allusions there are Elegant That as there are Spiritual Oyls which Mens Bodies being annointed withal they soak into the Bones c. they cool refresh and repair Spirits and Strength and allay fervent Heats and Pains into which more inward parts other Medicines more crasse and druggish cannot soak or come In the way
interpretation of it Where exhorting Christians unto an holy courage and confidence in their appearings for the Cause of Christ afore their Persecutors Tribunals In nothing be terrified by your Adversaries says he And upon such a bold undauntedness on their part two effects he tells them do often follow and both from God alike as two wonderful contrary effects First in themselves God elevateth and raiseth up that their confidence of Faith into a glorious assurance and taste of Heaven and Salvation whither they are a going so in these words Which is a token to you your selves of Salvation But on the contrary which is an evident token namely in their Persecutor's Consciences of Perdition if they repent not and that namely both these effects of God Two things I observe 1. That these two contrary Effects run parallel still and that in order to and of their being Tokens either of Salvation or Perdition as in that other place 2 Cor. 2. And so that as the Joys put into the hearts of these Confessors are the first Fruits of the Spirit and Rom. 8. therefore of the same kind with what Fruit and Harvest they reap in Heaven and thereupon also a Spirit of Glory is said to rest upon them in such a case it being it self initial Glory and the first fruits of 1 Pet. 4. 14. Glory in a way of Glory Thus on the contrary those Terrors God strikes their Adversaries hearts withal are like Tokens and Evidences of Hell no other than the Suburbs the first fruits of Hell and shadow of Death And 2. I observe which is that for which I quote it that both these extraordinary effects are alike wrought in the hearts of either by the same or like hand namely Impressions from God The Apostle therefore adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto both and that of God He being the immediate Author of the one as well as of the other and both unto a like tho contrary purpose And the reason why God thus often takes that season and occasion to put forth his immediate power in the consciences of either at such a time is because his Glory is in no passages of Providence in and upon Earth so highly interested and engaged as upon such Trials wherein both his Truth and Children are brought to the Bar at once and therefore is then pleased to discover something more than ordinary tho secretly in the Spirits of Men. Have they no Fear says the Psalmist that eat up my People like Bread One would think so they look so big and fall too so heartily to devour them Yes says the Psalmist answering it there were they in great fear There that is upon such an occasion at such a time and yet the same Psalmist tells us that there was no cause of fear compare for that Psal 14. 4. with Psal 54. 4. that is not from Creatures What was the matter then or whence comes this great Fear God is in the Generation of the Righteous says the Psalmist thence was their fear and that of God So the Apostle in that very case God takes part with his Children and so strikes and terrifies their Adversaries Souls as he comforts theirs and this is to them an evident Token and as the first Baptisms Washings or Sprinklings of that Perdition which their Souls will be everlastingly drowned in as the Apostle's allusion is in Timothy if they turn not The truth and real verification of both these so immediate effects by God and from God he as with a double-edged sword striking contrary ways at once Multitudes of Instances of both kinds the Story of the Martyrs doth relate and particularly in the examples of those persecuting Emperors Galerius and Maximinus as Eusebius hath Recorded them Insomuch as that lamentable out-cry in the sixth Seal Rev. 6. 16. Which the Kings of the Earth and mighty Men the Persecutors are brought in so loudly uttering in saying to the Mountains Fall on us and hide us from the Wrath of the Lamb. Mr. Mede and others have applyed as the Time and Order of the Visions of that Prophecy require unto those Great Persecutors in the Roman Empire whom authentick Antiquity hath related to have been terrifyed and struck with horror by God and the Lamb in prodigious extraordinary ways of confusion and those Terrors such as Stories have related them as were the liveliest representations of that Great Day of Wrath ver 17. And are therefore set out under the Notion thereof as having been to them the very imperfect beginnings of it This for the Argument from the instances of wicked Men. II. The Argument is as strong though not so direct from the instances of holy Men. For 1. This Dispensation to them is not only an Argument in common with other Afflictions of this World in their being a manifest token of the Judgment of 2 Thess 1. 9. God and that therefore a sure and certain Judgment is to come upon the Wicked as he there argues But this kind being a Judgment of a spiritual Nature as immediate inflictions of Wrath are and properly belonging unto Souls as they are the Subjects of the other World It argues therefore upon a more proper account that the Punishment to come is of the same kind therewith And such they must needs be unless we will suppose that God whips his own Children in this World with Scorpions but wicked Men in the other World but as with Rods in comparison of them For it must be acknowledged that these God's own blows from his own immediate hand are sorer and cause wounds of a deeper blew than what are given by him through Creatures Surely God hath not laid up gentler Rods for the wicked in Hell then he puts in ure towards his Children Have I smote them as I smote thee Esay 27. 7. I will correct thee in measure Jer. 30. 1. not so them The equity of those ruled Cases which the Reader may consult Jer. 25. 15 16 17 28 29. Luke 23. 31. 1 Pet. 4. 12 17. do hold in this and give us warrant in like manner to argue That if his own Children do drink of so bitter a Cup here then surely You the Wicked of the Earth shall much more drink of the very same And these Scriptures alleaged and the strength of this our Inference are all resolved into that of Psa 78. 8. In the hand of the Lord is a Cup whereof the wicked of the Earth shall finally drink the dregs And the force thereof lies in this That if such kind of Judgments and fiery Trials as these I allude unto that speech of the Apostle thus falling upon their spirits from God himself do begin at some of the Houshold of God then where will the Vngodly and Sinners appear For his own People do but begin in this Cup to them who are to drink the dregs whereof themselves have but the droppings 2. This dispensation of impressions of Wrath when it doth befal either the
Job Thou writest bitter things against me and causest me to possess the Sins of my Youth Job 13. 26. Let no Man therefore imagine that Devils are the greatest Tormentors of Men or of their Consciences in Hell or if any would affirm it I would demand Who it is that torments the Consciences of Devils themselves Certainly none but God They now believing there is a God do tremble but in Hell they fear him and for ever have to do with him And it is as sure that the same God with whom those Spirits and their Consciences have for ever to do the Consciences of Men shall also And as for all other mediate or outward ways of Judgments executed in which the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven but as at the second hand take the sorest and severest of them that ever God executed by Creatures yea suppose all of the several kinds of Providential Judgments I call them such which are executed upon Men in this World afore-hand which God hath as Judg of all the World in his riding Circuit through all Ages since the Fall revealed his Wrath from Heaven by against all sorts of Unrighteousness of Men as the Apostle speaking of these Judgments says in Rom. 1. 18. Suppose I say they were let flie upon any one Sinner all at once yet would they not reach or touch that Man's Conscience further than as God should over and above the efficacy of them strike the Conscience it self with his anger and displeasure revealed more or less by himself therewith And although in all such Judgments his goings forth are as of a Judg and he accompanies such Judgments more or less but as with some ordinary light and glimmerings of an angry Deity yet his coming as a Judg upon Mens Consciences at the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as if he had never revealed his Wrath before this is another manner of coming and shewing himself a Judg indeed rendring Indignation and Wrath upon the Souls of Men And of that Judgment it is the same Apostle in the second Chapter treats as of that other in the former And I may say of all the former in comparison to this latter that they all are but as the Batteries of the Out-works and as Bullets shot against the Walls in a Siege which may indeed terrify the Inhabitants and make them tremble Deut. 32. Rom. 2. and so these the Soul as by remote effects in the Suburbs of it But the latter is as shooting in of Granadoes which have been laid up with him in his Treasury carrying Fire from thence in them the Fire of his fierce and sorest Indignation and these himself alone can shoot into the inwards of Mens Souls And this is as shooting Fire into the the very Magazine into that which is the most inward in the Soul and fortified against the entrance of all created Powers the Magazine where all the Gun-pouder lies that is the guilt of a Man's Sins so as there needeth nothing else to blow up all If his Wrath doth but touch it takes and sets all on Fire Yea give me leave upon the same ground and by the like reason further to say That all the material Fire in Hell by which the Soul shall and will suffer by way of a Compatibility as it is termed or suffering by and with the Body an unspeakable Torment and this for the Sins a Man is guilty of yet these Flames nor these Punishments taken materially and abstracted from this Revelation of God's Wrath would not break into Conscience not until God did therewithal break in with the Fire of his Wrath and make the Conscience and intellectual Spirit of the Mind a fiery Oven within it self as the Psalmist expresseth it in Psal 21. 9. almost in these very words This being the state of matters between God the Judg of all and the Souls and Consciences of Sinners as touching that due and equitable Punishment for Sin and the execution thereof which Mens Souls are capable of I shall now compleat the reason why the Justice of God should move him to be willing yea and that there is in respect unto Divine Justice a kind of requisiteness if not necessity for the Great God to take this course to punish the Sinner by the Revelation of his own immediate Wrath. And this I shall do by gathering together what hath been said from which the Arguments for both these two Assertions that follow lie fair 1. That God for his Justice sake should be willing For Conscience being the principal Engagee obliged unto God as a Judg and the understanding Power in Man the eminent Transgressor and both lying so naked and immediately exposed unto God's Wrath and capable to receive the Revelation of it An Anguish made thereby in the Soul is the most proper natural suitable Reward unto Sin to pay the Sinner home in his own Coin as also the most ready direct and short way for God to take If therefore we suppose Justice be left to have but its free and full course if Justice according to the Prophet's language and God's own rule and direction given unto us run down as Waters and Righteousness as a mighty Stream in its proper natural Channel and so as to fall into that most capacious Vessel or Receptacle that is in Man to receive it Again if Divine Justice hath a will to put and lay its charge and execution where principally it is to be laid even against the Principal whether in the Obligation for Sin or in the guilt of the Act of sinning Or if it be deemed that Divine Justice will take a recovery where the fullest and fairest advantage lies and recover his principal Debt of that which is the principal Debtor and from that in Man which is capable to afford the most due satisfaction and punishment as being that which is the Treasury of all the Guilt of Sin and most exquisitely capable to suffer and thereby to make fullest payment for all Then we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreck his just Anger and in his Wrath to break forth upon the Conscience and Intellectual Faculty of the Sinner in Hell by the immediate Revelation of his Wrath and that upon all the accounts fore-mentioned thereby to punish it And we may well suppose that his Justice is willing to do this because God is as the Psalmist with an Emphasis Judg Himself Psal 50. 6. And judgeth for Himself Prov. 16. 4. And for the Recovery of his own Glory and Revelation of his Righteous Judgment And this Course of immediate Wrath being a way above all other so natural so ready so direct so compendious and so suited to the demerit of Sin as hath been shewn we may well think that God will be rather willing to shew his Wrath as the Apostle speaks this way if we could suppose there might be another because this so falls in with and agrees unto the rules and
proportions of Justice fore-mentioned which are most near and sacred to him 2. The second Assertion That it is also requisite yea necessary I speak it as in relation to Justice attaining its ends For all mediate Punishments executed by Creatures being deficient as unto that wherein the very Essence of this Punishment lies they all not reaching the Inwards of the Spirit of the Mind and Conscience and seeing that without God's wrath revealed therewith by God himself all such Punishments would not compleat the Justice of God in a Punishment in any tolerable measure suitable Then if Justice will have its perfect work and bring its Suit against the Sinner unto the ultimate issue it is requisite God himself put his immediate hand to the execution For otherwise this Work of Justice will not be perfect as yet every of his Works in their kind are said to be And so he should not only fall short of satisfying his Justice but also by not doing that towards it which is in his power to do and which he is Lord of he should not in any tolerable measure content it Especially if we further consider that when all is done that can be done this Punishment will not arise to a perfect satisfaction for the Creature 's punishment will not afford it and therefore it doth for ever suffer but only unto what may be had out of them towards it I shut this Point up therefore with this that If God be Judg Himself he will do this work Himself which none else can perform for him and without which all else would be utterly imperfect and defective For upon what hath been afore argued I may say of all other Punishments and Punishers although set by God upon a Man what the Apostle says of those legal Ordinances though instituted by God for his Worship That they could not make the Service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience So nor all outward Torments take them alone without God's Wrath accompanying them they cannot make a perfect or compleat Punishment as pertaining to the Conscience And all this also shews one sufficient reason of Difference why earthly Kings and Judges leave the Execution of Traytors and Offenders wholly unto others Because they have no more Power as in respect of Execution to inflict a condign Punishment than other Men but others can do it as exquisitely and their Justice be as fully satisfied thereby but it is not so here And for these causes God is so far from staining his Glory thereby which other Judges would esteem to be so as that it is the only way fully to recover his Glory And so much for that Argument drawn from satisfying of Justice A second Reason is drawn from satisfying of Vengeance or Avenging Wrath as against Enemies which heightens Justice Thus in many places in the Old and New Testament Deut. 32. Rom. 12. 19. 2 Cor. 10. 6. Rev. 6. 10. In which last place God is stiled both a Judg and an Avenger Judg and Avenge say the Saints there A Judg most commonly doth acts of Justice in the behalf of others but an Avenger is one that doth or seeks Justice in his own Cause and in his own behalf and Interest therefore the next a-Kin seeking the Life of a Murtherer was termed an Avenger of Blood Now God is more nearly concerned in this than any Creatures can be in what may concern Vengeance in them for what ever Injury This is therefore poena vindictae as of one enraged and provoked Patience having been abused as Rom. 9. 22. and so is turned into Fury Now there are two properties of Vengeance from whence I argue this being put together First that it is the property of Revenge to vent it self upon that which is principal in the Injury and to make that the Vessel of its Wrath it will never be satisfied else Now that is the Soul of Man which is the chief seat and subject of the Corruption of Sin the chief Cause of the Act proceeding from thence and that in which the Guilt arising from both doth principally abide The Body is but instrumental in what the Soul doth yea and in some and the greatest Sins the Soul hath the sole and immediate Hand This Soul therefore which is the chiefest Vessel of Sin must be the chief Vessel of Wrath. Indignation and Wrath upon every Soul of Man that doth evil Rom. 2. 8. whereof this undeniable Instance is given by God that the Soul is it that suffers for the whole Man until the Resurrrection as the Instance of the Rich Man shews And it must be no less an immediate Sufferer although not the alone Sufferer but much more after the day of Judgment unto Eternity A second thing which Vengeance affecteth is that the person that wrought the Injury dye by the hand of himself that is the Avenger It loves to do that work it self And this especially holds good in this cause of God's and seeing it is to recover glory to God by shewing Vengeance He comes to be glorified rendring Vengeance from the glory of his Power I need not go about to form up any Argument from hence for these two things especially the latter do speak home unto the Point And being added unto what hath been spoken in the former Head of Justice may be sufficient There is a third thing which as I said both Divine Justice and Vengeance do conspire in and that is the utter Destruction of that which is the principal Offendor which is the Soul it is the nature of Vengeance to work the Destruction of that it is set against And in this case of Sin God's Justice also doth the same the demerit of Sin is such as it exciteth Vengeance to it And therefore in both these places which are my Texts Destruction is mentioned as the issue and product of this Revenge and Wrath. So in 2 Thess 1. 6 7. To render Vengeance on them who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction and Rom. 9. 22. to make known the power of his Wrath on those Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Destroyed they shall be though not in regard of being for they are to be Vessels of Wrath and therefore to be still kept whole in respect of being else they could hold no Wrath And that is another property of Vengeance to have the Party made sensible of its Misery and that his Enemy is even with him And therefore God upholds their Being but destroys their Souls in regard of well being Now that is never till it be stript of every Comfort and every corner of the Soul be filled with Misery For if any corner be empty it is not destroyed it will not die Now this third or last thing doth of it self afford at least a Demonstration ab effectis from the event and effects of this Punishment That therefore it is God's immediate hand that inflicts this Punishment Which Demonstration is to be added unto the former Reason which was drawn from the Causes
of and is as if he had said How dreadful must it needs be which I leave to your own Thoughts to conceive of I not being able says he to utter or express the Terror of it Hence the genuine and natural way of handling this part is to set it forth by way of Inference or Corollary from that former Point which we have dispatch'd I shall therefore accordingly draw forth Demonstrations of the dreadfulness thereof from those fore-cited Scriptures or Grounds already laid in the fore-gone Section which doth afford sufficient Topicks unto this Head SECT I. The first Head of Demonstrations from this in General That it is a falling into the Hands of God immediately FIrst let us take the main Doctrine it self as in the General it is uttered here That it is a falling into the Hands of God Himself and not of Creatures only And a being punish'd from his Presence and the Glory of his Power immediately as 2 Thess 1. 9. And then extend and widen your apprehensions to take in how fearful this must be which I shall demonstrate by a comparative Gradation raised thus I. If it were but a giving us up into the Hands of meer Creatures to afflict and they assisted by God but with the common and ordinary concurrence of his Power which joins with and upholds the Agency of all things in their workings whether in comforting us or in distressing of us this is the lowest degree of supposition And yet consider how dreadful this Supposition would render to our Thoughts such a punishment to be if God should be but as the looker on and withal the setter of them on or as in the Scripture phrase Mat. 18. 34. but only deliver us up to these Tormentors As when it is termed a being cast into a Lake of Fire and Brimstone suppose it were a Lake of material corporeal Fire only wherein thy Body is cast and thy Soul no otherwise to suffer than by what the Spirits of that Body it is united to and dwells in is by that Fire made sensible of And suppose withal the Spirits thereof were kept up in their utmost sensibleness of what torment that Fire could inflict and thy Body continually flaming as the Bush in Exodus and yet never burnt up how terrible is it for Flesh and Blood to think but this of it Or to use another comparison If a Man were bound Hand and Foot with his Mouth set open and were cast into a Pit wherein as in the Apostles Sheet let down from Heaven were all manner of Creeping things Toads Serpents of all sorts fiery Scorpions Cockatrices Vipers Adders Snakes c. Flies Hornets Lice Pismires and Frogs c And that these should bite and sting thee with exquisite Pain and Torment also creep in at thy Mouth down into thy Inwards gnaw and swell thee there How did but one sort of these Creatures when sent by God afflict Pharaoh and all the Aegyptians A Man in this case should endure not only the Pains mentioned but beyond them the torture which Antipathy cotrariety and natural abhorrency Works which is of all other most exquisite and turns nature backward as of Jordan it is said into a recoyl and wresteth it against it self and throws it off its hinges I need not instance how by this way of Antipathy a Cock makes a Lion roar a Mouse the Elephant to tremble a Serpent or a Toad a Spider sets the whole of nature in Man into an inconsistency a Man knows not how to bear up sustain himself or be himself But besides what Pains or Torments these or any of these can inflict II. Let us proceed in our Supposition a step further If God should so far further assist as to set his Wisdom a-work and that only to find out and invent what mixture of Torments from Creatures would be most exquisite of all others As if a King whose Wrath is compared to the roaring of a Lion who yet sets but others to Torment should but order ten Men to invent Torments for one poor Man as the Sicilian Tyrants did Hence Majus tormentum siculi non invenire Tyranni And then consider for the exaggeration of this unto your Thoughts 1. That the nature of Man is so framed as it is capable to recieve discomfort as well as comfort from every Creature the least Creature hath a sting in it as well as Honey unto something or other in Man's Nature if it be applyed and turned against it 2. God knows all the Ingredients in the Creatures Natures as also it is said he knows our frame and so there with the suitableness of Sense in Man's Nature thereunto Think then what Punishment from their mixture can he invent and temper and put all the Venoms the dregs into one Cup as the Psalmist speaks And as by some lesser proportion we may estimate this by what those that know the secrets of Nature can effect above what other Men as Solomon did Now 3. Raise up your apprehensions from these two steps of comparison thus first laid If as the Psalmist says He that made the Eye shall not he see speaking of that infinite Omniscience in God Himself above what is in the Creatures Say I then in this case if the Creatures that God hath made may thus be supposed able to work anguish to a Man Dolour and Misery what then can God the great God that made all these himself immediately inflict As the Prophet Isaiah slighteth the Aegyptians and their Assistance Isa 31. 3. Thus Their Horses are Flesh not Spirit and the Aegyptians that ride them are Men and not God So we may of all these Suppositions and still say these are but of what Creatures can do who are Creatures and not God Flesh and not Spirit III. That we may yet heighten the dreadfulness of this immediate Hand of God let us make a third Supposition beyond the former that God not only should use his ordinary concurrence with Creatures but as sometimes he hath done arm those Creatures with his own Wrath over and above the activity of their ordinary Sphere of Workings heating that Sword of created Powers he strikes with red hot in the Furnace of his fiery Indignation And so intending the power of Creatures beyond their Strength yet still so as to use them as the sole Instruments of that anguish wrought conveying his Anger with them but as at second hand And so as the Man so afflicted is sensible not of the Stroke of the Creatures only but of God and his Wrath accompanying and seconding it through them This would be yet more dreadful than the former and yet still fall short of what the Doctrine hath held forth that Himself is the Avenger and strikes immediately 1. This latter is more dreadful to suppose than the former yea is not a bare supposition for if God conveys his Wrath with the least Affliction and in his Providences fight against a Man and the Heart is thereby made sensible of
Psal 50. 21. and sets his Terrors in Battel aray against thee 't is Job's Expression Chap. 6. 4. and the same Word in both places And as it marshalls all so whets on to Vengeance Prov. 1. 25. Ye have set at naught all my Counsel I will therefore laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your fear cometh 'T is Wisdom speaks this ver 20. Be not deceived says the Apostle God is not mocked Gal. 6. 7. it imports two things 1. That Sinners think to illude and deceive God As what is it else to think to defer Repentance to the last and then to come and flatter and look to be saved as if they had served him from the very first Moment of their Lives they herein think to go beyond God 2. That in such cases God's Wisdom takes it and resents it to the height Nothing adds unto Provocation more in a Man that is Wise than to perceive how another Man thinks to go beyond him and impose upon his Wisdom And it is Wisdom in a Man that makes him he would not be mockt deceived or trifled withal this Principle riseth up in God's Heart the Judg of all the World Again his Holiness crys out to him against the Sinner Thou art a pure God and I can endure to behold no Iniiquty and the Eyes of my Glory have been provoked by this Sinner continually Then says Justice too I must be satisfyed to the utmost Farthing and have the last drop of Blood that is in their Souls and this their Punishment executed on their own Persons is all I shall have or can recover for all the dishonour hath been done thee For Christ through their unbelief hath not taken off one Farthing of their Debt but all is left and remains upon their own Score And I can no other way recover Glory but by having it out of them And therefore it is that an Eternity is required because but by an Eternity of Suffering it is that they can come to satisfy Prov. 27. 20. Hell and Destruction are never full or satisfied as the next Words shew the meaning to be Then says Truth and Righteousness their whole Lives have been contrary to my Love the whole actings and the courses of them have been but a making a Lye a Web of Hypocrisy continually woven and vended Rev. 22. 15. That love and make a Lye and Rom. 3. 13. Their Tongues are full of falshood and deceit and again Give them their Portion with Hypocrites whom of all else I hate says Truth Then boyls up Jealousy Every Creature hath been an Idol and made their God and set up in God's stead and they have been enflamed with them as of Idolaters the Prophet speaks Idols of Jealousy have all their Lusts been and the Glory due to me hath been given to them But you will say will not Mercy at last speak a good Word for them will it not allay and moderate all these No but turn as fiercely against them as any other Attribute and plead I indeed did a long while restrain all these other Attributes that were provoked every Moment Whom God endured with much long suffering says Rom. 9. 22. And that they have lived so long free from Wrath hath been by means of me I waiting for their Repentance which hath cost me Millions I have spent Riches on them in forbearance of them All which now is to be reckoned to them in Wrath. You have it Rom. 2. 4 5. They have despised the riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and long-Suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth them to Repentance But after their hardness and impenitent Heart treasure up unto themselves Wrath c. And says Grace I was presumed on and made a stale to and defender of their Lusts and was turned into Wantonness Jude 4. And thus all in God is set as it were a Fire against a Sinner and as I may so speak do turn all in him into fury And look as to God's People all in God is assimulated into Love towards them and they live in and dwell in Love and see nothing else as it were in God but Love God is Love says the Apostle namely to his own 1 John 4. 16. Nothing else appears or rather all that is in him appears in that Hue under that Dye with that Tincture So here on the contrary all in God is turned into Fury Laesa patientia fit furor Though he is not so of Himself Fury is not in me says he Isa 27. but Sin hath made him such §. VI. A Fourth Head of Demonstrations drawn from those Instances both of Good and Bad Men their having suffered these kind of Terrors in this Life A Fourth Head of Demonstrations is taken from the Instances given both of Good and Bad Men. Which Instances as I then alledged to prove the immediateness of God's inflicting it So now I shall from thence present some Inferences of the fearfulness hereof Do but sit down a little with Job and Heman who were the Instances of Good Men Or go to that Roll which the Scriptures have recorded of Cain and Judas and others or which Ecclesiastical Stories or present Examples of our Age have afforded of Men in Horror weigh and perpend their crys and roarings and consider what a sad Spectacle such Instances afford 1. Of Good Men Heman I insisted in afore and acquainted you with his Complaints as sad as Man can utter I reserved that of Job specially for this Place as I then professed All the while that he had but Afflictions common to Men and although he was every way surrounded with them as being visited with a loathsom Disease his Body fill'd with Dolours and Pains his Children lost Servants destroyed by Fire from Heaven his Estate quite gone unto an Extremity of Poverty his Wife abhorring his Breath and tempting him to Blasphemy All this while the Text tells us Chap. 2. 10. That in all this did not Job sin with his Lips but was quiet and patient as the Holy Ghost in the New Testament takes notice of him Jam. 5. You have heard of the Patience of Job Well but God himself in the end came in upon him with his immediate Wrath. And now will you hear of his Impatience too He was not prickt to the quick till now But then he begins to Curse the day of his Birth Chap. 3. 1 2 3. and at that rate talks all along that Chapter For brevity let us only consult his Lamentations in Chap. 6. ver 2 3 4. Oh that my grief were throughly weighed and my Calamity laid in the Ballances together for now it would be heavier than the Sand therefore my words are swallowed up The rest that follows I shall add by and by What was it caused this sudden out-cry and alteration in Job's Spirit from that still and sedate frame we left him in before What was it the thoughts of his lost Estate Children Wife's unkindness or the Pains of his Bones
deadness averseness unto and turning aside from God unto the Creature whereupon follow Neglects Contempts of him Enmities to him and thence Omission of Duties towards him and not glorifying him as God as there ver 21. And secondly all unrighteousness unrepented of and continued in the enumeration of the Particulars of which you may have in the same Chapter vers 29 30. being filled with all Vnrighteousness Fornication Wickedness Covetousness Maliciousness full of Envy Murther Debate Deceit Malignity Whisperers Backbiters Haters of God Dispiteful Proud Boasters Inventors of evil Things Disobedient to Parents c. And to strike thy Heart yet more think what Sins the Apostle more especially singleth out as those for which he specially indigitates that the Wrath of God cometh upon the Children of Disobedience Col. 3. 5 6. Even Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry For which things sake the Wrath of God cometh upon the Children of Disobedience that is that live in them in a way of Rebellion and Disobedience unto God And consider they are not Heathens only whom the Wrath of God is poured forth upon though so Psal 79. 6. Pour out thy Wrath upon the Heathen that have not known thee and Psal 9. 17. All the Nations that forget God shall be turned into Hell But it is also those that live under and obey not the Gospel and those especially In 2 Thes 1. 7 8 9. The Subjects of this Wrath are reduced to these two those that know not God they were these Heathens and those that obey not the Gospel that is who professing it and living under the means of it even the Children of the Kingdom as they are called Mat. 8. 12. and Mat. 13. 41. there shall be gathered out of the Kingdom that is the visible Professors of Religion in the strictness of it all things that is Persons that do offend and do Iniquity or are workers of it Those first and especially that have given scandal by doing Iniquity openly and repented not and then those that secretly do Iniquity that are found workers of it in any kind they shall be gathered says Christ and cast them into a Furnace of Fire and Hypocrites especially they are made the measure and standard of all other that are cast into it both by Christ and the Prophet Isaiah But not only these but in Mat. 12. 22. He that but wanteth the Wedding-Garment not the positive doers of Iniquity only but that want true Grace Sincerity of Faith and Love unto Jesus Christ the wanting all those Graces Col. 3. 12. Gal. 6. 15. which as a Garment he should have put on as in those places that came to such a Wedding the Wedding of so great a Person And when there he says to such an one Friend it is an upbraiding Speech such an one as Christ used to Judas Matth. 26. 50. because he had professed himself to be a Friend but is discovered to be a false and feigned one How comest thou hither here is no room for thee And though Christ is said to spy out but one such among that Company yet it is the case of many For that the conclusion of that Parable vers 14. importeth Many are called few are chosen and so that one Person is professedly made but the Instance or Example of what Christ will do with all others that are such who will prove many And it is said that he was speechless or strangled as with an Halter as the Original Word signifies through obstupefaction of Spirit Now of this Man and all other such Christ the King saith ver 13. Bind him Hand and Foot that he may not be able to help himself or deliver himself and cast him into outer Darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth And the true reason is because if Mens Estates be found unrenewed or unregenerate as this Mans was through want of true Grace then the Sins of their whole Lives do abide upon their score and are charged upon them And every such an one even the finest-spun Hypocrite hath Sins enough if he had no other in those very deficiencies and fallings short of true and spiritual Grace which he wholly wants And the highest and most sublimated work of the Spirit which a Man remaining unregenerate is any way capable of through heavenly enlightnings and tastings of the Powers of the World to come stirring up but self only and the Affections thereof towards spiritual things is capable of being discovered not only that it is a deficient work and short of true Holiness at that day but also when all the inward Obliquities Motives Ends Purposes Affections that are in such Mens Hearts that were the influencers and guides of their Ways and Actions are discovered it will be found that they all are matter of Wrath as truly as their other Sins And their Persons will be proved to have continued under the Wrath of God abiding on them as well as grosser Sinners And that there will be the discovery of these things in such Men is the genuine scope of that Passage Heb. 4. 13 14. The Word of God understand it whether of Christ or the Word of Christ is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joints and Marrow and is a Discerner of the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart Neither is there any Creature that is of the Heart of Man that is not manifest in his Sight with whom we have to do For unto such Professors among the Jews as had been enlightned c. as chap. 6. of whom you also read up and down in that Epistle and yet still remained in real and spiritual unbelief as vers 11. of this very Chapter compared with Jude vers 5. is this Passage particularly directed and of them intended Consider moreover that the longer thou goest on in this Estate or in thy Sin the more of Wrath thou treasurest up unto thy self as Rom. 2. Every Moment Sins do add unto that heap And all thy Sins are barrel'd up in thy Conscience as Gun-powder fully dry and an answerable Proportion and Measure of Wrath is laid up in God's Heart and when these meet and that it comes to pass that the Fire of God's Wrath breaks forth out of his Heart into thine then thy Soul is blown up in an instant and a Fire kindled that burns for ever in Hell And meditate also how frail thy Life is how thin and slight a Skreen of Flesh there is betwixt all this Wrath and thy bare Soul which if worn or any way sliced through the Soul runs out Nay that venemous Spider thy Soul dwells but in a Cobweb which if broken or any violence be done it it instantly flies away into the other World Job in several places delights to compare our Lives and Condition in this World unto a Candle or Lamp Now let the Candle be let alone to burn
redeemeth thy Life from Destruction there is Salvation from Sin and Hell the privative part Who crowneth thee with Loving-kindness and tender Mercies over and above deliverance and satisfieth thy mouth with good things there you see also is the positive part You might observe the very same in this 49. Psalm Thou shalt redeem me c. and Thou shalt receive me By all that hath been spoken although you are saved from it yet look down into Hell a little as it hath been set out to you And think with your selves Hath God delivered me from so great a Death and given me such a deliverance as this from a death so dreadful and eternal also How would the Devils and Spirits in Prison prize an escape and deliverance from Wrath present and to come if they could be supposed capable thereof yea if they had no more A Nobleman or Favourite that hath run into great and high Treasons to have but meer Life given him how would he value it though he never saw the Court more nor were never restored unto his Estate and Dignities had he but wherewithal to live If a Man were in danger to be drowned and a Rope were thrown him and a Crown and bidden take his choice with promise Thou shalt be King of all the World if thou come to shore safe with the Crown on thy Head of the two he would in this case take hold of the Rope and refuse the Crown And why because it is Salvation and his Life But for a Man to be both wasted safe to shore and then arriving there to have this Crown besides how great Salvation would this be valued stupendous Grace and Love These things the Saints should consider chiefly unto two ends and purposes 1. To be thankful to God and Christ 2. To comfort their own Souls I. To be thankful both to God and Christ 1. To God the Father It was his part to contrive the whole design of our Salvation to the end to set forth his Love to us And the Scripture spreads afore us the Love of the Father herein upon this double consideration 1. That he appointed us not to Wrath which otherwise we should have in the issue and execution by reason of Sin fallen under 2. That he ordained us to Salvation You have an express Scripture for both these setting forth the Love of God the Father hereby 1 Thess 5. 9. God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation Here are first two parts of the Mercy vouchsafed 1. Deliverance from Wrath. 2. Salvation Then the Love of the Father in his not appointing us to Wrath and so not to leave us under it as well as appointing us to Salvation and both as appointments of God the one as well as the other And then in the second Epistle chap. 2. ver 13. he provokes them unto thankfulness for this But we are bound to give thanks always unto God for you who hath from the beginning chosen you unto Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth which he speaks with reference to what was done to others ver 12. compared Let me speak to you then in the Apostles Language Oh what thanks are your selves then bound if the Apostle gave them for others to give unto God for your selves to whom God hath given Faith and Holiness upon both these respects 2. To Jesus Christ for that hand which he had in this our Deliverance from Wrath thus expresly 1 Thess 1. ult Ye wait for his Son from Heaven even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Here again you have these two parts of Salvation set together 1. His coming from Heaven which they waited for with hopes of his carrying them thither as he tells them chap. 4. ver 17. We shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then 2. which the Apostle adds with an Emphasis even Jesus who delivered us from the Wrath to come Take in that too says he and forget it not to endear your Jesus to you and for ever know him by this Character It is that Jesus who delivered you from the VVrath to come It was the Fathers work indeed to appoint and ordain this Deliverance and us unto the benefit of it through Faith but it was our Jesus his Son's work to effect and accomplish it 't was his Soul that paid for all And the manner or way how he delivered us from this Wrath heightens this his Love yet more for he delivered us from it by being made himself a Curse for us Gal. 3. 23. The second thing I propounded was To comfort your Souls in the consideration of this Salvation and Deliverance Thus Christ Psal 16. 9 10. for his deliverance Therefore my Heart is glad my Flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell thou wilt shew me the path of Life c. And David in the 49. Psalm which led on to this doth comfort himself also ver 15. when of wicked Men he had said Like Sheep they are put into Hell as some read it Death shall feed on them He then for his own particular comforts himself with this But God shall redeem my Soul from the power of Hell for he shall receive me And the Apostle to the Thessalonians epist 1. chap. 5. having ver 9. set before them as was afore opened that God had not appointed them to Wrath but to obtain Salvation he subjoins ver 11. Wherefore comfort your selves together FINIS An Immediate STATE OF GLORY FOR THE Spirits of Just Men upon Dissolution DEMONSTRATED BY THO. GOODWIN D. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1680. 2 COR. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit THere is no Point of more moment to All nor of greater Comfort to Saints than what shall become of their Souls when they die 'T is our next Stage and things that are next use more to affect us And besides it is the beginning and a taking possession of our Eternity That these words should aim at this self-same thing cannot be discerned without consulting the fore-going part of the Apostle's Discourse and yet I cannot be large in bringing down the Coherence having pitched upon what this fifth Verse contributes unto this Argument which alone will require more than this time allotted having also very largely gone through the Exposition of the foregoing verses elsewhere and I now go but on where I left last But yet to make way for the understanding the Scope of my Text take The Coherence in brief thus In the 16th Verse of the fore-going Chapter where the Well-head of his Discourse is to be found he shews the extraordinary Care God hath of our inward Man to renew it day by day where Inward Man is strictly the Soul with its
contradict He that believeth hath eternal life c. and shall never no not for Joh. 9. 51. 11. 26. a moment die and in those Promises it is not simply a sluggish Immortality but to live and act and enjoy God which is our life must needs be meant Or we must on the other side affirm That the life of Faith ceasing and God yet having that way wrought all that ever he intendeth That then Sight of God face to face must come in its place which indeed the Apostle in that 1 Cor. 13. affirms in saying ver 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is but in part is done away There is not an utter ceasing of the imperfect and then an interval or long space of time to come between and then that which is perfect is to come but the imperfect is done away by the very coming of that which is thus perfect And in the 12th Verse he explains himself That the imperfect is this our seeing Now in a glass darkly that is by Faith and that perfect to be that seeing God face to face as that which presently entertains us in that other world Nay the Apostle admits not so much as a moment of cessation but sayes That the imperfect is done away ver 10. and vanisheth as ver 8. by the coming in of the perfect upon it and so the imperfect namely Faith is swallowed up of the perfect namely Sight And then further if we thus grant as we must this separate Soul to have this sight or nothing now left it to enjoy God any way by Then it can be no other than Glory it is admitted unto For the sight of God face to face and to know as we are known is the very essence of Glory as it differs from Faith Neither is that ultimate Enjoyment or happiness in God which Souls shall have after the Resurrection any other in Name or Thing than the sight of God as it is thus distinguished from Faith although it shall be then raised and intended unto far higher degrees of Perfection § And for a Conclusion of this first Point that which follows in that place lately cited out of 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls may as fitly serve for the confirmation of all these latter fore-going Notions as to any other sense Interpreters have affixed I am aware how these words Receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls are interpreted of that joy unspeakable and full of glory which the Verse afore had spoken that many Saints through believing do in this life enjoy as being salvation imperfect and the earnest of it in the same kind and so a part of the Reward of Faith received in hand as we say or aforehand and vouchsafed over and above the ordinary way of living by Faith This interpretation I no way gainsay nor will go about to exclude for I know it doth consist with that other I am about to give and is subordinate to it And I have learned to take the most comprehensive sence the holy Ghost may be supposed to aim at in any Scripture But if this sence should directly alone obtain yet by consequence and at the rebound it doth strongly argue the Point in hand For if whilst Faith continues God is pleased to vouchsafe the Soul through believing such joys much more when Faith ceaseth he will vouchsafe the same Soul a fuller enjoyment of himself at the ending of Faith For why else are these present joys termed Salvation and that as distinct from that right to salvation which otherwise Faith at all times estates us into but for this that these joys are an entrance into and a taking possession of Glory over and above what ordinarily Faith giveth And therefore they have the name given them as being the earnest of the same kind unto that greater fum is to be paid as in all Contracts it useth to be at the end of that performance on one part which end is when Faith ends And so that is made the set Date or time when this full payment is to begin which this earnest aforehand bindeth God unto And it were hard to suppose that God would give such a part of these joys even whilst Faith continues for so long a time as until the Resurrection and then withdraw all communication of himself both in Joy and Faith also But I leave the prosecution of this Argument till I come to those words Who hath also given us the earnest of the Spirit I also know that by this phrase The salvation of our souls the Soul being the eminent part of man is often in Scripture by a Synecdoche put for the whole person And I must not deny but that ultimately it is intended here it extending it self to the whole of Salvation first and last after Faith ended Which sense on the other hand many interpreters are for I only contend for this That the salvation of the soul is intended also of that Salvation which falls out in the midst between these joys the earnest in this life and that ultimate Salvation at the Resurrection that is the Salvation of the Soul whilst separate as being the next It hath a weight in it that Salvation and Damnation should so often be said to be of the soul by Christ himself as Mat. 26. 16. What shall it profit a Man to gain the whole World and so provide for his body and lose his own Soul And again in speaking of the Soul as considered apart from the Body Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that are able to kill but the body and are not able to kill the soul But that which is more conjunct to my purpose it is observable that this our Apostle Peter should choose to use in this Epistle more than any other Apostle this phrase of Soul in relation to Salvation either as being the eminent subject and sometimes as the single subject both of Grace and Salvation So in this Chapter You have purified your souls c. as the immediate susceptive of the incorruptible seed as was observed Then again in chap. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul and 8. 25. Ye are returned to the Bishop of your Souls Which he speaks as being the eminent part and upon separation from the body the special charge he hath pastoral care of And more directly to our purpose ch 4. last v. he exhorts them when they come to die to commit their souls to God as then being to be separate from their bodies Now it were hard to think that this Salvation to come should bear the title and name of the salvation of the soul in this and other Scriptures and Heb. 10. v. last Jam. 5. v. last that yet when this Soul shall in the other World come to subsist for a long time single and alone and then be properly and without figure A meer soul without a
Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
first yet hath something more of bowels in it it sayes withal something further when it falls out that such Spirits as he is a Father unto by the first creation are also the subjects of His eternal Love by Grace and Election unto the Adoption of Children as Eph. 1. 3 4 5. see the words Which Love having accordingly taken hold of their Souls by a work of Grace wrought upon them in this life thereby owning them as his in this case that God that is a Father of their Spirits by the Law of the first creation is in a more transcendent manner become the Father of the same Spirits by Grace and the second Creation superadded Hence it falls out in a parallel way that as it was said such Souls were become Spirit upon a double account that is Spirits for the substance of their being and again Spirit by being born again of the Spirit so answerably it is that God stands in relation unto them as a Father of their Spirits upon the like double respect And this is equitable upon a very great account for his relation of Father is more eminent to his Grace by Election and then again by the grace of his second Creation than it could be any way supposed to be by the first Creation And therefore is set and pitcht in like singularity and eminency upon the same object that is their Spirits And hence it may well yea must be supposed and acknowledged That if God did make such a Darling of the Soul such an account of it by creation as to entitle himself so specially the Father thereof then certainly this love of Grace much more hath in like equipage taken up the same gracious special relation in its kind of Father thereunto not only because Nature shall never be found to exceed Grace in its favours but that indeed the motives are far greater that God should extend the like and greater priviledges where he meant to love by Election and Choice than he did where he loved only by a due and meet Law of Creation So that when God shall profess himself a Father to their Spirits speaking to such as are his Elect he strongly insinuateth thereby That he is by Grace likewise the Father of their Spirits in a peculiar manner And truly that speech of our Saviour at his death confirms it Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit It was not barely as a Father of his Spirit by creation as you all know but by everlasting Love and so in that respect also in a peculiar manner the Father of his Spirit and therefore as to a Father he commends his separate Spirit unto him And this he did although he was to rise again in less than three whole dayes space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of God's being a Father of Spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto Men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerly the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as Children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a Father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that Word and live this Life is well interpreted by ver 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus That if he would have them be subject unto God in holiness as upon that relation as unto the Father of Spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one special aim of the Promise is answerable and hath this Eye That God as a Father of their Spirits will therefore take care of their Spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their Spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this Life on them and truly when is it more proper for him to shew himself as a Father than when their Souls after their subjection to him in Holiness here accomplished and when that as naked Spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his Presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashered out of this World and come stript and naked of all but Holiness unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Father's Blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no Children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as Spirits who as Sons have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the Demonstration of this Point than all the former The Text says He that wrought us for this is God I add he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of Spirits in common and yet withal a Father of their Spirits out of special Love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the Spirits of all Flesh that is of Man Numb 16. 22. Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by Grace And these two Relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all Men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all Men So in common answerably he is your God and your Father by special Grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you find yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how far he is a God of the one so far a Father also extendeth in the other And look how far that he is our God so far reacheth also that he is our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will add further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide Glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his Sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God
great Reward And so we come to connect this fifth Head with the foregoing Gen. 15. 1. And therefore if the being his God moved him to prepare that City against his death as hath been said then surely his being his Reward doth also then take place I shall not omit it because it falls in the next Chapter Heb. 12. 23. that in that stupendious Assembly of Heaven God the Judge of all is mentioned between the Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven this afore and the Spirits of justified Men made perfect this after it For there are none of these First-born or the Spirits of just Men do come to sit down there but they pass the award of this Judge first for they sit down by him and surely having done all their Work in the time of that day is allotted to each man to work in it is a righteous thing with God to give them a Reward in the evening of this day which is Christ's time set for rewarding and it is the twelfth and last hour succeeding the eleventh of the day Matth. 20. 6 9. See Brugensis Maldonat c. Lev. 19. 13. compared which is when the night of death comes Now there is a Law given by God that the wages to a man hired should be given him by him that set him awork in his day that is says the Septuagint the very same day so as his Work or the wages of his Work abide not with thee all the night until the morning Deut. 24. 15. says God Deut. 24. 15. Did God take care for hirelings when their Work was done not to stay any space of time no not a night and doth he not fulfil this himself unto his Sons that serve him Surely yes he defers not nor puts them off to the morning of the Resurrection as the Psalmist elegantly calls it Psal 17. last It abides not with him all that dark and longsome night or space after death in which their bodies rest in the grave which is termed Man's long home and Eccles 12. 5. The days of darkness are many says Solomon No he rewards them in the evening of the day besides what he will add to it in the morning It is observable that Rev. 6. 9 10. concerning the separate Souls slain for Christ that whilst they cry for Justice on their enemies only And when he had opened the fifth Seal I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held and they cryed with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth that they had white robes given them to quiet them in the mean time ver 11. And white Robes were given unto every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season till they heard that vengeance also was executed on that Roman Empire for their blood shed And thus to deal is a righteous thing with God Thus you have seen the Point confirmed from all sorts of relations that God bears unto us by congruous Reasons that so it becometh God the great God to do He that hath wrought us for this thing is God And so much for this first Branch of this second Doctrine §. The II. Branch of the second Doctrine That there is a glorious Contrivement and Workmanship carried on in this Dispensation of his like unto the great God indeed This carries on this Point yet higher For it is not onely an Ordination becoming God upon the respects mentioned but there is an Artifice a Workmanship in it such as he useth to shew in his Works of Wonder even in this That he should work upon Men's Souls in this life and then bring them into a Glory he had in the mean space been a working also for those their Souls This is the great God indeed When God secretly bestows Cost and Curiosity in preparing matters for such or such an end and then again as hiddenly hath laid out a greater Art Skill and Workmanship upon that end it self and then hath exactly suited and matched the one to the other when All comes to be finish'd and both wrought and brought together then will an infinite surpassing Glory arise unto God out of all which deserveth to have this Notoriety that is here put upon it He that hath wrought this for that Is GOD and lo this is found here which is demonstrated if we view 1. Each of these Workmanships singly and apart 2. Joyntly as designed and fitted each to the other §. 1. Each singly If there were no such ordination of the one for the other yet so considered they deserve to have each an He that hath wrought this is God to be written under it 1. For his Artifice in working us in this life Learned Cameron hath but one In his Myrothecium Note upon this whole fifth Chapter and and it falls to be upon this very Word who hath wrought and it is this This word says he as used by the Septuagint signifies Rem expolire rudem informem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To polish a thing that is rude and without fashion for which he gives instance out of Exod. 35. 33. in Bezaleel's work whom as the 31 32 verses speak of him God had filled with his Spirit in all Wisdom in all Workmanship to devise cunning Work And again the same word is used of the Temple-work that other was for Mose's Tabernacle 1 King 6. 36. by Solomon which how transcendent a structure it was you have all read or heard An infinitely surpassing Art then hath the Spirit himself who is the immediate worker in this shewn in the framing and hewing and curiously carving and engraving those living Stones that grow up into a Temple unto God 1 Pet. 2. 5. especially considering the utter remoteness indisposedness yea crookedness and perverseness in the matter wrought upon our souls fill'd with the contrary form and workmanship of Satan Ye are his workmanship says the Apostle Eph. 2. 10. And truly if we could enlarge upon all the varieties of dealings God useth to each Soul to work it the several sorts of gracious dispositions he impresseth and carveth upon it the manifold actings of every Soul drawn forth by him you may take a view of some in the very next chapter to that of my Text 2 Cor. 6. from the 4. ver In much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses v. 5. In Stripes in Imprisonments in Tumults in Labours in Watching in Fastings ver 6. By Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by Kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned ver 7. By the Word of Truth by the Power of God by the Armour of Righteousness on the right-hand and on the left ver 8. By Honour and dishonour by evil Report and good Report as deceivers and yet true ver 9.