the drop is swallowed up in the ocean and the small dust in the huge mountaine so shall the short moment of this present life be forgotten when the bright morning of eternal joy shall break upon your souls and the righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father This is that life and immortality which is brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Wherfore gird up the loynes of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ unto whom ye are hastening waiting for the day of your departing hence that ye may be with Christ which is far better Thirdly How doth the death of the Saints bring them immediatly to Christ a their departure in what manner doth the soul depart The Apostle joyneth his departing and being with Christ together by a small copulative particle as if the soul were as soon with Christ after dissolution as we can speak so short a word even in the next moment which is the third general head to be handled In the explaining whereof I shall take it for granted that the soul is immortal and dyeth not with the body but immediately appeareth before God according to the apprehension of St. Paul in my text who therefore desired to depart that he might be with Christ For were not the soul immortal and that in Pauls perfect judgement it had been far better for him to have lived then dyed for to him to live was Christ but in case he had dyed he could not have been with Christ according to his desire had not his soul survived his body Therefore subscribing to the judgement of so great an Apostle I shall wave the needless controversie and proceed to the explication of this last question in hand the truth and manner whereof will appear in these following demonstrations I. Demonst First the Souls of the Saints are spiritually and inseparably united unto Christ He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 The spirit of Christ dwelleth in beleivers and though the body be dead or mortall because of sin yet the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 11. The spirit of Christ in the soul is a principle of eternal life by conjunction of the soul with Christ whereby we are quickned together with him through which both our spiritual and eternal life is secured the union of the soul with Christ being inviolable Therefore our life is said to be hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 * Cum Christ in Deo est exira periculum esse Calv. and is out of all danger of ever being separated for who or what shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. latter end I am perswaded saith Paul neither life nor death c. As the hypostatical union of the Godhead and humanity of Christ could not be separated by his death so neither the mystical and spiritual union between Christ and the soul by the death of the Saints For he is the head of his body the Church whereof every true believer is a living member unto whom they are so really spiritually and immediately united that no state condition or power whatsoever can sever or dis-joyn them And though every unfruitful branch may and shall be taken away and cut off from Christ the true vine by final Apostasie Ecclesiastical censure or the judicial sentence that shall pass upon every hypocrite when God shall require and take away his soul every true and living branch shall abide in him for ever through the skill and care of the Father the great husbandman And if we consider the relation which Christ standeth in to all the Saints of a husband to his spouse contracted together by an everlasting covenant betrothed in loving kindness and faithfulness and joyned together by the eternal spirit of grace through which they enjoy the sweet embraces and mutual expressions of their conjugal union and affections how can it be imagined that the Spouse of Christ or any particular Christians should by their dissolution be deprived of so near a relation and firm union for the soul being a spirit and uncapable of suffering the least alteration in its essence by the death of the body from which it is only separated as the life thereof it must of necessity retaine and still possess its spiritual beauty and all supernatural and heavenly priviledges in and with Christ whereof it is far more capable and that more fully and perfectly to receive being separate then in the present body II. Demonstr Secondly the souls of believers are by a natural force and necessity detained from their desired presence with Christ while they are present in the body and thus the death of the Saints bringeth them to Christ by releasing their souls from the tyes and bonds of an absented estate Therefore are we alwayes confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. The body is the Saints natural home wherein by a natural necessity they are kept absent from Christ and yet a forced absence in regard of their desires to be with him and to change their bodily home for an eternal house The Philosophers called the body animae carcerem pistrinum the prison and gaol of the soul if so how welcome should death be to the righteous that setteth this prisoner free and enlargeth the souls confinement But how the soul being set at liberty and delivered from the natural bond and relation to the body is immediately present with Christ I shall explain with what clearness and brevity I can for the making good of this second Demonstration First the soul and body in the Godly as in all other men are joyned together by the God of nature in the creation of them as essential parts of one person the humane nature consisting of body and soul which God himself breathed into the humane and organical body and whereby man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 It is also a received maxime in natural science that in the propagation of the humane nature the soul of man is immediately created and that not out of the body but in the body into which it is infused in the very creation of it and so one man is said to beget another not that he doth generate the soul but the body and the union of both God concurring as the first and universal cause with the secondary and particular causes in their natural acts and motions Which union of the soul and body being natural as of two essential parts of the whole though the soul being a spirit hath a subsistence being separate from the body by dissolution yet it is but a separate part and remaineth as a part during the time and
THE SOULS ASCENSION IN THE STATE OF SEPARATION Summarily delivered in a Sermon preached at Shenly in the County of Hertford the 21. of November 1660. at the Funeral Solemnities of Mrs Mary Jessop late wife of William Jessop Esq and since enlarged and publish'd for common benefit By ISAAC LOEFFS M.A. Eccles 3.21 Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the Earth London Printed for N. Ranew and J. Robinson at the Angel in Jewen-street 1670 TO My ever honoured Uncle WILLIAM JESSOP ESQUIRE SIR MY natural modesty and backwardness to appear in publick together with the difficulty of obtaining the Press have detained this short Treatise so long from you that you may well judge it unseasonable now to be presented unto you Yet considering the duty of that relation wherein I stand unto you through your late dear Yoak-Fellow whose death was the occasion of this Discourse and the obligation that is upon me by so many favours and undeserved kindnesses received from you as also the benefit which possibly may accrue to others from so serious a Subject I have ventured it abroad into the world under the protection of your Name how weakly so-ever managed and liable to the censures of this scrupulous Age. However I may hope that as Funeral Sermons above others have an advantage upon Auditors by their sad occasion so this also may affect the impartial Reader by the weight of its Arguments And although it was first intended and promised you for a private present and an acknowledgment of that due respect and unfeigned love which I do and shall ever bear to your self and your Relations yet I presume it will not be the less accepted because others are now made equal sharers in it And my confidence herein is the more strengthned by the consideration of that publick spirit which you have manifested at all times by your willing and unwearied pains in the service of your Generation wherein your integrity and faithfulness have so eminently appeared that your name is known and honoured throughout the Nation But this above all is your Crown that in all your publick employments you have not sought your self and the advancement of your Family so much as the honour of God the interest of his people and the enlargement of the Gospel by your high esteem of and the encouragement you have given unto the Faithful Ministers of it among whom I have been an unworthy Labourer And blessed be the Lord who hath made his Grace to abound towards you by his assisting and supporting presence in all your paines and travels whereby you have been enabled so chearfully to undergo the burden of your hard services who hath also blessed your careful and conscientious endeavours for the promoting of Godliness in your Family and among your near Relations One fruit whereof I cannot but mention for your unspeakable comfort concerning your dear Relation taken from you being present at her dissolution who about to close her eyes from her mourning Children and Friends and all the visible things of this life did sensibly joyfully and openly acknowledge and declare her assured and known interest in Christ unto whom she immediately departed Now the Lord supply all your wants and be your reward and the blessing of your off-Spring And if this poor present may add any thing of spiritual benefit and advantage to your own soul the souls of your relations or any others it will be the rejoycing of From my study at Shenly in the County of Hertford Oct. 20. 1669. Your unworthy Kinsman and Servant in the Gospel ISAAC LOEFFS THe Reader is desired to correct these following mistakes which escaped the Press by reason of the Authors absence PAge 2. Line 27. for walk read reach P. 5. l. 12. leave out not P. 9. l. 13. f. hand 1. head P. 10. l. 3. f. alwayes r. already P. 22. l. 8. f. live r. evil P. 26. l. 5. f. Luther 1. Augustine T. 43. l. 16. f. strange r. strong p. 120. l. 9. f. medicinal r. mystical P. 125. l. 2. f. Christ r. God P. 129. l. 2. blot out in Scriptures THE SOVLS ASCENSION In the State of SEPARATION PHILLIP 1.24 For I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better MAN being in honour abideth not or lodgeth not all night therein saith David Psal 49.12 But becomes like the Beasts that perish for that which befalleth the Sons of men befalleth Beasts as the one dieth so dieth the other so that a man hath no preheminence above a Beast saith Solomon Eccl. 3.19 Nevertheless though he dieth like the Beast yet his Spirit retaining the immortality of its essence returneth not to corruption with his body but is capable of a state after death and dissolution according as the infinite wisdom of his Creator doth dispose thereof in a way of justice or mercy * For the spirit returneth to God who gave it Chap. 12 7. And because most men are so irrational and foolish as either through ignorance of their own nature and being to deny the immortality of their souls or through delusion and presumption to conclude the certainty of their future felicity judging all things by sense and the present dispensations of external and common providence therefore it shall be my present design in handling this Text to give unto you a private prospect through the gate of death towards the mountaines and valleys of eternal happiness and misery by presenting unto you the secret and hidden way of the spirit and soul of man in its sudden flight and motion at the time and in the state of separation from the corporeal and fleshy part which falls from it towards its earthly center And forasmuch as the dissolution of nature doth not only divide the two essential parts of soul and body but also the common rode of this temporal life into two distinct paths towards the greatest different states of everlasting joy or sorrow I shall labour to walk both in this subject the first in the doctrinal part because it is the proper and plain scope of the Text and the other in the Application by way of consequence and deduction For which end and purpose it will be necessary for me first to bring you to the Text by the preceeding parts of the Chapter and the occasion of this Epistle to which it hath relation and then by the Text to the matter intended The occasion of Paul's writing this Epistle to the Church at Philippi was an honourable Present the Church had sent unto him being then a prisoner in Rome by the hands of Epaphroditus their pastor by way of charity to supply his present necessities By whom having understood the state and condition of that Church and being affected with so great an expression of their love unto him he returned this sweet Letter and Spiritual Epistle And in this first Chapter after
them they could not mourne Mat. 9.5 But when he told them that he should be taken from them their hearts were filled with sorrow It was one of Luthers three wishes that he might have seen Christ in the flesh Paul preaching and primitive Rome in its flourishing condition Content thy self a while thou precious soul that lovest him and his appearance thou shalt shortly see him with his Father and thy Father and abide with him for ever and thou that hast been ravished with-the sweetness and powerful influence of his spiritual presence in his Ordinances wherein thou shalt in the end of thy dayes drink with him of the wine of the Kindom of God pressed from the clusters of the heavenly Canaan Secondly to be with Christ is to be glorified with Christ and to possess the same glory which Christ hath with the Father Christ chargeth Mary who had the honour first to see him after his Resurrection to forbear his bodily presence saying touch me not for I am not yet ascended unto my Father John 20.17 But goe and tell my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And being ascended he is set down at the right hand of the Majestie on High Heb. 1.3 Or on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens Chap. 8.1 Now Christs throne shall be the Saints throne as he hath promised Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne Christ hath prayed his Father and declared this as his Will to his Father John 17.24 Father I will that these whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me And shall they only be spectators of it shall not the beholding of the glory of Christ in Heaven be as powerful to change the Saints into the same glory as seeing his glorious Image 2 Cor. 4.18 For we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord or as it may be rendred even as by the Lord the Spirit for the Lord is that spirit v. 17. And this is no less then what Christ hath assured us of by his own grant and promise unto us Joh. 17.22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as we are one To shew you therefore what this glory of Christ is whereof every belâ—iver shall be a partaker with him It is a spiritual and full possession and enjoyment of God himself in perfect union and immediate communion with him For so far as we can discern and understand things so far above us and remote from us in their nature and excellency and as they are revealed unto our capacity in the Heavenly records of Divine writ the glory of Heaven seemeth to be the highest degree of spirituality God is presented unto us to be a spirit John 4.24 And if we cloth the nature of a spirit with the Attributes of God as they are made known unto us by himself it is the highest conception we can have of him For God is a Spirit or a spiritual substance most Holy most Wise Eternal Infinite as that holy and famous writer of ours hath described or defined him The Angels are Spirits or ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 The Souls of the Saints in Heaven are Spirits the Spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 And if we may judge as we say the body by the foot ex pede Herculem or of the glory of Heaven and of the Soul by the glory of the body as it is already glorified in Christ and others with him or as it shall be glorified after the Resurrection even the body of all beleivers it will appear still that the spirituality of the Heavenly state is the glory of it The Apostle Paul speaking of Christs coming from hence to raise the body and to glorifie it saith Phil 3.21 That he shall change our vile body and make it like unto his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself So that look what manner of body for glory Christs body now is in Heaven such shall our bodieds be and what the glory of his body is appeareth by the spirituality of it after his Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.44 It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body if not in substance yet in quality And if the nature of grace in the Saints on earth be spiritual and the fruits of the spirit in them constituting them a spiritual people Gal 6.1 Whereby they are blessed with spiritual blessings in heavenly places or things it will follow that the state of glory must be a spiritual state for the soul in a higher degreee of spirituality glory being grace consummate as grace is glory inchoate Now the soul is raised unto the glorious degree of perfection and spirituality in the heavenly presence of Christ by being fill'd with the fulness of God and that by comprehending the highth and length and depth and breadth of the love of God which here passeth knowledge but is fully made known in Heaven by the beatifical vision of God himself letting out his love without measure into the soul whereby it is sublimated and transformed into the likeness of God 1 John 3.2 For now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is We shall not see him only in his name his word and works but in his nature not his back parts but his face Now we see through a glass darkely but then face to face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now we know but in part but then I shall know as I am known 1 Cor. 13.12 This is the blessed rewards of the pure in heart that they shall see God and without holiness no man shall see him Thirdly to be with Christ is to be with them that are with Christ and to have fellowship with the heavenly society of Angels and Saints in the presence of Christ Heb. 12.22 23. Ye are come unto Mount Zion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Hierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to the spirits of just men made perfect First to be with Christ is to have society with all the blessed Angels of God who worship Christ in heaven Heb. 1.6 He saith let all the Angels worship him The sight of Angels on earth did sometimes strike fear into the hearts of Saints and an apprehension of death into them as when Gideon saw the Angel Judges
soul It is dreadful to consider what a mass and mountainous bigness the sins of a poor carnal wretch arise unto if we lay them together his original sin actual sins sins of omission and commission his secret sins and open and scandalous sins his whole life hath been a trade of sin and whatsoever proceedeth from him is sin the ploughing of the wicked is sin and his prayer is turned into sin And to his own sins personally committed we may add his other mens sins either occasioned countenanced or allowed Now multiply these by their particulars and individuals and measure all by their sinful circumstances and then judge of the guilt of every sinful ma that dieth in unbelief and without pardoning grace through the bloud of Christ Secondly The conscience of every wicked man is awakened immediately after death and dissolution to a continual sense of the guilt of all his sins Natural conscience in carnal men is for the most part peaceable silent in this present life delight custome in sin hardning the heart and searing the conscience which they labour to keep asleep by diverting the thoughts to worldly objects or to satisfie by a formal profession attended with some outward performances But as soon as ever the soul of an unregenerate person is separate from the body this lyon awaketh sleepeth no more the faculties of the soul being alwayes in act and exercise in a separate state whereby his sins shall be alwayes before him and set in order before his eyes upon which his conscience shall reflect continually without diversion or intermission Then the sins you have laboured to forget and cast out of mind shall be brought to remembrance and ye shall ever behold them for which conscience shall charge and accuse you and in the fresh remembrance of them you shall lye down self-condemned for ever This is the worm that never dieth Mark 9 48. But shall gnaw your hearts to eternity Thirdly Hereupon the soul of a wicked man shall tremble at the sight and presence of God That the soul of every man and consequently of the wicked shall see and approach the powerful and immediate presence of God in his Divine nature and essence upon their dissolution is apparent in that the spirit of man is said to go upward Eccles 3.21 And to return to God who gave it Chap. 12.7 As also by the particular judgement immediately consequent upon death whereby God appearing to conscience decideth and determineth the eternal state and condition of every soul preparative to the last and glorious appearing of Christ at the great and terrible day who shall then judge the whole world and the soul and body together For it is appointed unto men once to ye and after this the judgement Heb. 9.27 Which may include this particular judgement after death whereof we are speaking as well as the last and general judgement yet some restrain it to the particular only But in what manner the soul of a wicked man shall see God take in a few words Death being the unclothing and putting off off the earthly house of the body the soul remaineth naked in respect of that clothing which nakedness of the separate souls of the Saints is covered and clothed upon with the glory of their house in heaven 2 Cor. 5.3 In which state of nakedness wherein the souls of the wicked abide the soul must needs be quickly and powerfully apprehensive of God and of any impression and influence of God upon it as the body being naked of its clothing is tenderly sensible of heat or cold and any thing that approacheth unto it For the foul being separate from the body receiveth its object no more through the senses of the body but in an immediate way of discovery of them We know also that the Lord doth sometimes immediately wound the spirit of man while it is in the body by letting fall the drops of wrath upon it and thereby tormenteth it which David calleth the rebukes of God Ps 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Moreover if the soul being a spirit and separate from the body can converse with spirits as the Saints with Angels and the damned with Devils much more with God the Father of spirits who can discover himself unto them as he pleaseth But take heed of mistaking here for though a gracious and and sanctified soul reconciled unto God hath to do with him as a father in the apprehension of his love through which it hath comfort and joy in communion with him yet it is not so with the sinful soul of that than that dieth in his sins which apprehendeth God only as he appeareth to it in wrath and displeasure for without holiness no man shall see the Lord that is with peace and comfort Heb. 12.14 Now consider ye that forget God can ye see and behold the wrath of his countenance doe ye not tremble in your very thoughts of him Surely the presence of an angry God will make every guilty soul to fear and tremble at his feet when they shall be brought before him by his Serjeant Death The apprehension of guilt and of God together made Adam and Eve to run behind the Trees for fear when they heard the voice of God in the garden Gen. 3.8 Moses though a Favourite yet when he saw the appearance of God in the thundrings and lightnings and earthquakes the smoke and fire heard the sound of the trumpet upon Mount Sinai he said I exceedingly fear â—nd quake Heb. 12.21 When Elijah apprehended God was in the still small voice he wrapped his face in his mantle â—nd went out and stood in the entring of the â—ave 1 Kings 19.13 When Job came to see God with his eyes he abhorred himself in dust and ashes Job 42.6 The judgements of God made holy Davids flesh to tremble Psal 119.120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee I am afraid of thy judgements The glorious vision which Isaiah saw how did it work upon that holy Prophet Isaiah 6.5 When he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and cryed woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King â—he Lord of Hosts And if these Saints so eminent for grace and holiness have trembled at the presence of God manifested unto them in love and mercy how shall the unner and ungodly stand in his sight Doest thou beleive there is a God If not thou shalt see and beleive but remember that the Devils beleive and tremble Fourthly The soul of a wicked man thus trembling before God the holiness of God breaketh forth in wrath upon the soul to punish torment it For the soul appearing before God in the guilt of all its sins which are the greatest contrariety opposition against the holy nature of God who
continuance of its separation having a natural inclination to be re-united to its own body without which it cannot be perfectly happy though in heaven it self in all degrees for notwithstanding the fulness of the glory of God in heaven whereof it is partaker in the presence of Christ yet being but a part it wants the natural perfection of its relation and receiveth its happiness and glory but according to the measure of a part waiting for the redemption of its body Whence we may conclude that the natural state and condition of the sould of every man is to be in the body and there it is in its proper habitation as the Apostle saith we are at home in the body 2 Cor. 5.6 So that how strange soever the desire of a gracious soul may be to be with Christ and to be absent from the body by departing hence yet it is naturally and necessarily detained till the death of the body leave it free as in a be-widdowed estate to remove to Christ its wellbeloved and to the Father of spirits for a time to visit those mansions wherein it shall abide for ever in the fulness of glory with the assumed body made more suitable and spiritual for it at the resurrection It appeareth also from hence that it is no less then wilful murther and consequently a breach of a great command voluntarily to endeavour or hasten the dissolution of these two united parts of body and soul nature and grace commanding and commending the use of all lawful meanes and that by physick as well as food and other natural helpes to preserve this present life until God in the course of providence shall make a separation Secondly Believers while they are in the body are absent from the Lord Christ both in respect of local distance and also of the nature and manner of their communion with him For Christ is in heaven and they upon earth and their communion with him now though it be spiritual and joyful yet it is weak and darke in comparison of an immediate presence For we walk by faith not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 Which faith being the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen begetteth in the heart a fervent love and an unspeakable joy in an absent and unseen Saviour 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Nevertheless the communion the Saints have with Christ through faith and hope in him is but weak and dark here in comparison of what shall be in heaven when they shall be with him and these graces appropriato this present life and state shall cease through immediate vision and fruition whereby their love shall be perfect in the presence of its object For faith apprehendeth Christ by spiritual knowledge which is the sight in the eye of faith and the highest degree of knowledge the soul is capable of here in heavenly things is but obscure to what it shall be hereafter What we see through many mediums is but darkely seen and though mediums may be helpful to natural sight in case of weakness of the organ or distance of the object yet such a sight falls short of a strong and clear inspection of something near at hand and at a due distance Thus it is in regard of the souls apprehension and knowledge of spiritual things which being at a great distance and far remote in their nature and perfection we look at them as through a glass and that darkely 1 Cor. 13.12 For we know in part and we prophesie in part and now see through a glass darkely but then face to face We see the things of God and of heaven through the glass of the Word and Sacraments and the glass of the workes of Providence in which glasses we may be said to see these things also as by reflexion of their image according to that other expression of Paul 2 Cor. 3.18 For we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image this also is darke in respect of the sight of the maked face or substantial glory of Christ in a direct line and without reflexion for though it be with open face the vail of natural ignorance and blindness being taken away yet it is not face to face in the appearance of Christ nakedly and immediately unto us But what this darkness of knowledge is in this life I shall in a few words more explain The mysteries of heaven and of God and Christ are revealed unto us in the Scriptures according to our capacity of understanding them and the Lord condescending to the nature of man speaketh unto us after the manner of man Now the nature and kind of knowledge which is proper unto us is not intuitive but discursive the rational soul using the organs and senses of the body for the attaining of its knowledge and understanding So that we know all things in a sensible manner according to the first species and impressions made in the understanding which it receiveth from the senses and from thence the understanding by discourse and reason formeth the notions of spiritual and insensible beings And hence it is that in most things that incurre not immediately into the senses our knowledge is so darke and dubious that in natural science we agree not but dispute principles themselves In like manner God revealeth spiritual and invisible things and the great mysteries of the Gospel unto us wherein he speaketh our language and presenteth heavenly things unto us in earthly formes as when he revealeth and describeth himself it is as having the members of our bodies and the passions of our minds which we art to understand figuratively and not literally least we become guilty of blasphemous thoughts and carnal apprehensions of God And thus when our Saviour instructed Nicodemus in the mystery of grace and conversion to God he telleth him he must be born again John 3.5 Nicodemus understood him at first literally and rather wondred then believed wherefore Christ reproveth him verse 13. If I have told you earthly things and ye beleive not how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things Not that regeneration is an earthly thing though it must be a state upon earth and wrought while we are here but Christs meaning is if I have spoken to you of these heavenly and spiritual things in an earthly manner and sensitive way by parables and similitudes and yet ye understand me not so as to beleive how shall ye beleive if I speak in a spiritual and heavenly Dialect and Language Now if we understand heavenly things only as they are revealed for they are therefore so revealed that we might understand them what dark and low what short and weak apprehensions have we of them Therefore a gracious soul desireth to be absent rather from the body and present with Christ that it might
fully know and understand the hidden things of eternity and hear such words with Paul in the third heaven which are unutterable and therefore could not tell whither he was in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years agoe whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth Such a man one caught up to the third heaven and I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth how that he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter Hence it appeareth that there is an incapacity in humane nature in the present state thereof to apprehend and express the glory of heaven in the presence of Christ and therefore it is probable Paul was out of the body during this revelation unto him for he repeateth those words twice whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell But which of the two it was at that time it mattereth not so much in that he is so clear in the Text that for the attaining of such a condition he absolutely declareth his desire to depart and to be with Christ which all Christians conclude with him to be far better Thirdly the souls and spirits of the Saints loosed and separated from the body are swift and instantaneous in their motion to their appointed and desired place of bliss and happiness For the motion of Spirits they being without material and corporeal parts cannot be successive and so measured by time and therefore it is in an instant As the motions of Angels from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven are in an instant so the motion of the soul from the natural body to the presence of Christ in heaven is also in an instant But to speak also to every ordinary capacity and to the unlearned as well as learned in such natural principles I shall illustrate this truth by Scripture instances and similitudes The Angel Gabriel was caused to flye swiftly unto Daniel when he was speaking in prayer Dan. 9.21 Where the motion of an Angel is set forth by the notion of the fowles of the air that flye and move exceeding swiftly And because such motions of spirits are not discernable by sense but are only to be conceived by the mind for the help of such a conception I shall propose the motion of body and soul together in some that did visibly ascend into heaven As that of Elijah who ascended up to heaven in the sight of Elisha 2 Kin. 2.11 12. And it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven And Elisha saw it and he cryed my Father my Father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof and he saw him no more We must conceive here that Elijah was in an instant or in the twinckling of an eye transformed out of the natural qualities of his earthly body and changed into spiritual in which condition he was suddenly carried up into heaven And the swiftness of his motion in ascending appeareth in this Scripture in that it is compared to the motion of fire there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire Now fiery motions or the motions of fire are exceeding swift as the motion of light or of lightnings from East to West in a moment He is said likewise to go up to heaven by a whirl-wind The wind is exceeding swift as well as strong in its motion therefore God is said to flye upon the wings of the wind Psal 18.10 And of all winds none so swift as the whirlwind Neither is it to be neglected that Elijah cryed after him my Father my Father as if he were presently taken out of his sight The like instance we have of our Saviour when he ascended up into heaven in the view and presence of his Disciples Acts 1.9 While they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight In both these instances we cannot but imagine that both Christ and Elijah were quickly or in a moment at the end of their heavenly journey And if the motion of a spiritual or glorified body be so swift how much more the motion of a separate soul which is a pure Spirit Finally we may in some degree apprehend the motion of the soul in its essence by the motion of its faculties and how soon the soul can be in heaven and with God and Christ in its thoughts we may judge by the spiritual and sudden ejaculations of the heart whereby heavenly Christians are often and secretly ascending and descending between heaven and earth and God and their worldly imployments Lastly Christ in heaven is the center of all sanctified and gracious souls unto whose presence they tend in their separate motion Though the Divine nature or God-head be the center of all things as the cause and fountaine of all beings yet because the glory of God is not every where alike manifested but in heaven where Christ is personally present even at the right hand of God therefore the terme and center of the souls motion after separation is immediately unto him As Christ is the immediate object and term of our spiritual approaches unto the throne of Grace by whom we have access unto the Father and that by a new and living way conservated through the vail of his flesh So the humanity of Christ being finite upon which our thoughts are first placed doth more easily stay and fix the soul then the infinite essence of the Divine nature which being incomprehensible doth rather swallow up and overwhelm our weak faculties Therefore Bernard opening that Text of Solomon Prov. 25.27 according to the Hebrew from which our translation too much varieth exhorteth Christians not to gaze too long upon the Divine Majestie least they be overcome of the glory as to eat much honey is clogging to the stomack And as the Saints before Christ's incarnation prayed towards the temple the type of Christ where the presence of God visibly manifested did in some measure contract and limit the omnipresence of God to their hearts and apprehensions in worshipping of him In like manner Christ in heaven is the fixed period term and center of the Souls motion and approach to its glorious and heavenly state through whom and with whom we are glorified together as coheirs of God with him Therefore Paul desired to depart and to be with Christ that is to depart unto Christ as the terminus ad quem or center of his soul in departing As Stephen when he was stoned called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 As the stone moveth naturally down-ward to the earth so a gracious soul moveth upward to Christ who is the center of the Saints