I find that God hath answerably endued and furnished it with an Vnderstanding Will and Affections whereby it is capable of being wrought upon by the spirit in the way of Grace and Sanctification in this world in order to the enjoyment of God its chief happiness in the world to come By this its Understanding I am distinguished from and advanced above all other creatures in this World I can apprehend distinguish and judge of all other intelligible Beings By my Understanding I discern truth from falsehood good from evil It shews me what is fit for me to chuse and what to refuse To this faculty or power of Understanding my thoughts and conscience do belong The former to my speculative the latter to my practical Understanding My thoughts are all formed in my mind or Understanding in innumerable multitudes and variety By it I can think of things present or absent visible or invisible of God or my self of this or the world to come To my Understanding also belongs my Conscience a noble Divine and awfull power By which I summon and judge my self as at a solemn Tribunal bind and loose condemn and acquit my self and actions but still with an eye and respect to the judgment of God Hence are my best comforts and worst terrors This Understanding of mine is the director and guide of my Will That is as the Counsellor This as the Prince It freely chuseth and refuseth as my Understanding directs and suggests to it The members of my Body and passions of my Soul are under its Dominion The former are under its absolute command the latter under its suasions and insinuations though not absolutely and always with effect and success And both my Understanding and Will I find to have great influence upon my Affections These Passions and Affections of my Soul are of great use and dignity I find them as manifold as there are considerations of good and evil They are the strong and sensible motions of my Soul according to my apprehensions of good and evil By them my Soul is capable of union with the highest good By love and delight I am capable of enjoying God and resting in him as the Centre of my Soul This noble Understanding Thoughts Conscience Will Passions and Affections are the principal faculties acts and powers of this my high and heaven-born Soul And being thus richly endowed and furnished I find it could never rise out of matter created and infused with an inclination to the Body or come into my Body by way of natural generation the Souls of Brutes that rise that way are destitute of Understanding Reason Conscience and such other excellent faculties and powers as I find in mine own Soul They cannot know or love or delight in God or set their affections on things spiritual invisible and eternal as my Soul is capable to do it was therefore created and infused immediately into this body of mine by the Father of Spirits and that with a strong inclination and tender affection to my flesh without which it would be remiss and careless in performing its several Duties and Offices to it during the time of its abode therein Fearfully and wonderfully therefore am I made and designed for nobler ends and uses than for a few daies to eat and drink and sleep and talk and dye My Soul is of more value than ten thousand Worlds What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul USE FRom the several parts and branches of this Description of the Soul we may gather the choice Fruits which naturally grow upon them in the following Inferences and Deductions of truth and duty For we may say of them all what the Historian doth of Palestine that there is nihil infructuosum nihil sterile No Branch or Shrub is barren or unfruitful Let us then search it Branch by Branch and Inference I. I The Soul a substantial Being Tanta praerogativa manifeâ—â—e testâ—tur ipsius animam penes quam â—atio principatus est non esse materialem caducam sed sâ—perioris cujusdam atque eminentis naturae à conditione reliquarum animarum longeÌ„ distantem Coâ—imb Disp. de Anima separ p. 584. FRom the substantial Nature of the Soul which we have proved to be a Being distinct from the Body and subsisting by it self we are informed That great is the difference betwixt the death of a Man and the death of all other creatures in the world Their souls depend on and perish with their bodies but ours neither result from them nor perish with them My Body is not a Body when my Soul hath forsaken it but my Soul will remain a Soul when this body is crumbled into dust Men may live like beasts a meer sensual life yea in some sense they may dye like beasts a stupid death but in this there will be found a vast difference Death kills both parts of the Beasts destroyes matter and form it toucheth only one part of Man it destroyeth the Body and only dislodgeth the Soul but cannot destroy it In some things Solomon shews the Agreement betwixt our death and theirs Eccles. 3.19 20 21. That which befallâ—th the Sons of Men befalleth the Beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dyeth so dyeth the other all go to one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again We breathe the same common air they breathe we feel the same pains of death they feel our bodies are resolved into the same earth theirs are O! but in this is the difference The spirit of Man goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast goeth downward to the Earth Their spirits go two ways at their dissolution The one to the Earth the other to God that gave it as he speaks cap. 12.7 Though our Respiration and Expiration have some Agreement yet great is the odd in the consequences of death to the one and other They have no pleasures nor pains besides those they enjoy or feel now but so have we and those eternal and unspeakable too The Soul of Man like the bird in the shell is still growing and ripening in sin or grace Conâ—â—â—tuâ— fuit discretum et reâ—â—itque unde veneraâ— terra deo sâ—m spiritus sa sâ—m Epichâ— till at last the shell breaks by death and the Soul flees away to the place it is prepared for and where it must abide for ever The body which is but it's shell perisheth but the Soul lives when it is fallen away How doth this consideration expose and aggravate the folly and madness of the sensual world who herd themselves with beasts though they have souls so near of kin to Angels The Princes and Nobles of the World abhorr to associate themselves with Mechanicks in their shops or to take a place among the sottish rabble upon an Ale-bench They know and keep their distance and Decorum as still carrying with them a sense of Honour and abhorring to act beneath it But we equalize our high and
catch a few moments in the intervals of pain and then are put by all again Consideration IV. There is no man living but hath something to do for his own Soul in a dying hour and something for others also Suppose the best that can be supposed that the Soul be in real Union with Christ and that Union be also clear yet it is seldom found but there are some assaults of Satan or if not yet how many Relations and Friends need our experiences and Counsels at such a time How many things shall we have to do after our great and main work is done And others have a great deal more to do though as safe as the former O the Knots and Objections that are then to be dissolv'd and answered The unusual Onsets and Assaults of Satan that are then to be resisted And yet most dying persons have much more upon their hands than either of the former The whole work of Repentance and Faith is to do when time is even done Consideration V. Few yea very few are found furnished â—â—â—h Wisdom Experience and Faithfulness to give dying Persons any considerable assistance in Soul affairs it may be there may be found among the Visitants of the Sick now and then a person who hath a word of Wisdom in his heart but then either he wants opportunity or courage and faithfulness to do the part of a true Spiritual friend Elihu describes the person so qualified as he ought for this work Iob 33.23 24. and calls him one among a thousand Some are too close and reserved others too trifling and impertinent Some are willing but want Ability others are able but want faithfulness Some cut too deep by uncharitable censoriousness others skin over the wound too slightly speaking Peace where God and Conscience speak none So that little help is to be expected Consideration VI. How much therefore doth it deserve to be lamented that where there is so much to do so little time to do it and so few to help in the best improvement of it all should be lost as to their Souls by earthly incumbrances and wordly affairs which may have been done sooâ—â—â—nd better in a more proper season O therefore let mâ—â—â—erswade all men to take heed of bringing the proper business of healthful days to their sick beds Inference IV. What an excellent creature is the Soul of man which is capable not only of such preparations for God whilst it is in the Body but of such sights and enjoyments of God when it lives without a Body Here the Spirit of God works upon it in the way of grace and sanctification Eph. 2.10 The scope and design of this his workmanship is to qualifie and make us meet for the life of Heaven 2 Cor. 5.5 For this self same thing or purpose our Souls are wrought or moulded by grace into quite another frame and temper than that which nature gave them and when he hath wrought out and finished all that he intends to be wrought in the way of sanctification then shall it be called up to the highest injoyments and imployments for ever that a creature is susceptible of Herein the dignity of the Soul appears that no other Creature in this World beside it hath a natural capacity either to be sanctified inherently in this World or glorified everlastingly in that to come to be transformed into the image and filled with the joy of the Lord. There are Myriads of other Souls in this World beside ours but to none of them is the Spirit of sanctification sent but only to ours The Souls of Animals serve only to move the dull and sluggish matter and take in for a few days the sensitive pleasures of the Creation and so expire having no natural capacity of or designation for any higher imployment or enjoyment And it deserves a most serious animadversion that this vast capacity of the Soul for eternal blessedness must of necessity make it capable of so much the more misery and self torment if at last it fail of that blessedness For it is apparent they do not perish because they are uncapable but because they are unwilling not because their Souls wanted any natural faculty that others have but because they would not open those they have 〈◊〉 â—â—ceive Christ in the way of faith and obedience as others did Think upon this you that live only to eat and drink and sleep and play as the Birds and Beasts of the field do what need was there of a reasonable Soul for such sensual imployments do not your noble faculties speak your designation for higher uses and will you not wish to exchange Souls with the most vile and despicable Animal in this World if it were possible to be done Certainly it were better for you to have no capacity of eternal blessedness as they have not if you do not enjoy it and no capacity of torment beyond this life as they have not if you must certainly endure it Inference V. IF our Souls and Bodies must be separated shortly how patiently should we bear all lesser that may or will be made betwixt us and any other enjoyments in this World No union is so intimate strict and dear as that betwixt your Souls and Bodies All your relations and enjoyments in this World hang looser from your Souls than your Bodies do and if it be your duty patiently and submissively to suffer a painful parting pull from your Bodies it is doubtless your duty to suffer meekly and patiently a separation from other things which are but a prelude to it and a meer shadow of it 'T is good to put such cases to our selves in the midst of our pleasant enjoyments I have now many comfortable Relatives in the World Wife Children Kindred and Friends God hath made them pleasant to me but he may bereave me of all these Doth not Providence ring such changes all the World over Are not all Kingdoms Cities and Towns full of the sighs and laments of Widows Orphans and Friends bereaved of their pleasant and useful Relations But if God will have it so 't is our duty to bound our sorrows remembring the time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 In a few days we must be stript much nearer even out of our own Bodies by death God may also separate betwixt me and my health by sickness so that the pleasure of this World shall be cut off from me but sickness is not death though it be a prelude and step towards it I may well bear this with patience who must submissively bear sharper pains than these ere long Yea and well may I bear this submissively considering that by such imbittering and weaning providences God is preparing me for a much easier dissolution than if I should live at ease in the Body all my days till death come to make so great and suddain a change upon me God may also separate betwixt me and my liberty by restraint It hath been the lot of the best men that ever
of the wrath to his own Soul and the astonishing love of Christ in delivering him from it by bearing that wrath in his place and room in his own person cannot chuse but estimate Christ above ten thousand Worlds Inference V. HOw great a trust and charge lyeth upon them to whom the care of Souls is committed and from whom an account for other mens as well as their own Souls shall certainly be required Ministers are appointed of God to watch for the Souls of their people and that as men that must give an account Heb. 13.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est noctes insomnes agere quod solent viri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pernox soticitudo The word here translated watch signifies such watchfulness as that of Shepherds which keep their stocks by night in places infested by Wolves who watch whole nights together for their safety If a man were a keeper only of Sheep or Swine it were no great matter if the Wolf now and then carried away one whilst we slept but Ministers have charge of Souls one of which as Christ assures us in the Text is more worth than the whole World Hear what one speaks upon this point God purchased the Church with his own Blood Gildas Salvian p. 260. O what an Argument is here to quicken the negligent and what an Argument to condemn those that will not be quickened up to their duty by it O saith one of the Ancient Doctors if Christ had but committed to my keeping one spoonful of his Blood in a fragil glass how curiously should I preserve it and how tender should I be of that glass If the◠he have committed to me the purchace of that Blood should I not carefully look to my charge What Sirs shall we despise the Blood of Christ shall we think it was shed for them that are not worthy of our care O then let us hear those Arguments of Christ whenever we feel our selves grow dull and careless Did I dye for them and wilt not thou look after them Were they worth my Blood and are they not worth thy labour Did I come down from Heaven to Earth to seek and to save that which was lost and wilt not thou go to the next door or street or village to seek them How small is thy labour or condescension to mine I debased my self to this but it is thy honour to be so imployed Let not that man think to be saved by the Blood of Christ himself that makes light of precious Souls who are the purchace of that Blood And no less charge lyeth upon Parents to whom God hath committed the care of their Childrens Souls and Masters that have the Guardianship of the Souls as well as bodies of their Families the command is laid immediately upon you that they sanctifie Gods Sabbaths Exod. 20.10 to command your houshold in the way of the Lord Gen. 18.19 O Parents consider with your selves what strong engagements lye upon you to do all you are capable of doing for the salvation of the precious Souls of your dear Children Remember their Souls are infinitely of more value than their bodies that they came into the World under sin and condemnation that you were the instruments of propagating that sin to them and bringing them into that misery that you know their dispositions and how to suit them better than others can That the bonds of Nature give you singular advantages to prevail and be successful in your exhortations beyond what any others have that you are always with them and can chuse your opportunities which others cannot That you and they must shortly part and never meet them again till you meet at the Judgment-seat of Christ. That it will be inconceivably dreadful to see them stand at Christs left hand among the cursed and condemned there cursing the day that ever they were born of such ignorant and negligent such careless and cruel Parents as took no care to instruct reprove or exhort them O who can think without horrour of the cryes and curses of his own Child in Hell cast away by the very instrument of its Being Is this the love you bear them to betray them to eternal misery Was there no other provision to be made but for their bodies Did you think you had fully acquitted your duty when you had got an Estate for them O that God would effectually touch your hearts with a becoming sense of the value and danger of their Souls and your own too in the neglect of that great and solemn trust committed to you with respect to them And you Masters consider though God hath set you above and your Servants below yet are their Souls equally precious with your own they have another Master that expects service from them as well as you do not only allow them time but give them your exhortations and commands not to neglect their own Souls whilst they attend your business think not your business will prosper the less because it is in the hand of a praying servant their Souls are of greater concernment than any business of yours can be Inference VI. ARE Souls so precious then certainly the means and instruments of their Salvation must be exceeding precious too and the removal of them a sore Iudgment The dignity of the subject gives value to the instruments imploy'd about it It is no ordinary mercy for Souls to come into such a part of the World and in such a time as furnisheth them with the best helps for Salvation Ordinan ces and Ministers receive their value not only from their Author but their Object they have a dignity stampt upon them by their usefulness to the Souls of men Acts 20.32 it is the seed of life 1 Pet. 1.23 the regenerating instrument It is the bread of life Iob 23.12 more than our necessary food The Word is a Light shining in the dark World to direct our Souls through all the snares laid for them unto Glory It is the Souls Cordial in all fainting fits Psal. 119.50 What shall I say of the Word and Ordinances of God the Sun that shines in Heaven to give us light the Fountains Springs and Rivers that stream for our refreshment the Corn and Cattel on the Earth yea the very Air we breathe in is not so useful so necessary so precious to our bodies as the Word is to our Souls It cannot therefore but be a sore judgment and a dreadful token of Gods indignation and wrath to have a restraint or scarcity of the means of Salvation among us but should there be which God in mercy prevent a removal and total loss of these things wrath would then come upon us to the uttermost What will the condition of precious Souls be when the means of Salvation are cut off from them When that famine worse than of bread and water is come upon them Amos 8.11 When the Ark of God the Symbol of his Presence was taken it is said 1 Sam. 4.13 That
Πνευματολογια· A TREATISE Of the Soul of Man WHEREIN The Divine Original excellent and immortal Nature of the Soul are opened its Love and Inclination to the Body with the necessity of its separation from it considered and improved The Existence Operations and States of separated Souls both in Heaven and Hell immediately after death asserted discussed and variously applyed Divers knotty and difficult Questions about departed Souls both Philosophical and Theological stated and determined The Invaluable preciousness of humane Souls and the various Artifices of Satan their professed Enemy to destroy them discovered And the great Duty and interest of all men seasonably and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father Son and Spirit for the Salvation of their Souls argued and pressed By IOHN FLAVEL Minister of the Gospel of Iesus Christ late of Dartmouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phocylides Quid de Turcis Tartaris Moschis Indis Persis aliisque omnibus nunc temporis Barbaris Nationibus dicâm Nemo tam Barbarus aut impius est qui non sentiat post mortem superesse loca in quibus animae aut pro malefactis puâ—iantur aut coronentur deliciisque perfruantur pro benefactis Zanch. de Animae immortalitate p. 653. London Printed for Francis Tyton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1685. To the much honoured his dear Kinsman Mr. Iohn Flavell and Mr. Edward Crispe of London Merchants and the rest of my worthy Friends in London Ratcliffe Shadwell and Lymehouse Grace Mercy and Peace Dear Friends AMong all the Creatures in this lower World none deserves to be stiled great Nihil interra magnum praeter hominem nihil in homine praeter mentem Favorin Eâ—coelo descendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juvenal Nulla scientia melior illa qua homo novit scripsum relinque ergo caetera teipsum discute per te curre in te confiste à te incipiat cogitatio tua in te finiatur but Man and in Man nothing is found worthy of that Epithet but his Soul The study and knowledge of the Soul was therefore always reckoned a rich and necessary improvement of time All Ages have magnified these two words know thy self as an Oracle descending from Heaven No knowledge saith Bernard is better than that whereby we know our selves leave other matters therefore and search thy self run through thy self make a stand in thy self let thy thoughts as it were circulate begin and end in thy self Strain not thy thoughts in vain about other things thy self being neglected The study and knowledge of Iesus Christ must still be allow'd to be most excellent and necessary But yet the Worth of Necessity of Christ is unknown to Men till the value wants and dangers of their own Souls be first discovered to them The disaffectedness and aversation of men to the study of their own Souls is the more to be admired not only because of the weight and necessity of it but the alluring pleasure and sweetness that is found therein What * Quid jucundius quam scire quid simus quid fuerimus quid â—rimus cum his etiam divina atque suprema illa post obitum Mundique vicissitudines Cardan speaks is experimentally felt by many that scarce any thing is more pleasant and delectable to the Soul of man than to know what he is what he may and shall be and what those Divine and Supream things are which he is to enjoy after death and the Vicissitudes of this present World For we are Creatures conscious to our selves of an immortal Nature and that we have something about us which must overlive this mortal flesh and is therefore ever and anon some way or other hinting and intimating to us its expectations of and designations for a better life than that it now lives in the Body and that we shall not cease to bee when we cease to breathe And certainly my Friends Discourses of the Soul and its immortality of Heaven and of Hell the next and only receptacles of unbodied Spirits were never more seasonable and necessary than in this Atheistical age of the World wherein all serious piety and thoughts of immortality are ridicul'd and hissed out of the company of many As if those old condemned Hereticks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who asserted the corruptibility and mortality of the Soul as well as Body had been again revived in our days And as the Atheism of some so the tepidity and unconcerned carelessness of the most needs and calls for such potent Remedies as Discourses of this kind do plentifully afford I dare appeal to your charitable Judgments whether the Conversations and Discourses of the Many do indeed look like a serious pursuit of Heaven and a flight from Hell Long have my thoughts bended towards this great and excellent Subject and many earnest desires I have had as I believe all thinking persons must needs have to know what I shall be when I breathe not But when I had engaged my Meditations about it two great rubs opposed the farther progress of my thoughts therein Namely I. The difficulty of the Subject I had chosen And II. The distractions of the times in which I was to write upon it I. As for the Subject such is the subtilty and sublimity of its nature and such the knotty Controversies in which it is involv'd that it much better deserves that inscription than Minerva's Temple at Saum did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Never did any Mortal reveal me plainly Animam praesentem mentis acie vix aut ne vix quidem assequimur sed qualis sit futura quomodo indagabimus Laboranthic maxima ingenia caligo conatus etiam generosos non rarò eludit Jos. Stern de Morte cap. 20. It is but little that the most clear and sharp-sighted do discern of their own Souls now in the state of composition and what then can we positively and distinctly know of the life they live in the state of Separation The darkness in which these things are involved doth greatly exercise even the greatest Witts and frequently elude and frustrate the most generous attempts Many great Scholars whose natural and acquired abilities singularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery have laboured in this field usque ad sudorem pallorem even to sweat and paleness and done little more but intangle themselves and the Subject more than before This cannot but discourage new attempts And yet without some knowledge of the hability and subjective capacity of our Souls to enjoy the good of the World to come even in a state of absence from the Body a principal relief must be cut off from them under the great and manifold tryals they are to encounter in this evil World As for my self I assure you I am deeply sensible of the inequality of my shoulders to this Burthen and have often enough since I undertook it of that
Immortality But in this it properly consists that he enjoys not only a reasonable but also rejoyceth in an Immortal Soul which shall overlive the world and subsist separate from the Body and abide for ever when all other Souls being but material forms perish with that matter on which they depend This is the proper Dignity of Man above the Beast that perisheth and to deprive him of Immortality and leave him his Reason is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched Creature than any that God hath put under his feet For Man is a prospecting Creature and raiseth up to himself vast hopes and fears from the world to come by these he is restrained from the sensual pleasures which other Creatures freely enjoy and exercised with ten thousands cares which they are unacquainted with and to fail at last of all his hopes and expectations of happiness in the world to come is to fall many degrees lower than the lowest Creature shall fall even so much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher Argument VI. THE Souls of Men must be Immortal or else the desires of Immortality are planted in their Souls in vain That there are desires of Immortality found in the hearts of all men is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted Man cannot bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this world I beseech men for Gods sake that if at any time there arise in them a desire or a wish that others should speak well of them rather than evil after their death then at that time they would seriously consider whether those motions are not from some Spirit to continue a Spirit after it leaves its earthly habitation rather than from an earthly Spirit a vapour which cannot act or imagine or desire or fâ—ar things beyond its continuance Halt de Anim p. 73. and the time that measures it Nothing that can be measured by time is commensurate to the desires of Mans Soul No Motto better suits it than this Non est mortale quod opto I seek for that which will not die Rom. 2. v. 7. and his great relief against death lies in this Non omnis moriar That he shall not totally perish Yea we find in all men even in those that seem to be most drowned and lost in the loves and delights of this present World a natural desire to continue their Names and Memories to posterity after death Hence it is said Psal. 49.11 Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations they call their lands after their own Names And hence is the desire of children which is as one saith nodosa Aeternitas a knotty Aeternity when our thred is spun out and cut off their thred is knit to it and so we dream of a continued succession in our Name and Family Absâ—lom had no children to continue his Memory to supply which defect he reared up a Pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 Now it cannot be imagined that God should plant the desire of Immortality in those Souls that are incapable of it nor yet can we give a rational account how these apprehensions of Immortality should come into the Souls of men except they themselves be of an immortal nature For either these notions and apprehensions of Immortality are imprest upon our Souls by God or do naturally spring out of the Souls of men It forms conceptions of things Spiritual and abstract from matter and discerns objects which have no dimensions Figure Colour or affection of matter Si conceptus de immortalitate fons sit ipsamet anima est ipsa immortalis quoâ—iam quod momentan 〈…〉 est ideam natuâ—ae perennis fa 〈…〉 non potest quemadmodum animâ— ratiâ—â—s expâ—â—s conceptum rationeâ—etâ—ttis fom 〈…〉 nequit Sterne de morte p. 198. if God impress them those impressions are made in vain if there be no such thing as Immortality to be enjoyed and if they spring and rise naturally out of our Souls that is a sufficient evidence of their Immortality For we cannot more conceive and form to our selves Ideas and Notions of Immortality if our Souls be mortal than the Brutes which are void of reason can form to themselves Notions and Conceptions of rationality So then the very apprehensions and desires that are found in mens hearts of Immortality do plainly speak them to be of an Immortal Nature Argument VII MOreover the account given us in Scripture of the return of several Souls into their own Bodies again after death and real separation from them shews us that the Soul subsists and lives in a separate state after death and perisheth not by the stroke of death for if it were annihilated or destroyed by death the same Soul could never be restored again to the same Body A dead Body may indeed be acted by an assisting form which may move and carry it from place to place So the Devil hath acted the dead Bodies of many but they cannot be said to live again by their own Souls after a real separation by death unless those Souls over-lived the Bodies they forsook at death and had their abode in another Place and state You have divers unquestionable examples of the Souls return into the Body recorded in Scripture As that of the Shâ—namites Son 2 King 4.18 19 20 32 33 34 35 36 37. That of the Rulers daughter Matth. 9.18 23 24 25. That of the Widows Son Luke 7.12 13 14 15. and that of Lazarus Iohn 11.39 40 41 42 43 44 45. These were no other but the very same Souls Non aliam sed ipsam priorem animaâ— corpori mortuo resâ—itutam esse contra tos qui putaâ—erunt bodie putant animâ—m post mortem corporis nihil esse their own Souls which returned into them again which as Chrysostom well observes is a great proof of their Immortality against them that think the Soul is annihilated after the death of the Body 'T is true the Scripture gives us no account of any sense or apprehension they retained after their re-union of the place or state they were in during their separation There seemed to be perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgetfulness of all that they saw or felt in the state of separation And indeed it was necessary it should be so that our faith might be built rather upon the sure promises of God than such reports and narratives of them that came to us from the dead Luke 16.31 And if we believe not the word neither would we believe if one came from the dead Argument VIII MOreover eighthly The supposition of the Souls perishing with the Body is subversive of the Christian Religion in the principal Doctrines and Duties thereof take away the Immortality of the Soul and all Religion falls to the ground I will instance in 1. The Doctrines of Religion 2. The Duties of Religion 1. First It overthrows the main Principles and Doctrines of Christian
death these witnesses of the spirit are Delusions and his earnests are given us but in jest 3 His Comforting work is a sweet fruit and effect sensibly felt and tasted by believers in this World He is from this Office stiled the Comforter Iohn 16.7 signanter eminenter He so comforts as no other doth or can And what is the matter of his comforts but the Blessedness to come the joys of the coming World Iohn 16.13 Eye hath not seen c. Upon the account of these unseen things he enableth believers to glory in tribulations Rom. 5.4 to despise present things whether the smiles or the frowns of the World Heb. 11.24 and v. 26. But if the being of our Souls fail at death these are but the Phantastick joys of men in a dream and the experiences of all Gods people are found but so many fond conceits and gross mistakes 5. This supposition overthrows the Doctrine of the Resurrection which is the consolation of Christians We according to the Scripture believe that after death hath divorced our Souls and Bodies for a time they shall meet again and be re-united and that the joy at their re-union will be to all that are in Christ greater than the sorrows they felt at parting This seems not incredible to us what ever natural improbabilities and carnal reasons may be against it Acts 26.8 And that because the Almighty power which is able to subdue all things to himself undertakes this task Philip. 3.21 We believe this very same numerical Body shall rise again Iob 21.27 by the return of the same Soul into it which now dwelleth in it and that we shall be the same persons that now we are The remunerative justice of God requiring it to be so We believe the Souls of the righteous shall be much better accommodated and have a more comfortable habitation in their Bodies than now they have 1 Cor. 15.42 43. seeing they shall be made like unto Christ's glorious Body Phil. 3.21 And that then we shall live after the manner of Angels Luke 20.16 without the necessities of this animal life These are the things we look for according to promise and this expectation is our great relief against 1 the fears of death 1 Cor. 15.55 2 against the death of our Friends and Relations 1. Thes. 4.14 3 against all the pressures and afflictions of this life Iob 19.25 26 27. But if the being of our Souls fail at death all hopes and comforts from the Resurrection fail with it for it is not Imaginable that the body should rise till it be revived nor how it should be revived but by the re-union of the Soul with it and if it be not the same Soul that now inhabits it we cannot be the same persons in the Resurrection we are now and consequently this supposition subverts not only the Doctrine of the Resurrection but 6 It overthrows also the faith of the Iudgment to come For if the Soul perish the Body cannot rise or if it rise by a new created Soul the person raised is another and not the same that lived and dyed in this World and consequently the rewards and punishments to be bestowed and awarded to all men in that day cannot be just and equal for we believe according to the Scriptures that 1 The actions which men perform in this life are not transient but are filed to their account in the world to come Gal. 6.7 here we sow and there we reap Actions done in this World are two ways considerable viz. Physically or Morally in the first consideration they are transient in the last permanent and everlasting A word is spoken or an Act done in a moment but though it be past and gone and perhaps by us quite forgotten God registers it in his Book in order to the day of account 2 We believe that God hath appointed a day in which all men shall appear before his judgment seat to give an account of all they have done in the Body whether it be good or evil 2. Cor. 5.10 3 And that in order hereunto the very same persons shall be restored by the Resurrection and appear before God the very same Bodies and Souls which did good or evil in this World shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Justice requires that the rewards and punishments be then distributed to the same persons that did good or evil in this World which strongly infers the immortality of the Soul and that it certainly overlives the Body and must come back from the respective places of their abode to be again united to them in order to their great account By all which you see the clearest proof of the Souls Immortality and how the contrary supposition overthrows our Faith Duties and Comforts Yet all this notwithstanding how apt are we to suspect this Doctrine and remain still dis-satisfyed and doubting about it when all is said which comes to pass partly from 1 the subtilty of Satan who knows he can never perswade men to live the life of Beasts till he first perswade them to think they shall dye as the Beasts do and partly from the influence of Sense and Reason upon us whereby we do too much suffer our selves to be swayed and imposed upon in matters of greatest moment in Religion For these being proper Arbiters and Judges in other matters within their Sphere they are arrogant and we easy enough to admit them to be Arbiters also in things that are quite above them hence come such plausible objections as these Object 1. The Soul seems to vanish and dye when it leaves the Body for when it hath strugled as long as it can to keep its possession in the Body and at last is forced to depart we can perceive nothing but a puff of breath which immediately vanishes into air and is lost Sol. We cannot perceive therefore it is nothing but what we do and can perceive viz. a puffe of vanishing breath By this argument the being of the Soul in the Body is as questionable as after its departure out of the Body for we cannot discern it by sight in the Body yea by this Argument we may as well deny the existence of God and Angels as of Souls for it is a spiritual and invisible being as they are our gross senses are incapable of discerning Spirits which are immaterial and invisible substances Object 2. But you allow the Soul to have a rise and beginning it is not eternal à parte antà and it is certain what ever had a beginning must have an end Every thing which had a beginning may have an end Sol. and what once was nothing may by the power that created it be reduced to nothing again But though we allow it may be so by the absolute power of God we deny the consequence that therefore it shall and must be so Angels had a beginning but shall never have an end And indeed their Immortality as well as ours
at hand Inference X. IF our Souls be Immortal Then death is neither to be feared by them in Heaven nor hoped for by them in Hell The being of Souls never fails whether they be in a state of blessedness or of misery O mors dulcis es quibus amara fuisti te solum desiderant qui te solum oderunt August In glory they are ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4.17 There shall be no death there Revel 21.4 And in Hell though they shall wish for death yet death shall flee from them Though there be no fears of annihilation in Heaven yet there be many vain wishes for it in Hell but to no purpose there never will be an end put either to their being or to their torments In this respect no other Creature is capable of the misery that wicked men are capable of when they die there is the end of all their misery but it is not so with Men. Better therefore had it been for them if God had created them in the basest and lowest order and rank of Creatures a Dog a Toad a Worm is better than a Man in endless misery ever dying and never dead And so much of the Souls Immortality TEXT Ephesians V. 29. For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church HAving given some account of the Nature and Immortality of the Soul we next come to discourse its Love and Inclination to the Body with which it is united from this Text. The scope of the Apostle is to press Christians to the exact Discharge of those Relative Duties they owe to each other particularly he here urgeth the mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives v. 22. Wives to an Obedient Subjection Husbands to a tender Love of their Wives This Exhortation he enforceth from the intimate Union which by the Ordinance of God is betwixt them they being now one Flesh and this Union he illustrates by comparing it with 1. The Mystical Union of Christ and the Church 2. The Natural Union of the Soul and Body And from both these as excellent Examples and Patterns he with great strength of Argument urgeth the Duty of Love v. 28. So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies he that loveth his Wife loveth himself Self-love is naturally implanted in all Men and it is the Rule by which we measure out and dispense our Love to others Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self This Self-love he opens in this place by 1. The Universality of it 2. The effects that evidence it 1 The Universality of it No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh. By Flesh understand the Body by a usual Metonymy of a part for the whole called Flesh. By hating it understand simple hatred or for hatred it self 'T is usual for Men to hate the Deformities and Diseases of their own Bodiâ—s and upon that account to deal with the Members of their own Bodies as if they hated them hence it is they willingly stretch forth a gangren'd Leg or Arm to be cut off for the preservation of the rest but this is not simple hatred of a Mans Self but rather an Argument of the strength of the Souls Love to the Body that it will be content to endure so much Pain and Anguish for its sake And if the Soul be at any time weary of and willing to part not with a single Member only but with the whole Body and loaths its Union with it any longer yet it hates and loaths it not simply in and for it self but because it is so filled with Diseases all over and loads the Soul daily with so much Grief that how well soever the Soul loves it in it self yet upon such sad Terms and Conditions it would not be tied to it This was Iob's Case Iob 10.1 My Soul is weary of my Life yet not simply of his Life but such a Life in Pain and Trouble Except it be in such Respects and Cases No Man saith he ever yet hated his own Flesh i. e. No Man in his right Mind and in the Exercise of his Reason and Sense for we must except Distracted and Delirious Men who know not what they do as also Men under the Terrors of Conscience when God suffers it to rage in Extremity as Spira and others who would have been glad with their own Hands to have cut the Thred that tied their miserable Souls to their Bodies Supposing that way and by that Change to find some relief Either of these Cases forces Men to act beside the stated Rule of Nature and Reason 2 This Love of the Soul to the Body is further discovered by the effects which evidence it viz. It s Nourishing and Cherishing the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Two comprize the Necessaries for the Body viz. Food and Rayment The first signifies to nourish with proper Food the latter to warm by Cloathing as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendered Iames 2.16 to which the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers Iob 31.20 The Care and Provision of these things for the Body evidences the Souls Love to it DOCTRINE That the Souls of Men are strongly inclined and tenderly affected towards the Bodies in which they now dwell THE Souls Love to the Body is so strong natural and inseparable that it is made the Rule and Measure by which we dispence and proportion our Love to others Matth. 19.19 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And the Apostle Gal. 5.14 tells us that the whole Law i.e. the Second Table of the Law is fulfilled or sum'd up in this Precept Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self The meaning is not that all and every one who is our Neighbour must be equally near to us as our own Bodies but it intends 1. The Sincerity of our Love to others which must be without Diâ—â—â—mulation for we dissemble not in Self-love 2. That we be as careful to avoid injuring others as we would our selves Matth. 7.12 To do by others or measure to them as we would have done or measured unto us for which Rule Severus the Heathen Emperour honoured Christ and Christianity and caused it to be written in Capital Letters of Gold 3. That we take direction from this Principle of Self-Love to measure out our Care Love and Respects to others according to the different degrees of nearness in which we stand to them As 1. The Wife of our Bosome to whom by this Rule is due our first Care and Love as in the Text. 2. Our Children and Family 1 Tim. 5.8 3. To all in general whether we have any Bond of Natural Relation upon them or no but especially those to whom we are Spiritually related as Gal. 6.10 And indeed as every Christian hath a right to our Love and Care above other Men so in some Cases we are to exceed this Rule of Self-love by a transcendent act of Self-denyal for them 1 Iohn 3.16
to their preservation For were it not for this Propriety and Relation no Man would be at any more cost or pains for his own Body than for that of a Stranger 'T is Propriety which naturally draws Love Care and Tenderness along with it and these are ordered by the wisdom of Providence for the conservation of the Body which would quickly perish without it 2. The Body is the Souls antient Acquaintance and intimate Friend with whom it hath assiduously and familiarly conversed from its beginning They have been partners in each others comforts and sorrows They may say to each other as Miconius did to his Colleague with whom he had spent twenty years in the Government of the Thuringian Church Cucurriâ—â—s certavimus laboravimus pugnavimus vicimus viximus conjunctissimé We have run striven laboured fought overcome and lived most intimately and lovingly together Consuetude and daily conversation begets and conciliates Friendship and Love betwixt Creatures of contrary Natures Let a Lamb be brought up with a Lyon and the Lyon will express a tenderness towards it much more the Soul to its own Body 3. The Body is the Souls house and beloved habitation where it was born and hath lived ever since it had a being and in which it hath enjoyed all its comforts natural and supernatural which cannot but strengthen the Souls engagement to it Upon this account the Apostle calls it the Souls home 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body 'T is true this house is not so comfortable an habitation that it should be much desired by many Souls we may say of many gracious Souls that they pay a dear rent for the house they dwell in or as it was said of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat their Souls are but ill accommodated but yet it is their home and therefore beloved by them 4 The Body is the Souls instrument by which it doth its work and business in the World both natural and religious Rom. 6.13 Through the bodily senses it takes in all the natural comforts of this World and by the bodily Members it performs all its Duties and Services When these are broken and laid aside by death the Soul knows it can work no more in that way it now doth Iohn 9.4 Eccles. 9.10 Natural men love their Bodies for the natural pleasures they are instrumental to convey to their Souls and spiritual men for the use and service they are of to 〈◊〉 own and others Souls Philip. 1.23 5. The Body is the Souls Partner in the benefit of Christs Purchaces It was bought with the same price 1 Cor. 6.20 sanctified by the same spirit 1 Thes. 5.23 interested in the same promises Matth. 22.32 and designed for the same glory 1 Thes. 4.16 17. So that we may say of it as it was said of Augustine and his friend Alippius they are sanguine Christi conglutinati glewed together by the bloud of Christ. And thus of the grounds and reasons of its Love Inference I. IS it so Learn hence the mighty strength and prevalence of Divine Love which over-powering all natural Affections doth not only enable the Souls of men to take their Separation from the Body patiently but to long for it ardently Philip. 1.23 While some need Patience to dye others need it as much to live 2 Thes. 3.5 'T is said Revel 12.11 They loved not their lives And indeed on these terms they first closed with Christ Luke 12.26 To hate their lives for his sake ie to love them in so remiss a degree that when ever they shall come in competition with Christ to regard them no more than the things we hate The love of Christ is to be the supream love and all others to be subordinate to it or quenched by it 'T is not its own comfort in the Body it principally and ultimately designs and aims at but Christs glory and so this may be furthered by the death of the Body its death thereupon becomes as eligible to the Soul as its life Philip. 1.20 O this is an high pitch of grace A great attainment to say as one did Vivere renuo ut Christo vivam I refuse life to be with Christ Or another when asked whether he was willing to dye answered Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum Let him be loth to dye that is loth to go to Christ So 2 Cor. 5. We are willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. 'T is not every Christian that can arrive to this degree of Lovâ—â— though they love Christ sincerely yet they shrink from death cowardly and are loth to be gone There are two sorts of grounds upon which Christians may be loth to be unbodied 1. Sinful 2. Allowable 1. The sinful and unjustifiable grounds are such as these viz. 1 Guilt upon the Conscience which will damp and discourage the Soul and make it loth to dye It arms death with terrour the sting of death is sin 2 Unmortified affections to the World I mean in such a degree as is necessary to sweeten death and make a man a Voluntier in that sharp engagement with that last and dreadful Enemy It is with our hearts as with fewel if green and full of sap it will not burn but if that be dried up it catches presently mortification is the drying up of carnal affections to the Creature which is that that resists death as green Wood doth the fire 3 The weakness and and cloudiness of Faith You need Faith to dye by as well as to live by Heb. 11.13 All these dyed in faith The less strength there is in Faith the more in death A strong Believer welcomes the messengers of Death when a weak one unless extraordinarily assisted trembles at them 2. There are grounds on which we may desire a longer continuance in the Body warrantably and allowably as 1 To do him yet more service in our bodies before we lay them down This the Saints have pleaded for longer life Psal. 30.9 Psal. 88.11 12 13. and Isai. 38.18 19. 2 To see the clouds of Gods anger dispelled whether publick or personal and a clear light break out ere we dye Psal. 27.13 3 They may desire with submission to outlive the days of persecution and not to be delivered into the hands of cruel men but come to their Graves in peace Psal. 31.15 and 2 Thess. 3.2 That may be delivered from absurd men 3. But though some Christians shun death upon a sinful account and others upon a justifyable one yet others there are who seeing their Title clear their work done and relishing the Joys of Heaven in the praelibations of Faith are willing to be uncloathed and to be with Christ. Their love to Christ hath extinguished in them the love of life and they can say with Paul Act. 21.13 I am ready Ignatius longed to come to those Beasts that were to devour him and so many of the Primitive Christians Christ was so dear
make Idols of our own Bodies we rob God yea our own Souls to give to the Body It is not a natural and kindly heat of love but a meer feavourish heat which preys upon the very Spirits of Religion which is found with many of us This feavourish distemper may be discovered by the beating of our pulse in three or four particulars 1. This appears by our sinful indulgence to our whining appetites We give the flesh whatsoever it craves and can deny it nothing it desires pampering the Body to the great injury and hazard of the Soul Some have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh as it is Eph. 2.3 Trading only in those things that please and pamper the flesh They sow to the flesh Gal. 6.8 i.e. all their studies and labours are but the sowing of the seeds of pleasure to the flesh Not an handful of spiritual Seed sowen in Prayer for the Soul all the day long what the Body craves the obsequious Soul like a slave is at its beck to give it Tit. 3. 3. Serving diverse lusts and pleasures attending to every knock and call to fulfil the desires of the flesh O how little do these men understand the life of Religion or the great design of Christianity which consists in mortifying and not pampering and gratifying the Body Rom. 14. 13 14. And according to that rule all serious Christians order their Bodies giving them what is needful to keep them serviceable and useful to the Soul but not gratifying their irregular desires giving what their wants not what their wantonness calls for So Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I beat it down and keep it under he understood it as his Servant not his Master He knew that Hagar would quickly peark up and domineer over Sarah expect more attendance than the Soul except it were kept under These two verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are very emphatical the former signifies to make it black and blue with buffeting the other to bring it under by checks and rebukes as Masters that understand their place and Authority use to do with insolent and wanton Servants It was a rare expression of an Heathen Major sum ad 〈◊〉 natus quà m ut corporis mei sim mancipium I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a drudge or Vassal to my Body And it was the saying of a pious Divine when he felt the flesh rebellious and wanton Ego faciam aselle ut non calcitres I will make thee thou Ass that thou shalt not kick I know the superstitious Papists place much of Religion in these external things but though they abuse them to an ill purpose there is a necessary and lawful use of these abridgments and restraints upon the Body and it will be impossible to mortifie and starve our lusts without a due rigour and severity to our flesh But how little are many acquainted with these things They deal with their Bodies as David with Adonijah of whom it 's said 1 Kings 1.6 His Father had not displeased him at any time in saying Why hast thou done so And just so our flesh requites us by its Rebellions and Treasons against the Soul it seeks the life of the Soul which seeks nothing more than its content and pleasure this is not ordinate love but fondness and folly and what we shall bitterly repent for at last 2. It appears by our sparing and favouring of them in the necessary uses and services we have for them in Religion Many will rather starve their Souls than work and exercise their Bodies or disturb their sluggish rest thus the idle excuses and pretences of endangering our health oftentimes put by the duties of Religion or at least lose the fittest and properest season for them We are lazying upon our beds when we should be wrestling upon our knees The World is suffered to get the start of Religion in the morning and so Religion is never able to overtake it all the day long This was none of David's course he prevented the dawning of the morning and cryed Psal. 119.147 and Psal. 5.3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up And indeed we should consecrate unto God the freshest and fittest parts of our time when our bodily Senses are most vigorous and we would do so except God by his providence disable us were our hearts fully set for God and Religion lay with weight upon our Spirits Some I confess cannot receive this injunction being naturally disabled by prevailing infirmities but those tha◠〈◊〉 ought to do so But O how many slothful excuses doth the flesh invent to put off duty We shall injure our health c. O the hypocrisy of such pleas if profit or pleasure call us up we have no such shifts but can rise early and sit up late O Friends why hath God given you Bodies if not to waste and wear them out in his service and the service of your own Souls if your Bodies must not be put to it and exercised this way where is the mercy of having a Body If a stately Horse were given you on this condition that you must not ride or work him what benefit would such a gift be to you Your Bodies must and will wear out and it 's better wear them with working than with rusting we are generally more sollicitous to live long than to live usefully and serviceably and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God if it had been less precious in our own eyes 'T is just with God to destroy that health with diseases which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness Think with thy self had such a Soul as Timothies or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine so strong and vigorous so apt and able for service they would have honoured God more in it in a day than perhaps you do in a year Certainly this is not love but laziness not a due improvement but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body to let it rust out in idleness which might be imployed so many ways for God for your own and others Souls Well remember death will shortly dissolve them and then they can be of no more use and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection use them for God now with a faithful self-denying diligence 3. It appears by our cowardly shrinking from dangers that threaten them when the glory of God our own and others Salvation Here the Soul receives a deadly wound upon it self toward it â—ff from the Body So did Spira bid us expose and not regard them Some there are that rather than they will adventure their flesh to the rage of man will hazard their Souls to the wrath of God They are too tender to suffer pain or restraint for Christ but consider not wâ—â—t
sufferings are prepared for the fearful and unbelieving in the World to come Rev. 21.8 How many sad examples do the Church-Histories of ancient and latter times afford us of men who consulting with flesh and bloud in time of danger have in pity to the Body ruined their Souls There be but few like minded with Paul who set a low price upon his liberty or life for Christ Act. 20.24 or with those worthy Iews Dan. 3.28 who yielded their Bodies to preserve their consciences Few of Chrysostoms mind who told the Empress Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but sin Or of Basils who told the Emperor God threatned Hell whereas he threatned but a prison That is a remarkable Rule that Christ gives us Mat. 10.28 The sum of it is to set God against man the Soul against the Body and Hell against temporal sufferings and so surmounting these low fleshly considerations to cleave to our duty in the face of dangers You read Gal. 11 16. how in pursuit of Duty though surrounded with danger Paul would not conferr or consult with flesh and bloud i. e. ask its opinion which were best or stay for its consent till it were willing to suffer he understood not that the flesh had any voice at the Council-table in his Soul but willing or unwilling if duty call for it he was resolved to hazard it for God We have a great many little Politicians among us who think to husband their lives and liberties a great deal better than other plain-hearted and too forward Christians do but these Politiques will be their perdition and their craft will betray them to ruine They will lose their lives by saving them when others will save them by losing them Matth. 10.39 For the interest of the Body depends on and follows the safety of the Soul as the Cabin doth the ship O my Friends let me beg you not to love your Bodies into Hell and your Souls too for their sakes be not so scar'd at the sufferings of the Body as with poor Spira to dash them both against the wrath of the great and terrible God Most of those Souls that are now in Hell are there upon the account of their indulgence to the flesh they could not deny the flesh and now are denyed by God They could not suffer from men and now must suffer the vengeance of eternal fire 4. In a word it appears we love them fondly and irregularly in that we cannot with any patience think of death and separation from them How do some men fright at the very name of death and no Arguments can perswade them seriously to think of an unbodied and separated estate 'T is as death to them to bring their thoughts close to that ungrateful Subject A Christian that loves his Body regularly and moderately can look into his own grave with a composed mind and speak familiarly of it as Iob 17.14 And Peter speaks of the putting off of his Body by death as a man would of the putting off of his cloaths at night 2 Pet. 1.13 14. And certainly such men have a great Advantage above all others both as to the tranquillity of their life and death You know a parting time must come and the more fond you are of them the more bitter and doleful that time will be Nothing except the guilt and terrible charges of conscience put men into terrours at death more than our fondness of the Body I do confess Christless persons have a great deal of reason to be shie of death their dying day is their undoing day but for Christians to startle and fright at it is strange considering how great a friend death will be to them that are in Christ. What are you afraid of What to go to Christ to be freed of sin and affliction too soon Certainly it hath not been so comfortable an habitation to you that you should be loth to exchange it for an Heavenly one USE III. Of Exhortation TO conclude seeing there is so strict a friendship and tender affection betwixt Soul and Body let me perswade every Soul of you to express your love to the Body by labouring to get union with Jesus Christ and thereby to prevent the utter ruine of both to all Eternity Souls if you love your selves or the Bodies you dwell in shew it by your preventing care in season lest they be cast away for ever How can you say you love them when you daily expose them to the everlasting wrath of God by imploying them as weapons of unrighteousness to fight against him that formed them You feed and pamper them on earth you give them all the delights and pleasures you can procure for them in this World but you take no care what shall become of them nor your Souls neither after death hath separated them O cruel Souls cruel not to others but to your selves and to your own flesh which you pretend so much love to Is this your love to your Bodies what to imploy them in Satans service on Earth and then to be cast as a prey to him for ever in Hell You think the rigor and mortification of the Saints their abstemiousness and self-denial their cares fears and diligence to be too great severity to their Bodies but they know these are the most real evidences of their true love to them they love them too well to cast them away as you do Alas Your love to the Body doth not consist â—n feeding and cloathing and pleasing it but in getting it united to Christ and made the Temple of the Holy Ghost in using it for God and dedicating it to God I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God to present your Bodies living Sacrifices to God which is your reasonable serviceâ— Rom. 12.1 The Soul should look upon the Body as a wise Parent upon a rebellious or wanton child that would if left to it self quickly bring it self to the Gallows The Father looks on him with compassion and melting bowels and saith with the rod in his hand and tears in his eyes my child my naughty disobedient headstrong child I resolve to chastise thee severely I love thee too well to suffer thee to be ruin'd if my care or corrections may prevent it So should our Souls evidence their love to and care over their own rebellious flesh 'T is cruelty not love or pity to indulge them to their own destruction Except you have gracious Souls you shall never have glorified Bodies except you Souls be united with Christ the happiness of your Bodies as well as Souls is lost to all eternity Know you not that the everlasting condition of your Bodies follows and depends on the Interest your Souls now get in Christ O that this one sad truth might sink deep into all our considerations this day that if your Bodies be snares to your Souls and your Souls be now regardless of the future estate of themselves and them assuredly they will have a bitter parting at
perfect in the Kingdom of God THAT the Spirits of just Men at the time of their separation from their Bodies do not utterly fall in their beings nor that they are so prejudiced and wounded by death that they cannot exert their own proper Acts in the absence of the Body hath been already cleared in the foregoing parts of this Treatise and will be more fully cleared from this Text. But the true level and aim of this discourse is at an higher mark viz the far more excellent free and noble life the Souls of the just begin to live immediately after their Bodies are dropt off from them by death at which time they begin to live like themselves a pleasant free and divine life So much at least is included in the Apostle Epithete in my Text Spirits of the just made perfect and suitable thereto are his words in 1 Cor. 13.10.12 When that which is pâ—rfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as I am known These two Adverbs Now and Then distinguish the twofold state of gracious Souls and shew what it is whilst they are confined in the Body and what it shall be from the time of their emancipation and freedom from that clogg of mortality Now we are imperfect but then that which is perfect takes place and that which is imperfect is done away as the imperfect twilight is done away by the opening of the perfect day And it deserves a serious animadversion that this perfect State doth not succeed the imperfect one after a long interval as long as betwixt the dissolution and Resurrection of the Body but the imperfect state of the Soul is immediately done away by the coming of the perfect one The glass is laid by as useless when we come to see face to face and eye to eye The Waters will prove very deep here too deep for any line of mine to fathom there is a cloud always overshadowing the world to come a gloom and haziness upon that state fain we would with our weak and feeble beam of imperfect knowledge penetrate this cloud and dispel this gloom and haziness but cannot we think seriously and close to this great and awful subject but our thoughts cannot pierce through it we re-inforce those thoughts by a salley or thick succession of fresh thoughts and yet all will not do our thoughts return to us either in confusion or without the expected success For alas how little is it that we know or can know of our own Souls now whilst they are embodied much less of their unbodied state The Apostle tells us 1 Cor 2.9 That eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And another Apostle adds it doth not yet appear what we shall be 1 John 3.1 Yet all this is no discouragement to the search and regular enquiry into the future state for though reason cannot penetrate these mysteries yet God hath revealed them to us though not perfectly by his Spirit And though we know not particularly and circumstantially what we shall be yet this we know that we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And it is our priviledge and happiness that we are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect i.e. to a clearer knowledge of that state than was ordinarily attainable by Believers under former dispensations These things premised I will proceed to open my apprehensions of the separate state of the Spirits of just men made perfect in twelve Propositions whereby as by so many steps we may orderly advance as far as safely and warrantably we may into the knowledge of this great Mystery clearing what afterwards shall remain obscure in the solution of several Questions relating to this Subject and then apply the whole in several Uses of this great point and the first Proposition is this PROP. I. THere is a'twofold Separation of the Soul from the Body viz one Mental the other Real Or 1. Intellectual by the mind only 2. Physical by the stroke of death Separatio per intellectum fit cum duo revera conjuncta separatim contipimus Conimbr de Anima p. 595. 1. Of Intellectual or mental Separation I am first to speak in this Proposition and it is nothing else but an act of the understanding or mind conceiving or considering the Soul and Body as separated and parted each from other whilst yet they are united in a personal oneness by the breath of life This mental Separation may and ought to be frequently and seriously made before death make the real and actual Separation and the more frequently and seriously we do it the less of horror and distraction will attend that real and fatal stroke when ever it shall be given For hereby we learn to bear it gradually and by gentle essays to acquaint our shoulders with the burden of it Separation is a word that hath much of horror in the very sound and useth to have much more in the sense and feeling of it else it would not deserve that title Iob 8.14 The King of Terrors or the most terrible of all terribles but acquaintance and familiarity abates that horror and that two ways especially 1. As it is preventive of much guilt 2. As it gains a more inward knowledge of its Nature 1. The serious and fixed thoughts of the parting hour is preventive of much guilt and the greatest part of the horrour of death rises out of the guilt of sin The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Augustine saith Nothing more recals a man from sin Nihil sie revocat à pâ—ccato quam frequens mortis meditatio August than the frequent meditation of death I dare not say it is the strongest of all curbs to keep us back from sin but I am sure it is a very strong one Let a Soul but seriously meditate what a change death will make shortly upon his person and condition and the natural effects of such a meditation Qui considerat qâ—alis eâ—it in morte semper pavidus erit in operatione atque inde in oculis sui Condiâ—oris vivet Nihil quod transit appetit pene mortuum se considerat quia se moriturum non ignorat Greg. Mor. 12. through the blessing of God upon it will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this World which draw men into so much guilt a conscientious fear of sin and an awakened care of duty It was once demanded of a very holy man who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in Prayer and searching his own heart why he so macerated his own Body by such frequent and long continued Duties His answer was O I must dye I must dye Nothing could separate
passions and burdens with it never spends one thought more about Food and Raiment Health and Sickness Wives and Children Riches or Poverty but lives henceforth after the manner of Angels Matth. 22.30 It is now unrelated to and therefore unconcerned about all these things 3. In the unbodied state it is perfectly freed from sin both in the Acts and Habits a mercy it never enjoyed since the first moment it dwelt in the Body The cure of this disease was indeed begun in the Work of Sanctification but is not perfected till the day of the Souls glorification 'T is now and not till now a Spirit made perfect that is a Soul enjoying its perfect health and rectitude No more groans tears or lamentations upon the account of in-dwelling sin 4. The way and manner of its converse with and enjoyment of God is changed There are two mediums by which Souls converse with God in the Body viz 1 One internal sc Faith 2 The other external sc. Ordinances 1 If a man walk with God on earth it must be in the use and exercise of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 nor can there be any communion carried on betwixt God and the Soul without it Heb. 11.6 2 The external mediums are the ordinances of God or duties of Religion both publick and private Psal. 63.2 Betwixt these two mediums of Communion with God this remarkable difference is sound the Soul may see and enjoy God by Faith in the want or absence of Ordinances but there is no seeing or conversing with God in the greatest plenty and purity of Ordinances without Faith Heb. 4.2 But in the same moment the Soul is cut off from union with the Body it is also cut off from both these ways of enjoying God 1 Cor. 13.12 Isai. 38.11 But yet the Soul is no loser nay it is the greatest Gainer by this change The Child is no loser by ceasing to derive its nourishment by the Navel when it comes to receive it by the mouth a more noble way whereby it gets a new pleasure in tasting the variety of all delectable Food Hezekiah bemoaned the loss of Ordinances upon his supposed death-bed saying I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living q. d. Now farewel Temple and Ordinances I shall never go any more into his Temple where my Soul hath been so often cheared and refresht with the displays of his grace and goodness I shall never more join with the Assembly of his people on earth And suppose he had not sure he would have lost nothing had he then exchanged the Temple at Ierusalem for the Temple in Heaven and Communion with sinful imperfect Saints on earth for fellowship with Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect By this change we lose no more than he loseth who whilst he stands delightfully contemplating the image of his dearest friend in a glass hath the glass snatcht away by his friend whom he now seeth face to face Upon this change of the mediums of Communion it will follow that the Communion betwixt God and the separate Soul excells all the Communion it ever had with him on Earth in 1 The Clearness in 2 The Sweetness of it in 3 The Constancy 1 Its Visions of God in the state of Separation are more clear distinct and direct than they were on earth Clouds and Shadows are now fled away The Soul now seeth as it is seen and knoweth as it is known its apprehensions of God there differ from those it had here as the crade and confused apprehensions of a Child do from those we have in the manly state 2 They are also more sweet and ravishing As our Visions are so are our Pleasures Perfect Visions produce perfect Pleasures The faculties of the Soul now and never till now lie level to that rule Matth. 22.37 The Visions of God command and call forth all the heart and soul mind and strength into acts of love and delight It was not so here if the Spirit were willing the Flesh was weak but there the clog is off from the foot of the Will 3 More constant fixed and steddy 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in Religion to fix the thoughts and cure the wildness and roveings of the fancy The heart is not steddy with God and hence are its ups and downs heatings and coolings which are things unknown in the perfect state By all which it appears the change by Dissolution is great and marvelous both upon Body and Soul but upon the Soul more especially PROP. IV. The Souls of the Righteous at the instant of their Separation are received by the blessed Angels and by them transferred unto the place of Blessedness THough Angels are by nature a superiour order of Spirits differing from men in Dignity as the Nobles and Barons in the Kingdoms of this World differ from inferiour Subjects yet are they made ministring Spirits i.e. serviceable Creatures in the Kingdom of Providence to the meanest of the Saints Heb. 1.14 and herein the Lord puts a singular honour upon his people in making such excellent Creatures as Angels serviceable to them Luther assigns to them a double office sc. to sing the praises of God on high and to watch over his Saints here below Their Ministry is distinguished into three Branches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Admonition or warning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Protection and defence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for succour help and comfort This last office they perform more especially at the Souls departure Like tender Nurses they keep us whilst we live and bring us home in their arms to our Fathers house when we die They are about our death-beds waiting to receive their precious charge into their arms and bosomes When Lazarus breathed out his Soul the Text saith it was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome Luke 10.22 And upon this account Tertullian calls them Evocatores animarum the Callers forth of Souls At the Translation of Elijah they appeared in the form of Horses and Chariots of fire 2 Kings 2. 11. Horses and Chariots are not only design'd for conveyance but for conveyance in State and truly it is no small honour to have such a noble Convoy and Guard to attend our Souls to Heaven If it be demanded Object What need is there of their help or company Cannot God by his immediate hand and power gather home the Souls of his people to himself at death He inspired them into our Bodies without their help and can receive them again when we expire them without their aid True Sâ—lâ—t he can do so but it hath pleased him to appoint this method of our Translation not out of meer necessity but bounty Souls ascend not to God in the vertue of the Angels wings or arms but of Christ's Ascension Had not he ascended as our head and representative all the Angels in Heaven could not have brought our Souls thither He ascended by his own power and we
in point of knowledg concerning that great Question What is God Thus no man hath seen or can see God in this World Even Moses himself could not so see God Exod. 33.18 19 20. But the Spirits of the just made perfect have satisfying apprehensions though no perfect comprehensions of the Divine Essence 2. In this light they clearly discern those deep mysteries which they here rackt their thoughts upon but could not penetrate in this life There they will know what is to be known of the Union of the two Natures in the wonderful person of our Emmanuel and the manner of the subsistence of each person in the most glorious and undivided God-head Iohn 14.20 The several Attributes of God will then be unfolded to our understandings for his Essence and Attributes are not two things Rev. 4.8 9 10 11. O what ravishing sight will this be The mysteries of the Scriptures and providences of God will be no mysteries then Curiosity it self will be there satisfied 3. This immediate knowledge and sight of God face to face will be infinitely more sweet and ravishingly plasant than any or all the views we had of him here by Faith ever were or possibly could be There is a joy unspeakable in the visions of Faith 1 Pet. 1.8 But it comes far short of the facial vision Who can tell the full importance of that one Text Rev. 22.4 The Throne of the Lamb shall be in it and they shall see his face O for such a Heaven said one as but to look through the key-hole and get one glimpse of that lovely face Earth cannot bear such sights This light overwhelms and confounds the inadequate faculties of imperfect and embodied Souls But there it is lumen confortans a chearing strengthening pleasant light as the light of the Morning star Rev. 2.28 4. This sight of God will be appropriative and applicative We there see him as our own God and portion Without a clear interest in him the sight of him could never be beatifical and satisfying Sight without interest is like the light of a gloworm light without heat All doubts and objections are solv'd and answer'd in the first sight of this blessed face 5. To conclude This perfect and most comfortable knowledge is attained without labour by the separate Soul Here every degree of knowledge was with the price of much pains How many weary hours and aking heads did the acquisition of a little knowledg stand us in But then it flows in upon the Soul easily It was the Saying of a great Vsurer I once took much pains to get a little meaning the first stock but now I get much without any pains at all O lovely state of separation That Body which interposed clog'd and clouded the willing and capable Spirit being drawn aside as a Curtain by death the light of glory now shines upon it and round about it without any inâ—erception or lett PROP. XI The separated Souls of the Iust do live in a more high and excellent way of Communion with God in his Temple-worship in Heaven than ever they did in the sweetest Gospel-Ordinances and most Spiritual Duties in which they conversed with him here on Earth THAT Saints on earth have real Communion with God and that this Communion is the joy of their hearts the life of their life and their relief under all pressures and troubles in this life is a truth so firmly sealed upon their hearts by experience as well as clearly revealed in the Word that there can remain no doubt about it among those that have any saving acquaintance with the life and power of Religion This Communion with God is of that precious value with Believers that it unspeakably endears all those Duties and Ordinances to them which as means and instruments are useful to maintain it At death the people of God part with all those precious Ordinances and Duties they being only designed for and fitted to the present state of imperfection Eph. 4.12 13. but not at all to their loss no more than it is to his that loses the light of his candle by the rising of the Sun A Candle a Star is comfortable in the Night but useless when the Sun is up and in it's meridian Glory Christian Pray much hear much and drive as profitable a trade as thou canst among the Ordinances of God and duties of Religion For the time is at hand that you shall serve and wait on God no more this way But yet think not your Souls shall be discharged from all Worship and Service of God when you dye No you will find Heaven to be a Temple built for worship and the worship there to be much transcendent to all that in which you were here employ'd The Sanctuary was a pattern of Heaven in this very respect Heb. 9.23 And on this very account it is called Sion in my Text and the heavenly Ierusalem as denoting a Church-state and the spiritual Worship there performed by the Spirits of just men made perfect Some help we may have to understand the nature thereof by comparing it with that Worship and Service which we perform to God here in this state of imperfection and by considering the agreements and disagreements betwixt them In this they agree that the worship above and below are both addressed and directed to one and the same Object Father Son and Spirit all centers and terminates in God They also agree in the general quality and common Nature they are both spiritual Worship But there are divers remarkable differences betwixt the one and other as will be manifest in the following collation 1. All our Worship on Earth is performed and transacted by Faith as the instrument and mean thereof Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe c. In Heaven Faith ceaseth and sight takes place of it 1 Cor. 5.7 There we see what here we only believe There are now before us Ordinances Scriptures Ministers and the Assemblies of Saints in the places of worship but if we have any communion with God by or among these we must set our selves to believe those things we see not By realizing and applying invisible things we here get sometimes and with no small pains a taste of Heaven and a transient glance of that glory In this service our Faith is put hard to it it must work and fight at once Resolutely act whilst sense and reason stand by contradicting and quarrelling with it And if with much ado we get but one sensible touch of Heaven upon our Spirits if we get a little spiritual warmth and melting of our affections towards God we call that day a good day and it is so indeed But in Heaven all things are carried at an higher rate the joy of the Lord overflows us without any labour or pains of ours to procure it We may say of it there as the Prophet speaks of the dew and showres upon the grass Which tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men
and the Power of God q d. did you know and believe the Scriptures of God and the Power of God you would never question this Doctrine of the Resurrection which is built upon them both The Power of God convinceth all men that know and believe it that it may be â—o and the Scriptures of God convince all that know and believe them that it must be so as for his Power Who can doubt it At the Command and fiat of God the Earth brought forth every living Creature after his kind Gen. 1.24 25. at his Command Lazarus came forth Iohn 11.43 And was there not as much difficulty in either of these as in our Resurrection By this Power our Souls were quickened and raised from the death of sin and guilt to the Spiritual life of Christ Eph. 1.19 and is it not as easie to raise a dead Body as a dead Soul But what stand I arguing in so plain a Case when we are assured this mighty Power is able to subdue all things to it self Phil. 3.21 And then for his promise that it shall be so What can be plainer See 1 Thes. 4.15 16. This we say unto you by the Word of the Lord c. i.e. In the Name or Auhority of the Lord and by Commission and Warrant from him he first opens his Commission shews his Credentials and then publishes the comfortable Doctrine of the Resurrection and the Saints preheminence to all others therein Well then what remains in death to fright and scare a Believer is it our parting with these Bodies Why it is not for ever that we part with them as sure as the power and promises of God are true firm and sufficient to accomplish it we shall see and enjoy them again This comforted Iob chap. 19.25 26. over all his diseases when of all his enjoyments that once he had he could not say my Friends my Children my Estate yet then he could say my Redeemer When he looked upon a poor wasted withered loathsome Body of his own and saw nothing but a Skeleton an Image of death yet then could he see it a glorious Body by viewing it believingly in this glass of the Resurrection So then all the damage we can receive by death is but the absence of our Bodies for a time during which time the Covenant-relation betwixt God and them holds good and firm Matth. 22.32 He therefore will take care of them and in due time restore them with marvellous improvements and endowments to us again divested of all their infirmities and cloathed with Heavenly qualities and perfection 1 Cor. 15.43 44. And in the mean time the Soul attains its rest and happiness and satisfaction in the blessed God Argument IV. THE consideration of what we part from and what we go to should make the medium by which we pass from so much evil to so great good lovely and desireable in our eyes how unpleasing or bitter soever it be in it self No man desires Physick for it self There is no pleasure in bitter Pills and loathsome Potions except what rises from the end viz the disburthening of Nature and recovery of health and this gives it a value with the Sick and pained Under a like consideration is death desired by sick and pained Souls who find it better to dye once than groan under burthens continually Death is certainly the best Physician next and under Jesus Christ that ever was employed about them for it cures radically and perfectly so that the Soul never relapses any more into any distemper Other Medicines are but Anodynes or at best they relieve us but in part and for a time but this goes through the work and perfects the cure at once Methinks that Call of Christ which he gives his Spouse in Cant. 4.8 Come with me from Lebanon my Spouse with me from Lebanon look from the top of Amana from the top of Shenir and Hermon from the Lions dens from the Mountains of Leopards scarce suits any time so well as the time of death Then it is that we depart from the Lions Dens and the mountains of Leopards places uncomfortable and unsafe More particularly at death the Saints depart 1. From defiling corruptions inâ—o 1. Perfect purity 2. From heart sinking sorrows inâ—o 2. Fulness of joy 3. From entangling temptations inâ—o 3. Everlasting freedome 4. From distressing persecutions inâ—o 4. Full rest 5. From pinching wants inâ—o 5. Universal supplies 6. From distracting fears inâ—o 6. Highest security 7. From deluding shadows inâ—o 7. Substantial good 1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity No sin hangs about the separated though it do about the sanctified Soul They come out of the Body suitable to that character and encomium Cant. 4.7 Thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee It doth that for the Saints which all their graces and duties all their mercies and afflictions could never do Faith is a great purifier Communion with God a great cleanser sanctified afflictions a Refiner's fire and Fuller's Soap these have all done their parts and been useful in their places but none of them nor altogether perfected this cure till death come and then the work is done and the cure perfected All Weeping all Praying all Believing all Hearing all Sacraments all the means and instruments in the World cannot do what death will do for thee One dying hour will do what ten thousand praying hours never did nor could do In this hour the design of all those hours is accomplished as he that is dead by mortification is at present freedom from sin in respect of imputation and dominion Rom. 6.7 so he that being justified and mortified is dead naturally is immediately freed from the very indwelling and existence of sin in him We read of the washing of the Robes of the Saints in Rev. 7.14 The blood of the Lamb cleanseth them from every spot but it doth it gradually The last spot of guilt indeed was fetcht out by one act of justification but the last spot filth is not fetcht out till the time of their dissolution when they are come out of the Agonies of death which the Scripture calls great tribulation then and not till then are they perfectly cleansed Sin brought in death and death carries out sin O what a pure lovely shining Creature is the separated Spirit of a Just man How clear is its Judgment how ordinate its will how holy and altogether heavenly are all its affections now and never till now it feels it self perfectly well and as it would be 2. From heart-sinking Sorrows into fulness of Joy The life we now live is a groaning life 2 Cor. 5.2 where is the Christian that if his inside could be seen and his heart laid naked would not be found wounded from many hands From the hand of God of Enemies of Friends of Satan but especially by the hands of its own Corruptions Christ our Head was stiled a man of sorrows from the multitude of his Sorrows and it
Soul of a Begger is of the same Species Original and Capacity of happiness with the Soul of the most illustrious Prince and sometimes greater Excellencies of mind are found in the lowest rank and order of men Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish King Eccles. 4.13 but the Soul of the meanest person in the World is better than all the bodies in it and therefore to make the noble and high-born Soul a slave a meer drudge to the vile body as the Apostle calls it Phil. 3.21 The body of this vileness what is it but to set the Begger on Horse-back and make the King lacquey after him on foot It was a generous resentment that an Heathen had of the dignity of his own Soul Major sum ad majora natus quà m ut corporis mei sim mancipium Seneca and a very just abhorrence of so vile an abuse of it when he said I am greater and born to greater things than that I should be a slave to my body I know there is a debt of duty the Soul owes to its own body and few Souls are to be found too careless or dilatory in the discharge thereof where one Soul needs the Spur in this case thousands need the Curb Most Souls are over-heated with zeal for the concerns of the flesh worn out and spent in its constant drudgery their whole life is but a serving of divers lusts and pleasures as the Apostle speaks Tit. 3.3 Imperious lusts are cruel Task-masters they give the Soul no rest the more provision the Soul brings in to satisfie them the more they rage like fire by the addition of more fuel What a sad sight is it to see a noble immortal Soul enslaved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostles word is Tit. 1.7 to wine to filthy lucre to a thousand sorts of vassallage like a Tapster in a common Inn now running up stairs and then down at every ones knock and call O what perpetual hurry and noise do thousands of Souls live in so that they have no time to retire into themselves and think for what end and use they were created and sent into this World all their thoughts all their cares all their studies and labours are taken up about that perishing clogging ensnaring body which must so shortly fall a prey to the worms How many millions of poor Creatures are there that labour and toil all their life long for a poor bare maintenance of their bodies and never think they have any other business to do in this World And how many of an higher rank are charm'd by a thick succession of fleshly delights and pleasures into a deep oblivion of their eternal concerns so that their whole life is but one intire diversion from the great business and proper end of it Iam. 5.5 Ye have lived in pleasure on earth lived in them as the fish doth in the water its proper Element or the Eel in the mud Sometimes it falls out at the very close of a vain voluptuous life when they see all their delights shrinking away at the approaches and appearance of death that they begin to be a little startled at the change which is about to be made upon them and to cry O what shall we do now Ah poor Souls is that a time to think what you shall do when you are just stepping into the awful state of Eternity O that this had been thought on in season but you could find no leisure for one such thought Now you begin to wish time had been rescued out of the hands of the cares and pleasures of this life for better purposes but it 's gone and never more to be recalled Inference II. IS the Soul so invaluably precious then the Salvation of the Soul is to be the great care and business of every man in this life Where one thought is spent about this question What shall I eat drink and put on a thousand should be spent about that question What shall I do to be saved If a Treasure of ten or twenty thousand pounds were committed to your trust and charge and for which in case of loss you must be responsible would not your thoughts cares and fears be working night and day about it till you be satisfied it is safe and out of danger and then your mind would be at rest but not before Thy Soul O man is more worth than the Crowns and Treasures of all the Princes in the World if all their Exchequers were drained and all their Crown-Jewels sold to their full value they could never make up half a Ransom for the Soul of the poorest and meanest man This invaluable Treasure is committed to your charge if it be lost you are lost for ever that which St. Matthew calls the losing of the Soul in my Text St. Luke calls losing himself if the Soul be lost the man is lost the body is but as a Boat fastned to the stern of a stately Ship if the Ship sink the Boat follows it O therefore what thoughts what fears what cares should exercise the minds of men day and night till their precious Souls be out of all danger Methinks the sound of this Text should ring a perpetual Alarm in the ears of careless sinners and make them hasten to the Ensurance-Office as Merchants do who have great Adventures in danger at Sea It was counsel given once to a King and worthy to be prest upon all from the King to the Begger to ruminate these words of Christ one quarter of an hour every day What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul certainly it would make men slack their pace and cool themselves in their hot and earnest pursuit of the trifles of this World and convince them that they have somewhat else to do of far greater importance It was not without great and weighty reason therefore that the Apostle Peter exhorts to all diligence to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 there are two words in this Text of extraordinary weight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give all diligence the word is study the utmost intention of the mind pondering and comparing things in the thoughts valuing reasons for and objections against the point before us this is study and such as calls for all diligence where the subject matter is as to be sure here it is of the greatest importance and what is the subject matter of all this study and diligence Why it is the most solemn of all works that ever came under the hand of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make our calling and election sure firm stable or fixed as a building raised upon square and strong foundation or as a conclusion is sure when regularly drawn from certain and indubitable premisses there can never be too much care too much study or pains about that which can never
Sin Heaven and Hell Soul and Eternity have lost their awful sound and efficacy with you But it is a question only to be decided by the event whether ever yoâ— shall attain to the years of your Fathers it is not the sprightly vigour of your youth that can secure you from death What a madness then is it to put your Soâ—ls and eternal happiness upon such a blind adventure What if your presumption of so many fair and proper opportunities hereafter fail you as it hath failed millions who had as rational and hopeful a prospect of them as you can have where are you then And if you should have more time and means than you do presume upon are you sure your hearts will be as flexible and impressive as now they are O beware of this sin of vain presumption to which the generality of the damned owe their everlasting ruine The eighth way of losing the Soul opened VIII The eighth way of ruining the precious Soul is by drinking in the Principles of Atheism and living without God in the World Atheism stabs the Soul to death at one stroke and puts it quite out of the way of Salvation Other Sinners are worse than Beasts but Atheists are worse than Devils for they believe and tremble these banish God out of their thoughts and what they can out of the world living as without God in the world Eph. 2.12 It is a sin that quencheth all Religion in the Soul he that knows not his Landlord cannot pay his Rent he that assents not to the Being of a God destroys the foundation of all religious Worship he cannot fear love or obey him whose Being be believes not this sin strikes at the Life of God and destroys the life of the Soul Some are Atheists in opinion but multitudes are so in practice The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Psal. 14.1 Though he hath engraven his Nâ—me upon every Creature and written it upon the Table of their own Hearts yet they will not read it or if they have a slight fluctuaâ—â—â—g notion or a secret suspicion of a Deity yet they neither acknowledge his Presence nor his Providence Fingunt Deum talem qui nec videt nec punit They say How doth God know can he judge through the dark clouds thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not Job 22.14 Others profess to believe his Being but their lives daily give their lips the lye for they give no evidence in practice of his fear love or dependence on him If they believe his Being they plainly shew they value not his favour delight not in his presence love not his ways or people but lye down and rise eat and drink live and die without the worship or acknowledgment of him except so much as the Law of the Country or Custom of the place extorts from them These dregs of time produce abundance of Atheists of both sorts many ridicule and hiss Religion out of all Companies into which they come and others live down all sense of Relion they customarily attend indeed upon the external Duties of it hear the Word but when the greatest and most important Duties are urged upon them their inward thought is this is the Preachers Calling and the man must say something to fill up his hour and get his living If they dare not put their thoughts into words and call the Gospel Fabula Christi the Fable of Christ as a wicked Pope once did or say of Hell and the dreadful Sufferings of the Damned as Calderinus the Jesuit did tunc credam cum illuc venero I will believe it when I see it yet their hearts and lives are of the same complexion with these mens words They do not heartily assent to the Truth of the Gospel which they hear and though bare assent would not save them yet their dissent or non-assent will certainly damn them except the Lord heal their understandings and hearts by the light and life of Religion To this last sort I shall offer a few things The eighth way to Hell shut up by six weighty Considerations 1. You that attend upon the Ordinances but believe them no more than so many devâ—â—â—d Fables nor heartily assent to the Truth of what you hear know assuredly that the Word shall new 〈…〉 do your Souls good it can never come to your hearts and affections in its regenerating and sanctifying efficacy whilst it is stopt and obstructed in your understandings in the act of assent And thus you may sit under the best Ordinances all your lives and be no more the better for them than the Rocks are for all the showres of rain that fall upon them Heb. 4.2 The word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it This is Satans chief strength and fastness wherein he trusteth he fears no Argument whilst he can maintain this Post the Devil hath no surer Prisoner than the Atheist there 's no escaping out of his possession and power whilst this bolt of Unbelief is shut home in the Mind or Understanding An unbelieved Truth never converted or saved one Soul from the beginning of the world nor never shall to the end of it Those bodies that have the Boulema or Dog-appetite whatever they eat it affords them no nourishment or satisfaction they thrive not with the best fare just so it is with your Souls no Duties no Ordinances can possibly do them good as in Argumentation no Conclusion be it never so regularly drawn and strongly inferred is of any force to him that denies Principles 2. If you assent not to the Truth of the Gospel you not only make God speak to your Souls in vain which is fatal to them but you also make God a lyar which is the greatest affront a Creature can put upon his Maker 1 Ioh. 5.10 He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar Vile dust darest thou rise up against the God that made thee and give him the lye An affront which thy fellow-Creature cannot put up or bear at thy hands Darest thou at once stab his Honour and thy own Soul Are not the things which thou lookest on as Romances and golden Dreams a meer Artifice neatly contrived to cheat and awe the world Are they not all built upon the Veracity of God which is the firmest foundation and greatest security in the world Hath he not intermingled for our satisfaction not only frequent assertions but his asseverations and Oath to put all beyond doubt And yet dare any of you lift up your ignorant blind Understandings against all this and give him the lye Surely the wrath of God shall smoke against every Soul of man that doth so and his own bitter lamentable doleful experience shall be his conviction shortly except he repent 3. Dare any of you give the thoughts of your hearts as certain conclusions under your hand and stand by them to the last and venture all upon them Wretched
death a terrible meeting again at the Resurrection and horrid reflections upon each other mutually charging their ruine upon each other to all eternity Whilst they that are in Christ part in hope meet with joy and bless God for each other for evermore TEXT 2 Peter 1.13 14. Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in Remembrance Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me AT the tenth verse of this Chapter The Apostle sums up his foregoing precepts and exhortations in one great and most important duty the making sure of their calling and election This exhortation he enforceth on them by a most solemn and weighty motive ver 11. Even an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom No work of greater necessity or difficulty than to make sure our Salvation no argument more forceable and prevalent than an easy and free enterance into Glory at death an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet and comfortable dissolution to enter the Port of glory before a wind with our full ladeing of comfort peace and joy in believing our Sails full and our Streamers flying Oh how much better is this than to lye Wind-bound I mean heart-bound at the Harbours mouth tost up and down with fears doubts and manifold temptations making many a board to fetch the harbour for so much is signified in his figurative and allusive expression v. 11. And for their encouragement in this great and difficult work he ingageth himself by promise to give them all the assistance he can whilst God should continue his life and knowing that would be but a little while he resolves to use his utmost endeavour to secure these things in their Memories after his death that they might not dye with him This is the general scope and order of the words Wherein more particularly we have I. His exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work II. The consideration stimulating and provoking him thereunto I. His Exemplary industry and diligence in his Ministerial work in which two things are remarkable viz. 1 The quality of his work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excitare expergesacere i. e. mentes vestras tanquam do mitantes ac torpescentes c. Poli Synopsis which was to stir them up by putting them in remembrance to keep the heavenly flame of love and zeal lively upon the Altar of their hearts He well knew what a sleepy disease the best Christians are troubled with and therefore he had need to be stirring them up and awakening them to their duty 2 The constancy of his work as long as I am in this Tabernacle i. e. as long as I live in this World The Body is here called a Tabernacle in respect of its moveableness and frailty and in opposition to that house made without hands eternal in the Heavens And it is observeable how he limits and bounds his serviceableness to them by his commoration in his Tabernacle or Body as well knowing after death he could be no longer useful to them or any others in this World Death puts an end to all our ministerial usefulness but till that time he judged it meet and becoming him to be aiding and assisting their faith Our life and labour must end together II. We have here the Motive or consideration stimulating and provoking him to this diligence knowing that I must shortly put off this Tabernacle even as the Lord Iesus Christ hath shewed me in which words he gives an account of 1 The speediness 2 Necessity 3 Voluntariness of his death and the way and means by which he knew it All these must be considered singly and apart and then valued altogether as they amount to a weighty Argument or Motive to excite him to diligence in his his duty 1. He reflects upon the speediness or near approach of his death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brevi suturum Every Christian knows not the time of his death as Peter did by special Revelation But though we know it not by a word spoken to us in particular we know it by a word written for all in common Eccles. 9.5 the living know that they must die I must shortly put off this my Tabernacle which is a form of Speech of the same importance with that of Paul 2 Tim. 4.6 The time of my departure is at hand my time in the Body is almost at an end 2. The necessity of his death it is not I may but I must put off this my Tabernacle yea I must put it off shortly for so the Lord had shewed him Christ had signified it expresly to him Iohn 21.18 19. And besides this most Expositors think this clause refers to some special vision or Revelation which Peter had of the time and manner of his own death so that besides the natural necessity or the inevitableness of his death by the law of Nature he was certified of it by special Revelation We have here also 3. The voluntariness of his death for voluntariness is consistent enough with the necessity of the event Deponere dicit ut significet se voluntariè mortem obiturum esse pro Christo. Pool I must put off or lay down my Tabernacle he saith not I must be torn or rent by violence from it but I must depose or lay it down Camero will have the word here used for death properly to signifie the laying down of ones Garments he made no more of putting off his Body than his Garments Upon the consideration of the whole matter the speediness of his death which he knew to be at hand the Necessity of it that when it came he must be gone from them and could be no more useful to them and his own inclination to be with Christ in a better state being as willing to be gone as a weary Traveller to be at home he judged it meet or becoming him as he was called of Christ to feed his sheep as he was gifted extraordinarily for the Churches service full of spiritual excellencies all which in a short time would be taken away from them by death I say upon all these accounts he could not but judge it meet to be stirring them up and every way striving to be as useful as he might Hence the Note will be DOCT I. How sâ—rong soever the Affections and inclinations of Souls are to the fleshly Tabernacles they now live in yet they must put them off and that speedily (1) The certaintâ— of death Ioâ— 16.22 Anni numeri i. e. qui numerati sunt adeo ut brevissimi periodo circumscripti THE point lies very plain before us in the Scriptures That is a remarkable expression we have in Iob 16.22 When a few years are come I shall go the way whence I shall not return in the Hebrew it is when the years of number or my numbred years are come years so numbred that they are circumscribed in
of God a burthen to themselves Iob 7.20 21. Yea under these burthens they would sink did not the Lord sustain them Psal. 55.22 But God will put a speedy and final end to all these things when you put off this Tabernacle you put off with it all those burdens inward and outward The Soul presently feels a great load off its shoulders It shall never groan more God shall thenceforth wipe away all tears from their eyes For why are those burdens now permitted and imposed by the Lord upon you but 1 To prevent sin Hosea 2.6 They are your clogs to keep you from straying 2 To purge out sin Isaâ— 27.9 3 To make you long more for Heaven and the rest to come But all these ends are accomplished in that day you put off your Tabernacles for then sin is gone and rest is come Inference VI. MUst you shortly put off those Tabernacles then spare them not whilst you have them but imploy them for God with all diligence Shortly they shall be useless to you yea meat for Worms now they may â—e serviceable and their Service is their honour Ambrose said of Valentinian No man was ever such a Serâ—ant to hiâ— Master as Valâ—â—tinan's Body was to his Soul you received them not for such low ends as you imploy them for See 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your Souls and Bodies which are his You expect to have them glorious Bodies one day Oh then let them be serviceable Bodies now Be not fond of them to that degree many are who chuse rather to have them eaten out with rust than worn out with service It is your present honour to be active and will be your singular comfort another day What greater comfort when you come to put them off at death than this that you have imployed them faithfully for God Inference VII LOok beyond this embodyed state and learn to live now as you hope to live shortly Begin to be what you expect to be You know the time is at hand that you shall live above all bodily concernments and imployments the Soul shall be a drudge to the Body no more You shall be as the Angels Matth. 22.30 not marrying nor given in Marriage which is Synecdochically put for all Carnal Imployments and Enjoyments eat no more drink no more sleep no more buy and sell no more Now suit your selves as much as your State and the Duties of Religion will suffer you to that State before-hand The summ of what I aim at is in 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Be in all your Relations as if you had none Look on those things as if already they were not which shortly must be none of yours and both acquaint and accustome your thoughts to the life of separation from the Body which you must shortly live which brings me home to the next point viz. The Condition of Humane Souls in the State of Separation TEXT Heb. 12.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to the Spirits of just Men made perfect THE particular scope of this context falls in with the general design of the whole Gospel which is to perswade men to a life of Holiness The matter of the exhortation is most weighty and the Arguments inforcing it most powerful he doth not talk but dispute he doth not say but prove that greater and more powerful engagements unto holiness lye upon those who live under the Gospel than upon the people who lived under the Law And thus the Argument lies in this Context If God at the delivering of the Law upon Mount Sinai strictly enjoyned and required so great Purity and Holiness in that people Exod. 19.10 signified by the Ceremonies of two days preparation the washing of their cloaths abstinence from conjugal society c. much more doth he require and expect it in us who are come under a much more excellent and Heavenly dispensation than theirs was To make good the sequel he compares the legal and the evangelical Dispensations in many particulars verse 18 19 20 21 22 23. giving the Gospel the preference throughout the whole Collation In summ the priviledges of the New Testament-Believers are here stated both negatively and positively 1. Negatively by shewing what we are exempted from 2. Positively shewing what we are come unto First Negatively What we are exempted or freed from verse 18 19 20 21. We are not come unto the Mount that might be touched c. The summ of all is this that the promulgation of the Law was accompanied with amazing dread and terror For after Moses by command from God had sanctified the Mount and set Rails about it that neither Priest nor People Man nor Beast might touch the very borders of it lest they dye the Lord descended in fire upon the top of the Mountain the third day in the morning with most terrible tokens of Divine Majesty sc. with Thundrings Lightnings dark clouds and the noise of a Trumpet exceeding loud the Mount was covered with smoak as the smoak of a Furnace and flames mounting up unto the midst of Heaven Crebris micat ignibus ather the whole Mountain shaking and trembling exceedingly out of this horrid Tempest the awful voice of God was heard all the people in the Camp trembling yea and Moses himself quaking for fear This was the manner of the Laws Promulgation but to such a terrible Dispensation as this we are not come which is the negative part of our priviledge Secondly He opens the positive priviledges to which we are come 1 Ye are come saith he to mount Sion not the Earthly but the Spiritual Sion Mount Sion was the place celebrated above all the World for the Worship of God Psal. 87.7 All my springs saith God are in thee There was the Temple the Ark of the Covenant the glory of the Lord dwelling between the Cherubims The Priests that attended the service of God had their residence there as the Angels have in Heaven Thither the Tribes went up from all quarters of Iudea Psal. 84. as the children of God now do to Heaven from all Quarters of the World Iudea was the best Kingdom in the World Ierusalem the best City in that Kingdom and Sion the most glorious place in that City Here Christ taught his heavenly Doctrine near to it he finished his glorious work of Redemption Hence the everlasting Gospel went forth into all the world and on these considerations it s put to signifie the Gospel-Church or State in this place and is therefore called the heavenly Ierusalem in the following words We do not come to the literal Sion nor to the earthly Ierusalem but to the Gospel Church or State which may be called an Heaven upon earth compared with that literal Ierusalem 2 Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels Gr. to myriads of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hellenistae dicunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine alio additamento ad significandam innumeram multitudinem Grot. a myriad is ten thousand
Mic. 5.7 2. No grace is or can be acted here without the clog of a contrary corruption upon its heel Rom. 7.21 When I would do good evil is present with me Every beam of faith is presently darkned by a cloud of unbelief Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Saepè in libro experientiae legimus quomodo à corde nostro relinquimar nunc est nobisâ—um nunc alibi nunc avoâ—at nunc recurrit in sola lubricitate manens Bern. We often read in the Book of experience saith one what an inconstant fickle thing the heart is in duties Now it is with us by and by it 's fled away and gone we know not where to find it It is constant only in its inconstancy and lubricity There is iniquity in our most holy things which needs pardon Exod. 28.38 Our best duties have enough in them to damn us as well as our worst sins but in that perfect state above grace flows purely out of the Soul as beams do from the Sun or crystal streams from the purest Fountain No impure or imperfect acts proceed from Spirits made perfect 3. Here the graces of the Saints are never or very rarely acted in their highest and most intense degree When they love God most fervently there is some coldness in their love Who comes up to the height of that rule Matt. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength When we meditate on God it is not in the depth of our thoughts without some wanderings and extravagancies 't is very hard if not impossible for the Soul to stand long in its full bent to God But in Heaven it doth so and will do so for ever without any relaxation or remission of its fervour Christ among the Saints and Angels in Heaven is as a mighty Load-stone cast in amongst many Needles which leap to him and fix themselves inseparably upon him They all act in glory as the fire doth here to the utmost of their power and ability There is no note lower than Glory to God in the highest 4 The most spiritual Souls on earth who live most with God have and must have their dayly and frequent intermissions The necessities of the Body as well as the defectiveness of their graces require and necessitate it to be so Our hands with Moses will hang down and grow weary Our affections will cool and fall do what we can But as the Spirits of just men made perfect know no remissions in the degree so neither any intermissions in the actings of their grace They shall serve him day and night in his Temple Rev. 7.15 You that would purchase the continuance of your spiritual comforts but for a day with all that you have in this World will there enjoy them at full without any intermitting throughout eternity 5. If the best hearts on earth be at any time more than ordinarily enlarged in spiritual comforts they need presently some humbling providence to hide pride from their eyes Even Paul himself must have a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him Bernard could never perform any duty with comfortable enlargement but he seemed to hear his own heart whisper thus benè fecisti Bernarde O well done Bernard But in Heaven the highest comforts are injoyed in the deepest humility and the intire glory is ascribed to God without any unworthy defalcations Rev. 4.10 They put not the Crown upon their own heads but Christs they cast down their Crowns and fall down at the feet of him that sitteth upon the Throne 6. All Assemblies for worship in this World are mixed They consist of Regenerate and Unregenerate living and dead Souls this spoils the harmony and allays the comfort of mutual Communion In a Congregation consisting of a 1000 persons Ah! How few comparatively are there that are heartily concerned in the Duty But it is not so above There are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands before the Throne loving adoring praising and triumphing together and not a jaring string in all their Harps 7. Here the worship of God is impured mixed and adulterated by the sinful additions and inventions of men This gracious Souls groan under as an heavy burden sighing and praying for Reformation as knowing they can expect no more of Gods presence than there is of his Order and Institution in Worship But above all the Worship is pure the least pin in the heavenly Tabernacle is according to the perfect pattern of the divine Will 8. We have here Duties of divers kinds and natures to perform All our time is not to be spent in loving praising and delighting in God but we must turn our selves also to searching watching and Soul-humbling work Sometimes we are called to get up our hearts to the highest praise and then to humble them to the dust for sin and judgments One while to sing his praises and another while to sigh even to the breaking of our loins but the Spirits of just men made perfect have but one kind of imployment viz praising loving and delighting in God There is no groaning sighing searching or watching-work in that state 9. The most illuminated Believers on Earth have but dark and crude apprehensions of Christs intercession work in Heaven or of the way and manner in which it is there performed by him We know indeed that our High-Priest is for us entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 That he appears in that most holy place for us Heb. 9.24 That he there represents his sufferings for us to God standing before him as a Lamb that had been slain Rev. 5.6 That he offers up our prayers with his incense to God Rev. 8.3 But the immediate intuition of the whole performance by the person of Christ in Heaven the beholding of him in his work there with the smiles and honours the delight and satisfaction of the Father in his Person and Work certainly this must be a far different thing and what must make more deep and suitable impressions upon our hearts than ever the most affecting view of them by Faith at this distance could do 10. In such ravishing sights and joyful ascriptions of glory to him that sâ—tteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore all the separated Spirits of the just are imployed and wholly taken up in Heaven as they come in their several times thither and will be so imploy'd in that Temple-service unto the end of the World when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father and thenceforth God shall be all in all The illustration and confirmation of this assertion we have in these two or three particulars 1 That all the Spirits of just men from the beginning of the World until Christs ascension into Heaven did enter into Heaven as a place of rest as a City prepared for them of God Heb. 11.16 and did enjoy blessedness and Glory there but yet there seems to
his eyes upon the plaisterd wall within side the bed and whilst he was vehemently begging of God the life of his Friends there appeared upon the plaister of the wall before him the Sun and the Moon shining in their full strength The sight at first amaz'd and discomposed him so far that he could not continue his Prayer but kept his eye fixed upon the body of the Sun at last a small line or ring of black no bigger than that of a Text pen circled the Sun which increasing sensibly eclipsed in a little time the whole Body of it and turned it into a blackish colour which done the figure of the Sun was immediately changed into a perfect Death's head and after a little while vanished quite away The Moon still continued shining as before but whilst he intently beheld it it also darkned in like manner and turned also into another Death's head and vanished This made so great an impression upon the beholder's mind that he immediately awaked in confusion and perplexity of thoughts about his dream and awakning his wife related the particulars to her with much emotion and concernment but how to apply it he could not presently tell only he was satisfied that the dream was of an extraordinary nature At last Ioseph's dream came to his thoughts with the like Emblems and their interpretation which fully satisfied him that God had warned and prepared him thereby for a suddain parting with his dear Relations which answerably fell out in the same order his Father dying that day fortnight following and his Mother just a month afterwards I know there is much vanity in dreams and yet I am fully satisfied some are weighty significant and declarative of the purposes of God 3. Lastly An unusual and extraordinary elevation of the Soul to God and enlargement in Communion with him hath been a signifying forerunner of the death of some good men For as the Body hath its levamen anteferale lightning before death and is more vegete and brisk a little before its dissolution so it is sometimes with the Soul also I have known some persons to arrive on a suddain to such heights of love to God and vehement longings to be dissolved that they might be with Christ that I could not but look upon it as Christ did upon the box of Oyntment as done against their death And so indeed it hath proved in the event Thus it was with that renowned Saint Mr. Brewen of Stapleford as he excelled others in the holiness of his life so he much excelled himself towards his death his motions towards Heaven being then most vigorous and quick The day before his last sickness he had such extraordinary enlargements of heart in his Closet-Duty that he seemed to forget all the concernments of his Body and this lower World And when his wife told him Sir I fear you have done your self hurt with rising so early he answered If you had seen such glorious things as I saw this morning in private prayer with God you would not have said so for they were so wonderful and unspeakable that whether I was in the Body or out of the Body with Paul I cannot tell And so it was with learned and holy Mr. Rivet who seemed as a man in Heaven just before he went thither And so if hath been with thousands beside these I confess it is not the lot of every gracious Soul as was shew'd you in the last Question nor doth it make any difference as to the safety of the Soul whatever it makes as to comfort Let all therefore labour to make sure their Union with Christ and live in the daily exercises of grace in the duties of Religion and then though God should give them no such extraordinary warnings one way or another they shall never be surprized by death to their loss let it come never so unexpectedly upon them Quest. It may be also queried whether Satan by his Instruments may not foretel the death of some men How else did the Witch of Ender foretel the death of Saul And the Southsayers the death of Caesar upon the Ides i. e. the fifteenth day of March which was the fatal day to him Sol. Foreknowledg of things to come which appear not in their next causes is certainly the Lords Prerogative Isai. 41.23 Whatever therefore Satan doth in this matter must be done either by conjecture or commission As to the case of Saul 't is not to be questioned but that he knowing the Kingdom was made to David by promise and that the Lord was departed from Saul and saw how near the Armies were to a Battel might strongly conjecture and conclude and accordingly tell him To morrow thou shalt be with me 1 Sam. 28.19 And so for the death of Caesar The Devil knew the conspiracy was strong against him and the Plot laid for that day and so it was both easie for him to reveal it to the South-sayers and his interest to do it thereby to bring that cursed Art into reputation As for other signs and forewarnings of death by the unusual resort of doleful Creatures as Owls and Ravens vulgarly accounted Ominous Wall-watches upon this account called Death-watches and the eating of wearing-apparel by Rats I look upon them generally as supertitious fancies not worthy to be regarded among Christians God may but I know not what ground we have to believe that he doth commissionate such Creatures to bring us the message of death from him To conclude therefore Let no man expect or depend upon any such extraordinary premonitions and warnings of his change or neglect his daily work and duty of preparation for it We have warnings in the Word in the examples of Mortality frequently before us in all the diseases and decays we often feel in our own Bodies and by the signs of the times which threaten death and desolation Be ye therefore always ready for ye know not in what watch of the night your Lord cometh QUEST IV. Whether separated Souls have any knowledg of or commerce and intercourse with men in this life and if not What is to be thought of the Apparitions of the Dead 1. By separated Souls understand the departed Souls both of the Godly and Ungodly indifferently and not as it is restrained to one sort only in the Text for of both it is pretended there are frequent Apparitions after death 2. By the knowledge such Souls are supposed to have after death both of persons and things in this lower World we understand not a general knowledg which one fort of them have of the state and condition of the Church militant on earth for this we think cannot be denyed to the Spirits of the just made perfect seeing they are still fellow Members with us of the same mystical body of Christ and do behold our High-Priest appearing before God and offering up our prayers for us and long for the consummation of the Body of Christ as well as cry for vengeance
shall be done for them Is there no way for their deliverance O that God would direct and bless the following considerations to them if it may be expected they may at any time get through the brake in which they are involved and find them at leisure to bethink themselves The sixth way to Hell shut up by five Considerations 1. Bethink thy self poor Soul as much as thou art involved and plunged in the necessities and distracting cares of this life others many others as poor as necessitous and every way as much embroil'd in the cares of the world as you are have minded their Souls and taken all care and pains for their Salvation notwithstanding yea though millions of your rank and order are destroyed by these snares of the Devil yet God hath a very great number indeed the greatest of any rank of men among those that are low poor and necessitous in the world The Church is called the Congregation of the poor Psal. 74.20 because it consisteth mostly of men and women of the lowest and most despicable condition in this world They are all poor in Spirit and most of them poor in purse Hearken my beloved Brethren saith Iames hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom Jam. 2.5 Now if others many others as much intangled in the necessities cares and troubles of the world as you have yet struggled through all those difficulties and discouragements to Heaven why should not you strive for Christ and Salvation as well as they Your Souls are as valuable as theirs and their discouragements and hinderances as great and as many as yours 2. Consider your poor and necessitous condition in the world hath something in it of motive and advantage to excite and quicken you to a greater diligence for Salvation than is found in a more full easie and prosperous state for God hath hereby imbitter'd this world to you and made you drink deeper of the troubles of it than other men they have the honey and you the gall they have the flour and you the bran But then as yoâ— have not the pleasures so you have not the snares of a prosperous condition and your daily troubles cares and labours in it do even prompt you to seek rest in Heaven which you cannot find on Earth Can you think you were made for a worse condition than the Beasts what to have two Hells one here and another hereafter Surely as low miserable and despicable as you are you are capable of as much happiness as any of the Nobles of the World and in your low and afflicted condition stand nearer to the door of hope than they do Ah! methinks these thoughts do even put themselves upon you when your spirits are overloaded with the cares and your bodies tired with the labours of this life Is this the life of troubles I must expect on Earth Hath God denied me the pleasures of this World O then let it be my care my study my business to make sure of Christ to win Heaven that I may not be miserable in both Worlds How can you avoid such thoughts or put by such meditations which your very station and condition even forceth upon you 3. Consider how all your troubles in this World would be sweetned and all your burdens lightned if once your Souls were in Christ and in Covenant with God O what hearts-ease would Faith give you What sweet relief would you find in Prayer These things like the opening of a Vein or Tumor when ripe would suddenly cool relieve and ease your spirits Could you but go to God as a Father and pour out your hearts before him and roll all your cares and burdens wants and sorrows upon him you would find a speedy out-let to yâ—ur troubles and an inlet to all peace all comfort and all refreshments such as all the riches honours and fulness of this world cannot give you would then find Providence engage it self for your supply and issue all your troubles to your advantage Heb. 13.5 Isa. 41.17 Psal. 34.9 10. Psal. 91.15 Rom. 8.28 You would suck the breasts of those Promises in the Margent and say all the dainties in the world cannot make you such another Feast You would then see your bread your cloaths and all provisions for you and yours in Gods promises when you are brought to an exigence and would certainly find performances as well as promises all along the course of your life 4. Say not you have no time to mind another world God hath not put any of you under such an unhappy necessity you have one whole day every week allowed you by God and Man for your Souls you have some spare time every day which you know you spend worse than in heavenly thoughts and exercises yea most Callings are such as will admit of spiritual exercises of thoughts even when your hands are exercised in the affairs of this life Besides there are none of you but have and must have daily some relaxations and rest from business and if your hearts were spiritual and set upon Heaven you would find more time than you think on without prejudice to your Callings yea to the great furtherance of them to spend with God I can tell you when and where I have found poor Servants hard at work for Salvation labouring for Christ some in the Fields others in Barns and Stables where they could find any privacy to pour out their Souls to God in prayer As Lovers will make hard shifts to converse together so will the Soul that is devoted to God and in earnest for Heaven And though your opportunities be not so large they may be as sweet as successful and to be sure sincere as those whose condition affords them more time and greater external conveniencies than you enjoy More business is sometimes dispatcht in a quarter of an hour in prayer yea let me say in a few hearty ejaculations of Soul to God in a few minutes than in many long and elaborate duties If thou cast in thy two mites of time into the Treasury of Prayer having no more thou mayst as Christ said of the poor Widow give more than those that cast in of their great abundance of time and Talents 5. Lastly Consider Jesus Christ is no Respecter of persons the poorest and vilest on earth are as welcome to him as the greatest He chose a poor and mean condition in this World himself conversed mostly among the poor never refused any because of his poverty God accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Job 34.19 and that both in respect of their natural constitution as men and their Civil condition as rich or poor men Riches and poverty make a great difference in the respects of men but none at all with God If thou be one of Gods poor he will accept love and honour thee above the greatest if
drops not down from Heaven in a night-dream as the Turks fable their Alcoran to have done in that lailato hanzili night of demission as they call it no no the righteous themselves are scarcely saved many seek but few find strive therefore as men and women that are heartily concerned for their own Salvation Sit not with folded arms like so many heaps of stupidity and sloth whilst the door of Hope is yet open and such a sweet voice from Heaven calls to you saying Strive Souls strive if ever you expect to be partakers of the Blessedness that is here to be enjoyed strive to the uttermost of your abilities and opportunities Such an Heaven is worth striving to obtain such an Hell is worth striving to escape such an invaluable Soul is worth striving to save I confess Heaven is not the purchace or reward of your striving No Soul shall boastingly say there Is not this the Glory which my duties and diligence purchased for me And yet on the other side it is as true that without striving you shall never set foot there Say not it depends upon the pleasure of God and not upon your diligence for it is his declared will and pleasure to bring men to Glory in the way though not for the sake of their own striving as in the works of your civil Calling you know all the care toil and sweat of the Husbandman avails nothing of it self except the Sun and Rain quicken and ripen the Fruits of the Earth and yet no wise man will neglect plowing and harrowing sowing and weeding because these labours avail not without the influences of Heaven but waits for them in the way of his duty and diligence rational hope sets all the world awork Do they plow in hope and sow in hope and will not you pray in hope and hear in hope You that know your Souls to be hitherto strangers to Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit how is it that you take them not aside sometimes out of the distracting noise and hurries of the world and thus bemoan them O my poor graceless Christless miserable Soul how sad a case art thou in others have but thou never feltest the burden of sin thousands in the World are striving and labouring searching and praying to make their Calling and Election sure whilst thou sittest still with folded hands in a supine regardlesness of the misery that is hastening on upon thee Canst thou endure the devouring wrath of God Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings Hast thou fancied a tolerable Hell Or is it easie to perish Why dost thou not cast thy self at the feet of Christ and cry as long as breath will last Lord pity a sinful miserable undone and self-condemning Soul Lord smite this rockie heart subdue this stubborn will heal and save an undone Soul ready to perish The characters of death are upon it it must be changed or condemned and that in a little time Bowels of pity hear the cry of a Soul distressed and ready to perish And you that do not understand the case and slate your Souls are in you have never a Bible near you O turn to those places 1 Cor. 6.9 10. where you will presently find the more obvious marks and characters God hath set upon the children of perdition and if you find not your self in that Catalogue among the unrighteous Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners c. then turn to Ioh. 3.3 and solemnly ask thy own Soul this question Am I born again Am I a new Creature Or still in the same condition I was born in What solid evidence of the new birth have I to rely upon if I were now within a few gasps of death Am not I the man or woman who live in the very same sins which the Word of God makes the Symptoms and Characters of Damnation And doth not my Conscience witness against me that I am utterly void and destitute of all that saving Grace and a meer stranger to the regenerating work of the Spirit without which there can be no well-bottom'd hope of Salvation And if so are not the tokens of death upon me Am not I a person markt out for misery And shall I sit still in a state of so much danger and not once strive to make an escape from the wrath to come Is this vile body worth so much toil and labour to support and preserve it And is not my 〈◊〉 worth as much care and diligence to secure it from the everlasting wrath of the great just and terrible God O that the consideration of the wrath to come the multitudes all the world over preparing as fuel for it and the door of opportunity yet held open to Souls by the hand of Grace to escape that wrath might prevail with thy heart Reader to strive and that to the uttermost to secure thy precious Soul from the impending ruine EPHES. 5.16 Redeeming the time or opportunity because the days are evil TIme is deservedly reckoned among the most precious mercies of this life and that which makes it so valuable are the commodious seasons and opportunities for Salvation which are vouchsafed to us therein Opportunity is the golden spot of Time the sweet and beautiful flower growing upon the stalk of Time If Time be a Ring of Gold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opportunity is the rich Diamond that gives it both its value and glory The Apostle well knew the value of Time and seeing how prodigally it was wasted by the most doth therefore in this place earnestly press all men to redeem save and improve it with the utmost diligence In this and the former Verse We have 1. The Duty injoyned Walk circumspectly We have 2. The Injunction explained 1. More generally Not as fools but as wise 2. More particularly Redeeming the time 3. The Exhortation strongly inforced with a powerful Motive Because the days are evil Among these Particulars my Discourse is principally concerned about the Redemption of Time or Opportunities which in this life are graciously vouchsased us in order to that which is to come and here it will be needful To inquire 1. What the Apostle means by Time 2. What by the Redemption of Time 1. Time is taken more largely or strictly according to the double acceptation of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth sometimes Time and sometimes Occasion Season or Opportunity and accordingly is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tempus and Tempestivitas the latter is the word here used and denotes the commodiousness and fitness of some parts of Time above others for the successful and prosperous management and accomplishment of our main and great business in this world which is to secure our interest in Christ and glorifie God in a course of fruitful obedience For these great and weighty purposes our time is graciously lengthened out and many fit opportunities presented to us in the