Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
interpretation of it Where exhorting Christians unto an holy courage and confidence in their appearings for the Cause of Christ afore their Persecutors Tribunals In nothing be terrified by your Adversaries says he And upon such a bold undauntedness on their part two effects he tells them do often follow and both from God alike as two wonderful contrary effects First in themselves God elevateth and raiseth up that their confidence of Faith into a glorious assurance and taste of Heaven and Salvation whither they are a going so in these words Which is a token to you your selves of Salvation But on the contrary which is an evident token namely in their Persecutor's Consciences of Perdition if they repent not and that namely both these effects of God Two things I observe 1. That these two contrary Effects run parallel still and that in order to and of their being Tokens either of Salvation or Perdition as in that other place 2 Cor. 2. And so that as the Joys put into the hearts of these Confessors are the first Fruits of the Spirit and Rom. 8. therefore of the same kind with what Fruit and Harvest they reap in Heaven and thereupon also a Spirit of Glory is said to rest upon them in such a case it being it self initial Glory and the first fruits of 1 Pet. 4. 14. Glory in a way of Glory Thus on the contrary those Terrors God strikes their Adversaries hearts withal are like Tokens and Evidences of Hell no other than the Suburbs the first fruits of Hell and shadow of Death And 2. I observe which is that for which I quote it that both these extraordinary effects are alike wrought in the hearts of either by the same or like hand namely Impressions from God The Apostle therefore adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto both and that of God He being the immediate Author of the one as well as of the other and both unto a like tho contrary purpose And the reason why God thus often takes that season and occasion to put forth his immediate power in the consciences of either at such a time is because his Glory is in no passages of Providence in and upon Earth so highly interested and engaged as upon such Trials wherein both his Truth and Children are brought to the Bar at once and therefore is then pleased to discover something more than ordinary tho secretly in the Spirits of Men. Have they no Fear says the Psalmist that eat up my People like Bread One would think so they look so big and fall too so heartily to devour them Yes says the Psalmist answering it there were they in great fear There that is upon such an occasion at such a time and yet the same Psalmist tells us that there was no cause of fear compare for that Psal 14. 4. with Psal 54. 4. that is not from Creatures What was the matter then or whence comes this great Fear God is in the Generation of the Righteous says the Psalmist thence was their fear and that of God So the Apostle in that very case God takes part with his Children and so strikes and terrifies their Adversaries Souls as he comforts theirs and this is to them an evident Token and as the first Baptisms Washings or Sprinklings of that Perdition which their Souls will be everlastingly drowned in as the Apostle's allusion is in Timothy if they turn not The truth and real verification of both these so immediate effects by God and from God he as with a double-edged sword striking contrary ways at once Multitudes of Instances of both kinds the Story of the Martyrs doth relate and particularly in the examples of those persecuting Emperors Galerius and Maximinus as Eusebius hath Recorded them Insomuch as that lamentable out-cry in the sixth Seal Rev. 6. 16. Which the Kings of the Earth and mighty Men the Persecutors are brought in so loudly uttering in saying to the Mountains Fall on us and hide us from the Wrath of the Lamb. Mr. Mede and others have applyed as the Time and Order of the Visions of that Prophecy require unto those Great Persecutors in the Roman Empire whom authentick Antiquity hath related to have been terrifyed and struck with horror by God and the Lamb in prodigious extraordinary ways of confusion and those Terrors such as Stories have related them as were the liveliest representations of that Great Day of Wrath ver 17. And are therefore set out under the Notion thereof as having been to them the very imperfect beginnings of it This for the Argument from the instances of wicked Men. II. The Argument is as strong though not so direct from the instances of holy Men. For 1. This Dispensation to them is not only an Argument in common with other Afflictions of this World in their being a manifest token of the Judgment of 2 Thess 1. 9. God and that therefore a sure and certain Judgment is to come upon the Wicked as he there argues But this kind being a Judgment of a spiritual Nature as immediate inflictions of Wrath are and properly belonging unto Souls as they are the Subjects of the other World It argues therefore upon a more proper account that the Punishment to come is of the same kind therewith And such they must needs be unless we will suppose that God whips his own Children in this World with Scorpions but wicked Men in the other World but as with Rods in comparison of them For it must be acknowledged that these God's own blows from his own immediate hand are sorer and cause wounds of a deeper blew than what are given by him through Creatures Surely God hath not laid up gentler Rods for the wicked in Hell then he puts in ure towards his Children Have I smote them as I smote thee Esay 27. 7. I will correct thee in measure Jer. 30. 1. not so them The equity of those ruled Cases which the Reader may consult Jer. 25. 15 16 17 28 29. Luke 23. 31. 1 Pet. 4. 12 17. do hold in this and give us warrant in like manner to argue That if his own Children do drink of so bitter a Cup here then surely You the Wicked of the Earth shall much more drink of the very same And these Scriptures alleaged and the strength of this our Inference are all resolved into that of Psa 78. 8. In the hand of the Lord is a Cup whereof the wicked of the Earth shall finally drink the dregs And the force thereof lies in this That if such kind of Judgments and fiery Trials as these I allude unto that speech of the Apostle thus falling upon their spirits from God himself do begin at some of the Houshold of God then where will the Vngodly and Sinners appear For his own People do but begin in this Cup to them who are to drink the dregs whereof themselves have but the droppings 2. This dispensation of impressions of Wrath when it doth befal either the
Spirit and in the substantial Faculties of it assimulated to him made in his Image a Spirit as God is that hath an Understanding and other Faculties to receive and take in from him what he is pleased to pour forth into it by them and is accordingly more sensible thereof than the Senses of the Body are or can be supposed to be from Creatures The Prophet Nahum seems to have considered this chap. 1. v. 5 6. When setting out God's Wrath to Men in the effects of it he first considers how it works upon inanimate Creatures that are at such a distance in respect of the kind of their being from God's It kindleth a Fire says he which maketh the Hills to melt and the Eaath is burnt up at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein which he will one day burn up with Fire Now from these the Prophet infers and raiseth up our thoughts Doth he work thus upon insensible Creatures as the Hills and the Earth and the whole World Do the Elements melt with fervent heat Are the Heavens shrivel'd up as a Scrole of Parchment afore him by the violence of that Fire which he sends forth Consider then O consider ye Sons of Men how will the Fire of his Wrath work upon your intellectual Souls And as unto this Scope and Coherence with the former I understand what follows verse 6. Who can stand afore his Indignation who can abide in the fierceness of his Anger He here turneth his Speech and applieth it to Men. For the Souls of Men being in their beings and kind nearer of kin to him Spirits as he is the great Spirit and the Father of Spirits which were made only for God and to be filled with God have accordingly a more intimate sense of his Workings on them And 't is as if he had said If then he sends forth such a Fire as melts and dissolves the Earth Mountains of Iron or Brass how much more will it be able to melt Wax And such are Mens Souls to God comparatively to other Creatures Christ speaking of his Soul when he had thus to do with God in the Day of his Anger Psal 22. 14. that Psalm was all made of him My Heart is melted like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels And towards this Sence doth Sanctius seem to understand that Complaint of Job's uttered to his Friends concerning those Terrors of God which he felt within him Job 6. 4 11. verses compared Is my Strength the Strength of Stones Or is my Flesh my Nature or Constitution of Brass that I should be able to encounter with this Indignation of the Almighty Stones and Brass have no sense in them or but a dull sense if their Opinion should hold true de sensu rerum they have no Blood nor Spirits to make them sensible of these Arrows of God's Anger he had spoken of vers 4. Ay but Job meaneth to say I have a Soul made of other Metal suited to God the great Spirit whose Arrows I feel which is exquisitely sensible of all his Actings Take the Statue of a Man made of Brass or cut out of Stone and slash and cut him and he feels it not but cut the same Limbs that answer to these in a living Man made of Flesh and Blood with the same knife and what Torture is it You may see this and aggravate it to your selves by what inferior Spirits to this great Father of Spirits as Angels and Devils can work upon Man's Soul that is a Spirit like themselves being yet inferior to them When Saul had but one evil Spirit sent from the Lord how distracted and terrified was he tho in the midst of the enjoiments of a Kingdom 1 Sam. 16. 14. Also that great Apostle that had his Spirit fortified as having been newly feasted with the Joys of Heaven and that not as at a distance only but as a Spectator that stood by present there 2 Cor. 12. Yet one Angel Satan buffeting him he was so disturbed and put to it as he knew not what to do or how to bear it only God told him My Grace is sufficient for thee Well but do Mens Souls in Hell fight with Flesh and Blood yea or with Principalities and Powers chiefly No that is but whilst they are the Rulers of this World as there 't is added And yet if these Spirits have such power over our Spirits to buffet and terrify them what hath God the Father of them Again consider how the Soul is capable of more Joys and Sorrows than the Bodily Senses are and this by how much it doth exceed them in its Eminency and Capacity The Soul is able to drink up all the Pleasures the whole Creation can afford the Bodily Senses or they bring in to drink them up I say even at one Draught and yet would in the midst of it still cry Give Give Now as it is in the Body of a Man look whatever part is capable of more Pleasure it is also capable more of Pains So the Soul proportionably look how capable it is of greater Joys as it is from God it is as much of Sorrows also unto the same extention and intention of them Add II. As to this Point That as the Soul is thus vastly capable of more Sorrow and Anguish So further that these Souls to be punisht are filled with Sin and in that respect termed Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Rom. 9. 22. Take a Barrel of Wood and of it self it will burn as it is Wood but if withal it be Pitcht within and full of Tar and combustible Matter it will burn more rageingly Of unfruitful Branches Apostatizing from Christ it is said John 15. 6. That they are cast into the Fire and they are burned that is they burn to purpose make a mighty Fire That Clause And they are burned is added by way of Auxesis or Emphasis else it needed not We see when Sins were but laid upon Christ by Imputation who in himself was separate from Sinners and had no Conscience of Sin how yet the Anger of God against Sin dealt with him as undertaking to be a Surety for Sin And can you drink says Christ the Cup that I am to drink of that is so as to bear it and not be overcome with it Now in Luke 23. 31. you may see how Christ infers from his Sufferings as being the Sufferings of one who had not been himself personally guilty of Sin what therefore with difference those in whom Sin is inherent must expect Weep for your selves says he for if they do those things to the green Tree what will be done in the Dry that is who are fit combustible Matter for the Fire and as the Prophet says are as Stubble fully dry Nahum 1. 10. And of the terribleness of God's Anger he had afore discoursed as was even now observed in all that Chapter Again III. In the Soul some Faculties are more capable of Anguish from his
which he had on Earth then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven But this only in general shews what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition §. But I having undertaken to proceed by way of congruity I must further more particularly shew how in a correspondency to this inward and outward state of this Soul he shews himself God and how meet and becoming a thing it is for God to receive it into Glory upon the consideration of many Relations which he professedly beareth to such a Soul 1. God is a Spirit and thereupon in a special manner as Wisd 11. 26. The Lord is a lover of Souls above all his other Creation So it is there Thou art merciful to all because they are thine O Lord thou lover of Souls God is a Spirit when therefore this naked and withal sublimated Spirit by its being born again by his own Spirit and so assimulated to God himself a pure Spark now freed and severed from its Dust and Ashes flying up or is carried rather by Spirits the Angles out of their like spiritual Love to Luke 26. 22. Heb. 1. ult it as a Spirit unto that great Spirit that element of Spirits it will surely find union and coalition with him and be taken up unto him for if as Christ speaks John 4. 23. God being a Spirit therefore seeks for such as worship in Spirit and Truth that is he loves delights in such as a Man doth in a Companion or Friend who suits him And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him and have such a grand occasion and indeed the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him in such a manner and upon such a change as this as they never did before these Spirits also having been the Seat the inner Temple of all this spiritual Worship and sanctifying of him in this World surely God who sought such afore will now take them into his Bosom and Glory We also read Isa 57. 16 17. of the regard he bears to Persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration that they are Souls and Spirit and so thereby allied to him the lofty One. Hear how in this case he utters himself The Spirit would fail afore me says he and the Souls which I have made He speaks of their very Souls properly and respectively considered And them it is which he considering and it moves him unto pity for he speaks of that in Man whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator The Spirit which I have made says he and it is one of the eminent Titles he takes into his Coat The framer of the Spirit of Man within him Zech. 1. 12. as in many other places This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in Man which is the subject sensible of his immediate Wrath. I will not contend for ever nor Child of Light walking in Darkness will I be always Wrath. This I have observed in what is publick of mine Now what moves him to remove his Wrath from such an one The Spirit would fail says he Now doth God thus profess to have a regard to them in this Life and that upon this account that they are Spirits lest they should fail or faint and shall we not think that when indeed otherwise they do fail as after Death you have heard even now Christ himself expresseth they would and would upon all these considerations before-mentioned sink into utter desolation unless they were received into everlasting Habitations as Christ there also speaks Do we think that God will not now entertain them The time is now come the full time to have pity on them 2. God at this season forgets not but full well remembers his Relation of being Their Creatour both by the new and also first Creation the new reviving and ingratiating the remembrance of the first The Souls which I have made said he in Esa But in St. Peter this is more express and mentioned as that which indeed moves God and should be accordingly a support to our Faith to take care of our Souls when we come to die even upon this account that he is the faithful Creatour of them 1 Pet. 4. last Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the Keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator He speaks this specially unto such as were continually exposed unto persecution unto death for Christ in those Primitive times which therefore v. 12. he terms the fiery trial and ver 17. forewarns them of a time of judgment was begun and going on upon the of house God such as they had not yet felt who yet Heb. 10. 32 33 34. had suffered reproach and spoyling of their Goods as Peter writes to the same Jews hereupon Peter pertinently instructs them to commit the keeping of their Souls unto God At death you know it is that when Mens bodies are destroyed and so the season when their Souls to be separated therefrom should be committed to God's care as our Darling as our Translation or lovely Soul when separate Psal 22. See Ainsw as others as Christ in David speaks Ps 22. And Peter had in his eye Christ's example and pointed them thereunto who at his death committed his separate Soul or Spirit into the hands of God Luk. 23. 46. and the word commit is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same in both these places onely there is this difference that whereas Christ sayes Father I commit Peter substitutes another title of God's there being more than one Relation moving God and strengthening our Faith to this even of faithful Creatour And I understand not the first Creation onely or chiefly here meant by Peter but the second Creation chiefly which brings into repute and acceptation with God the first again together with its own and so God is thereupon engaged to be faithful in his care and provision for such Souls according to his promises And faithfulness doth always respect and refer unto Promises and my reason why thus I understand it is because I find God's faithfulnesse still annexed unto his calling of us that is converting us which is all one with this new Creation Faithful is he that hath called you that is made you new Creatures 1 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Thes 5. 24. And I find that David also urges it upon God as a motive as in other Psalms So Ps 138. 8. Forsake not the works of thine own hands that is this double workmanship of thine of the first and then superadded unto that of the second creation which he urgeth thereby to move him to perfect the work begun and to be merciful unto him for ever in the former part of that verse 3. God professeth himself the Father of Spirits which relation though it speaks his being the Creatour of them at the