be too well secured Many Souls never spent one solemn hour in a close and serious debate about this matter others have taken a great deal of pains about it they have broken many nights sleep poured out many prayers made many a deep search into their own hearts walked with much conscientious watchfulness and tenderness proposed many a serious case of Conscience to the most judicious and skilful Ministers and Christians and after all their security is not such as fully satisfies and probably one reason of it may be the great weight wherewith the matters of their Salvation lye upon their spirits O that these Soul-concerns did bear upon all as they do upon some it requires more time more thoughts more prayers to make these things sure than most are aware of Inference III. IF the Soul be so precious then cetainly it is the special care of Heaven that which God looks more particularly after than any other Creature on Earth There is an active vigilant Providence that superintends every Creature upon Earth there is not the most despicable diminutive Creature that lives in the World left without the line of Providence God is therefore said to give them all their meat in due season and for that end they all wait upon him Psal. 104.27 as a great and provident House-keeper orders daily convenient provisions for all his Family even to the least and lowest among them the smallest Insects and Gnats which swarm so thick in the Air and of the usefulness of whose Being it is hard to give an account yet as the incomparably learned Dr. More well observes Antidote p. 82. these all find nourishment in the World which would be lost if they were not and are again convenient nourishment themselves to others that prey upon them But Man is the peculiar special care of God and the Soul of man much more than the body Hence Christ fortifies the Faith of Christians against all distrusts of Divine Providence even from their Excellency above other Creatures Matth. 10.31 Ye are of more value than many sparrows and Matth. 6.26 your heavenly Father feeds the Fowls of the Air and are ye not much better than they and vers 30. he cloaths the grass of the field and shall he not much more cloath you And so the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.9 Doth God take care for oxen or saith he it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written In all which places the dignity of man above all Animals and Vegetables in respect of both natural Excellency of his reasonable Soul but especially the gracious endowments of it which endear it far more to its Maker this is the very hing of the Argument and a firm ground for the Believers Faith of Gods tender care over both parts but especially the Soul The body of a Believer is Gods Creature as well as his Soul but that being of less value hath not such a degree of care and tenderness expressed towards it as the Soul hath the Fathers care is not so much for the Childs cloaths as it is for the Child himself Besides the immediate wants and troubles of the Soul which are Idiopathetical are far more sharp and pinching than those it suffers upon the bodies account which are but Sympathetical and therefore when-ever such an excellent Creature as a sanctified Soul which is in Christ or a Soul designed to be sanctified which is moving towards Christ fall under those heavy pressures and distresses as they often do and are ready to fail let it be assured its merciful Creator will not fail to relieve support revive and deliver it as often as it shall fall into those deep distresses Hear how his compassionate tenderness is expressed towards distressed Souls Isa. 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Sooner shall a Woman the more tender Sex forget not the Nurse-child that only sucks her breast but the child yea the son of her womb and that not when grown and placed abroad but whilst it hangs upon her breast and draws love from her heart as well as milk from her breast than God will forget a Soul that fears him Let gracious Souls fortifie their Faith therefore in the Divine care by considering with what a peculiar eye of estimation and care God looks upon them above all other Creatures in the World only beware you so eye not the natural or spiritual excellencies of your Souls as to expect mercy for the sake thereof as if your Souls were worthy for whose sake God should do this no no sin hath nonsuited that Plea all is of free Grace not of debt but he minds us what reputation the new Creation brings the Soul into with its God Inference IV. IF the Soul of man be so precious how precious and dear to all Believers should the Redeemer and Saviour of their precious Souls be Vnto you therefore that believe he is precious saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.7 though he be yet out of our sight he should never be one whole hour together out of our hearts and thoughts 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory The very Name of Christ saith Bernard Mel in ore melos in aure jubilum in corde Bern. is Honey in the mouth Melody in the ear and a very Jubilee in the heart The blessed Martyr Mr. Lambert made this his Motto None but Christ none but Christ. Molinus was seldom observ'd to mention his Name without dropping eyes Iulius Palmer in the midst of the flames moved his scorched lips and was heard to say Sweet Iesus and fell asleep Paul fastens upon his Name as a Bee upon a sweet flower and mentions it no less than ten times in the compass of ten verses 1 Cor. 1. as if he knew not how to leave it There is a twofold preciousness of Christ one in respect of his essential Excellency and Glory in this respect he is glorious as the only begotten Son of God the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image or Character of his Person Heb. 1. the other is in respect of his relative usefulness and suitableness to all the needs and wants of poor sinners as he is the Lord our righteousness made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption none discern this preciousness of Christ but those that have been convinced of sin and have apprehended the wrath to come the just demerit of sin and fled for refuge to the hope set before them and to them he is precious indeed Consider him as a Saviour from wrath to come and then he will appear the most lovely and desirable in all the World to your Souls he that understands the value of his own Soul the dreadful nature of the wrath of God the near approaches
And both these viz The divine Appointment and Providence are in pursuance of a double design or for the payment of a twofold debt which God owes to the first and to the second Adam 1. By cutting off the life or dissolving the Tabernacles of wicked men God pays that debt of Justice owing to the first Adam's sinful Posterity whose sins cry daily to his Justice to cut them off â—om 6 23. The wages of sin is death and indeed it is admirable that his patience suffers ungodly men to live so long as they do for he endures with much long-suffering â—om 9.22 He sees all their sins he is grieved at the heart with them His forbearance doth but encourage them the more to sin against him Eccles. 8.11 Because Sentence c. yet forbears Forty years long was I grieved with this generation Psal. 95.10 And it 's wonderful that patience doth not crack under such a load Habakkuk admired it Habak 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes c. Yet he suffers them to spend lavishly upon his patience from year to year but Justice must do its office at last 2. By cutting off the lives of good men God pays to Christ the reward of his Sufferings the end of his death which was to bring many Sons to glory Hebr. 2.10 Alas it answers not Christs end and intention in dying to have his people so remote from him Iohn 17.24 He would have them where he is that they might behold his glory Two vehement desires are satisfied by this Appointment of God and its Execution viz. 1. Christs viz. 2. The Saints 1. Christs desires are satisfied for this is the thing he all along kept his eye upon in the whole work of his Mediation it was to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 Though he be in glory yet his Mystical Body is not full till all the elect be gathered in by Conversion and gathered home by glorification Eph. 1.23 The Church is his fulness He is not fully satisfied till he see his seed the Souls he died for safe in Heaven and then the debt due to him for all his Sufferings is fully paid him Isai. 53.11 He sees the travel of his Soul As it is the greatest satisfaction and pleasure a man is capable of in this World to see a great design which hath been long projecting and mannaging at last by an orderly conduct brought to its perfection 2. The desires of the Saints are hereby satisfied and their weary Souls brought to rest O what do gracious Souls more pant after than the full Enjoyment of God and the Visions of his face The state of freedom from sin and compleat Conformity to Jesus Christ From the day of their Espousals to Christ these desires have been working in their Souls Love and Patience have each acted its part in them 2 Thess. 3.5 Love hath put them into an holy ardor and longing to be with Christ Patience hath qualified and allayed those desires and supported the Soul under the delay Love cries Come Lord come Patience commands us to wait the appointed time This appointed time on which so great hopes and expectations depend is the time of dissolving these Tabernacles for till then the Souls Rest is suspended And if it were perfectly freed from all other Loads and Burdens both of sin and affliction yet its very absence from Christ would alone make it restless For it is with the Soul in the Body as it is with any other Creature that is off its Centre it doth and must gravitate and propend it is still moving and inclining further and feels not it self easie and at rest where it is be its Condition in other respects never so easie 2 Cor. 5.6 Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord You have a little shadow or Emblem of this in other Creatures You see the Rivers though they glide never so sweetly betwixt the fragrant banks of the most pleasant Meadows in their Course and Passage yet on they go towards the Sea and if they meet with never so many Rocks or Hills to resist their course they will either strive to get a Passage through them or if that may not be they will fetch a compass and creep about them and nothing can stop them till by a central force they have finished their weary Course and poured themselves into the Bosome of the Ocean Or as it is with your selves when abroad from your Habitations and Relations this may be pleasing a little while but if every day might be a Festival it would not long please you because you are not at home The main Motives that perswade a gracious Soul to abâ—de here are to finish the work of their own Salvation and further other mens but as their Evidences for Heaven grow clearer to themselves and their capacity of Service less to others so must their desires to be with Christ be more and more inflamed Now the case so standing that Christs condition in Heaven being a condition of desire and longing for the enjoyment of his people there and all the Glory of Heaven would not content him without that and the condition of his people on earth being also a state of longing groaning and panting to be with him and all the Pleasures and Delights and Comforts they have on earth will not content them without it How wise and gracious an Appointment of Heaven is it that these our Tabernacles shall and must be put off and that shortly For hereby a full and mutual satisfaction is given to the restless desires both of Christs heart and of theirs See the reflected flames of love betwixt them in Revel 22. The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let him that is a thirst come Behold I come quickly even so Lord Iesus come quickly Delays make the heart sad Prov. 13.12 Should our Commoration on earth be long our Patience had need be much greater than it is but under all our burdens here this is our relief it is but a little while and all will be well as well as our Souls can desire to have it Inference I. MUst we put off these Tabernacles Is death necessary and inevitable Then 't is our wisdom to sweeten to our selves that Cup which we must drink and make that as pleasant to us as we can which we know cannot be avoided Die we must whether we be fit or unfit willing or unwilling 't is to no purpose to shrug at the name or shrink back from the thing In all Ages of the World death hath swept the Stage clean of one Generation to make room for another and so it will from Age to Age till the Stage be taken down in the general dissolution But though death be inevitable by all it is not alike evil bitter and dreadful to all Some tremble others triumph at the appearance of it Some meet it half way receive it as a friend and can bid it welcome and die by consent making that
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
considerations wherein there are remarkable differences betwixt Soul and Soul As 1. some Souls are much better lodged and accommodated in their bodies than others are though none dwell at perfect rest and ease God hath lodged some Souls in strong vigorous comely bodies others in feeble crazy deformed and uncomfortable ones The Historian saith of Galba Anima Galbae male habitat The Soul of Galba dwelt in an ill Body And a much better man than Galba was as ill accommodated Iohn wishes in behalf of his beloved Gaius that his body might but prosper as his Soul did Epist. 3. v. 2. Timothy had his often infirmities Indeed the world is full of instances and examples of this kind * 〈◊〉 Bp. of Abâ—lâ—m had so stroâ—g and firm a conâ—titution to eâ—dure severe studies that he is said 〈◊〉 inâ—estina 〈◊〉 to have hâ—d a body of Brass If some Souls had the advantages of such bodies as others have who make little or very bad use of them O what service would they do for God! 2. There is a remarkable difference also betwixt Soul and Soul in respect of natural gifts and abilities of mind Some have great advantages above others in this respect The natural spirits and organs of the body being more brisk and apt the Soul is more vegete vigorous and able to exert it self in its sunctions and operations How clear nimble and firm are the apprehensions fancies and memories of some souls beyond others What a Prodigy of memory fancy and judgment was Father Paul the Venetian and Suarez of whom Strada saith such was the strength of his parts that he had all S. Augustine's works the most copious and various of all the Fathers as it were by heart so that I have seen him saith he †Statim 〈◊〉 loco 〈…〉 readily pointing with the finger to any place or page he disputed of Our Dr. Reynolds excell'd this way to the astonishment of all that knew him so that he was a living Library a third Vniversity But above all the character given by Vives of Budeuâ— is amazing that there was nothing written in Greek or Latin which he had not turned over and examined That both languages were alike to him speaking either with more facility than he did the French his mother tongue and all by the penetrating â—orce of his own natural parts without a Tutor so that †Qâ—o viro Gallia aâ—â—tiore ingeâ—io 〈…〉 produxit hic 〈◊〉 atate nec Itaâ—â—a quidem Lud. Viv. in 1â— cap. de civit Deâ— France never brought forth a man of sharper wit more piercing judgement exact diligence and greater learning nor in his time Italy it self Foelix foecundum ingenium quod in se uno invenit Doctorem Discipulum A happy and fruitful wit which in it self found both a Master and a Scholar And yet Pasquier relates what is much more admirable of a young man who came to Paris in the twentieth year of his age and in the year 1445 and shewed himself so excellent and exact in all the Arts Sciences and Languages that if a man of an ordinary good wit and sound constitution should live an hundred years and during that time study incessantly without eating drinking sleeping or any recreation He could hardly attain to that perfection 3. And yet a far greater difference is made betwixt one Soul and another by the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God This makes yet a greater disparity for it alters and new moulds the frame and temper of the Soul and restores the lost Image of God to it by reason whereof the righteous is truly said to be more excellent than his neighbour Prov. 12.26 This ennobles the Soul and stamps the highest dignity and glory upon it that it is capable of in this world 'T is true it hath naturally an excellency and perpetuity in it above other Beings as Cedar hath not only a beauty and fragrancy but a soundness and durability far beyond other trees of the Wood But when it comes under the sanctification of the spirit then it is as Cedar overlaid with gold 4. Lastly a wonderful difference will be made betwixt one Soul and another by the judgement of God in the great day Some will be blessed and others cursed Souls Matt. 25. ult some received into glory others shut out into everlasting misery Matth. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the kingdom of Heaven but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth And that which will be the sting and aggravation of the difference which will then be made will be this Parity and Equality in the nature and capacity of every Soul by reason whereof they that perish will find they were naturally as capable of blessedness as those that enjoy it and that it was their own inexcusable negligence and obstinacy that was their ruine Inference IV. III The Soul a created Substance IF God be the immediate Creator and Former of the Soul of Man Then sin must needs involve the most unnatural evil in it as it is an horrid violation of the very law of nature No title can be so full so absolute as that which Creation gives How clear is this in the light of reason If God created my Soul then my Soul had once no Being at all That it had still remained nothing had not the pleasure of its Creator chosen and called it into the Being it hath out of the millions of meer possible Beings For as there are millions of possible Beings which yet are nothing so there are millions of possible Beings which never shall be at all So that since the pleasure and power of God was the only fountain of my Being he needs must be the rightful owner of it What can be more his own than that whose very Being flowed meerly from him and which had never been at all had he not called it out of nothing And seeing the same pleasure of God which gave it a Being gave it also a reasonable Being capable of and fitted for moral Government by laws which other inferiour natures are incapable of it must needs follow that he is the supream Governour as well as the rightful owner of this Soul Moreover it is plain that he who gave my Soul it's Being and such a Being gave it also all the good it ever had hath or shall have and that it neither is nor hath any thing but what is purely from him And therefore he 〈◊〉 needs â—e my most bountiful benefactor as well as 〈◊〉 owner and supream Governour There is not a Soul which he hath created but stands bound to him in all these ties and titles Now for such a creature to turn rebelliously upon its absolute owner whose only and wholly it is upon its supream Governour to whom it owes intire and absolute Obedience upon its
is here if the Soul naturally looks beyond the line of time to things eternal and cannot bound and confine its thoughts and expectations within the too narrow limits of present things surely there is such a future state as well as Souls made apprehensive of it and propense to close with the discoveries thereof So natural are the notions of a future state to the Souls of men that those who have set themselves designedly to banish them and struggled hard to suppress them as things irksome and grievous to them giving intâ—rruption to their sensual lusts and pleasures Yet still these apprehensions have returned upon them and gotten a just victory over all their objections and prejudices They follow them wheresoever they go they can no more flee from them than from themselves whereby they evidence themselves to be natural and indelible things Inference XI VIII Endued with Vnderstanding Will and Affections HAth God endued the Soul of man with Understanding Will and Affections whereby it is made capable of knowing loving and enjoying God 'T is then no wonder to find the malice and envy of Satan engaged against man more than any other Creature and against the Soul of man rather than any thing else in man It grates that spirit of envy to see the Soul of Man adorning and preparing by sanctification to fill that place in glory from which he fell irrecoverably It cut Haman to the very heart to see the honour that was done to Mordecai much more doth it grate and gall Satan to see what Jesus Christ hath purchased and designed for the Souls of Men. Other creatures being naturally uncapable of this happiness do therefore escape his fury but men shall be sure to feel it as far as he can reach them 1 Pet. 5.8 Your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour He walks to and fro that speaks his diligence seeking whom he may devour that speaks his design his restlessness in doing mischief is all the rest and relief he hath in his own torments 'T is a mark of pure and perfect malice to endeavour to destroy though he knows he shall never be successful in his attempts We read of many bodies possessed by him but he never takes up his quarters in the body of any but with design to mischief the Soul No room but the best in the house will satisfie him no blood so sweet to him him as Soul-blood If he raise persecution against the bodies of men it is to destroy their souls holiness is that he hates and happiness is the Object of his envy The Soul being the Subject of both is therefore pursued by him as his prey Inference XII UPon the consideration both of its excellent nature and divine Original it follows That the corruption and deacing of such an excellent creature by sin deserves to be lamented and greatly bewailed and the recovery of it by sanctification to be studied and diligently prosecuted as the great concern of all men What a Beautiful and Blessed creature was the Soul of Man at first whilst it stood in its integrity His mind was bright clear and apprehensive of the Law and Will of God His Will chearfully complied therewith his sensitive appetite and inferiour powers stood in an obedient subordination God made man upright Eccles. 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 straight and equal bending to neither extream The Law of God was fairly engraven upon the table of his heart Principles of holiness and righteousness were inlayed in the very frame of his mind fitting him for an exact and punctual discharge of his duties both to God and Man This was the soundness of his constitution the healthful temper of his inner man Whereby it became the very region of light peace purity and pleasure For think how serene lightsome and placid the state of that Soul must be in which there was no obliquity not a jarr with the divine will But joy and peace continually transfused through all its faculties But sin hath defaced its Beauty raz'd out the divine Image which was its glory and stampt the very Image of Satan upon it Turn'd all its noble powers and faculties against the Author and Fountain of its Being Surely if all the posterity of Adam from the beginning to the end of the world should do nothing else but weep and sigh for the sin and misery of the fall it could not be sufficiently deplored Other sins like single bullets kill particular persons but Adams sin like a Chain-shot mowed down all mankind at once It murthered himself actually all his posterity virtually and Christ himself occasionally O! what a black train of doleful consequents attend this sin It hath darkned the bright eye of the Souls understanding 1 Cor. 2.14 made its complying and obedient will stubborn and rebellious Ioh. 5.40 rendered his tender heart obdurate and senseless Ezek. 36.26 filled its serene and peaceful Conscience with guilt and terror Tit. 1.15 The consideration of these things is very humbling and should cause those that glory in their high and illustrious Descents to wrap their silver Star in Cypress and cover all their glory with a mourning Vail But this is but one part of their duty How should this consideration provoke us to apply our selves with most serious diligence to recover our lost beauty and dignity in the way of sanctification This is the great and most proper use of the Fall as Musculus excellently speaks ut gratiam Christi eo subnixius ambiamus to inflame our desires the more vehemently after grace Sanctification restores the Beauty of the Soul which sin defaced Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 Yea it restores it with this advantage that it shall never be lost again holiness is the beauty of God imprest upon the Soul and the impression is everlasting Other beauty is but a fading flower time will plow up deep furrows upon the fairst faces But this will be fresh to eternity All moral vertues homilitical qualities which adorn and beautifie Nature and make it attractive and lovely in the eyes of men are but separable accidents which Death discinds and crops off like a sweet flower from the stalk Iob 4.21 Doth not their excellency that is in them go away But sanctification is inseparable and will ascend with the Soul into Heaven O! that God would set the glass of the Law before us that we may see what defiled souls we have by nature that we might come by faith to Jesus Christ who cometh to us by water and by blood 1 Ioh. 5.6 Inference XIII TO conclude Upon the consideration of the whole matter before us if this excellent creature the Soul receive both its Being and excellencies from God Then he that formed it must needs have the full and only right to possess and use it and is therefore most injuriously kept out of the possession of it by all unsanctified and disobedient persons The Soul of Man is a building of God he
that their lives were cheap and low priz'd things for his enjoyment And here indeed is the glory and triumph of a Christians Faith and love to Christ For 1 it enables him to part chearfully with what he sees and feels for what his eyes yet never saw 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love 2 To part with what is dearest on earth and lies nearest the heart of all he enjoys for Christ's sake 3 To reconcile his heart to what is most abhorrent and formidable to nature 4 To endure the greatest of pains and torments to be with him 5 To cast himself into the vast Ocean of Eternity the most amazing change to be with Christ. O the glorious Conquests of Love Inference II. THen the Apostasie of unregenerate Professours in times of eminent danger is not to be wondered at They will and must warp from Christ when their lives are in hazard for him The love of the Body will certainly prevail over their love to Christ and Religion Amor meus pondus meum Self-love will now draw Love is the weight of the Soul which inclines and determines it in the competition of Interests and the predominant Interest always carries it Every Unregenerate Professor loves his own life more than Christ prefers his body before his Soul such a one may upon divers accounts as Education Example slight Convictions of Conscience or Ostentation of gifts fall into a Profession of Religion and continue a long time in that Profession before he visibly recede from Christ hope of the Resurrection of the Interest of Religion in the World Shame of retracting his Profession Applause of his Zeal and Constancy in higher Tryals The Peace of his own Conscience and many such Motives may prevail with a Carnal Professor to endure a while but when dangers of life come to an height they are gone Matth. 24.8 9 10. And therefore our Lord tells us that they who hate not their lives cannot be his Disciples Luke 12.26 Now will they lose their lives by saving them Matt. 16.25 And the Reasons are plain and forcible For 1. Now is the proper season for the predominant love to be discovered it can be hid no longer And the love of life is the predominant love in all such persons For do but compare it with their love to Christ and it will easily be found so They love their lives truly and really they love Christ but feignedly and pretendedly and the real will and must prevail over the feigned love They love their lives fervently and intensely they love Christ but coldly and remissly And the fervent love will prevail over the the remiss love Their love to their Bodies hath a root in themselves their love to Christ hath no root in themselves Matth. 13.21 and that which hath a root must needs outlast and outlive that which hath none 2. Because when life is in hazard Conscience will work in them by way of Discouragement 't will hint the danger of their eternal state to them and tell them they may cast away their Souls for ever in a Bravado for though the cause they are called to suffer for be good yet their Condition is bad and if the Condition be not good as well as the Cause a Man is lost for ever though he suffer for it 1 Cor. 13.3 Conscience which encourages and supports the upright will daunt and appall the Hypocrite and tell him he is not on the same terms in Sufferings that other men are 3. Because then all the Springs by which their profession was fed and maintained fail and dry up Now the wind that was in their backs is come about and blows a storm in their faces There are no Preferment nor Honours now to be had from Religion These mens Sufferings are a perfect Surprize to them for they never counted the cost Luke 14.28 Now they must stand alone and resist unto bloud and sacrifice all visibles for invisibles and this they can never do O therefore Professors look to your hearts try their predominant love compare your love to Christ with that to your lives Now the like question will be put to you that once was put to Peter John 21.15 Lovest thou me more than these What say you to this You think now you do but alas your love is not yet brought to the fire to be tryed You think you hate sin but will you be able to strive unto blood against sin Hebr. 12.4 Will you chuse suffering rather than sin Iob 36.21 O try your love to Christ before God bring it to the tryal Sure I am the love of life will make you warp in the hour of Temptation except 1. You sate down and counted the cost of Religion before-hand if you set out in Profession only for a Walk not for a Iourney if you go to Sea for Recreation not for a Voyage if you be mounted among other Professors only to take the air and not to engage an enemy in sharp and bloudy Encounters you are gone 2. Except you live by Faith and not by Sense 2 Cor. 4.18 Whilst we look not at the things that are seen You must ballance present Sufferings with future glory You must go by that account and reckoning Rom. 8.18 or you are gone Now the just shall live by faith and if Faith don't support your fears will certainly sink you 3. Except you be sincere and plain-hearted in Religion driving no Design in it but to save your Souls else see your lot in that Example 2 Tim. 4.10 Demas hath forsaken me O take heed of a cunning subdolous double heart in Religion be plain be open care not if your ends lay open to the eyes of all the World 4. Except you experience the power of Religion in your own Souls as well as wear the name of it O my Brethren 't is not a name to live that will do you service now Many Ships are gone down to the bottom for all the brave Names of the Success the Prosperous the Haypy return and so will you There is a knowing in our selves by taste and real experience Hebr. 10.34 which doth a Soul more service in a Suffering hour than all the splendid Names and Titles in the World 5. Except you make it your daily work to crucify the Flesh deny self for Christ in all the Forms and Interests of it He that can't deny himself will deny Jesus Christ Matth. 26.24 let him deny himself take up his Cross and follow me else he can't be my Disciple Ponder these things in your hearts whilst yet God delays the Tryal Inference III. IF the Souls of men be naturally so strongly inclin'd and affected towards the Body then hence you may plainly see the Wisdom of God in all the Afflictions and Burdens he lays upon his people in this World and find that all is but enough to wean off their Souls from their Bodies and make them willing to part with them The life of the Saints in this World
that are intitled to it and may confidently expect to be received into it To be sure not the presumptuous who make a Bridge of their own Shadows and so fall and perish in the waters Brethren it is one of the most solemn enquiries you were ever put upon And therefore I beseech you see whether your Characters set you among those men or no. 1. First Those that are new-born shall be cloathed with their new house from Heaven when death uncloathes them of these Tabernacles The New Ierusalem hath 〈◊〉 but new-born Inhabitants 1 Pet. 1.3 4. and Christ tells us Iohn 3.3 all others are excluded Glory is the Priviledge of Grace Let nature be adorned and cultivated how it will if not renewed by grace there 's no hope of Glory You must be born again or turned back again from the Gates of Heaven disappointed You must be regenerated or damned This alters the temper of thy heart and suits it to the life of God which is indispensably necessary to them that shall live with him Else Heaven would be no Heaven to us Rom. 8.7 and therefore we must be wrought this way to it 2 Cor. 5 5. No Priviledge of Nature no Duties of Religion avail without this Gal. 6.15 If Morality without Regeneration could bring men to Heaven Why are not the Heathens there If strictness in Duty without Regeneration Why not the Pharisees there Believe it neither Names nor Duties no nor the Blood of Christ ever did or shall bring one Soul to glory without it O then thou that boastest of an house in Heaven lay thine hand on thy heart and ask it Am I a new Creature i.e. Am I renewed 1 in my state and condition 1 Iohn 3.14 past from death to life 2 In my frame and temper Eph. 5.8 once darkness now light in the Lord. 〈◊〉 In my Practice and Conversation Eph. 2.12 13.1 Cor. 6.11 if not my Soul is destitute of an habitation in the City of God and when I die my Body must lie in the lonely house of the Grave that dark Vault and Prison and my Soul be shut out from God into outer darkness 2. Secondly Those that live as Strangers and Pilgrims on earth seeking a better place and state than this World affords them for them God hath made preparations in glory Hebr. 11.13 16. If you be strangers on earth you are the Inhabitants of Heaven Now there be six things included in this Character 1. They look not on this World as their own home nor on the people of it as their own people 2 Cor. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be unpeopled These are none of my fellow Citizens we must go two ways at death 2. They set not their affections on things present as their portion 2 Cor. 4.18 Psal. 17.13 14. Their Bodies are here their Hearts in Heaven 3 Their carriage and manner of life not like the men of this World 1 Pet. 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Rule guides them Rom. 12.2 and so their course is steered at least intended Philip. 3.20 our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Trade is in Heaven 4 Their Dialect and Language differs from the Natives of this World Their Language is earthly 1 Iohn 4.5 6. but these have a pure lip Zeph. 3.9 5 Their Society and chosen Companions are not of this World Psal. 16.3 They are a Company of themselves Act. 4 21. 6 Their Spirit and temper of heart is not after the World 1 Cor. 2.12 They have another Spirit Numb 14. 24. These things discover us to be strangers on earth and consequently the men for whom God hath prepared heavenly Habitations when we die 3. Thirdly Those that live and die by faith shall not fail to be received into a better Habitation by death This is another Character of them that shall be recâ—â—ved into glory laid down in the same place Hebr. 11.13 They lived by faith and when they died they died embracing the promises which is Characteristical of those that shall dwell in that heavenly City and implies 1 Intimate acquaintance with the promises they are things well known and familiarized to them The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salutantes Saluting them is a Metaphor from the manner of parting betwixt two dear and intimate Friends The Faith of a Christian embraces the promises in its arms as dear friends use to do at parting and saith farewell sweet promises from which I have sucked out so much relief and refreshment in all the troubles of my life I must now live no more by faith on you but by sight O you have often cheared my Soul and been my Song in the house of my Pilgrimage 2. It implies the firm credit that a Believer gives to things unseen upon the grounds of the promises as if he did sensibly take and grasp them in his very arms and bosome They take Christ and all the invisible things in the promises into their sensible embraces 1 Pet. 1.8 faith is to them instead of eyes 3 It implies the sincerity of a Believers profession who dare trust to that at last gasp which he professed to believe in the midst of life and the Comforts of this World As he professed to believe in health so you shall find his Actings when his eye and heart strings are cracking Rom. 14.9 Christ in the promises was his professed joy in life and this is what he grasps at death and lays his last hold on 4 It shews you whence all a Believers comfort comes in life and death O 't is from the promises Christ in the promises is the Spring of their Consolation This they fetch their comfort from when the World cannot administer one drop of refreshment to them There be two great works faith performs for the Saints one in life the other in death In life it is the Principle of Mortification to their sins in death it is the spring of Consolation to their hearts It makes them die whilst they live and live when they die 4. Fourthly Those that love the Person and Appearance of Christ have a mark that sets them among the Inhabitants of Heaven and Glory 2 Tim. 4.8 but then this love must be 1 Sincere and without Hypocrisie 2 Supream and above all other beloveds 3 Conforming the Soul to Christ if sincere and supream it will be transformative 4 Longing to be with him Such love is a mark of Souls for whom Heaven is prepared Inference III. MUst we put off our Tabernacles and that shortly What a Spur is this to a diligent â—edemption and improvement of time This is the use Peter made of it here and every one of us should make It was said of Bishop Hooper he was spare in his diet spare in his words but most of all spare of his time You have but a little time in these Tabernacles what pity is it to waste much out of a little 1 Great is the worth and excellency of time all the Treasures of the World cannot
protract stop or call back one minute of time O what is Man that the heavenly bodies should be wheel'd about by Almighty power in constant Revolutions to beget time for him Psal. 8.3 2 More precious are the Seasons and Opportunities that are in time for our Souls those are the golden spots of time like the pearl in the Oyster shell of much more value than the shell that contains it There is much time in a short opportunity There is a day on which our Eternal happiness depends Luke 19.41 42. Hebr. 4.7 3 Invaluable are the things which God doth for mens Souls in time There are works wrought upon mens hearts in a seasonable hour in this life which have an Influence into the Souls happinness throughout Eternity There is a time of mercy a time of love viz. Of Illumination and Conversion and on that point of time Eternal life hangs in the whole weight of it 4 Lost opportunity is never to be recovered by the Soul any more Ezek. 24.13 Revel 22.11 To come before the opportunity is to come before the Bird be hatch't and to come after it is to come when the Bird is flown There is no calling back time when it is once past See this in the Examples you find Luke 13.26 Eccles. 9.10 5 It is wholly uncertain to every Soul whether the present day may not determine his Lease in this Tabernacle and a writ of Ejection be served by death upon his Soul tomorrow Iames 4.13 Luke 12.20 6 As soon as ever time shall end Eternity takes place The stream of time delivers Souls daily into the boundless Ocean of vast Eternity Ab hoc momento pendet aeternitas We are now measured by time hereafter by eternity 7 In Eternity all things are fixed and unalterable We have no more to do all means and works are at an end Iohn 9.4 and Eccles. 11.3 As the Tree falls so it lies O that these weighty Considerations might lie upon your hearts as long as you are in these Tabernacles If they did 1 The Unregenerate would not so desperately hazard their eternal happiness by trifling away their precious Seasons under the Gospel O how many aged sinners gray-headed sinners hear me this day who in fifty or sixty years never redeemed one solemn hour to take their poor Souls aside out of the clutter and distracting noise of the World to ask and debate this question with them O my Soul how stands the case with thee in reference to the World to come They have found no time to bethink themselves in what World their Souls shall be landed when time shall deliver them up into Eternity Their whole life hath been but a continual diversion from one trifle to another They have been serious in trifles and trifled in things most serious this will afford horrid reflections in the World to come 2 The Regenerate would not cast away the comfort of their lives in the Evidences of eternal life at so cheap a rate as they do May I not say to you as the Apostle doth Hebr. 5.12 for the time you have had under the Gospel you might have attained a rich treasure both of Grace and Comfort Turpe est senex elementarius Is it not shameful and inexcusable to be where you were twenty years past O let these things sink deep into every Soul Inference IV. MUst we shortly put off these our Tabernacles Then slack your pace and cool your selves be not too eager in the prosecution of earthly Designs O what Bustling is here for the World and for provisions for futurity when as far less would serve the turn We need not victual a Ship to cross the Chanel to France as if she were bound to the Indies Most mens Provisions at least their cares and thoughts are far beyond the preparations of their Abode in this World The folly of this Christ discovers in that Parable Luke 12.19 and on this very account gives him the Title of a Fool who provided for years many years when poor soul he had not one night to enjoy those Provisions O the multitude of thoughts and cares this World needlessly devours We keep our selves in such a continual hurry and crowd of cares thoughts and imployments about the concerns of the Body that we can find little time to be alone communing with our own hearts about our great Concernments in Eternity It is with many of us in respect of our Souls and their great Interests as it is with a man that is deep in thoughts about some Subject that wholly swallows him up he seeth not what he seeth nor heareth what he heareth of any other matter His eyes seem to look upon this or that but it 's all one as if he did not So it was with Archimedes who was so intent in drawing his Mathematical Scheams that though all the City was in an Allarm the Enemy had taken it by Storm the Streets filled with dreadful cries and dead Bodies the Soldiers came into his particular house nay entred his very study and pluckt him by the sleeve before he took any notice of it Even so many mens hearts are so profoundly immersed and drowned in earthly cares thoughts projects or pleasures that death must come to their very houses yea and pull them by the sleeve and tell them its Errand before they will begin to awake and come to a serious consideration of things more important Inference V. IF we must shortly put off these Tabernacles Then the groaning and mourning time of Believers is but short How heavy soever their burden be yet they shall carry it but a little way It 's said 2 Cor. 5 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened Good Souls in this State are every where groaning under heavy pressures Their burdens are of two sorts Sympathetical whereby they grieve with and on the account of others and so every true member of the Church of God ought to sympathize both with God Psal. 1 39.21 Am not I grieved with them that rise up against thee Psal. 42.10 it is as with a Sword in their bones and with the people of God Zeph 3.18 sorrowful for the solemn Assembly so 2 Cor. 11.29 Who is offended and I burn not And indeed it is an Argument of rich as well as true grace that we can and do heartily mourn with and for the Interest and People of God though our own lot in the World as Nehemiah's be never so comfortable Or else our burdens are Idiopathetical i. e. such as we bear upon our own proper account and score And where is the Christian that hath not his own burden yea many burthens on him at once Some groan under the burden of sin Rom. 7.24 Scarce one day are the tears off some eye-lids on this account And who groans not under the burden of affliction either inward upon the Soul Prov. 18.14 Iob 6.1 2 3. or outward upon the Body State Relations c. These things make the people
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
portion Else it could never be a satisfying vision Iob 19.27 Whom I shall see for my self Not look on him as anothers God but as my God and Portion for ever Balaam saw Christ by a spirit of prophecy but he had no comfort because no interest in him Numb 24.17 The wicked shall see him but without joy yea with weeping eyes and gnashing of teeth because they cannot see him as their Lord Luke 13.28 'T is but a poor comfort to starving beggars to stand quivering and famishing in the streets in a cold dark night and see the lights in the bridegrooms house the noble Dishes served in and to hear the Musick and mirth of the Guests that feast within Here it will be as clear that he is our God as that he is God Assurance is that which many Souls have desired prayed and panted for but cannot attain There be many rubbs and stumbling blocks in the way to that sweet enjoyment but here we find what we have been so long seeking there be no doubts scruples objections puzling cases to exercise your own or others thoughts But as these did arise from one of these grounds viz the working of corruption the efficacy of temptation or divine withdrawments and the hidings of Gods face so all these being removed perfectly and for ever in that state the Heavens must needs be clear and not a cloud of doubt or fear to be seen for ever 4. It will be a deeply affecting sight your eye will now so affect your hearts as they were never affected before The first view of God will snatch away your hearts to him as a greater flame doth the less Love will not now distill from the heart as Waters from a cold Still but gush out as from a Sluce or flood-Gate pulled up The Soul will not move after God so deadly and slowly as it doth now but be as the Chariots of Aminadab Can. 6.12 We may say of the fraÌ„mes of our hearts there compared with what they are here as it is said Deut. 12.8 9. You shall not love or delight in God as you do this day If the perfection of that state would admit shame or sorrow how should we blush and mourn in Heaven to think how cold our love and how low our delights in God were on Earth 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God Look as Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the Soul dwelling in the God of love becomes all love all delight all joy O what transports must that Soul feel that abides under the line of love feels the perpendicular beams of electing creating redeeming preserving love beating powerfully upon it and melting it into love See some of their transports Rev. 5.13 14. 5. It will be an everlasting vision of God 1 Thes. 4.17 So shall we be ever with the Lord ever with the Lord who can find words to open the deep sence of these few words Vacabimus videbimus videbimus amabimus amabimus laudabimus in fine fine fine said blessed Austine This is the everlasting Sabbath which hath no night Rev. 22.4 5. The eternal happiness purchased for the Saints by the invaluable blood of Christ. If one hours enjoyment of God in the way of faith be so sweet and no price can be put upon it nothing on earth taken in exchange for it what must a whole Eternity in the immediate and full visions of that blessed face in Heaven be Well then if such sights as these immediately succeed the sight you have on Earth either by sense of things natural or by reason of things intellectual or by faith of things spiritual who that believes the truth and expects the fulfilling of such promises as these would not not be willing to have his eyes closed by death as soon as God shall please I have read of an holy man that had sweet Communion with God in Prayer who in the close of his duty cryed out claudimini oculi mei claudimini c. be shut O my eyes be shut you shall never â—ee any thing on Earth like that I have now seen Ah little do the Friends of dead Believers think what visions of God what ravishing sights of Christ the Souls of their Friends have when they are closing their eyes with tears Argument VIII THE consideration of the evil days that are to come should make the people of God willing to accept of an hiding place in the grave as a special favour from God It is accounted an act of favour by God Isa. 57.1 2. to be taken away from the evil to come â—â—ere are two kinds of evils to come the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings Sins to come are terrible to gracious hearts when temptations shall be at their height and strength O what warping and shrinking what dissembling yea downright denying the known truths and ways of God may you see every where Many consciences will then be wounded and wasted Many scandals and rocks of offence will be rolled into the way of godliness Christ will be exposed and put to open shame Should we only be spectators of such Tragedies as these it were enough to overwhelm a gracious and tender heart but what upright heart is there without fears and jealousies of being brought under the guilt of these evils in it self as well as the shame and grief for them in others O it were a thousand times better for you to die in the purity and integrity of your consciences than to protract a miserable life without them O think what a world it is that you are like to leave behind you in respect of sin to come And as there are many evils of sin to come so there are many evils of sufferings coming on The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come and Israel shall know it Hos. 9.7 All the sufferings you have yet met with have been in Books and Histories you never saw the Martyrdome of the Saints but in the Pictures and Stories But you will find it quite another thing to be the Subjects of these cruelties than to be the meer Readers or Relators of them 'T is one thing to see the painted Lion on a sign Post and another to meet the living Lion roaring upon you Ah! little do we imagine how the hearts of men are convulst what fears what faintings invade their Spirits when they are to meet the King of terrors in the frightful formalities of a violent death The consideration of these things will discover to you the reason of that strange wish of Job chap. 14. v. 13. Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the Grave that thou wouldst keep me in secret until thy wrath be past And it deserves a serious thought that when the holy Ghost had in Rev. 14.9 10 11 12. described the miserable plight of those poor Souls who being overcome by their own fears and the love of this this World should plunge
by treasuring up guilt for wrath and guilt are treasured up together in proportion to each other Every day of his life vast summs have been cast into this treasury and the patience of God waiteth till it be full before he call the sinner to an account and reckoning Gen. 15.16 PROP. II. All the sin and guilt contracted upon the Souls and consciences of impenitent men in this World accompanies and follows their departed Souls to judgment and there brings them under the dreadful condemnation of the great and terrible God which cuts off all their hopes and comforts for ever IF you believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins Joh. 8.24 and Job 20.11 His bones are full of the sins of his youth which shall lye down with him in the dust No Proposition lies clearer in Scripture or should lie with greater weight upon the hearts of sinners nothing but pardon can remove guilt but without faith and repentance there never was nor shall be a pardon Acts 10.43 Rom. 3 24 25. Luk. 24.46 47. Look as the graces of Believers so the sins of Unbelievers follow the Soul whithersover it goes All their sins who dye out of Christ cry to them when they go hence We are thy works and we will follow thee The acts of sin are transient but the guilt and effects of it are permanent and it is evident by this that in the great day their consciences which are the Books of record wherein all their sins are registred will be opened and they shall be judged by them and out of them Rev. 20.12 Now before that general judgment every Soul comes to its particular judgment and that immediately after death of this I apprehend the Apostle to speak in Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for all men once to dye but after that the judgment The Soul is presently stated by this judgment in its everlasting and fixed condition The Soul of a wicked man appearing before God in all its sin and guilt and by him sentenced immediately it gives up all its hope Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dyeth his expectation shall perish Etiam spes valentissima and the hope of unjust men perisheth His strong hope perisheth as some read it i.e. his strong delusion for alas He took his own shadow for a bridge over the great waters and is unexpectedly plunged into the gulph of eternal misery as Matth. 7.22 This perishing or cutting off of hope is that which is called in Scripture the death of the Soul for so long the Soul will live as it hath any hope The deferring of hope makes it sick but the final cutting off of hope strikes it quite dead i.e. dead as to all joy comfort or expectation of any for ever which is that death which an immortal Soul is capable to suffer the righteous hath hope in his death but every unregenerate man in the world breaths out his last hope in a few moments after his last breath which strikes terror into the very centre of the Soul and is a death-wound to it PROP. III. The Souls of the damned are exceeding large and capacious subjects of wrath and torment and in their separate state their capacity is greatly enlarged both by laying asleep all those affections whose exercise is relieving and throughly awakning all those passions which are tormenting THE Soul of man being by nature a Spirit an intelligent Spirit and in its substantial faculties assimilated to God whose image it bears it must for that reason be exquisitely sensible of all the impressions and touches of the wrath of God upon it The Spirit of man is a most tender sensible and apprehensive Creature The eye of the Body is not so sensible of a touch a nerve of the Body is not so sensible when pricked as the Spirit of man is of the least touch of Gods indignation upon it A wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Other external wounds upon the Body inflicted either by man or God are tolerable but that which immediately toucheth the Spirit of man is insufferable Who can bear or endure it And as the Spirit of man hath the most delicate and exquisite sense of misery so it hath a vast capacity to receive and let in the fulness of anguish and misery into it it is a large vessel called Rom. 9.22 a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction The large capacity of the Soul is seen in this that it is not in the power of all the creatures in the World to satisfie and fill it It can drink up as one speaks all the rivers of created good and its thirst not quenched by such a draught but after all it crys Give give Nothing but an infinite God can quiet and satisfie its appetite and raging thirst And as it is capable and receptive of more good than is found in all the Creatures So it is capable of more misery and anguish than all the Creatures can inflict upon it Let all the elements or men on Earth yea all the Devils and damned in Hell conspire and unite in a design to torment man yet when they have done all his Spirit is capable of a farther degree of torment a torment as much beyond it as a rack is beyond an hard bed or the Sword in his bowels is beyond the scratch of a pin The Devils indeed are the executioners and tormentors of the damned but if that were all they were capable to suffer the torments of the damned would be comparatively mild and gentle to what they are O the largeness of the understanding of man What will it not take into its vast capacity But add to this That damned Souls have all those affections laid in a deep and everlasting sleep the exercises whereof would be relieving by emptying their Souls of any part of their misery and all those passions throughly and everlastingly awakened which increase their torments The affections of joy delight and hope are all benummed in them and laid fast asleep never to be awakened into act any more Their hope in Scripture is said to perish i. e. it so perisheth that after death it shall never exert another act to all eternity The activity of any of these affections would be like a cooling gale or refreshing Spring amidst their torments but as Adrian lamented himself nunquam jocos dabis thou shalt never be merry more And as these affections are laid asleep so their passions are rouzed and throughly awakened to torment them So awakened as never to sleep any more The Souls of men are sometimes jog'd and startled in this World by the words or rods of God but presently they sleep again and forget all but hereafter the eyes of their Souls will be continually held waking to behold and consider their misery their understandings will be clear and most apprehensive their thoughts fixed and determined their consciences active and efficacious and by all this their capacity to take in the fulness of their misery
all the city cryed out When Paul tooâ— his leave of Antioch and told them they should see his face no more how did the poor Christians lament and mourn as cut at the heart by that killing word Acts 20.37 38. It made Christs bowels to yearn and roll within him when he saw the multitude scatter'd as sheep having no shepherd Matth. 9.36 Matthew Paris tells us in the year 1072. when preaching was supprest at Rome Letters were then framed as coming from Hell wherein the Devil gave them thanks for the multitude of Souls sent to him that year but we need no Letters from Hell we have a sad account from Heaven in what a sad state those Souls are left from whom the means of Salvation are cut off Where no vision is the people perish Prov. 29.18 and Hosea 4.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge 'T is sad when those Stars that guide Souls to Christ as that which the Wise-men saw did are set and wandring Stars shall shine in their places O if God remove the golden Candlestick out of its place what but the desolation and ruine of millions of Souls must follow We account it insufferable cruelty for a man to undertake the pilotting of a Ship full of Passengers who never learnt his Compass or an ignorant Empirick to get his living by killing mens bodies but much more lamentable will the state of Souls be if ever they fall which God in mercy prevent into the hands of Popish Guides or blind Leaders of the blind Inference VII IF the Soul be of so precious a Nature it can never live upon such base and vile food as earthly things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quod à nobis rejectum projicitur canibus The Apostle Phil. 3.8 9 calls the things of this World Dogs meat and judge if that be proper food for such noble and high-born Creatures as our Souls are An immaterial Being can never live upon material things they are no bread for Souls as the Prophet speaks Isa. 55 2. Why do ye spend money i. e. time and pains thoughts and cares for that which is not bread Your Souls can no more live upon carnal than your bodies can upon spiritual things Earthly things have a double defect in them by reason whereof they are called things of nought Amos 6.13 of no worth or value they are neither suitable nor durable and therefore in the Souls eye not valuable 1. They are not suitable What are Corn and Wine Gold and Silver Pleasures and Honours to the Soul The body and bodily senses can find somewhat of refreshment in them but not the Spirit that which is bread to the body affords no more nourishment to the Soul than wind or ashes Isa. 44.20 Cinis est crassior illa materia in quam combustum redigitur He feedeth of ashes Ashes are that light and dry matter into which fuel is reduced by the fire the fuel before it was burnt had nothing in it fit for nourishment or if the sap or juice that was in it might in any respect be useful that way yet all that is devoured and lickt up by the fire and not the least nutriment left in the ashes and such are all earthly things to the Soul of man I am the bread of life saith Christ. A Soul can feed and feast it self upon Christ and the Promises these are things full of marrow and fatness substantial and proper Soul-nutriment 2. As earthly things are no way suitable to the Soul so neither are they durable The Apostle reduceth all earthly things to three Heads the lusts of the Eye the lusts of the Flesh and the pride of Life 1 Ioh. 2.16 he calls them all by the name of that which gives the lustre and beauty to them and pronounceth them all fading transitory vanities they all pass away as time so these things that are measured by time are in fluxu continuo always going and at last will be all gone Now the Soul being of an immortal Nature and these things of a perishing nature it must necessarily and unavoidably follow that the Soul must overlive them all and if it will do so what a dismal case are those Souls in for whom no other provision is made but that on which it cannot subsist whilst it hath them no more than the body can upon ashes or wind and if it could yet they will shortly fail it and pass away for ever So then it is beyond debate that there lies a plain necessity upon every man to make provision in time of things more suitable and durable than earthly treasures are or the Soul must perish as to its comfort to all Eternity Hence is that weighty counsel of him that came to save them Luke 12.33 Provide your selves bags that wax not old a treasure in Heaven that saileth not i. e. an happiness which will last as long as your Souls last Certainly the moth-eaten things of this World are no proâ—â—sion for immortal Spirits and yet multitudes think of â—â—â—ther provision for them but live as if they had nothing to do in this World but to get an Estate Alas what are all these things to the Soul They signifie somewhat indeed to the body and that but for a little time for after the Resurrection the bodies of the Saints become spiritual in their qualities and no more need these material things than the Angels do 'T is madness therefore to be so intent upon cares for the body as to neglect the Soul but to ruine the soul and drown it in perdition for the sake of these provisions for the flesh is the height of madness Inference VIII IF the Soul be so invaluably precious then it is a rational and well advised resolution and practice to expose all other things to hazard yea to certain less for the preservation of the more precious Soul 'T is better our bodies and all their comforts should perish than that our Souls should perish for their sakes Nature it self teacheth us to offer an hand or arm to the stroke of a Sword to save a blow from the head or put by a thrust at the heart It is recorded to the praise of those three Worthies Dan. 3.28 That they yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God By this rule all the Martyrs of Christ governed themselves still slighting and exposing to destruction their bodies and Estates to preserve their Souls reckoning to save nothing by Religion but their Souls and that they had lost nothing if they could save them They loved not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 Then do we live like Christians when the cares of our bodies are swallowed up and subdued by the cares of our Souls and all Creature-loves by the love of Christ those blessed Souls hated their own bodies and counted them their enemies when they would draw them from Christ and his Truths
there are of the rude and ignorant multitude who are bred themselves much like the Beasts they daily converse withal and so they are fitly described Iob 30.6 7. Go into their houses and you may sooner find in the window or upon the shelf a Pack of Cards than a Bible or Catechise their Beds and Tables differ little or not at all from the Stalls and Cribs where beasts lye down and feed in respect of any worship of God among them or if for fashion sake a few words be hudled over in the evening when their bodies are tired the man saith something he scarce knows what the wife is asleep in one corner the children in another and the servants in a third This is the Education multitudes of Parents give their Children all the week and when the Sabbath comes the most they learn to know at Church is where their own seat stands and that it is necessary to speak with such a Neighbour after Prayers about such or such a bargain or business for the next week And others there are who breed their Children as prophanely as these do sottishly teaching them by their Examples the newest Oaths that were last minted in Hell and to revile and scoff all serious Godliness and the sincere Professors of it smiling to hear with what an Emphasis they can talk in the Dialect of Devils and how wittily they can droll upon godly Ministers and Christians Such Families are Nurseries for Hell and though God by an extraordinary hand of Providence now and then snatch a Soul by conversion from among them as a brand out of the fire yet generally they die as they live going to the generation of their Fathers where they shall never see light Psal. 49.19 I know Education and Regeneration are two things but I also know one is frequently made the instrument of working the other Quo semel est imbuta recens c. and that the savour of what first seasons our youth generally abides to old age Prov. 22.6 We may observe all the World over how tenacious men are of that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered to them by their Parents O what a cut must it be to the heart of that Father whose Sons life shall tell his Conscience what a profane Sons lips once told his Father to his face Si malè seci à te didici If I have done evil I have learnt it of you Had they felt more of your prudent correction it might have prevented their destruction Prov. 23.14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell That this is a common beaten path to Hell is beyond all question but how to bar it up and stop the multitudes that are engaged in it to their own ruine this is the labour this the work I cannot be large but I will offer a few weighty Considerations The first way to Hell barr'd 1. Let all Parents consider what a fearful thing it is to be the instruments of ruining for ever those that received their Beings instrumentally from them and to seek whose good they stand obliged by all the Laws of God and Nature In vain are all your cares and studies for their bodies whilst their Souls perish for want of knowledge You rejoyced at their birth but they will have cause to curse the day they were born of you and say Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which I was conceived You were solicitous for their bodies but careless of their Souls earnest to see them rich but indifferent whether they were gracious You neglected to teach them the way of Salvation but the Devil did not neglect to teach them the way of sin You will one day wish you had never been Parents when the dolâ—ful cries of your damned Children shall ring such Notes as these in your Ears O cursed Father O cruel merciless Mother whose examples have drawn me after you into all this misery You had time enough and motives enough to have warned me of this place and misery whilst my heart was tender and my affections pliable Had it not been as easie to have put a Bible as a Play-book before me To have chastised me when I provoked God by sin as when I provoked you about a trifle One word spoken in season might have saved my Soul one reproof wisely given and set on by your example might have preserved me Had it not been the same pains to have asked me Child what wilt thou do to be saved as what wilt thou do to live in the world Or had I but observed any serious Religion in you had I but found or heard my Father or Mother upon their knees in prayer it might have awakened me to a consideration of my condition in my youth I was shame fac'd fearful credulous and apt to imitate had you had but wisdom as other Parents have to have taken hold of any of these handles in time you had rescued my Soul from Hell Nay so cruel have you been to your own Child that you allowed me no time if I had had a disposition for any exercise of Religion yea you have quenched and stifled the sparks of convictions and better inclinations that sometimes were in my heart O happy had it been if I had never been born of you or seen your faces This must be the result and issue of your negligence except God by some other hand which is no thanks to you rescue them from their impending ruine 〈…〉 ldren whose unhappy Lot it is to be born of 〈…〉 carnal and irreligious Parents consider God hath endued them with a Reason and Conscience of their own to enable them to make a better choice than their Parents did and that there is no taking Sanctuary from the wrath of Goâ— in their Parents examples We read in 1 Kings 14.13 of a good Abijah in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Ieroboam Here was a Child that would not follow his wicked Father to Hell though he had both the authority of a Father and of a King over him Amandus genitor sed praeponendus Creator You must honour your Parents but still you must prefer your God before them God will never lay it to your account as your sin but place it to the account of your duty and comfort that you refused to follow them in paths of sin and destruction No Law of God no tye of Nature binds you to obey their commands or tread in their steps farther than they command in Gods Authority and Name and walk in his ways Your temptations indeed are strong and disadvantages great but the greater will the mercy of your deliverance be It will be no Plea for you at the Judgment-seat to say Lord my Father or Mother did so and so before me and I thought I might safely follow them or thus and thus they commanded me and I thought I
Atheist bethink thy self pause a while examine thine own breast whatever thy vile Atheistical thoughts sometimes are is there not at other times a fear of the contrary A jealousie that all these things which thou deridest and sportest thy wicked fancy with may and will prove true at last When thou readest or hearest that Text Ioh. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already His Mittimus is already made for Hell Doth not thy Conscience give thee a secret gird like a stitch in thy side Dare you venture all upon this issue that if those things you find in the Word be true you will stand to the hazard of them If that be a truth Mark 16.16 He that believeth not shall be damned you will be content to be damned Or if Rom. 8.13 be a truth That they which live after the flesh shall dye you will run the hazard and bear the penalty of eternal death If Heb. 12.14 prove true That without holiness no man shall see God you will be content to be banished from his presence for evermore Speak your hearts in this matter and tell us Don't you live betwixt Atheistical surmises that all these are but cunning artifices and fears that at last they will prove the greatest Verities 4. Hath not God given you all the satisfaction you can reasonably desire of the undoubted truth and certainty of his Word What would you have which you have not already Would you have a Voice from Heaven the Scriptures you read or hear are a more sure Word than such a Voice would be 2 Pet. 1.19 or would you have a Messenger from Hell He that believeth not the written Word neither would believe if one should rise from the dead Luke 16 31. View the innate Characters of the Scriptures is it not altogether pure and holy full of Divine Wisdom and awful Majesty and in every respect such as evidenceth its Author to be the wise holy and just God who searcheth the hearts and reins Look upon the Seals and Confirmations of it hath not God confirmed it by divers Miracles from Heaven a Seal which neither Men or Devils could counterfeit And don't you see the blessing and power of God accompanying it in the Conversion and wonderful change of mens hearts and lives which can be done by no other hand than Gods Say not the Miracles which confirm the Gospel are but uncertain Traditions and except you your selves see them wrought you cannot believe them There are a thousand things which you do believe though you never saw them and what you require for your satisfaction every man may require the same for his and so Christ must live in all parts of this World and repeat his Miracles over and over in all Ages to satisfie the unreasonable incredulity of those that question their truth after the fullest Confirmation and Seal hath been given that is capable to be given or the heart of man can desire should be given and if all this should be done you might be as far from believing as now you are for many of those that saw and heard the things wrought by Christ contradicted and blasphemed and so might you 5. Satan who undermines your assent to these things is forced to give his own he that tempts you to look on them as Fables himself knows and is convinced that they are realities the Devils also believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 they know and feel the truth of these things though it be their great design and interest to shake your assent to them they know Christ is the Son of God and that there will be a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that there are Torments prepared for themselves and all whom they seduce from God Matth. 8.29 If you ungod God you must unman your selves yea not only make your selves less than men but worse than Devils 6. In a word let thy own heart O Atheist be Judge whether these be real doubts still sticking in your minds after you have done all that becomes men to do for satisfaction in such important cases Or whether they be not such Principles as you willingly â—oment and nourish in your hearts as a protection to your sensual lusts whose pleasures you would fain have without interruptions and over-awings by the fears of a Judgment to come and a righteous retribution from a just and terrible God! Examine your hearts in that point and you will soon find the cheat to be in that I here point you to you have not studied the word impartially nor brought your doubts and scruples with an humble unbiassed teachable spirit to those that are wise and able to resolve them much less prayed for the Spirit of Illumination but willingly entertained whatever Atheistical Wits invent or the Devil suggests as a Defensative against the checks of Conscience and fears of Hell in the way of sin You are loth those things should be true which the Scriptures speak and are glad of any colourable argument or pretence to still your own Consciences Is not this the case The Lord stop your desperate course your paths lead to Hell The ninth way of losing the precious Soul opened IX Precious Souls are daily plunged into the gulph of perdition by Prophaneness and Debauchery How many every where lye wallowing in this puddle glorying in their shame and running into all excess of riot The Hypocrite steals to Hell in a private close way of concealed sin but the prophane gallop along the publick road at noon-day They declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not Isa. 3.9 The shew of their countenance testifieth against them The Hypocrite hath devotion in his countenance and Heaven in his mouth you know not by his words or countenance whither he is going but the prophane hide it not they are past shame and above blushing at the horridst impieties Look as God hath some Servants more eminent forward and couragious in the ways of Godliness than others men that will not hide their Principles or be ashamed of the ways of Godliness in the face of danger so the Devil hath some Servants as eminent for wickedness who scorn to sneak to Hell by concealment of their wickedness but avow and owne it without fear or shame in the open sight of Heaven and Earth Where-ever they come they defile the Air they breathe in with horrid blasphemies and obscene discourses not to be named and leave a strong scent of Hell behind them This Age hath brought forth multitudes of these Monsters the reproach and shame of the Nation that bred them I have little hope to stop one of them in the career and full speed to Hell They have lost the sense of sin the restraints of Shame and fear and then what is left to check them in their course I cannot hope that such a Discourse as this shall ever come into their hands except it be to sacrifice it to the flames yet not knowing the ways of Providence which
whose Name is called upon them I therefore shall first address my Discourse to the Professors of Religion beseeching them in the bowels of Christ to take pity upon the multitudes of Souls which are daily ruined and destroyed by their scandals and miscarriages Did you live according to the rules you profess your well-doing would put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2.15 and consequently the ruine of many might be prevented I remember Bernard speaking of the lewd and loose life of the Priests of his time sighs out this just and bitter complaint to God about it Bern. in Convers Pauli Ser. 1. Misera eorum conversatio plebis tuae miserabilis subversio est O Lord saith he their miserable conversation is the miserable subversion of thy people O of how many who glory in the Title of the Sons of the Church Ecce qui jactant se redemptos à tyrannide Satanae qui praedicant se mortuos mundo nihilominus à cupiditatibus suis vincuntur Salvian Vbi est catholicalex quam credunt ubi pietatatis castitatis exempla quae discant Evangilia legant impudici sunt Apoâ—olos audiunt inebriantur may Christ say as Iacob did of his two lewd Sons Simeon and Levi Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the Inhabitants of the Land Gen. 34.30 And how many Professors who pretend to more than ordinary reformation and holiness do shed Soul blood by their scandalous conversations Salvian brings in the wicked of his Age upraiding the loosness of Christians in this manner Behold those men who boast themselves redeemed from the Tyranny of Satan and profess themselves dead to the world yet are conquer'd by the lusts of it And Cyprian long before his day brings in the Heathens thus insulting over looser Christians Where is that Catholick Law which they believe Where are the Examples of Piety and Chastity which they should learn They read the Gospel yet are immodest they hear the Apostles yet are drunk O Professors where are your bowels to the poor Souls of sinners If your Neighbours Ox or Ass fall into the pit you are bound to deliver him if you can and will you not do as much for a precious Soul as you would do for a Beast Nay you dig pits by your scandalous lives to destroy them If you sin there are instruments enough to spread it and multitudes of Souls ready perpared to take the infection Say not f they do the fault is theirs for though they are Principals in the murder of their own Souls by taking the scandal yet you are Accessaries in giving it he is a mad man that will kill himself with a Sword and he no better that will put it into his hand O therefore if you have any regard to the precious Souls of men live up to the rules of your Profession O be blame less and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a perverse and froward generation let the heavenliness of your Conversation stop those mouths that accuse you as men of a worldly Spirit let them see by your moderation in seeking it your patience in losing it your readiness in distributing it that it is a groundless calumny under which your Names suffer Let them see by your apparel company and discourses you are not such proud lofty Spirits as you are represented to be Convince them by your flexibleness to all things that are lawful and expedient by manifesting as much as in you lieth that it is the pure bond and tye of Conscience which keeps you from compliance in all other things and by your meekness in suffering for such non-compliance that you are not such turbulent factious Incendiaries as the wicked world slanderously reports you to be Convince the world by your exact righteousness in all your civil dealings and by the lip of truth in all your promises and engagements that you have the fear of God in your hearts as well as the Livery of Christianity upon your backs In a word so live that none may have just ground to believe the impudent slanders the Devil raises in the world against you Let your light so shine before men that they may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Without your care and circumspection the shedding of a world of precious Soul-blood can never be prevented 2. Let me advise and beseech all men to be so just to others and merciful to their own Souls as not to cast them away for ever by receiving prejudices against Godliness from the miscarriages of some that make more than a common profession of it If others stumble before you and break their shins don't you stumble at them and break your necks To prevent this fatal effect of scandal and prejudice at Religion I desire a few particulars may be impartially weighed First Very many of those Scandals bandied up and down the World against the Professors of Godliness are devised and forged in Hell as so many traps and snares to catch and destroy mens Souls to beget an irreconcileable aversation and enmity in men to the ways of God They devise deceitful matters saith the Psalmist against them that are quiet in the land Psal. 35.20 So Ier. 18.18 Come say they let us devise devices against Ieremiah and smite him with the tongue And there is as as little equity in the credulous receiver as there is honesty in the wicked forger of these slanders With one arrow of censure you wound no less than three viz. the honour of God your innocent Brother and your own Souls as to the two former wounds they will in due time be healed God will vindicate his own Name fully and the reputation of his innocent Servants shall be cleared and repaired abundantly but mean time your Souls may perish by the wounds prejudices have given so that you may never be reconciled to Godliness and its Professors whilst you live but turn Scoffers and Persecutors of them Secondly Examine whether the matters that are charged upon them as their Crimes be not their Duties Sometimes it falls out to be so and if so you fight more immediately and directly against God than men This was Davids case Psal. 69.10 When I wept and chastened my soul that was to my reproach my piety was turned to reproach They called his tears Crocodiles tears and his fastings hypocritical shadows of devotion and humility Thus the very matter of his duty was turned into reproach And so it was with the primitive Christians their very owning of themselves to be Christians was crime enough to condemn them Thirdly If Professors of Religion do in some things act unbecoming their holy Profession yet every slip and failing in their lives is no sufficient Warrant for you to censure their persons as hypocrites much less to fall upon Religion it self and condemn it for the faults of them that profess it There 's many an upright heart overtaken by temptation You see
They run their thoughts forward into Eternity and that to a great depth and then cry What shall I do to be saved They deliberate and weigh in their most advised thoughts what is to be done and that speedily for the escaping of the wrath to come thus they fix those tender weak and hazardous motions which dye away in multitudes of Souls and in the loss of them their seasons of Salvation are also lost 2. The first stirrings and motions of the Spirit upon mens hearts do then become a season of Salvation to them when they are accompanied with spiritual fervent and frequent prayer so it was with Paul Acts 9.11 Behold he prayeth It 's a good sign when Souls get alone and affect privacy and retirement to pour out their fears sorrows and requests to God It is in the Espousals of a Soul to Christ as it is in other Marriages a third person may make the motion and bring the Parties together but they only betwixt themselves must conclude and agree the matter Prayer is the first breath which the new Creature draws in and the last ordinarily it breaths out in this world This nourishes and maturates those weak and tender first motions after God and brings them to some consistence and fixedness in the Soul 3. Then do those motions of the Spirit on mens hearts make a season of Salvation to them when they remain and settle in the heart and are in them per modum quietis by way of rest and abode following the man from place to place from day to day so that whatever unpleasing diversions the necessities and incumbrances of this world at any time give yet still they return again upon the heart and will not vanish or suffer any long suspension but in others who lose their blessed advantage and season it 's quite contrary Iam. 1.23 24. They are as one that seeth his natural face in a glass and goeth away and forgetteth what manner of man he was he sees some spot on his face or disorder in his band which he purposeth to correct but one occurrence or another chops in and he forgets what he saw in the glass and so goes all the day with his spot upon him This was an evanid light purpose which came to nothing for want of a present execution just so it is with many in reference to their great concerns but if the impression abide in its strength if it return and follow the Soul and will not let it be quiet it 's like then to prosper and prove the time of Mercy indeed to such Souls 4 An anxious solicitude and inquisitiveness about the means and ways of Salvation speaks an effectual door of Salvation to be set open to the Souls of men Acts 2.37 16.30 Sirs what must I do to be saved Men and brethren what shall we do q. d. we are in a miserable condition O you the Ministers of Christ instruct counsel and shew us what course to take Is there no Balm in Gilead No door of hope in this Valley of Achor Alas we are not able to dwell with our own fears terrors and presages of wrath to come O for a Messenger one among a thousand to teach us the way of Salvation Thus the Lord rivets and fixes those motions in some Souls which vanish like a morning mist or dew in others 5 Lastly That which secures and compleats this work is the execution of those purposes and convictions by falling without delay to the work of Faith and Repentance in good earnest dallying no more with so great a concernment standing no longer at shall I shall I when mean while time flies away and opportunities are in hazard to be lost but bringing their thoughts and debates to a peremptory resolution as the Lepers at Samaria did and seeing themselves shut up to one only door of hope there they resolve to take up their station lying at the feet of Jesus Christ and casting their poor burdened Souls upon him whatever be the issue When the Spirit of God ripens his first motions to this and carries them through that critical season thus far then there is an effectual door of opportunity opened indeed this is an acceptable time a day of Salvation but O how many thousands miscarry in this season and like trees removed from one soil to another dye in the removal But certainly it is the most solemn and important concern of every Soul to watch upon all these seasons of Salvation when God comes nigh to them by convictions and motions of his Spirit and to put the same value upon these things which they do upon their Souls and the Salvation of them This is the door of Hope set open a fresh gale to carry you home to your Port of Glory Salvation is now come nigh to your Souls there is but a little betwixt you and Blessedness Wise and happy is that Soul which knoweth and improveth its season To perswade and press men to discern and improve such seasons as these is the principal work of the Preachers of the Gospel and that special work to which I now address my self in the following Motives and Arguments Argument I. AND first who that hath the free exercise of Reason and the sense of a future eternal Estate would carelesly neglect any season of Salvation whilst he seeth all the rational world so carefully attending and watching all opportunities to promote and secure their lower concerns and designs for the present life Is not the saving of a mans Soul as weighty a concern as the getting of an Estate You cannot but observe how care Merchants are to nick the opportunity which promiseth them a good turn How y are poor Sea-men look out for a wind to wast them to their Port and industriously shift their Sails to improve every slaw that may set them on in their Voyage How many miles Tradesmen will travel to be in season at a Fayr to put off or purchase Goods to their advantage No entertainments recreations or importunities of friends can prevail with any of these to lose a day on which their business depends all things must give way to their business they all understand their seasons and will not be diverted But alas what childish toyes are all these compared with Salvation What is the loss of a little Money to the loss of a mans Soul If a mans life depended upon his being at such a place by such a precise hour sure he would not over-sleep his time that morning and had he but the least fear of coming too late every stroke of the Clock would strike to his heart and yet remisness and carelesness in such a case as this is infinitely more excusable than in the matter of Salvation Certainly the solicitude and care of all the world for the interests thereof yea your own diligence and circumspection in temporal things will be an uncontroulable and confounding self-conviction to you in the day of your account and leave you
and help on the ruine of others That is a startling Text Matth. 12.36 But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of Iudgment To give an account is here by a Metalepsis of the Antecedent for the Consequent put for punishment in Hell fire without an intervening change of heart and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus And there is more evil in this abuse of our breath than we can easily discern especially upon two accounts 1 Because it is a sin most frequently committed and seldom repented of The intercourse betwixt the heart and tongue is quick and the sense of the evil as easily and quickly passeth away 2 Because the poisonous and malignant influence thereof abides and continues long after Our words may mischief others not only a long time after they are spoken but a long time after the tongue that spake them is turned to dust How many years may a foolish or filthy word a prophane scoff an Atheistical expression stick in the minds of them that heard them after the Speakers death A word spoken is Physically transient and past away with the breath that delivered it but it 's Morally permanent for as to its moral efficacy no more is required but its objective existence in the minds and thoughts of them that once heard it And upon that very ground Suarez argues for a general Judgment after men have past at death their particular Judgment because saith he long after that abundance of good and evil will be done in this World by the Dead in the persons of others that oveâ—live them For look as it was said of Abel that being dead he yet speaketh so it may be said of Iulian Porphyry and multitudes of scoffing Atheists that being dead they yet speak O therefore get a sanctified heart to season your breath that it may minister grace to the hearers Inference VI. LEt your breath promote the spiritual life of others as well as maintain the natural life in your selves ' Though the maintaining of your natural life be one end why God gave you breath yet it is not the only or principal end of it Your breath must be food to others as well as life to you Prov. 10.21 The lips of the righteous feed many It will be comfortable to resign that breath to God at death which hath been instrumental to his glory in this life It was no low encomium Christ gave of the Church when he said Cant. 4.11 Thy lips O my Spouse drop as the Honeycomb Honey and Milk are under thy Tongue Sweet wholesome and pleasant words dropt from her lips They drop saith Christ as the Honeycomb Some drops ever and anon fall actually and others hang at the same time prepared and ready to fall Such a prepared and habitual Disposition should every Christian continually have Your Words may stick upon mens hearts to their Edification and Salvation when you are in your Graves Your Tongues may now sow that precious seed which may spring-up to the praise of God though you may not live to reap the comfort of it in this World Iohn 4.36 37. 't is a rich expence of your breath to bring but one Soul to God and yet God hath used the breath of one as his instrument to save edifie and comfort the Souls of thousands Proverbs 11.30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth Souls is wise The good Lord make all his people wise in this Surely whether we consider the invaluable worth and preciousness of Souls the benefits you have had from the breath of others your selves the innate property of grace whereever it is to diffuse and communicate it self how short a time you have to breath and how comfortable it will be when you breath your last to remember how it hath been imployed for God All this should open your lips to counsel reprove and comfort others as often as opportunity is ministred Did Christ spend his Blood for our Souls and shall not we spend our Breath for them O let our lips dispense knowledge If you will not spend your Breath for God How will you spend your Blood for him If you will not Speak for him I doubt you will not Die for him Away with a sullen reservedness away with unprofitable Chat all Subjects of Discourse are not fit for a Christians lips 'T is a grave Admonition God once gave his people by the Pen of a faithful * Mr. West Minister You may rue saith he the opportunities you have lost Here lay a poor Wretch with one foot in Hell would he not have started back if he had had light to discover his danger Well you are now together something you must say the same breath would serve for a Compassionate Admonition as for a Complacent Impertinency which will redound to neither of your advantages You part the man dies and in the midst of Hell cries out against you One word of yours might have saved me You had me in your reach you might have told me my danger you forbare I hardned The Lord reward your negligence Inference VII IF breath be the tye betwixt Soul and Body How are we concerned to improve and draw forth the precious breath of Ministers and Christians whilst it is yet in their Nostrills The breath of many Ministers is judicially stopt already their breath serves to little other use than to preserve their own lives it will be stopt ere long by death and then those excellent treasures of Gifts and Graces wherewith they are richly furnished will be gone out of your reach never to be further useful to your Souls You should do by them therefore as one aptly speaks as Scholars do by some choice Book they have borrowed and must return in a few days to its Owner They diligently read it Night and Day and carefully transcribe the most useful and excellent Notes they can find in it that they may make them their own when the Book is called for out of their hands But alas we rather divert than draw forth these Excellencies that are in them You may yet converse with them and greatly benefit your selves by these Converses but as one speaks by the stream of your impertinent talk that season is neglected afterwards you see your lack of knowledge but then the instrument is removed How must it gall an awakened Iew to think what Discourse he had with Jesus Christ Is it lawful to give Tribute to Caesar Why do not thy Disciples fast O had I nothing else to enquire of the Lord Jesus Would it not have been more pertinent to have asked What shall I do to be saved But he is gone and I dead in my sins How many persons have we sent away that had a word of Wisdom in their hearts Having only learnt from them what a Clock it is what Weather or what News Forgetting to ask our own hearts What is all
this to us And to enquite of them things worthy of their Wisdom and Experience Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a Fool seeing he hath no heart to it Proverbs 17.16 The expence of one Minutes breath in season may if God concur with it be to you the ground of breathing forth praises to God to all eternity Inference VIII ARE Souls and Bodies tack'd together by so frail a thing as a puff of breath How vain and groundless then are all those Pleasures men take in their Carnal Projects and Designs in this World We lay the Plot and Design of our future earthly felicity in our own thoughts we mould and contrive a design for a long and pleasant life The model for raising an Estate is already formed in our thoughts and we have not patience to defer our pleasure till the accomplishment of it but presently draw a train of pleasing Consequents from this Chimaera and our thoughts can stoop to nothing less than sitting down all the remainder of our days in the very lap of delight and pleasure Forgetting that our breath is all the while in our Nostrils and may expire the next moment and if it do the structure of all our Expectations and Projects come to nothing in the same moment His breath goeth forth he returneth to his dust and in that very day his thoughts perish Psal. 146.4 The whole frame of his thoughts falls instantly abroad by drawing out this one pin his breath T is good with all our earthly designs to mingle the serious thoughts of the Dominion of Providence and our own frailty Iames 4.15 If the Lord will and we live 'T is become a common Observation that assoon as men have accomplished their earthly designs and begin to hug and bless themselves in their own Acquisitions a suddain and unexpected period is put both to their Lives and Pleasures as you may see Luke 12.19 20. Dan. 4.30 O then drive moderately you will be at the end of all these things sooner than you imagine We need not victual a Ship to cross the Chanel as they do that are bound to the Indies What is your life It is even a Vapour which appeareth for a little while and then vanisheth away James 4.14 In one moment the Projects of many years are overturned for ever Inference IX IS it but a puff of breath that holds Man in life then build not too much hope and confidence upon any man Build not too high upon so feeble a foundation Cease ye from man saith the Prophet whose breath is in his Nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isai. 2.22 There are two things that should deter us from dependance upon any man viz. his falseness and his frailty Grace in a great measure may cure the first but not the last The best of men must die as well as the worst Rom. 8.10 't is a vanity therefore to rely upon any man It was the saying of a Philosopher when he heard how Merchants lost great Estates at Sea in a moment Non amo foelicitatem è funibus pendentem I love not that Happiness said he which hangs upon a Rope But all the happiness of many men hangs upon a far weaker thing than a Rope even the perishing breath of a Creature Let not Parents raise their hopes too high or lean too hard upon their Children say not of thy Child as Lamech did of Noah this Son shall comfort us Gen. 5.29 The World is full of the Laments and bitter Cries of disappointed Parents Let not the Wife depend too much on her Husband as if her earthly Comforts were secured in him against all danger God is often provoked to stop our friends breath that thereby he may stop our way to sin 1 Tim. 5.5 The trust and dependance of a Soul is too weighty to be hang'd upon such a weak and rotten pin as a Creatures breath is Inference X. TO conclude If this frail breath be all that differences the living from the dead Then fear not man whose breath is in his Nostrils There is as little ground for our fear of Man as there is for our trust in Man As death in a moment can make the best man useless and put him out of capacity to do us any good so it can in a moment make the worst man harmless and put him out of a capacity to do us any injury Indeed if the breath of our Enemies were in their power and ours at their mercy there would be just cause to tremble at them but they are neither Masters of their own or ours Who art thou that thou shouldest 〈◊〉 afraid of a man that shall die saith God to Iacob Isai. 51.12 The breath of the mightiest is no better secured than of the meanest nor never in more danger to be stopt than when they breath out threatnings against the Upright Iulian's breath was soon stopt after he threatned to root out the Galileans Queen Mary resigned her breath at the very time when she had filled the Prisons with many of Christs Sheep designed for the slaughter Read Isai. 17.12 and see what Mushromes we are afraid of The best way to continue your Relations and Friends to your comfort is to give God and not them your dependence and the best way to secure your selves against the rage of Enemies is to give God your fear and not them And thus of the nature of the Soul and its Tye with the Body TEXT Revel VI. 9 10 11. And when he had opened the Fifth Seal Ver. 9. I saw under the Altar the Souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And they cryed with a loud Voice saying Ver. 10. How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth And white Robes were given unto every one of them Ver. 11. and it was said unto them That they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow Servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled HAving from the former Text spoken of the Nature of the Soul and the Tye betwixt it and the Body I shall from this Scripture evince the Immortality of the Soul which is a chief part of its Excellency and Glory And in this Scripture it hath a firm Foundation This Book of the Revelation compleats and seals up the whole Sacred Canon Revel 22.18 It also comprehendeth all the great and signal Events of Providence relating either to the Christian Church or to its Antichristian Enemies in the several Periods of time to the end of the World Chap. 1. v. 19. all which the Spirit of God discovers to us in the opening of the seven Seals the sounding of the seven Trumpets and the pouring out of the seven Vials The first five Seals express the State of the Church under the bloody persecuting Heathen Emperors Seal 1. The