Correction he adds By the Breath of his Nostrils that is still measuring it as spoken after the similitude and manner of Men by the most ordinary and weakest putting forth of his Power And yet we see if he puts forth no more he blows us to Destruction when his intent is to destroy And why For of us the Scriptures use a comparison suitable thereto in saying that We are but as the Dust of the Ballance Isa 40. 15. Yea all the Nations put all together are but as the small Dust of the Ballance As that little that is left in the Ballance when what is weighed is taken forth which is easily blown away with a Man's Breath Again yet lower in Man his Nod is of less force than his Breath and yet Lo at the rebuke of his Countenance we perish Psal 80. 16. He can look on one that is proud and abase him and his Eye can cast about Rage and Destruction Job 40. 11 12 13. He had said before ver 9. Hast thou an Arm like God He riseth from the Power of his Nod the weakness of his Power unto the Power of his Arm And so may we from his Looks to his Breath from that to his little Finger from that to his Fist from that to his Arm and Hands in which his Strength is said to lie Luke 1. 51. O think how dreadful then it must needs be to fall into those Hands as here in the Text into those Hands I say that measure the Waters in the hollow of them that span the Heavens and at the same time comprehend also all the Dust of the Earth in one grasp as one of us doth a little Pebble And verse 15. Takes up the Isles as a very little thing as you would do Hazel-nut-shells out of a Pail of Water Now for thee a poor Grashopper to be taken into those hands and to be grip'd and crush'd and squeezed with the might thereof But the Scripture expressions go further yet to have this God like a Mill-stone fall upon thee with his whole weight which is Christ's comparison Mat. 21. 44. Thy Wrath lies hard upon me said Heman You see in Summer little green Flies creeping upon green leaves which if a Man doth but touch they die such a slight Creature art thou in comparison to this God Or further as Job's comparison is that this Great and Mighty God should run upon thee as a Mighty Giant with his full force the utmost of his Force as a Man doth upon his Enemy yet so Job speaks of it Chap. 16. 14. And in another place the same Job that he should take thee about the Neck and throttle thee O what do we poor Potsheards of the Earth striving with our Maker as Isaiah speaks chap. 45. 9. Or as Christ spake from Heaven will Flesh think to kick and spurn against such Iron Pricks and Pikes which run up into the Soul whilst it strikes upon them And that we may yet further have a through sensibleness of our obnoxiousness and exposedness to this Great God let us withal consider his absolute Sovereignty over us as well as his Power What an inconsiderable portion doth any one Soul and every one is singly to deal with him for his own particular bear unto this Infinity of Being and Glory to whom not one Nation but all Nations and not only all Nations that are now extant in the World but that ever have been or shall be are counted as nothing yea less than nothing What a little thing is this Island of ours to the whole Body of Nations And yet all Isles are to him but a little thing as Isaiah speaks Lord think thou what am I to Thee or any Man that thou shouldest regard him Yea and being sinful why should any Man as he is of himself think that God should have any stick or demurr within him to withhold himself from destroying him every moment For lo even the greatest of Men that have been of greatest Wisdom Parts being Sinners he hath in his distance and greatness laid them aside and regarded them not at all Job 38. last He regards not the Wise in Heart What is all or any Excellency in thee to him There is therefore no way but to turn unto him and seeing you must fall into his hands prevent him by putting your selves into his hands This great Arm of his may be held Isa 27. 5. Let them take hold of my Strength Fury is not in me There is an Arm also of another one that is Christ who can deal with God for thee and overcome him Isa 53. 1. To whom is the Arm of the Lord so he termeth Christ revealed Thus you have seen and heard something of the Greatness of this God and that but in general as he is the Author of this Punishment and thereby this Punishment aggrandized unto us and yet how little do we know of him as Job speaks §. II. The second Head of Demonstrations from the Capacity of the Soul the Subject of this Punishment And from this that it is the Destruction of the Soul II. SUbjoin hereunto the consideration of what is the eminent Subject of this Punishment the Soul of Man and that the Issue of this Punishment is no less than the Destruction of that Soul And these two which I join together will afford further Reflections to help us to conceive of the fearfulness of this Punishment And the Consideration hereof cometh in most pertinently next unto the foregoing wherein the Power of the Agent was spoken to but now in this the Capacity of the Subject or Patient and the Receptivity thereof of Impressions from this Worker That the Soul is the immediate Vessel of this Wrath that I spake to afore Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them that kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell The former part of which words evidently import 1. That the Soul alone and immediately in it self and not only in respect of what it suffers with or from the Bodies suffering is the Subject of this Punishment tho the Body also is And 2. Christ concludes that it is the Destruction of both Body and Soul You know also the Rule That the Measure of every Agent 's working upon another must be taken from the Capacity of the Subject which the Impression is made upon as well as from the Power of the Agent that works Fire works more fiercely upon Oil and Brimstone than upon Stones or upon Dust or Sands You may discern this in the parts of your own Body Rheum falling upon the Lungs doth not torture so as falling upon a Tooth a Joint or Eye How also are the inward parts capable of more exquisite Torment as by the Stone c. bred in them than the outward are by any Cuttings or Wounds Now the Soul of Man is capable of more exquisite Impressions from God's hand in that it is an intelligent
Job Thou writest bitter things against me and causest me to possess the Sins of my Youth Job 13. 26. Let no Man therefore imagine that Devils are the greatest Tormentors of Men or of their Consciences in Hell or if any would affirm it I would demand Who it is that torments the Consciences of Devils themselves Certainly none but God They now believing there is a God do tremble but in Hell they fear him and for ever have to do with him And it is as sure that the same God with whom those Spirits and their Consciences have for ever to do the Consciences of Men shall also And as for all other mediate or outward ways of Judgments executed in which the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven but as at the second hand take the sorest and severest of them that ever God executed by Creatures yea suppose all of the several kinds of Providential Judgments I call them such which are executed upon Men in this World afore-hand which God hath as Judg of all the World in his riding Circuit through all Ages since the Fall revealed his Wrath from Heaven by against all sorts of Unrighteousness of Men as the Apostle speaking of these Judgments says in Rom. 1. 18. Suppose I say they were let flie upon any one Sinner all at once yet would they not reach or touch that Man's Conscience further than as God should over and above the efficacy of them strike the Conscience it self with his anger and displeasure revealed more or less by himself therewith And although in all such Judgments his goings forth are as of a Judg and he accompanies such Judgments more or less but as with some ordinary light and glimmerings of an angry Deity yet his coming as a Judg upon Mens Consciences at the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God as if he had never revealed his Wrath before this is another manner of coming and shewing himself a Judg indeed rendring Indignation and Wrath upon the Souls of Men And of that Judgment it is the same Apostle in the second Chapter treats as of that other in the former And I may say of all the former in comparison to this latter that they all are but as the Batteries of the Out-works and as Bullets shot against the Walls in a Siege which may indeed terrify the Inhabitants and make them tremble Deut. 32. Rom. 2. and so these the Soul as by remote effects in the Suburbs of it But the latter is as shooting in of Granadoes which have been laid up with him in his Treasury carrying Fire from thence in them the Fire of his fierce and sorest Indignation and these himself alone can shoot into the inwards of Mens Souls And this is as shooting Fire into the the very Magazine into that which is the most inward in the Soul and fortified against the entrance of all created Powers the Magazine where all the Gun-pouder lies that is the guilt of a Man's Sins so as there needeth nothing else to blow up all If his Wrath doth but touch it takes and sets all on Fire Yea give me leave upon the same ground and by the like reason further to say That all the material Fire in Hell by which the Soul shall and will suffer by way of a Compatibility as it is termed or suffering by and with the Body an unspeakable Torment and this for the Sins a Man is guilty of yet these Flames nor these Punishments taken materially and abstracted from this Revelation of God's Wrath would not break into Conscience not until God did therewithal break in with the Fire of his Wrath and make the Conscience and intellectual Spirit of the Mind a fiery Oven within it self as the Psalmist expresseth it in Psal 21. 9. almost in these very words This being the state of matters between God the Judg of all and the Souls and Consciences of Sinners as touching that due and equitable Punishment for Sin and the execution thereof which Mens Souls are capable of I shall now compleat the reason why the Justice of God should move him to be willing yea and that there is in respect unto Divine Justice a kind of requisiteness if not necessity for the Great God to take this course to punish the Sinner by the Revelation of his own immediate Wrath. And this I shall do by gathering together what hath been said from which the Arguments for both these two Assertions that follow lie fair 1. That God for his Justice sake should be willing For Conscience being the principal Engagee obliged unto God as a Judg and the understanding Power in Man the eminent Transgressor and both lying so naked and immediately exposed unto God's Wrath and capable to receive the Revelation of it An Anguish made thereby in the Soul is the most proper natural suitable Reward unto Sin to pay the Sinner home in his own Coin as also the most ready direct and short way for God to take If therefore we suppose Justice be left to have but its free and full course if Justice according to the Prophet's language and God's own rule and direction given unto us run down as Waters and Righteousness as a mighty Stream in its proper natural Channel and so as to fall into that most capacious Vessel or Receptacle that is in Man to receive it Again if Divine Justice hath a will to put and lay its charge and execution where principally it is to be laid even against the Principal whether in the Obligation for Sin or in the guilt of the Act of sinning Or if it be deemed that Divine Justice will take a recovery where the fullest and fairest advantage lies and recover his principal Debt of that which is the principal Debtor and from that in Man which is capable to afford the most due satisfaction and punishment as being that which is the Treasury of all the Guilt of Sin and most exquisitely capable to suffer and thereby to make fullest payment for all Then we may conclude that assuredly God is willing to wreck his just Anger and in his Wrath to break forth upon the Conscience and Intellectual Faculty of the Sinner in Hell by the immediate Revelation of his Wrath and that upon all the accounts fore-mentioned thereby to punish it And we may well suppose that his Justice is willing to do this because God is as the Psalmist with an Emphasis Judg Himself Psal 50. 6. And judgeth for Himself Prov. 16. 4. And for the Recovery of his own Glory and Revelation of his Righteous Judgment And this Course of immediate Wrath being a way above all other so natural so ready so direct so compendious and so suited to the demerit of Sin as hath been shewn we may well think that God will be rather willing to shew his Wrath as the Apostle speaks this way if we could suppose there might be another because this so falls in with and agrees unto the rules and
of it For I argue asking this Question What is able to fill the Soul of Man with good or evil The Soul which was created in so large a Capacity as to be filled with God and with none but God himself He only is able to fill the vast corners of it with either Creatures like it self may afflict and torment it much especially whilst in the Body so much as to cause it to desire Death and a being out of the Body but the Soul they are never able to destroy The Soul is a Castle so strong built as it can bear the Assaults of all its fellow-Creatures and sustain it self and not sink into Destruction Nothing can destroy the well-being of the Soul but God's Power For it is said They may kill the Body but God only can kill the Soul And else according to that Argument of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body only c. they were to be feared as God himself is if they could kill the Soul as God can do For Christ says God is therefore to be feared and only to be feared because he can destroy both Body and Soul And he redoubleth it with an Emphasis Fear him yea I say unto you Fear him Luke 12. 5. Indeed one Evangelist says Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell which expresseth no more but an act of Authority to sentence and cast into Hell as the Judge doth into Prison Yet the other Evangelist puts it upon this because he is able to kill the Soul and that only he is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell He says not barely to cast into Hell as by way of Authority but adds kills and destroys in Hell when they are cast thither For God is both Judg and Avenger And therefore if it be Destruction 't is evident He only can and must do the execution And therefore in the Text 2 Thes 1. 8 9. their being punished with everlasting Destruction is attributed to the glory of his Power These are some of the Reasons of this great Point CHAP. VII A fourth sort of additional Confirmations drawn from the Harmonies that are between it and other Divine Truths I Shall in the last place cast in some Harmonies or Congruities and Correspondencies which this holds and makes up with other Divine Truths And in such Harmonies and Concords there is much of Reason at least to confirm if not demonstrate Truths in Divinity 1. To begin where I left Hereby it comes to pass that as the Souls of Men and other Spirits were immediately made and created by God who is therefore in a peculiar respect and with an opposite distinction to the Fathers of our Bodies said to be the Father of Spirits and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh So that their last termination or end should be into and by his immediate Hands also This makes up a congruous and suitable Dispensation That look as they receive their first Being from him likewise they should return to him as Ecclesiastes speaks as to their sole and immediate Author and Creator and so receive from him as a Father of Spirits their Portion at his immediat Hands And Man 's ultimate end either way is called their Portion Psal 11. 6. Mat. 24. 51. whether it be in blessedness as their Inheritance out of his Love or Misery as the wages of their Sin And thus hereby God himself is made the end and the beginning or terminus the Alpha and Omega of Souls to whom be Glory for ever 2. Thereby also there comes to pass an answerableness and a proportion held between the two conditions of Heaven and Hell Which the Apostle seems to make the ultimate aim and determination of God's Counsels Unto which all in this World are but preparations as he calls them Thus Rom. 9. 22 23. for the shewing forth of his own immediate Glory What if God willing to shew his Wrath and to make his Power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction And that he might make known the riches of his Glory on the Vessels of Mercy which he had afore prepared unto Glory And thirdly also It is said that after that Christ the Judg of All hath delivered up his Administration and Kingdom unto his Father then God should become all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. not in respect of Being that is not as if the Being of all things shall return into God again as some have wickedly dreamed Or that God's blessed Being and the Creatures should become one that can never be 'T is a contradiction to say a Creature made out of nothing should come to be of it self and such God in his Being is But all in all in respect of immediate Dispensation And so look as to the Vessels of Mercy he will then be all in all so that they shall not need the light of the Sun and the Moon c. that is the comfort of any Creature though all created Excellencies in the Spirit and quintesence of them shall be there why should it not be also meant that the same God which makes up a Parallel seeing Mens Sins deserve it shall be all in all in Hell too in a contrary way to the other 4. And the rather this may be thought because when God shall have caused this visible World to pass away the Earth and the Heavens we now behold as some judicious Divines have inclined to think from Job 14. 12. and other Scriptures either by turning them into nothing or into their first Chaos And so there being none that is of this old World left but pure Heaven and Hell which are as two spiritual Places or Worlds and therein these two sorts of Creatures rational either those who are wholly Spirits as Angels good and bad or the Spirits of Men whose Bodies are raised Spiritual and so fitted for that other kind of World both of which are capable of Happiness or Wo from him That then these two sorts of intelligent Natures God and they being left thus alone the bruitish part of the World being done away should have to do with him for ever immediately either in a way of Wrath or Blessedness And so God shall be all in all in either Worlds and this to be the final ending and Catastrophe of all But these I urge not but only mention THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN in HELL SECT II. The dreadfulness thereof argued from all and each of the Particulars treated of in the former Section HEB. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THe second thing at first propounded to be handled was the dreadfulness of this Punishment It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God Which being an inference from the foregoing words and not a simple affirmation only do come in with an amazing kind of implication wherein the Apostle leaveth it to our own Thoughts to conceive
Spirit and in the substantial Faculties of it assimulated to him made in his Image a Spirit as God is that hath an Understanding and other Faculties to receive and take in from him what he is pleased to pour forth into it by them and is accordingly more sensible thereof than the Senses of the Body are or can be supposed to be from Creatures The Prophet Nahum seems to have considered this chap. 1. v. 5 6. When setting out God's Wrath to Men in the effects of it he first considers how it works upon inanimate Creatures that are at such a distance in respect of the kind of their being from God's It kindleth a Fire says he which maketh the Hills to melt and the Eaath is burnt up at his presence yea the World and all that dwell therein which he will one day burn up with Fire Now from these the Prophet infers and raiseth up our thoughts Doth he work thus upon insensible Creatures as the Hills and the Earth and the whole World Do the Elements melt with fervent heat Are the Heavens shrivel'd up as a Scrole of Parchment afore him by the violence of that Fire which he sends forth Consider then O consider ye Sons of Men how will the Fire of his Wrath work upon your intellectual Souls And as unto this Scope and Coherence with the former I understand what follows verse 6. Who can stand afore his Indignation who can abide in the fierceness of his Anger He here turneth his Speech and applieth it to Men. For the Souls of Men being in their beings and kind nearer of kin to him Spirits as he is the great Spirit and the Father of Spirits which were made only for God and to be filled with God have accordingly a more intimate sense of his Workings on them And 't is as if he had said If then he sends forth such a Fire as melts and dissolves the Earth Mountains of Iron or Brass how much more will it be able to melt Wax And such are Mens Souls to God comparatively to other Creatures Christ speaking of his Soul when he had thus to do with God in the Day of his Anger Psal 22. 14. that Psalm was all made of him My Heart is melted like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels And towards this Sence doth Sanctius seem to understand that Complaint of Job's uttered to his Friends concerning those Terrors of God which he felt within him Job 6. 4 11. verses compared Is my Strength the Strength of Stones Or is my Flesh my Nature or Constitution of Brass that I should be able to encounter with this Indignation of the Almighty Stones and Brass have no sense in them or but a dull sense if their Opinion should hold true de sensu rerum they have no Blood nor Spirits to make them sensible of these Arrows of God's Anger he had spoken of vers 4. Ay but Job meaneth to say I have a Soul made of other Metal suited to God the great Spirit whose Arrows I feel which is exquisitely sensible of all his Actings Take the Statue of a Man made of Brass or cut out of Stone and slash and cut him and he feels it not but cut the same Limbs that answer to these in a living Man made of Flesh and Blood with the same knife and what Torture is it You may see this and aggravate it to your selves by what inferior Spirits to this great Father of Spirits as Angels and Devils can work upon Man's Soul that is a Spirit like themselves being yet inferior to them When Saul had but one evil Spirit sent from the Lord how distracted and terrified was he tho in the midst of the enjoiments of a Kingdom 1 Sam. 16. 14. Also that great Apostle that had his Spirit fortified as having been newly feasted with the Joys of Heaven and that not as at a distance only but as a Spectator that stood by present there 2 Cor. 12. Yet one Angel Satan buffeting him he was so disturbed and put to it as he knew not what to do or how to bear it only God told him My Grace is sufficient for thee Well but do Mens Souls in Hell fight with Flesh and Blood yea or with Principalities and Powers chiefly No that is but whilst they are the Rulers of this World as there 't is added And yet if these Spirits have such power over our Spirits to buffet and terrify them what hath God the Father of them Again consider how the Soul is capable of more Joys and Sorrows than the Bodily Senses are and this by how much it doth exceed them in its Eminency and Capacity The Soul is able to drink up all the Pleasures the whole Creation can afford the Bodily Senses or they bring in to drink them up I say even at one Draught and yet would in the midst of it still cry Give Give Now as it is in the Body of a Man look whatever part is capable of more Pleasure it is also capable more of Pains So the Soul proportionably look how capable it is of greater Joys as it is from God it is as much of Sorrows also unto the same extention and intention of them Add II. As to this Point That as the Soul is thus vastly capable of more Sorrow and Anguish So further that these Souls to be punisht are filled with Sin and in that respect termed Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction Rom. 9. 22. Take a Barrel of Wood and of it self it will burn as it is Wood but if withal it be Pitcht within and full of Tar and combustible Matter it will burn more rageingly Of unfruitful Branches Apostatizing from Christ it is said John 15. 6. That they are cast into the Fire and they are burned that is they burn to purpose make a mighty Fire That Clause And they are burned is added by way of Auxesis or Emphasis else it needed not We see when Sins were but laid upon Christ by Imputation who in himself was separate from Sinners and had no Conscience of Sin how yet the Anger of God against Sin dealt with him as undertaking to be a Surety for Sin And can you drink says Christ the Cup that I am to drink of that is so as to bear it and not be overcome with it Now in Luke 23. 31. you may see how Christ infers from his Sufferings as being the Sufferings of one who had not been himself personally guilty of Sin what therefore with difference those in whom Sin is inherent must expect Weep for your selves says he for if they do those things to the green Tree what will be done in the Dry that is who are fit combustible Matter for the Fire and as the Prophet says are as Stubble fully dry Nahum 1. 10. And of the terribleness of God's Anger he had afore discoursed as was even now observed in all that Chapter Again III. In the Soul some Faculties are more capable of Anguish from his
all thy Life long For where there is a Register a Clerk of the Assize thus busy at work there is a Judg whose Officer he is Be wary therefore what thou dost Man Thou art surprized and undone if thou heedest not for all this is in order unto Judgment And as Letters written with Onion or Limon Juice appear not at the present so may not the Impresses of these sad Lines against thee yet bring but thy Soul to this Fire we have been speaking of and every Character Tittle yea Accent or Aggravation of Sin will be made visible and legible And hence it is the Books are said to be opened Rev. 20. 2. Again do you not hear daily the Noise of Cannon-shot from Heaven let off and the Bullets fly about your ears and see them strike this Man and that Man in your view It is the Apostle's Conviction to the Gentiles Rom. 1. 18. That therefore there is a Treasury of Wrath to come which he speaks of chap. 2. 4. because at present even in this World The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men that withhold the Truth in Vnrighteousness The meaning whereof is There is no sort or kind of Unrighteousness or Ungodliness but in the Instance or Example of some Man or other God hath by some manifest Judgment shewn his Wrath against it in the view and observation of the very Heathens themselves of and to whom it is he speaks this There was never a Nation of the Heathens but the Stories of it would have afforded a Theatre of God's Judgments against all sorts of Evils in in one Person or other singled out by Decimation as it were in this World to shew thereby that there was an hidden Wrath to come in the other World which would fall upon all the rest who yet escaped at present Those few and scattered Instances manifested a Treasury a Magazine of Wrath in Heaven his Phrase is from Heaven that is in and from God which the Heathens also were sensible of witness their Sacrifices of Atonement directed unto Heaven And this to be the Apostle's Scope is clearly seen in that he prosecutes this in the following Chap. 2. v. 1 2 3 4 5. Therefore thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things But we are sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth against them which commit such things And thinkest thou this O Man that judgest them which do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God And unto this account you may put the enumeration of those Instances of Judgment made by the other Apostles as those upon the Angels that fell and on the Old World on Sodom and Gomorrah Corah c. whereof though some were outward and temporal Punishments yet because they were Evidences of that Wrath to come upon like impenitent Sinners both these Apostles do to that purpose allege them and make use thereof to beget this Belief in us For so expresly the one begins his Discourse thereof 2 Pet. 2. 3 4 5. Whose Judgment now of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbreth not For if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment and spared not the Old World but saved Noah the eighth Person a Preacher of Righteousness bringing in the Flood upon the World of the Vngodly And turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into Ashes condemned them with an Overthrow making them an Ensample unto those that after should live ungodly Then the other Apostle adds Jude v. 7. They suffering the Vengeance of Eternal Fire The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of Temptations and to reserve the Vnjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished Consider also what his Wrath hath been to whole Nations and how he says he will one day turn all the Nations into Hell that forget God as the Psalmist tells us Psal 9. 7. He hath Prisons large enough and Chains strong enough to hold them all When the Jews saw one hundred eighty thousand of the Assyrians Host killed in a night afore the very Walls of Jerusalem Fearfulness surprized the Hypocrites their Hearts melted with Terror to think what the Wrath of God must be for ever Isa 33. 14 c. USE Then learn to adore and fear the Greatness of our God to the end to turn to him Where he shews Favour his Favour is Life Psal 30. 5. yea his Loving-kindness is better than Life Psal 63. 3. Whom have I in Heaven but thee There needs no other there On the contrary if he be provoked there needs no other Judg or Avenger but himself I may say The Weapons of his VVarfare within himself are mighty to revenge all Disobedience This great General needs not borrow nor call in the Aid of his Creatures though in respect of their being his Militia he is stiled the Lord of Hosts to make War and destroy That very Face of his gives Life and strikes dead and kills In thy Presence is Fulness of Joy Psal 16. ult And from his Presence is Destruction 2 Thess 1. 9. O hide us say they Rev. 6. 16. from the Face of him that sits on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb. They point to the Fountain of their Anguish and speak what above all was it they dreaded It is greatly observable what and how God talks to Job to this very purpose Says God to Job chap. 40. Wilt thou contend with me So verse 2. he begins to dare him Come says he let this be among other one Trial of thy Power who had been a Prince c. in comparison of mine Take upon thee as I mean to do and be Judg of all the World Put on thy Judges Robes and thy biggest Looks Thus verse 10. Deck thy self with Majesty and Excellency and array thy self with Glory and Beauty And particularly try try what thou canst do or effect when thou art most angry by thy meer Looks Cast abroad the Rage of thy Wrath v. 11. Throw Sparkles of thy most fiery Indignation from thine Eyes Canst thou look a Man dead and cover a Man's Face for ever with Confusion Look on every one that is proud and bring him low So vers 12. Hide them in the Dust together be they never so many and bind their Faces in secret that is cover them with Confusion of Face with a Look or Rebuke of thy Face make them run into Holes or seek Mountains to cover them
Soul is left in upon its parting with the Body unless God takes it up into Glory First For its Rank or Kind of Being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first Creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kind thereof and in that respect considered apart for its Union with the Body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other Creatures but Angels are You have the Pedigree of Man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. The Extract of our Bodies in v. 26. He hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men. So then on that side as we say in respect of our Bodies there is a Consanguinity of all Men being made of one Blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are God's Off-spring v. 28. and so on that side there is an Alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and in the very substance of our Souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is only proper to his Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is stiled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of our Flesh or Bodies see the words Which Alliance or Fatherhood take it as in common with all Mens Spirits lieth in this That he not only created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which Image or Likeness other Creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of Men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others read it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for Creation differs from Generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas Generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our Bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but the Parents afford the matter and the formative virtue besides by which our Bodies are framed So then in respect of our first Creation our Souls apart considered are thus allied to God to which our Bodies are not being Spirits in the very Being of them that altogether do owe that their Being to him But there is a taint come upon the Souls of all Men by Sin so as this alliance is thereby worn out yea forfeited until it be restored Now therefore these Souls the only subject of our Discourse being such as God hath wrought and so are become his Workmanship by a new and far nobler Creation and thereby created Spirit anew according to what Christ says That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hereupon these Souls are Spirit upon a double account as you say of Sugar it is double-refined so this is now become a spiritual Spirit or Spirit spiritualized and sublimated yea and thereby the inward Sanctuary the Holy Rom. 7. 22. 25. of Holies the seat of God's most spiritual Worship which the Body is not but only as it is the outward Temple or Instrument of this new-made Spirit And hereupon that original Affinity to God of Spirit is not only restored but endeared for now there is both the stuff or the ground-work and then the workmanship or embroidery upon it and both of them the Works of God that so look as the Gold wrought upon commends the Enamel and then again the Enamel enhaunceth the value of the Gold so as both are considered in the price so it 's here with this Soul wrought by God in both respects §. Secondly Consider we now again the Case and outward Condition of such a Soul that of it self would fall out to it upon the Dissolution of the Body 1. It fails of all sorts of Comforts it had in and by its union with the Body in this World Luke 16. 9. When you fail says Christ speaking of Death 't is your City-phrase when any of you break and perhaps are thereby driven into another Kingdom as the Soul now is 2. Then if ever a Mans flesh and his heart fails Psal 73. 26. 3. And which is worse a Man's Faith faileth or ceaseth after Death and all his spiritual Knowledg as in this Life 't is the express phrase used 1 Cor. 13. at the 8th verse and which is prosecuted to the end of that Chapter And so all that communion it had with God in this Life is cut off It is of all Creatures left the most destitute and forlorn if God provides not And yet fourthly It is now upon Death which it never was afore immediately brought into the presence of God Naked Soul comes afore naked God Eccles 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God that gave it it is put out of house and home and turned upon its Father again This as to the Souls Condition II. God's part §. This is a special season for God to shew his Love to such a Soul if ever afore or after an opportunity such as falls not out neither afore whilst it was in the Body nor after when it is united to the Body again at the Resurrection if ever therefore he means to shew a respect unto a poor Soul which is his so neer Kindred and Alliance it must be done now We read in Psal 73. 26. My Flesh and my Heart faileth as at Death to be sure it doth but God is the strength of my Heart both in this Life and at Death to support me and my portion for ever in the Life to come without any interruption or vacant space of time as that ever imports and that David spake this with an Eye unto the Glory to come when Heart and Flesh and all in this World he foresaw would fail him is evident by what he had immediately meditated in the words afore ver 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel so in this Life and afterwards that being ended shall receive me unto Glory The contemplation whereof makes him cry out again ver 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee for all things else will fail me one day when my Flesh utterly fails me also And There is none upon Earth where he had at present many Comforts and Comforters in comparison of thee You see God is the portion of the whole of his time even for ever as ver 26. and his Estate in Heaven and Earth divide that time and portion between them and no middle state between both but when the one ceaseth the other begins for between them two must be the for ever and when all fail him
which he had on Earth then God alone becomes his Happiness in Heaven But this only in general shews what God is and will be to a Soul in this condition §. But I having undertaken to proceed by way of congruity I must further more particularly shew how in a correspondency to this inward and outward state of this Soul he shews himself God and how meet and becoming a thing it is for God to receive it into Glory upon the consideration of many Relations which he professedly beareth to such a Soul 1. God is a Spirit and thereupon in a special manner as Wisd 11. 26. The Lord is a lover of Souls above all his other Creation So it is there Thou art merciful to all because they are thine O Lord thou lover of Souls God is a Spirit when therefore this naked and withal sublimated Spirit by its being born again by his own Spirit and so assimulated to God himself a pure Spark now freed and severed from its Dust and Ashes flying up or is carried rather by Spirits the Angles out of their like spiritual Love to Luke 26. 22. Heb. 1. ult it as a Spirit unto that great Spirit that element of Spirits it will surely find union and coalition with him and be taken up unto him for if as Christ speaks John 4. 23. God being a Spirit therefore seeks for such as worship in Spirit and Truth that is he loves delights in such as a Man doth in a Companion or Friend who suits him And doth God seek for such whilst they are on Earth Then surely when such Spirits shall come to him and have such a grand occasion and indeed the first occasion in such an immediate way to appear before him in such a manner and upon such a change as this as they never did before these Spirits also having been the Seat the inner Temple of all this spiritual Worship and sanctifying of him in this World surely God who sought such afore will now take them into his Bosom and Glory We also read Isa 57. 16 17. of the regard he bears to Persons of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive them upon this superadded consideration that they are Souls and Spirit and so thereby allied to him the lofty One. Hear how in this case he utters himself The Spirit would fail afore me says he and the Souls which I have made He speaks of their very Souls properly and respectively considered And them it is which he considering and it moves him unto pity for he speaks of that in Man whereof God is in a peculiar manner the Maker or Creator The Spirit which I have made says he and it is one of the eminent Titles he takes into his Coat The framer of the Spirit of Man within him Zech. 1. 12. as in many other places This is argued also in that he speaketh of that in Man which is the subject sensible of his immediate Wrath. I will not contend for ever nor Child of Light walking in Darkness will I be always Wrath. This I have observed in what is publick of mine Now what moves him to remove his Wrath from such an one The Spirit would fail says he Now doth God thus profess to have a regard to them in this Life and that upon this account that they are Spirits lest they should fail or faint and shall we not think that when indeed otherwise they do fail as after Death you have heard even now Christ himself expresseth they would and would upon all these considerations before-mentioned sink into utter desolation unless they were received into everlasting Habitations as Christ there also speaks Do we think that God will not now entertain them The time is now come the full time to have pity on them 2. God at this season forgets not but full well remembers his Relation of being Their Creatour both by the new and also first Creation the new reviving and ingratiating the remembrance of the first The Souls which I have made said he in Esa But in St. Peter this is more express and mentioned as that which indeed moves God and should be accordingly a support to our Faith to take care of our Souls when we come to die even upon this account that he is the faithful Creatour of them 1 Pet. 4. last Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the Keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator He speaks this specially unto such as were continually exposed unto persecution unto death for Christ in those Primitive times which therefore v. 12. he terms the fiery trial and ver 17. forewarns them of a time of judgment was begun and going on upon the of house God such as they had not yet felt who yet Heb. 10. 32 33 34. had suffered reproach and spoyling of their Goods as Peter writes to the same Jews hereupon Peter pertinently instructs them to commit the keeping of their Souls unto God At death you know it is that when Mens bodies are destroyed and so the season when their Souls to be separated therefrom should be committed to God's care as our Darling as our Translation or lovely Soul when separate Psal 22. See Ainsw as others as Christ in David speaks Ps 22. And Peter had in his eye Christ's example and pointed them thereunto who at his death committed his separate Soul or Spirit into the hands of God Luk. 23. 46. and the word commit is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the same in both these places onely there is this difference that whereas Christ sayes Father I commit Peter substitutes another title of God's there being more than one Relation moving God and strengthening our Faith to this even of faithful Creatour And I understand not the first Creation onely or chiefly here meant by Peter but the second Creation chiefly which brings into repute and acceptation with God the first again together with its own and so God is thereupon engaged to be faithful in his care and provision for such Souls according to his promises And faithfulness doth always respect and refer unto Promises and my reason why thus I understand it is because I find God's faithfulnesse still annexed unto his calling of us that is converting us which is all one with this new Creation Faithful is he that hath called you that is made you new Creatures 1 Cor. 1. 9. 1 Thes 5. 24. And I find that David also urges it upon God as a motive as in other Psalms So Ps 138. 8. Forsake not the works of thine own hands that is this double workmanship of thine of the first and then superadded unto that of the second creation which he urgeth thereby to move him to perfect the work begun and to be merciful unto him for ever in the former part of that verse 3. God professeth himself the Father of Spirits which relation though it speaks his being the Creatour of them at the
As unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed ver 10. As sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things ver 11. O ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you our heart is enlarged What a glorious Embroydery upon the Soul of a poor Believer will in all these things appear when finished Psal 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her Cloathing is of wrought Gold she shall be brought unto the King in Rayment of needle-work 2. For his Art and Workmanship bestowed in the glory of the Soul in the other World if any work but Christ God-man be his Master-piece it is the framing of that House and building spoken of ver 1. of this chap. We have a building of God a house not made with hands And the 11. of the Hebrews v. 10. expresly useth two artificial words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Artificer in it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Artificer in it and the Builder of it that is who hath shewn his Art and Skill in building of it So then in each his Workmanship appears I do but add this towards the confirmation of the main point in hand Hath the Great God perfected both Works upon the Soul as much as he means to work in Heaven Also prepared a Building for it And will he then think we let both lie empty of the one sayes Heb. 11. 16. He hath prepared for them a City of the Soul in like manner He hath wrought us for this self-same thing will God think we leave this his House to stand desolate when he hath been at such cost in both Doth any Man or Landlord build or repair an House and then let it lie empty when he hath a Tenant fit for it God is said not to be a foolish Builder in respect to perfecting and he is much less a careless Builder to neglect to take his Tenants into it when both are ready and fitted each for other This for the first viz the consideration of each singly §. Let us consider them next joyntly that is as they are in such a manner wrought apart so as to suit and match one the other when brought together in that manner as it must be said of them For this thing hath God wrought us Yea and therein it is he hath appeared to be the great God For therein even to wonderment doth the Glory of God in his Works appear and that he is wise in counsel and wonderful in working when he hath hiddenly contrived one thing for another when as each are in themselves and apart glorious It is said by David of himself and it is true of all men in their measure Psal 139. 15. I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth that is in my Mother's Womb as the context shews which are termed the Lower parts of the Earth as when Christ is said Eph. 4. to have descended into the lower part of the Earth that is to be conceived in the Womb of a Virgin when a Child is born a lump of flesh animated with a Soul comes forth curiously wrought c. but wrought for what in David's person in which this was spoken it was for a Kingdom the supremest condition of enjoyments in this World But in every other man that is born it is that he was curiously wrought in a fitness and capacity to all things that are in this World made and prepared exactly for it long afore it came into the World you may see it in Adam our first pattern more lively God was busie for six dayes in making this World the Angels all that while stood wondring with themselves to what end or for whom all this was prepared At Job 36. 7. the end of the sixth day they saw God to set down into the World this little thing called Man and then they ceased their wonderment for they saw all this World prepared aforehand set in Man's heart and all in Man curiously wrought and fitted for all things made in in this World richly to enjoy as 1 Tim. 6. 17. We may apply that in the text to this it appeared That he that hath made Man for this self-same thing is God both works of wonder apart and yet as fitted to each other All wonderment exceeding I might much more enlarge upon the suiting of Christ the Head and Husband and the Church his Body and Wife wrought and growing up to him in all ages both apart secretly and hiddenly prepared and each so glorious in themselves and yet put together Let us defer our Admiration hereat until the latter day Just thus it is in fitting the Soul for that glory and again that glory in Heaven for that Soul God works the one for the other apart The very similitude in the former verses do import so much He styleth Glory in Heaven a being clothed upon and Holiness here he compares to an under-garment which that of Glory is to be put over or upon There was never a curious Artist in making Garments that ever took measure of the proportions of an upper and under Garment to fit the one to the other as God hath in proportioning his work upon us here and his preparation of Glory for each of us in the World to come He hath took exact measure and his Law is that designed his own workings on both hands aforehand that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour 1 Cor. 3. 8. Now the Artifice of God in both these lies in this That each are hiddenly contrived apart and yet so gloriously matcht as wrought one for the other which is an argument as of two Artificers the one in the East-Indies the other in the West should the one make the Case the other make the Watch unbeknown each to other and both Workmanships of the highest curiosity in their kind and when both brought together they exquisitely fit the one the other §. And what Have I been telling you all this while an artificial pleasant Story Doth not this Scripture tell the very same For a close do but now at last take a view and prospect of our Apostle's whole Discourse The Round and Circle whereof begun at chap. 4. ver 16. and endeth with my Text and do you not find it speak to use the Text's Language the very self-same thing 1. He tells us there of an inward Man renewed whilst the outward is a perishing to the end it may live and subsist alone when the body is wholly dissolved there he lays his Foundation And is not this all one with what the Text sayes God works Us these Souls day by day Even as the Child is curiously wrought in the Womb to subsist of it self alone in this World so this inward Man in that other 2. He then immediately subjoyns v. 17. That all Afflictions which are nothing else